road trip USA

Washington dc to gettysburg

LEAVING WASHINGTON - first, get a car...

This was going to be the tricky bit. My car hire agents (in Wales) had done a great job getting me a one way rental (not easy, as cars are registered by state, hence leaving it in another state is more trouble than we might suppose). However, they had booked me into what I was told was Budget's only office, at Union Station - which is a bit like asking an American to pick up his r-h drive manual vehicle at Waterloo and find his way out of the City... Of course, when I took the Budget Shuttle from the airport, it took me straight to their Airport depot, in the middle of nowhere surrounded by huge empty roads...! Would have been perfect for Mr UK Tripper to acclimatise... (By the way, Mrs Tripper has been asking what car I'm driving around in....)

Well, I suppose if you pay peanuts for your Budget Car... At least it has plenty of luggage space. (Perhaps they wanted it out of state?)

No matter. After checking out of the hotel, and shaking the hands of some of those magical musicians - in the hope that some magic might rub off - the cabbie took me to Union Station. On the way he gave me some helpful directions to Frederick, which at 70 miles north of Washington, was to be my first break. I took careful notes.

The car wasn't the Ford Taurus suggested in the blurb, but that's to be expected - my main concern was to ensure we got a big enough boot (I mean trunk) to accomodate Mrs Tripper's supply of Cava (she is venturing out here once Mr Tripper has thoroughly checked the US for hostile natives). Had to pass on the offer of a Ford Mustang (I know Charles, it would have been the Bees Knees, but only has 2 doors, and wouldn't have found favour with Mrs T or The Tripper Nippers who also join me late May). Eventually I was given a Sonata - much to my Classical-Musician-Mother's delight ("Beethoven or Brahms, dear?"). Unfortunately from a street cred point of view, it is a Hyundai Sonata, so scores only 1/10, but to be fair, it only has 300 miles on the clock, is large, and really easy to drive.

The Hyundai Sonata in pristine condition. Oh, alright, it does wallow rather, like all yankee cars, but it's new and comfy - like driving a giant sofa really...

Emerging from Union Station, I carefully followed the Cabbie's directions, much to the disgust of my TomTom satnav, which kept asking me to turn around. However, I stuck at it, on the basis that the man who earns his living driving around the city should be listened to (and he was such a nice chap, from Ethiopia, as were all 3 cabbies who'd driven me).

Eventually I reasoned that despite my love of the Beatles, I shouldn't Follow the Sun at 11am if I wanted to drive north, and I gave in to Mr TomTom. He (or should I say "She", in view of the voice - but it seems counter-intuitive to be corrected thus in one's direction-finding!) hadn't lost her rag at all, and simply took me faultlessly north to Frederick. Looking at the map afterwards, the Cabbie had given me directions to FredericksBURG, 70 miles SOUTH of Washington. This all goes to prove two points: all those hours in Kenya teaching the Tripper Nippers to navigate by the sun were worthwhile: and we should have bought a Satnav years ago, something I've been trying to impress on Mrs Tripper for ages. Love me, love my Satnav: thanks Ian & Rod for the very suitable Christmas present!

Frederick was just a coffee stop on the way to Gettysburg, the scene of some of the bitterest fighting of the Civil War.

It's also the location for the Gettysburg address (no, not what one puts into the Satnav). It's the legendary speech made by Lincoln (his most famous) to dedicate the battlefield cemetary to the dead.

The battlefield is still littered with field guns, along with many memorials, and it's a well maintained and fitting tribute to one of the nation's most important sites. Piks to come in the next album. This whole area is strikingly beautiful, green and fertile. No wonder it was fought over...

The following day tied in neatly (and would have bored Mrs Tripper to death) as it was another battlefield visit - this time to Antietam ("An-TEE-tm") near Sharpsburg. This was the site of the single costliest battle of the Civil War (over 20,000 casualties in a day) which was tactically probably a draw, but sufficiently halted the Confederate invasion that they withdrew from Maryland. It also sufficiently strengthened Abraham Lincoln to enable him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation - which elevated the war from just being about the union, to being about the abolition of slavery, and the struggle for human freedom.

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