AIROSMITH

    Our first nights in West Virginia were spent in Harpers Ferry.  We have been selecting states to visit, where we have never been.  It can be a challenge finding open campgrounds this far north, this time of year.  We chose to visit the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park because of it’s location and it’s significance to the Civil War, and freedom for the slaves. It is also the location of John Brown’s Raid on the National Armory in 1859, undertaken with the intent to fight a war to end slavery in the United States.  The raid was a failure, but some say it was the battle that began the war that ended slavery. In addition, the town is the home of Storer College , the first school of higher education for newly freed Black citizens.  John Browns Fort, and the College stand in testament of their fight for freedom. The town itself is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.  It’s location along these rivers were ideally ...

  A visit to Fortress Louisboug takes you back in time to when the French controlled what was then  Île Royale as a part of New France.  Established in 1713 due to the cod fishing and adjacent deep water port it became a primary commercial port for the French.  Here you get a taste of the French and Acadian influences across Cape Breton. The entire Historical Site is a reconstruction of about a quarter of the town.  The story of the reconstruction is as interesting as the site itself. The French kept meticulous records.  As this was one of the first planned French communities in North America, those records survive to this day.  Every building in the site is constructed on it’s original foundation, according to the architectural plans, furnished and decorated according to inventories completed at that time.  An official inventory of personal possessions was taken at the death of the owner, to ensure that all outstanding debts and taxes were paid...