Day Four, Five, Six April 23-26, 2015

Model of Winterthur

Conservatory

We departed Philadelphia early April 23 enroute to Winterthur in Wilmington, DE.  Wintertur is the home of one of the Henry DuPont's of THE DuPont family who made their fortune selling gunpowder.  It is the 4th largest home in America at 96,855 sq. ft. eight stories of museum pieces collected by DuPont to house his collection of the decorative arts. Winterthur also has spectacular gardens and daffodils were all in bloom.  BUT the temperature was 50 cloudy and windy so we did not tour the gardens.

Winterthur

From Winterthur to Antietam.....
The Civil War battle at Antietam near Sharpsburg MD took place on one day, September 17, 1862.  This battle saw 3,650 soldiers  killed plus 17,000 wounded.  We had the battlefield all to ourselves and once again our National Park Service Senior Pass got us admitted.

Sharpsburg MD is also the site of the graves of my 5th great grandparents Jacob Graf and his wife Catherine Grove.  Yes, it was in their generation that the Graf surname morphed into present day Grove.

Grove Graves Sharpsburg MD

From Antietam to Pikesville MD (suburban Baltimore).  Tom's former student and Wichita High School Southeast class of 1988 graduate, Dr. Gene Fridman, and his family, wife Lisa and children Hannah (away at college), Lucas, Laya hosted us for the evening.  Gene toured us around Johns Hopkins Hospital and Research facility and other Baltimore sites.

Ft. McHenry Site of the Star Spangled Banner

Dr. Fridman, Gene to us

 https://youtu.be/FrATCp1urjU   Check out Dr. Fridman's video.

From Baltimore to Chesapeake VA.....

On to Garry & Kathy Frye's in Chesapeake VA via Colonial Williamsburg.

Ryan, Lexi, Kathy, Brittany, Amanda, Tom, Garry, John, Hunter

Frye Family Motto

They made me hold this chicken...we are in the South 

Chesapeake to Kitty Hawk....

Two hours down the road from Chesapeake VA we cross in to the Outer Banks of NC and Duck, Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hill.

Hot fudge, maple bacon are our favorites.

Some general observations.  Since we left Massachusetts we have not seen sunshine and the temperatures have been in the 50's.  It seems no matter how far south we go the weather is the same as what we left in Massachusetts.

On to Lumberton, NC.....
Tom's friend and Wichita native, Hal Davis is teaching drama at UNC Pembroke and he lives in Lumberton.

 So.... inland we go for a free night's stay.  We are deep in the heart of Dixie.  With no effort we managed to have catfish, fried shrimp and hush puppies at Pier 41 in Lumberton.  I think these people exist on sweet tea and fried food.

Breakfast this morning was at Betty Carol's Diner in Lumberton where all three of us ate full breakfasts and the total check was $9.45.

Biscuits & gravy at Betty Carol's

For the rest of today's adventure check the blog for Day 7.