A TRIP TO PARADISE
By Bernie Rosman
Last February the Midnight Riders Snowmobile Club drew a ticket I had
purchased at their "Old Timers Run" as their grand prize winner which was
"Two tickets to Paradise". This meant that they would cover the first $1500
for a trip wherever we chose to go. They wrote a check for that amount to
the Cormorant Travel Agency and the rest was up to us! I have always wanted
to visit Gettysburg, so my wife Dorothy and I agreed on an eight day 1000
plus mile round trip guided bus tour out of Washington D. C.
Our tour started in D.C. with the city's most famous landmarks which
included the Capital and White House plus the Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson
& FDR memorials. Later, we toured the WW II, Korean, and Viet Nam war
memorials as well as Arlington National Cemetery, Robert E. Lee's home, and
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Upon leaving the area, we visited George
Washington's Mount Vernon home.
We moved on to Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Jamestown where the first English settlement was founded in 1607. An interesting law they had back
then was that if you missed a Church service you would not get food for 24
hours. Two in a row and you would get a whipping. Three in a row and
hanging was the sentence. This latter extreme sentence was never carried
out since they needed all the help they could get.
Another place of interest was visiting the Capital of the Confederacy
at Richmond, Va. This beautiful building is presently used as Virginia's
state Capital. While in Richmond we also visited St John's Church where Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give me Liberty or Give me Death"
speech. Next we moved on to Monticello for a guided tour of President
Thomas Jefferson's beautiful home. Here we were shown many of his very
interesting inventions.
After touring Monticello we headed for Shenandoah National Park.
The skyline drive along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains was absolutely
spectacular. It was a bright sunny day and the fall colors of the hardwood forest were absolutely perfect. After leaving the lodge we stayed at in the park, we headed for the historic community of Harpers Ferry. This was the site of John Browns raid in 1859 where he and 18 followers captured the US Arsenal. That had a lot to do with getting Civil war going since ultimately Brown was working to free the slaves. When he was tried and hanged for treason later that year, it prompted Ralph Waldo Emerson to say that Brown would make the gallows "as Glorious as a Cross." Union troops, when the war began, sang: "John Brown's body lies a molding in the grave, his soul goes marching on."One of the next things on the agenda was to visit President Dwight D
Eisenhower's farm near Gettysburg. He used it as a weekend retreat and as a meeting place for world leaders. Later we toured the Gettysburg National Military Park, the site of 3 days of extreme fighting with very high causalities on both sides. We learned that there were more American causalities in the Civil War than all our other wars combined. We were promised that a special guest from the Civil War era would be visiting us during our evening meal. It turned out to be a very good actor that much resembled, dressed, and spoke like I would have expected Abraham Lincoln to speak. He talked about some of his earlier life and of leading up to his election as the 16th President. He continued with his trials and tribulations of the Civil War and recited his famous Gettysburg address which helped to mend our nation. When I shook hands with him later, I told him he has always been one of my heroes. I also told him I had memorized his Gettysburg Address for an 8th grade speech. What I forgot to tell him was that I memorized it before he was born since I am probably about 20 years his senior. After leaving Gettysburg we stopped at an Amish community that had souvenir shops. Dorothy and I went into a yarn shop and learned from talking to the proprietor there that she needed sponge bars for her knitting machines and didn't know where to get them. Naturally Dorothy gave her our business card and told her we carry a good inventory. Can we now declare our expenses as a business trip? Probably not. We continued on to Philadelphia where all 54 of us enjoyed a farewell dinner. Coincidently, one couple we met vacations in western Montana during the summer in the same town my brother, Curt, and his wife have their realty business. We plan to get together next summer during a visit. The next day we saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall where the Declarations of Independence was signed in 1776. After taking in a few more historic sites we headed back to Washington D.C. where our tour ended. All in all it was wonderful and unforgettable trip. The only hang up was Dorothy's luggage was lost by the airline for the first 7 days of the trip. To make a long story short she washed a lot of underclothes and socks in the hotel bathroom sinks, bought some souvenir shirts and made the best of it. We are both very grateful to the Midnight Riders Snowmobile Club for helping make this dream vacation a reality. For us it truly was "A Trip to Paradise."
http://www.custnitsmfg.com
Silver Reed and Design A Knit Program along with Used Knitting Machines and Accessories, New Books, Yarn Trees, Garter Carriage Monitor, many other items of interest to Machine Knitters.
Dorothy Rosman
Custom Knits & Mfg.
19267 Lee Lake Road
Lake Park, MN 56554
218-238-5882
