Day 7 - Montpelier, VT to Mansfield, PA

Mark Twain's gravesite at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, NY



Mark Twain's monument in Elmira, New York. [Seems like that we're visiting more dead folks that live ones!]

Pfaelzer Bauernhaus in Schoharie, early 1700's

One of the first cars driven by a woman in New York, 1903

Oldest fire pumper in the U.S., 1731

Old stone fort in Schoharie, New York, 1772

Alice writes - finally got a really early start from Montpelier this morning and left town around 8.30 after stocking up on our supplies.

We took a scenic back road to the major interstate 87 which led us southwest toward the state of New York. We had decided not to take the northern lake route because frankly we've seen enough pretty and wanted to get where we were going quickly. Spending a few days in your car does that to you!

As I looked at the map I noticed that there was an old stone fort marked along the route and since we had time we decided to pull into the town of Schoharie (pronounced Sco-ree, located along interstate 88, southwest of Schenectady). After grabbing some lunch at a local diner and being greatly entertained by the conversations of the locals, we went to visit this old building that had been constructed in 1772 by German protestant settlers as a church. Later, as the British attacked in 1780, it was transformed into a fort and now houses a museum with a bunch of artifacts from the Revolutionary and Civil War.

Adjacent to the fort were a few old buildings containing more cool things, as you can see in the pictures. The fire engine, by the way, was build one year before George Washington was born and that dude is old!

Along the street were some more buildings, constructed by the German settlers from the Pfalz and rich Dutch immigrants.

They didn't like each other very well and still don't (except for Poelli), but they managed to get along. Tja, die Paelzer und die Kaeskoepp halt....

When we were done with our tour it rained and didn't stop for the rest of the day.

We decided to ignore the weather and stop at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira (also on interstate 88) to visit Mark Twain's, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, grave. I guess his wife was from that town and instead of having to sit around with his in-laws during summer vacation he preferred to write. Who wouldn't?

Anyways, we reached our final destination, Mansfield, Pennsylvania, at the early time of 18.00 and checked into our motel ganz gemuetlich.

We'll try to get to bed early tonight, because we're going to see the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield. Can't wait to see that!

Gute Nacht.

p.s. we drove 405 miles today....

Tim writes: if you need a trip-planer, ask Alice... it's been sooo easy!