About a zillion years ago, when I was in the Girl Scouts (Brownie through a year of Cadettes), we used to sing about the Shenandoah River in a campfire song. Oh, Shenandoah, I long to see you, Away you rolling river. Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you, Away, I’m bound away, ‘cross the wide Missouri. I always loved that song and still can sing that first verse from memory. Which is exactly what I did in Harpers Ferry when I found myself standing, after all those years, on the bank of the Shenandoah River in West Virginia.
Harpers Ferry
On my way out of the South, I stopped for a few days at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, the site of both John Brown’s raid and a Civil War battle. As with most things about the Civil War, I learned a lot that was left out of my history lessons back in the day. As a native Californian, I can tell you all about the gold rush of 1849 and the racist role of the missions. But ask me about specifics of the Civil War and chances are I’d come up blank. Consider this post, then, me sharing that late-in-life…
Kentuck Knob, PA
Kentuck Knob is the “other” Frank Lloyd Wright house in western Pennsylvania, about 15 minutes drive from Fallingwater. It’s worth a visit just to experience the contrasts between the two designs, not to mention the lovely art walk at the Knob.
Fallingwater
I’ve just spent time going through the photos from my visit to Fallingwater. Honestly, I feel like I should just post photos because my words clearly aren’t going to do justice to the place. As architecture goes, you can’t get much more iconic than this house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as one of his organic designs. As the website for the place says, The epitome of organic architecture, Fallingwater’s design symbolizes the harmony between people and nature.
Laurel Hill State Park, PA
A few years ago, I spent a night at Laurel Hill and decided it was worth a longer stay at some point. When I had to do some last minute rearranging of my June schedule to deal with some truck work that needed to be done, Laurel Hill popped up on my AllStays search as being on the way from Lancaster to Columbus, my rough trajectory. Surprisingly, the park had a lot of availability so I booked myself in for five nights.




