We left York this morning and drove about an hour southwest to Gettysburg. We have been to Gettysburg several times and toured the battlefields so this time we weren’t doing that. Today we are touring The Eisenhower’s retirement home. I don’t know how we missed it in the past but I saw it when planning this trip. We have made an effort in the last couple of years to tour Presidents homes. You can really learn a lot about them.
So the Eisenhower home is part of the US Parks system. So we had a park ranger give us some background information about the Eisenhowers and the house. Dwight D. (Ike) was born in Texas but raised in Kansas and that is where his library is located. The family left this home to the park service. He parents were born and raised in the Gettysburg area and that is part of the reason he wanted to retire to the area.
He attended West Point and during World War I he spent time at Gettysburg training tank groups. He learned a lot about strategy and leadership while there, although he wanted to be in the war. Mamie and their son were able to live there with him during this time. The Eisenhowers moved a lot during their life together and never owned a home of their own until this one. He finished his military time as a 5 star general. He thought he would be retiring to the farm. But others had something else in mind. Both Republicans and Democrats contacted him to run for office in 1952. He chose the Republican Party and won two terms.
Original wallpaper in the house. It has the state or territory seals on it.
Classic 50’s-60’s formal living room.
Formal dinning room.
Mamie was known for her love of pink. It was even called “Mamie pink”. Those bathrooms look very familiar.
The dark room was his “man cave”. The other was his simple desk. Check out the size of the Rolodex.
Their sun porch with the family tv. They would often eat dinner out there on tv trays and watch the evening news.
His Presidential car.
The Secret Service area with their state of the art technology via 1960’s.
We left there and continued on south. Our plan was to hit New River Gorge National Park on our way home. This is the newest of the National Parks and it is in the middle of West Virginia. We did not get there in time to visit the visitor center but we could walk out to the overlook of the bridge. This bridge is tall!!! It is Washington Monument + 2 Statue of Liberties +20 feet tall. Trust me it feels that tall when you drive across. We drove through some rain showers on the way there so that created some neat effects in our pictures.
It is very wooded in the area. Huge rhododendrons. This park is big for outdoor activities. It is good we got to see it this afternoon because Monday morning it rained again and it was very overcast.
We saw a pretty rainbow when we left the park to head to our hotel.
We drove back to the visitor center this morning. It’s very nice. They have a porch off the back that you can see down in the gorge.
We drove over to another visitor center and viewing area. Grand View area.
This is what we were supposed to to see…
This is what we saw. And the visitor center was closed today.
We tried. We get to check another National Park off our list.
We drove the rest of the way home and got home about 7. We are tired. We have unleaded the car. One load of laundry in going.
These are all my new Christmas ornaments I found on this trip. It makes we want to get started on my trees. Soon. Soon.
Final by the numbers
States 8
Christmas shops 8
Quilt shops 6
National parks 2
National historic sites 3
National wildlife refuge 1
Presidential homes 2
Crossed the Mason Dixon
Eastern continental divide
