Day 126 Plattekill - Clarksboro New Jersey
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
133
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Clarksboro,
New Jersey,
United States
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
We woke up to a dark sky and had breakfast with thunder rolling closer.
Before we left the rain began, the buckets just simply poured out of the sky, made it very dark, as well as difficult to drive.
We set Mandy to take us To West Point, the world renowned Military academy (Thankyou Karisue for mentioning West Point to us!) The route was through some beautiful tree lined roads with beautiful old houses lining the road as well. A careful drive through the rain and dedicated following of Mandy's instructions led us slightly off course against the tourist signs. We soon rectified that and found ourselves outside the visitors centre and made a hurried dash to the door. Yes the rain was still coming in force! We had donned our (after breaking them out of storage) warm water proof coats, thankfully, but still the run off of water managed to completely soak our shorts
The Rolling Motel
.Never mind we really have no complaints about the weather so the odd inclement day is not going to dampen our spirits.
We booked on a tour of West Point and only had to wait for about five minutes before we were loaded onto the bus to take us around.
The rain certainly made it difficult to absorb all the information and the tour guide certainly did his best, we visited the chapel firstly that was erected in two years in 1908 - 1910. The West point academy is built on the site of the position George Washington chose to defend the Hudson river in the revolutionary war of 1776. ( to the Aussie travellers it is amazing, as Captain Cook was floating around discovering our wonderful land down under , these guys were having a scrap to gain their independence from England. George Washington envisioned a Military academy but he died before it was opened but the vision was completed in 1802 by Jefferson.
The place is called West Point simply because it is situated on a "West Point" of the Hudson river, where it narrows and does a sharp turn in the river.
It is also in the middle of the original 13 colonies, that became the United States after the revolutionary war. A great strategic position.
The next stop after the Chapel was at the memorial for the soldiers that lost their lives in the civil war. An amazing column with names as well as surrounded by cannon buried barrels down to remind the American people not to fight each other again.
An interesting point about the civil war related to West point. Apparently there were 60 battles fought in this war, (excuse our ignorance of the details of this war, we have not really studied it at this point of time) and of the 60 battles, 55 of the battles, the armies lead on both sides were graduates from West Point Academy, of the remaining 5 battles, they were also lead by a West Point Graduate on one side or the other.
So the battle was fought between class mates and teachers and students, as well as divided families.
The rain certainly had an effect on the tour, simply because the Academy is built right on the Hudson river around 35 miles north of New York City, and we are sure the views of the river and surrounds would be beautiful, on a clear day. The 4,000 cadets in the academy at any time, are certainly well catered for in respect of amenities, that include 2 indoor Olympic sized swimming pools, and every indoor sport "you can imagine" according to the guide! Earnie suggested after the tour that maybe they do not cater for indoor cricket! We did learn that the Australian pronunciation of Kosciuszko may be a little mispronounced, He was polish and was a big hit in Fort design and has a statue over looking the Hudson River from inside West Point, Earnie did "suggest" the name was pronounced wrong, yet we were assured that the guide was given the correct pronunciation by Polish tourists, We figure ours is a more simple way to say it and HEY! The mountain is Australian so we can pronounce it our way!
We enjoyed the tour, from there we had a look around the military museum, a wonderful collection of history relating to the military from the beginnings to present day, including uniforms and armaments.
It is amazing the amount of conflict that has taken place to establish and retain this country in 330 years.
Beginning with the revolutionary war, the civil war, a war against Mexico, the Native American Wars (Indian wars), A war against the Spanish, WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam war, (called the American war if you are in Vietnam) the Dominican war, to name some.
The weapons on display were interesting, from the stone and wooden hammers, bow and arrows(including some recovered from The Battle of Little Big Horn) Swords, as far back as the ancient Europeans, Blunderbuss's , muskets, single shot percussion, repeating Winchesters, to the Self loading rifles of today. Included in the collection of the larger arms, were anti tank bazookas as well as a model of the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima to hasten the end of the Japanese war in WWII.
We lunched in the car park and then set Mandy to take us to our present spot for the next couple of days.
We are near Philadelphia and have booked the Castle in for another service, while that is being done we plan to take the train into the city to visit this historic, (Once the nation's capitol,) city and the liberty bell.
We are safe and sound and still enjoying our journey, (even though Nicole pinched two days off us!)
We will report tomorrow night of our impressions of Philadelphia, and let you know where we plan to be the next few days.
There is a possibility that we will head to Gettysburg, because it is not far away and then onto Washington. Gee we are not hard to find now if you want to track us, we have a number plate front and rear! Oh you want the number? It is: 6ENG333, how easy is that to recall, and of course with the AUSTRALIAN plate and flag in the back window, we guess if you put out an APB ( "All Points Bulletin") someone will find us.
