Ohio had road construction going on as well but they seemed determined to work 24 hours a day and had guys working in the dark and drizzling rain. The workers were working without bright lights but were wearing reflective coveralls with extra reflective tape sewed on the arms and legs and each worker had a miner's lamp on their head. The traffic was slowed to about 55 mph (in theory) but it was startling to see these guys when you came up on them in the dark. I'm sure that they will probably lose somebody.
When we got to Zanesville we heard that the Pennsylvania Turnpike was closed between Harrisburg and Reading because of flooding from the tropical storm. The detour they wanted us to take would have sent us way up north and then circle around and rejoin the turnpike at Reading...adding lots of miles and a couple hours to our drive. We looked for an alternate route through York and Lancaster but it was partially closed there as well.
On Friday morning the situation had improved and we were able to take the turnpike as we had originally planned. That turned out to be sort of a white-knuckle drive in some spots because of water pouring onto the highway and a few small mudslides. Water was rushing under the bridges with only a foot to spare. From what we could see, this looked like a pretty drive in good weather.We were impressed with West Chester. It is a pretty town only about a half-hour outside of Philadelphia and fairly close to the Delaware border. It is an old town with lots of classic homes and also the site of West Chester University, a state university with about 14,000 students. From what we could tell on Friday night WCU is a party school but the town seems to be a party town. The old business district is full of restaurants and bars, brewpubs, a wine bar, and bunches of shops. There seems to be a lot of money flowing in.
Faunbrook Inn
The wedding was at the 1860 Faunbrook Inn where many of the guests stayed along with the bride and groom. As you may have guessed, this was a tiny wedding by most peoples' standards and was very laid back...even more so than mine and I thought ours was laid back. This wedding was seemingly planned in advance to be very unstressed but I'm sure there was some stress involved.
The Inn is very impressive. It was the home of a local millionaire (William Baldwin) in the 1860s and then passed to Congressman Smedley Darlington, a local mover and shaker, GOP politician and (of course) oilman. The house is Federal-Italianate with three floors and a large wrap-around porch with ornamental ironwork. There is a large parlor, library, dining room and sitting room/bar on the first floor and bedrooms on the second and third floors. 
The rooms were spacious and furnished with antiques. Each room had a private bath. The house was extremely quiet considering that it was 150 years old. Apart from the sound of someone using the stairs you could not hear anything from the rest of the house...not even water running or toilets flushing. People seemed comfortable in the library. The porch was also very inviting since the weather was mild and the first floor windows and doors were open. There were large windows in the parlor that converted into doors so people could drift in and out as they pleased.. 
The breakfasts were excellent - French Toast strata with apples, berries and cream, apple-flavored sausage, scrambled eggs, juice and coffee...that was day 1. Day 2 was just as good and included an extra sample of the local "Scrapple" which is apparently a Pennsylvania thing -- sort of a sausage made up of butchering leftovers that tasted like bland sausage mixed with sawdust. Must be an acquired taste. We managed to polish it all off. Although the wedding party made up most of the guests, there were two couples who were staying at the inn and attending the local mushroom festival...the area is apparently the capital of mushroom hunting in the US. We seemed to keep them amused.The Wedding
The wedding was set for 4 PM on Saturday in the garden on a brick patio next to the porch. The garden has a natural look to it but sort of a faded glory feel as if it was there when the inn was built. This gave sort of a laid back atmosphere to the wedding. Since it was a small wedding, only about 15 guests, the garden setting was perfect. Being a destination wedding, a lot of the details had to fall in place at the last minute and it all came off as planned. It couldn't have worked out any better.
The reception was at a local restaurant called Limoncello Ristorante in the town. The food and service were excellent -- this was an 'off the menu' dinner and everyone had different selections. I tried a porcini mushroom stuffed pasta with tomato-cream sauce. Jill had the gnocchi. Julia had mussels in pasta and Anna had a special risotto dish. We ended the dinner with a limoncello toast to the bride and groom and then went back to the Inn for cake and some wine and a few toasts and speeches. We were getting tired but managed to have a game of trivial pursuit before everyone drifted off to bed.
Brandywine Valley -- Baldwin's Book Barn and Victory Brewery...
The Book Barn is a five story barn built in 1822 by the Darlington family (remember Smedley?) that was converted into a book store 75 years ago by William Baldwin (must be the son of the guy that built the Inn). It's only a short distance south of the Faunbrook Inn. A person could spend a weekend just roaming around in the stacks. Books are arranged by categories, more or less, and then shelved by author, more or less. The special first editions and rare books are on the first floor. Apparently they sell books by the foot. You can purchase refurbished leather-bound books at $300 per foot for your executive library...if you have one. We spent about an hour wandering around. I like Joseph Conrad and got a couple of his novels. 
Victory Brewing Company is in Downingtown a few miles north of West Chester. The brewery is in an old Pepperidge Farm bakery and distributing facility which provided ample room for the brewing operation and a large brewpub. We had lunch and most of the group tried a sample of several beers. I tasted a couple and got a pint of Strangeways Ale -- a cream ale that reminded me of Boddingtons. The brewery is very popular in Philadelphia and they are beginning to market some of their beer outside of the region.Heading Home -- Gettysburg National Battlefield
Our route home was to include a stop at the Gettysburg National Battlefield. The route took us through Lancaster, Pennsylvania -- a location known as the center of Amish culture...but we didn't see any except for a lot full of horse buggies -- either for sale or being repaired. Lancaster seemed just like every other Pennsylvania town. Driving through town we had to stop briefly on the highway because traffic stopped to allow four ducklings to cross the road -- you don't see that every day.
We got lunch in Gettysburg town. The place is immersed in Civil War stuff. Every block has a shop or two selling antiques or relics from the Civil War. They are flying off the shelf faster than they can make them. Visitors can pick their favorite General and eat at a restaurant named after him. I had a BLT at the Warren Cafe - as in General Warren.
We stopped in briefly at the Gettysburg Battlefield visitors' center. We were visiting on September 11th -- the ten year anniversary of the terror attacks -- and as a result there were very few people visiting. This might also be related to the flooding and bad weather that plagued the area during the week. We roamed through the gift shop and picked up a guide map and planned our visit.
Our route home was to include a stop at the Gettysburg National Battlefield. The route took us through Lancaster, Pennsylvania -- a location known as the center of Amish culture...but we didn't see any except for a lot full of horse buggies -- either for sale or being repaired. Lancaster seemed just like every other Pennsylvania town. Driving through town we had to stop briefly on the highway because traffic stopped to allow four ducklings to cross the road -- you don't see that every day.
We got lunch in Gettysburg town. The place is immersed in Civil War stuff. Every block has a shop or two selling antiques or relics from the Civil War. They are flying off the shelf faster than they can make them. Visitors can pick their favorite General and eat at a restaurant named after him. I had a BLT at the Warren Cafe - as in General Warren.
We stopped in briefly at the Gettysburg Battlefield visitors' center. We were visiting on September 11th -- the ten year anniversary of the terror attacks -- and as a result there were very few people visiting. This might also be related to the flooding and bad weather that plagued the area during the week. We roamed through the gift shop and picked up a guide map and planned our visit.
The national cemetery covers much of the area on the north edge of the battlefield close to town. There are hundreds of unknown soldier burials and places where each state's soldiers are buried together. Larger memorials are placed by different states for their own soldiers. As recently as 1997 they were still finding soldiers remains on the battlefield and burying them in the cemetery. The large soldier's monument is the site of Lincoln's Gettysburg address at the dedication of the cemetery.
It is strange how we memorialize battlefields. The Generals get the monuments and the soldiers get the graves. The various monuments were placed on the battlefield in the years after the war and they are positioned as close as possible to where the events took place. There must have been detailed investigations and surveys taken to document the battlefield and troop movements to support placement of the monuments. The monuments are a little intrusive in viewing the battlefield and trying to imagine how it was at the time. 
We followed part of the driving tour past the site of Pickett's Charge and "The Angle". There were a few other visitors and an occasional tour bus but it was not crowded. We went past the Peach Orchard and the Wheat Field and climbed to the top of Little Round Top to get a good view of the battlefield and Devils Den just below. The entire battlefield is very large but some of the famous battlefield sites seem very compact and in close proximity. I expected some of them to be larger based on the accounts of the battle. 
This battle must have been a very chaotic event stretched over three days. Some areas of the battlefield were fought over multiple times with each army holding it for a while. Soldiers moving across the battlefield would have encountered bodies of soldiers killed during earlier attacks and probably wondered why they kept fighting over the same piece of a farmer's field. It would take at least a full day to see the whole battlefield and try to get an understanding of what took place and how it all ended. 
We slept late and on checking out of the motel learned that the I-64 bridge over the Ohio River was closed because it was unsafe...even unsafe for pedestrians. We were rerouted around Louisville but eventually reconnected to I-64 and continued through Indiana and Illinois. We had lunch in Mount Vernon and then got home around 5 PM.
Eight states in five days...a tropical storm...a wedding...a battlefield. It was a good trip.
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