Valley Forge

The trip between the school in Shanksville and Valley Forge was fairly uneventful. Well, it should have been uneventful. We were scheduled to brake down our beds, pack the truck and our cars, loaded ourselves and kids up and with just a few Pee and Flees and a lunch, we would be there there, This all went fine until a little before lunch when Brian made it clear on the CB there was something wrong with the truck.

We pulled over into a shopping mall parking lot and all the men who wanted to seem useful stood looking at the side of the truck with their arms crossed. Quiet contemplation. Brain, the one who drove the truck, who was less contemplative, but decidedly more useful, got under the truck and could see one of the inside tires had blown and the second tire beside it was stressed, So, he hopped on the phone seeing what the nearby tire places could do and the Corp, lead by Gayl, did one of the things it seems to do best, adjusted.

It was going to take a couple hours to fix the tire, which would mean missing the first performance at Valley Forge. So, we called them and let them know. The kids hated that, but it couldn't be helped. Second, rather then timing a later lunch, we divided to do an early lunch, right here while the truck was being worked out. This was great for timing, but a little rough because of the circumstance. We were in a nearly shadeless environment in triple digit heat.

Radu and Steve pulled bungee cords and Kelly had tarps. It thing there was someone's long extension cord in the mix. Anyway, between the truck and a small tree and bush, beside the lot, we made what could barely be called a structure. It did provide some shade, but it likely would be ignored by protesters and homeless people alike. Certainly not pretty, but we made it work.

Those people wi lunch duty were not even that lucky. There was no shade over the lunch or the servers of lunch. They got it out, they served the sixty some of us, they did good, but it was rough. I should mention, one of those servers was my wife. For those of you who don't know my wife is pale. Ok, not just pale, so pale that when I see a radiant white ghost in a video game, which is intended to seem supernatural, I think to myself, relative? She is not, in any way, meant to be out in the sun. She will explode in a ball of fire. This work, which she did nearly to the end, practically killed her. It left her at first on the back of the food trailer guzzling Gatorade, then finally in our car with the air on.

When we made it to Valley Forge, we were a little worse for the wear, but the kids were ready to perform and I was ready to look around. The staff was incredibly nice to us, as well, We performed In a small park on the grounds across from the visitor center. The audience and rangers stood and applauded, took pictures, commented on the music and history. It was another of those moments where you get it, really get why you are there. Dressed as George Washington's lifeguard, walking distance from his headquarters on the very ground where his troops trained in the third winter of the war.

We were there right up until the park was closing, even the lights went off in a visitor center while we were there, but one of the rangers agreed to stay and really explain the importance of Valley Forge and that moment in history. It was perhaps the most fascinating telling of that moment in time and how it was dependent on all the things that were happening I have ever heard. It was a half hour history lesson in which, outside of answering his questions, we all sat quiet and amazed. He talked about the legwork Franklin had done in France, the military leaders and troops from Germany, the disease, rather than the cold, which ravaged the troops, the shift in the tide of war which happened immediately filling that famous harsh winter and all the players which came together to make that happen.

By the time we left the heat and the truck tires and the shifting day seemed far behind us. We were both ready to move on and not wanting to be separated too far from that history.