By Eilene Lyon Our destination at the end of the bike ride from Pittsburgh on the GAP and C&O trails was Washington, D.C. It’s probably been over 20 years since our last visit to our nation’s capital. On that earlier trip, we visited the Capitol building, Ford’s Theater, the Air & Space Museum, and later... Continue Reading →
Soggy Southwest Colorado
By Eilene Lyon Some of you may have heard about our record high river flows, especially in La Plata and Archuleta Counties. On October 23rd, the Animas River in Durango crested at 11,200 cubic feet per second (cfs). It starts overflowing its banks at less than half that amount. The rains came back this weekend.... Continue Reading →
Historic Harpers Ferry
By Eilene Lyon Though I spent years of my childhood in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, I had never been to Harpers Ferry before our September biking trip. Knowing a small bit of its history (particularly John Brown’s Raid), I planned for a day off and an extra night spent there before our last day of... Continue Reading →
The C&O Canal Towpath
By Eilene Lyon Many Cumberland restaurants are closed on Sundays, but we found a place to get a burger that even had some live music out on the sidewalk. I took a stroll along the Potomac River later in the evening. A gaggle of Canada geese grazed on the grass near the towpath. Across the... Continue Reading →
The Great Allegheny Passage
By Eilene Lyon What eventually became the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) rail trail was conceived in the 1970s. The trail partly replaces the route of the Western Maryland Railroad. The entire 149-mile distance between Pittsburg, Penn. and Cumberland, Md. was not completed until 2013. In conjunction with the C & O Canal towpath (a National... Continue Reading →
Elizabeth Snapp’s Will
By Eilene Lyon In my previous post about the Snapp family, I closed with a page from Elizabeth Snapp’s will. It is an unusual document, because young, unmarried women did not typically have estates, especially not in the 18th century. In addition, it was written in German, not English, even though Elizabeth was born in... Continue Reading →
Starting Point: Pittsburgh
By Eilene Lyon This is the first in a series of posts about a long-awaited trip to ride bikes from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C. along the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) rail trail, and the Cumberland & Ohio Canal (C&O) towpath trail. We spent the first full day of our trip in Pittsburgh, a city I... Continue Reading →
Blog Break
By Eilene Lyon Time to get a bit of time away from the computer and blogging. Going on a bicycling vacation. I'll check in with you all next month!
The Snapps of Frederick County
By Eilene Lyon Continuing with my ancestors from Germany who settled first in Pennsylvania, but then moved further south, we’ll look at the family of Christiana Snapp, wife of John Lewis Beard. Her father, John Snapp (Johannes Schnepp) came to America earlier than most, arriving at the Port of Philadelphia in 1733, immigrating from the... Continue Reading →