CIVIL WAR ADVENTURE and more.....

A couple of years ago while driving home from Lockport, I discovered the tiny hamlet of Peterboro, south of  Canastota.  I stopped and took several pictures, and later on googled PETERBORO, NEW YORK and found information about an event they hold every year........a CIVIL WAR ENCAMPMENT.  I figured it would never work out for me to go, but things fell into place: I found out the date of it BEFORE it happened and was able to work out the details to be able to go, and I found someone to accompany me.

I met up with Terry in Morris.   We had invited Betty to accompany us, but she did not seem to want to go, so I was surprised to find her in Terry's car when we met up.  We headed to Peterboro, and only made one stop along the way, to get gas when we first got on Route 20.

We were early arrivals, and I was glad, because it was not crowded.  After we paid our admission, we went to the general store, in the past when I drove through Peterboro, it was always closed, but now it appears that they have regular hours, at least during the summer.  Today, they were mostly selling food items and souvenier items.  I am not sure what they sell on a regular day.

After that,  we decided to check out the encampment.

These children's mother worked in the laundry tent.  The chief laundress tried to recruit Betty, but was not successful.

I took a lot of pictures.  I was disappointed that Abraham Lincoln was home sick and unable to give the GETTYSBURG ADDRESS!

We went into Garret Smiths law office (former assay office) and also into the Peterboro History Museum and also the National Abolitionist Museum.  All were great!  We tried samples of various items from some of the vendors.  We had a chicken dinner put on by the Smithville Fire Department.........it was VERY GOOD.

We had planned to stay for the skirmish at two p.m. but a few minutes before two it started to rain AND it became apparent that we would have to park quite a ways from the site of the skirmish and walk.  So, we decided to skip it.

We headed to Morrisville, taking Peterboro Road, instead of the road we drove in on.  We stopped in the Village of Madison to look for Betty's sons grave. She had not seen it in years.  We were able to find it, dodging raindrops!  It is a beautiful stone!

We stopped at a neat antique store.  After that we stopped in at an auction house, now knowing that the auction was already going on.  We stayed a few minutes while some antique german swords were auctioned off, before sneaking out.

I asked Betty and Terry if they wanted to see an Amish school house and they said YES emphatically so we went to West Edmeston where we went to the Amish bulk food store (Terry purchased some peanut butter, but I didn't find anything I could use).  We located the school and drove by it.  Since its Saturday, school was not in session).

Terry offered to treat us to ice cream in New Berlin, so we had sundaes at STEWARTS.  On the way through Morris, we noticed the old cars parked at one of the churches, so we stopped to look.  The church was offering free strawberry shortcake, so we had some of that, too.