On the Road Again...

Welcome to the Del Boccio's Revolutionary War Tour!

We had a lovely ten days of travel visiting friends, Liberty University, and following in the footsteps of our Founding Fathers as they fought for our Freedom. Hmmm....lots of letter "Fs".

I will be dividing the tour into three parts, so it will not be overwhelming. We don't want our armchair travelers to become exhausted before we arrive home (even tho' our family was)!


Here we are in Lancaster County, PA...Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch country. We saw plenty of horse and buggies, Amish folks and farms, and a beautiful cart of flowers in a quaint shopping area. We had dinner in Bird-in-Hand...what a Smorgasbord. It must have been authentic because there were many Amish and Mennonite families eating there.

Did you know the "Dutch" in Pennsylvania Dutch is not "Dutch as in Holland", but Dutch as in "Deutsch" or German? We discovered later at the City Tavern in Philadelphia that because there were so many Germans in the area, the government was one vote short of making German the trade language of the city!

After dinner, we drove a short distance to the Sight and Sound Theatre in Strasbourg. I was sure we had missed a turn and ended up in Branson, Mo. What an amazing production of "Noah." Their goal is to make the Bible come alive, and boy, did it! We saw Nod (much like Babylon) with dancing girls, ungodly rulers and worldly pleasures. We witnessed Noah and his family struggle with the wicked men who mocked and impeded their work. My favorite character? Methuselah. Never thought about interaction with his grandson, Noah. His name means, "when I die, it will come."

And the flood came, but not before live animals entered the front of the life sized ark...peacocks, white oxen, parrots, camels, donkeys, wart hogs, and more. When the curtain was raised after intermission, we were surrounded on three sides with the inside of a four story ark...wow! The entire performance gave glory to God throughout.

Washington's Headquarters

The next day, with snow gently falling, we made our way to Valley Forge...how appropriate. There were more lives lost in Valley Forge than any other winter camp, due to pneumonia, typhoid and smallpox. And lack of warm clothing and shoes didn't help the situation. The men of the continental army built their own cabins...very comfortable by their admission, and did their best living on "Johnny cakes" made on hot stones. They put up with the hardships because they did not want to disappoint their Commander-in-Chief, George Washington!

I was impressed with Washington's winter headquarters at Valley Forge, as well as the commander-in-Chief's guards, who called themselves "life guards". They lived on the perimeter of the headquarters, and protected all people, supplies and papers on the property. It was required that they be American citizens, so they would be invested in the war. They later became the Third US Infantry, the unit who guards the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington...neat!