The Gathering: Morgan Pub Crawl comes together

The sixth Morgan Pub Crawl is underway.  The major portion of this years Pub Crawlers converged into Fredericksburg, VA today to welcome old friends and meet new ones.   Some from Ohio, some from Florida and some from the Virginia/Maryland area.  We will detail who is who a bit later, but first, a bit about this interesting town in eastern Virginia.

As Willie sings, "On the Road Again." with
our well traveled Morgan Roadster.

Wikipedia tells me that Fredericksburg, VA is located near where the Rappahannock River crosses the Fall Line. Fredericksburg was a prominent port in Virginia during the colonial era. During the Civil War, the town, located halfway between the capitals of the opposing forces, was the site of the Battle of Fredericksburg and Second Battle of Fredericksburg, preserved in part as the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Tourism is a major part of the economy, with approximately 1.5 million people visiting the Fredericksburg area annually, including the battlefield park, the downtown visitor center, events, museums and historic sites.^[8]

Our trip from Ohio to Fredericksburg took two days, with a stop at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA,  on 9/12/16, the day after the 15th anniversary of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the flight that crashed in the PA coal field. 

The museum and overlook.

Flight 93 crash site

One of the staff at the memorial said 10,000 people were here yesterday,
the 15thanniversary of 9-11.  Today, a good guess would be less
than 2000.

Then a nice trip in rolling hills to the Cumberland, MD area to meet up with the Hahn's from Cincinnati.  They had spent the day on a slow paced tour of Virginia and Maryland, having left Cincinnati Sunday, overnighting in West Virginia and planning to meet up with us near Cumberland, MD. 

West Virginia National Cemetary

Tuesday morning we got an early start and headed across twisty and hilly roads in the mountains of Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia, through Winchester and on to Fredericksburg.

Very nice morning of the 13th...light dew.

As we drove into town we passed through the battleground along the river, with the city just across the water. It was so pretty I forgot to take a photo.  Once downtown, laced with narrow one way streets, our hotel we found the was located in the middle of the historic area.  We wandered the streets lined with antique shops offering tempting tidbits of nostalgia, restaurants offering tempting tidbits of a variety of foods, and lots of people--many still touring, even though the season is a week beyond Labor Day.

Arriving at Fredericksburg Courtyard Hotel

Lunch with the first of the gang to arrive.

At the welcoming reception more Crawlers arrived, some having taken the Auto Train from Florida and some having driven from parts of Virginia and Maryland.  
   

Getting to know each other.

More chatter going on among new friends

Jock Powell and Madeline Moodie

Leader Bob McKenna (on right) welcomes all and describes tomorrows

itinerary.

Everyone arrived except Al Marsh, who lives in the DC metro, and he said he is waiting for the traffic to die down before driving to Fredericksburg. 

We have a total of 10 cars, 18 participants.  A good group ready for a week plus of driving and seeing and making memorable experiences.