How Many Eckersons Does It Take To Plan a Roadtrip?

John Adams once said "I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress! So how many Eckersons would it take to screw up a simple Saturday roadtrip to tour a Civil War battlefield.

It started simple enough. John Boy and I thought it would be good to tour the Battle of Monocacy Junction, an 1864 battle that ended the South's last forray in Yankee territory.

Only problem, we couldn't find any information about it on the Internet and didn't even know where in central Maryland it was located. We decided to be polite and invite John Boy's siblings along for the ride, knowing from past experience they wouldn't "waste" a Saturday touring one of John Boy's battlefield excursions.

Guess what. We were wrong. SisIggy and Dark Garden both said "what a wonderful idea".

We met in the railroad town of Brunswick because we knew there was a National Park Service Visitor Center for the C&O Canal. Surely someone (a park ranger, for example) there would know something about Monacracy Creek (especially, as it turns out, the battlefield is located in the same county).

Not a clue. The man could talk all day about the C&O and even about Civil War skirmishes protecting said canal. But he was clueless and suggested we tour Antietam instead. Guess that battle was big enough to at least know the name.

But before we could start the Exodus , we had to wait on John Boy, who's fascination with the Civil War Trail network is reknown the world over. Here, he reads about Brunswick's role in the war.

So we loaded up in the cars and tried to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B. Should have been pretty simple.


But then the Eckerson clan doesn't know the word simple. Before we could head out, there had to be a pow-wow to mesh out the details.

We knew if we followed these signs we'd be on the right track. Only problem, Maryland is stingy with these signs. I think we missed one in Boonesboro - or there wasn't one - but about an hour later we got a call from Dark asking where everything was. Seems he was cruisin Hagerstown and we were in Funkstown, about 15 miles out of the way.

Credit John Boy.

He took the map from me. And so he should since he's a professional cartographer. Hell, he dreams maps in his sleep.


Finally we made it to Sharpsburg (I am a southerner) and then there were more decisions to make:


1) Should we take the guided tour from a ranger?
2) Should we buy the CD, pile into one of the cars and hit the military park on our own?
3) Should we buy the brochure (ain't nothing free anymore from the government)? OR
4) Should we all stand around a cannon and discuss it for another hour?


OK. Perhaps it was only 30 minutes but the point is, let's make a decision how 'bout it.

Finally, it was decided that we buy a brochure for Monocacy River and use a brochure someone else purchased; then dropped in a trashcan after realizing the CD was the route to take.

I won't bore anyone with the actual tour. Dark Garden did a nice take on his blog and SisIggy did one too (though I'm not sure I cared for the poke at my size and my looking like a "honkin' big war memorial blocking your view". She followed that comment with a Photoshop-distorted picture of yours truly. Decide for yourself and I'd be interested in your comments.

Now all we need to do is decide when we're going to Monocracy Creek. And how many Eckersons will it take to get us there.