Northeast Trip - Lexington/Concord

It was a 250 mile trip from West Point to Hanscom AFB FamCamp which is outside of Boston.   The drive was uneventful and we arrived about noon.

We got set up with water and electric and had to wait two days to move over to full hookups.  But that was no problem.
The campground is near the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway which was built on an inactive railroad.  We road down to a Starbucks and then on to the Lexington Green for a look around at some of the historical sites.

Minuteman Statue on the Lexington Green

We were in time to hear George, one of the local historians/docents give a tour of the Lexington Battle Green.  

It was here that the opening shots of the American Revolution was fired on April 19, 1775.   The skirmish left seven Americans dead when 700 British engaged with 79 militia.  The British continued to Concord on a mission to capture and dispose of known colonists munitions stored there.

Paul Revere and William Dawes were sent from Boston to warn the colonialists the British were coming!  They came right through Lexington. Neither made it, but another who joined them (Samuel Prescott) did.

Near Lexington and Concord, the National Park maintains a very well done series of displays and historic sites at the Minute Man National Park.  The park is along "Battle Road" and includes the site where Paul Revere was captured during his midnight ride and the North Bridge where 'the shot heard around the world was fired'.

The Old North Bridge was the first site during the Revolutionary War where colonials gave the order to fire upon the British.  It was never determined who fired the first shot but it was also the first victory for the American militia and ended with the British retreating.

Concord is also known as the birthplace of Henry David Thoreau and the beginnings of the transcendentalist movement of the 1830's and 1840's.  Thoreau spent two years living in the small house on Walden Pond writing his classic "Walden; or Life in the Woods".

In addition to Thoreau, the area was a familiar place for thinkers of the day including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May Alcott - author of 'Little Women'), Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller.

Emerson lived in The Old Manse which also served as a meeting house for many of them.

One of our last stops in Concord was the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery which is the final resting place of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

We were glad to have spent a couple of days in Lexington and Concord seeing these places.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Next time -- in to Boston!