02-21-2017: On the Road Again!

Today Christine and I set off on a 3-1/2 week road trip to parts south.  We loaded up the car this morning and were on the road by 8:15.  That was actually 45 minutes ahead of schedule!  Yes, I think we were both very excited to be heading out on our road trip.  We will be making our way to Myrtle Beach, SC, Jekyll Island, GA, and in Florida the Crystal River area, St. Petersburg, a quick stop near Santa Maria Island, Venice Beach, Vero Beach, Cocoa Beach, and then to Sanford to board the auto train back home.

The temperature at our departure was just about 30 degrees, although the 3 previous days in Binghamton were simply gorgeous with bright sunshine and temperatures hitting the mid-50s.  What a treat!  By the time we got to our first overnight stop south of Richmond, VA, the temperature was 62.  I saw some daffodils blooming along the highway and even spotted a crabapple tree in full, glorious pink bloom.  I’m sure we’ll see more spring flowers as we drive through North and South Carolina tomorrow.

We did pretty well with the drive today.  We encountered heavy traffic around Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg, and of course the I-95 corridor from Washington, DC to south of Richmond was horrible.  But we did all right and made reasonable time.

We did make one interesting stop today.  We had travelled the same route in 2015 during our trip down the eastern seaboard so we were familiar with some of the attractions.  Driving through Maryland, we remembered a small Catholic university and something about a shrine or shrines near the school.  In Emmitsburg, MD, there is a big church and a shrine commemorating Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity.  Emmitsburg is where Mother Seton also founded the first Catholic girls’ school in the country.  We didn’t stop at this site, but rather drove to the Mount St. Mary University where the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes is located high up the hill behind the university.  We were curious about this place.  I’m not Catholic and Christine is lapsed, so our stop wasn’t any kind of pilgrimage.  But, we’re glad to have seen this place.  It was really beautiful and interesting.

The National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, a Catholic shrine devoted to Our Blessed Mother Mary, is a place of worship, pilgrimage, evangelization and reconciliation.  This beautiful mountain shrine features one of the oldest American replicas of the Lourdes shrine in France, built about two decades after the apparition of Mary at Lourdes in 1858, and attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year from all over the world.

The bell tower and statue can be seen from miles away.  The tower is 95 feet tall and is topped with a 25-foot, gold-leafed bronze figure of the Blessed Mother.

The 60-acre grounds provide a lovely garden and woods setting for many beautiful mosaics and sculptures.  There were the 15 mysteries of the rosary in mosaics that were really beautiful.  There were also stations of the cross.  This sculpture was from Thailand and was quite striking.

There was a fountain pool and the nearby taps where people can drink blessed water.

This sign gave me a chuckle.

There were donation boxes all over the place, nearly every 10 feet or so.

Here’s the grotto.  And apparently, some cleric recently brought a stone back from the real Lourdes grotto in France, which has now been placed into this grotto, so it’s extra sacred.

Here’s the lowdown on indulgences!

There was a lovely little chapel near the grotto.  Mother Seton was prominent on the outside, as well as in stained glass.

The shrine is located on a hillside and it provides a wonderful vista of the surrounding valley.  The founder of the university, Father John DuBois, lived in a little cabin on the hillside, and he not only founded the university, but was instrumental in founding the shrine as well.  This photo shows the DuBois cabin, a plaque with a saying by Mother Seton, and the bell tower of one of the campus buildings down the hill.

So there you have it – the National Shrine Grotto of our Lady of Lourdes.  It actually was a very pleasant stop and it gave us an opportunity to take a nice walk through a beautiful setting.

We’re spending the night in Chester, VA, which is just a few miles south of Richmond.  We drove just over 400 miles today.  Tomorrow, it’s off to Myrtle Beach, and I can’t wait to dip my toes in the ocean and walk on the beach.