"Bone" Voyage: West Point

October 20th-We woke up to a glorious, sunny morning and were pleasantly surprised with our surroundings. It was beautiful. We always have a hard time leaving where we are but then we always fall in love with our next place. We stayed at the Round Pond Recreation Facility of the Army, three miles away from West Point. We sat up on top of a hill overlooking a small lake and surrounded by tall oaks. It was nice because even though we were in the trees, there was a lot of sun. We enjoyed relaxing around the campsite and moving to site 17 which was a much bigger and probably our favorite campsite so far. In the afternoon, we took a guided tour of WestPoint and learned so much.
We were immediately taken with the beauty and compactness of the campus. All the stone buildings and the spot on the Hudson River is awesome. West Point is the oldest running base in the country. The Academy started in 1802 with 10 students and 5 profs. Freshman are called Pleebes, 2nd year-yearlings,3rd year-cows and 4th year-firsties. The chapel was amazing with its largest pipe organ in the world. The chapel is built around the 26,000 pipes which gives a new meaning to surround sound. In 1916, classes started adopting the class 100 years before and buying a stained glass window. This lasted until 1976 and the windows all have the dates of both classes. The windows cost $300 from a company in PA and over the 60 years, they kept the price the same. The Battle Monument has an incredible view of the Hudson and features a monument with the names of West Point grads who lost their lives in the Civil War. It is surrounded by canons buried upside down as a reminder that we never fight our brothers again. Also interesting is that Custer was last in his class, and Eisenhauer and Ulysses Grant were grads. Grant's family gave the alter in the chapel. Or particular interest was West Point held a stategic position in the Revolutionary War and at one point a chain was put across the narrow spot in the river to deter the British. It took 270 men to hoist this chain into position. What was particularly moving was how they have a special pew and candle burning that is reserved for graduates that are missing.