Fall Odyssey 2006
September 27, 2006--Gettysburg, PA to Bird-in-Hand, PA (128 mi)

I was up at 8:30am today. I wanted to be up much earlier, but my room was really dark and I didn't set an alarm. I had stayed at the semi-posh Quality Inn at General Lee's Headquarters (photo above) near Seminary Ridge. They provided an adequate in-house breakfast for me before I headed out for the day. I was really excited to explore the Gettysburg battlegrounds--been interested in this history for years. I actually own the Ken Burns "The Civil War" documentary series and I've watched it 10 or more times. But I knew nothing about the modern town of Gettysburg and was anxious to check it out.

I arrived at the battlefield sites by 9:30am and started off with a trip to the Visitor's Center. Watching their presentation on the proceedings of the battles (which occured July 1st-3rd, 1863) went a long ways to help me map out the battle sites when I was actually out touring them firsthand. I enjoyed seeing the Civil War antiques in the museum, but even more so I enjoyed watching this one really amazing Russian brunette girl that was at the museum with her other little Russian friends. It's funny how during the Cold War they tried to portray all Eastern Bloc women as being giant, hairy oafs. I don't think that was ever true--so many of those women have blessed genetics to say the least.

Okay, anyway. I digress. It was a nice, mostly sunny day today and I got a little sunburned. I was surprised to see that the battlefields have been left largely preserved. These are still just great big wide-open fields surrounded by tree-covered hills. The only modern structures invading these old battlefields are the dozens and dozens of war monuments that dot the periphery of the region, and most of these monuments were erected in the late 1800's.

The photo (above) of the cannon shows a westward view of one of the main battlefields called the Peach Orchard. On July 2nd, 1863 General Longstreet's 1st Rebel Corps led by General Hood came from the distant trees and pushed eastward toward Big and Little Roundtop (the hills shown in the photo directly below). I shot this one from a big observatory tower that is there for tourists to climb if they have the wind to do so. The Rebs made their push through the "Valley of Death" (see photo of rocky valley below--taken from Little Roundtop) toward these hills to gain the high ground advantage in the battle. They came really close to succeeding, but a few superstar leaders from General Meade's Union side made sure that didn't happen on their watch. There were some amazing heroes created in this battle.


Another shot from Little Roundtop (below) shows the NW vantage that the Union would have had.
I didn't try to tour ALL of the Gettysburg history (that would have taken days), so I focused mainly on Little Roundtop and Cemetary Ridge. It's overwhelming to see all of the monuments scattered everywhere. Why is this place such a big deal? The Battle of Gettysburg is credited as being the tipping point of the Civil War in which the Union forces seized the upper hand. As a result of this they went on to victory 2 years later. If this hadn't been the case we would be living in a VERY different country today.
The largest of the monuments is the Pennsylvania Monument (above). The New York Monument is shown directly below.

The monuments just dotted the landscape. In this shot (below) you can see the Pennsylvania Monument in the background.
This next shot (below) will be familiar to Civil War buffs--this is the red-brick Evergreen Cemetary entrance building which can be seen in battlefield photographs from July 1863.



I spent a couple hours touring around the actual township of Gettysburg after I'd had enough battlefield stuff. I even got so touristy as to buy some fudge from a shop next to a cafe (below) that sold "Battlefield Fries". Most of the townsite is restored and quite charming though (see next photo below).

After a late afternoon stop to write up postcards and mail them out at an official Gettysburg post office (photo below), I drove on eastward toward my evening destination in Lancaster County, PA--the Amish capital of America.
I took Hwy 30 through York, PA and then I-83 northward to Harrisburg, PA where I was curious to get a glimpse of the infamous "lantern glass" profiles of the cooling towers at Three Mile Island. I did in fact get a peek at these, but it was from the I-76 bridge that crossed the Susquehanna River and I couldn't get a photo from my moving car.

I continued eastward along Hwys 283 & 30 through Lancaster, PA and arrived at the tiny Amish village of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania by 7:30pm and had dinner at the Amish Family Cupboard restaurant. It was a buffet style dinner--I filled up on the beef stroganoff and corn as much as I could before they closed at 8pm. Afterwards I checked out several bed & breakfast spots there in town and finally settled in at the Bird-in-Hand Village Inn Bed & Breakfast ($69) just down the main drag (Hwy 340) through town. I had walked a LOT today and took on a LOT of sunshine. It was lights out by 11:30pm. And yes, my little Amish bed & breakfast room DID have a TV and yes I did watch it a little before falling asleep.