Gettysburg and Beyond

The day began with John's early morning coffee; then, goodbyes to he and Wendy, Keoni and Aidan. I'll miss them while I'm away.

My pony Subaru all packed we pulled out onto Ridge Road.

The first plan of he morning to take some back roads to Gettysburg was quickly abandoned because of the road conditions. I didn't want my pony injured by the giant potholes in the roadways so thought it better to stick to the main arteries that have more quickly been patched after all the freezing, thawing, salt, ice and snow entirely undid the patching from last winter that took all last summer to complete.

By late morning I was in Gettysburg. I did some of the car touring. There are many, many monuments commemorating those fallen. The wind had picked up so the 37 degrees were pretty uncomfortable.

I snapped a few pictures, but didn't get the details of who and what regiment or military groups.

An Indian and tepee on this monument for a New York regiment.

This little bird sat so quietly, for several minutes. I haven't identified him yet.

I went into the museum at the park visitor center. Among the first displays in the museum is one that  affected me--slave shackles that showed wear and tear by some long ago souls.

On the whole, the monuments and histories of the entire area are extremely comprehensive and take far more time than I spent to take in. I think it is one of those places you can go to many, many times and still find more to see and learn and think about. The museum has about a dozen adjoining pod-like areas on different facets of the war and the battle for Gettysburg, but suffers from its many video presentations going on within hearing distance of each other creating a cacophony of history. I watched a couple of them before feeling overwhelmed.

The book store has so much literature relating to the battle and war and those times that I get a strong sense of the profound questions it brings to many minds about how the savagery of that war came to be, what it solved, and what remains for us to resolve and heal.

I stuck my hand next to this case to give a sense of the size of one of the cannon balls the Confederates fired at Fort Sumter that ignited the Civil War. 

The Appalachians--Maryland, West Virginia. There have been places with some snow and ice left. There is an Eastern Continental Divide though the highest point is around 2700 feet, more or less. The temperature then climbed to 73 degrees by mid-afternoon. I couldn't wait to get out of my long underwear in Fairmont Super 8 where I self-indulged in happy ablutions. 

Maryland Highway 77 connecting two main arteries. It might have been PA without the potholes.

I didn't see any more snow piled anywhere when I walked to a restaurant.