Sunday, April 13, 2008- Closing Down the Visitor’s Center

We woke up for an early start on a noticeably chillier day than yesterday. Julie wanted an early morning bike ride to beat some of the traffic. We rode through town to the Lutheran Seminary, and then started our way down Confederate Avenue. We got past the Virginia monument, when Julie wanted to switch bikes-- she was towing both of the girls at the time. In changing bikes, Scott’s brake lines got twisted and part of the brakes snapped. He probably couldn’t ride it any further, so Julie unhitched the trailer and rode back to the hotel to get the van to pick everyone up.

We started up the “Eisenhower Power Tower”, but Emma had to go to the bathroom, so that put an end to that. We went shopping for a couple of things that we needed, and then we went to the Visitor’s Center.

The Visitor’s Center that we have always known and that has been the main park museum was closing today for the final time. The new one opens tomorrow. We looked around at the exhibits one last time and took some pictures.

Then we went shopping. We spent most of the afternoon shopping in the many “junk shops” along Steinwehr Avenue. Both of the girls got a new Webkin and Emma got a pirate set with a sword that she has been swinging around for the rest of the day.

We got tickets for the very last ever showing of the Electric Map at 4:25. As we were sitting there the someone in the group behind us commented that Gettysburg is “a Star Trek convention for history nerds.” They meant it in a good way. No one at that showing of the Electric Map would have argued with them. After the program they announced that they were closing the doors on that visitor’s center for good in three minutes, and we made our ways to the exit.

We went back to the “Eisenhower Power Tower” and climbed to the top this time. Julie was a little freaked by the height, but was proud of the fact that she was able to make the climb. We made a stop at Little Round Top and went to McDonalds to try to use their WiFi.