Gettysburg, with 3 buses of 8th graders- Thursday, March 12, 2015

Well, Julie had her turn last week when she took her senior class to Disney.  This week it's my turn.  I'm with 118 eighth graders to Gettysburg and Washington.  We've got three bus full and a total of 12 adults.  I had a talk with the guys in Rush the Growler a few weeks ago.  Since it didn't seem like we were going to get invited to play anywhere this St. Patrick's Day weekend, I made the commitment to help out with this trip.

Julie dropped me off at East Middle a little after 5:30, and the busses were finally on the road around 7:00.  Our bus stopped at a McDonald's for lunch and we were served pretty quickly, partly because the other two busses stopped at other places.  

We arrived in Gettysburg around 2:30 and went directly to the Visitor's Center.  We saw the movie "A New Birth of Freedom," and also viewed the Cyclorama painting.  Then we went on about a two hour tour of the battlefield.  Our guide tried to take it in chronological order, and did a pretty good job of it.  We had stops at the Peace Light Memorial and at Little Round Top where we were able to get out and walk around.  After driving by the High Water Mark, we went on to General Pickett's for a buffet.  Then we continued on to our hotel in Alexandria.

Post script: Our guide mentioned a story about a Lt. Bayard Wilkeson from Buffalo that I had not heard before.  I wished that Ben Maryniak was still alive so that I'd be able to ask him about it.  A quick Internet search found this post from Ben himself:   http://www.gdg.org/Research/People/bwilkens.html 

And this article from the Buffalo News on the occassion of the 150th Anniversary of Gettysburg, 2 years ago:

http://www.buffalonews.com/20130701/buffalo_lieutenant_gave_his_life_for_honor_at_gettysburg.html