Gettysburg- Wednesday, April 4, 2018
I'm posting early today because I know I'm going to be busy tonight and not able to post the way I usually do. I planning on meeting friends from college today, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them again. I expect to meet Scott & Dawn about 9:30 or so this morning, and I'll probably take them around the battlefield to some of my favorite sites. Around noon, we're expecting Tricia to join us. We'll probably have lunch at the Dobbin House, and then go to the National Park Visitor Center to at least see the museum there, and maybe the Cyclorama and movie as well. After that, we'll play it by ear, but it's going to be fun seeing them again.
Update:
The day went really well, even if a few unexpected twists blew in.
I met Scott and Dawn in the lobby of our hotel at just about 9:30, like expected. Dawn and I can't remember the last time we've seen each other. The three of us went out on the battlefield, with Dawn driving. I figured a logical way to take them would be to start out on the First Day's battlefield, by the Seminary again. I pointed out many favorite monuments along the way-- I'm starting to feel like I know this end of the battlefield pretty well. When we got to the Eternal Peace Light memorial, Scott wanted to take a look around. From there we went to the 11th PA monument with Sallie the dog on the back, and we got out again to see her. We drove down around Barlow's Knoll, where I mentioned the Bayard Wilkeson story, and then tried to find our way through town. There was a lot of road work, including some on Stratton Street and some on Baltimore, so we had a lot of rerouting to do. Eventually, I took them to the Amos Humiston monument, where I told them the story of the picture of his three children, and we went to the 154th NY monument and the Coster Avenue mural, where we got out and looked around.
From there we made our way through town to the southern end of the battlefield and we stopped on Little Round Top. I knew that my interest in Gettysburg came from focusing on individual regiments from where I was from, so I tried to find some Monroe County stories for Scott. The most prominent one would be the 140th New York Infantry. They helped save Little Round Top from being overrun by Confederates by rushing into a charge with unloaded muskets. They were successful, but their young Irish colonel, Patrick O'Rourke, was killed in the action. The monument is relatively modest compared to others, but their story is worth noting. We went into "castle" of the 44th New York, and up onto its observation platform. The wind all morning had been strong and was building in intensity. The gusts were particularly powerful here on the summit of Little Round Top, and the two doors of the 44th's monument were making a wind tunnel that was intensifying the blowing. When we were done on Little Round Top, I took them around the Wheatfield area, and then up the "shank of the fishhook" to the High Water Mark area. I was telling what stories I could along the way, including those of Henry Fuller, the Irish Brigade, Father Corby, and the 1st Minnesota. Between the High Water Mark and our hotel was the monument of the 108th New York, the Rochester Regiment. I didn't know a particular story about them but they were certainly drawing men from Greece and Monroe County, where Scott and Dawn from originally.
It was getting close to noon, but we had gotten a message from Tricia to say that she was going to be a little later than expected because she had accidentally gone the wrong way on the interstate. Dawn had had enough of the heavy wind, so she stayed in the lobby next to the fireplace, but Scott and I decided to use the time to walk through the National Cemetery. It sits immediately behind the hotel, so was just a short walk away. We went through the cemetery to the East Cemetery Hill area. By the way, the old Homestead Inn that used to be the orphanage was bought by someone who made it into a diorama museum. The models depict scenes in the battle of Gettysburg, but all of the soldiers are teeny tiny cats in uniforms. Yes, cats. It's called "Civil War Tails." We didn't go in, but it was a running joke all day. We went back through the cemetery, and explored around a little bit. It's been a while since I've looked for it, but we found the New York section and were able to find Amos Humiston's grave stone, now identified with his name because of the picture of his three children.
When Tricia showed up, we went to the Dobbin House for lunch, just a few doors down. We waited a bit at the bar because I wanted a booth, and it was worth the wait, I think. I was excited to learn that they would sell us sweet bread by the loaf. It was the one thing that Julie wanted me to bring her back. I bought her the loaf to go, and I also ordered a loaf for the table to share. We only ate about half of that one, so Julie would get a loaf and a half, as long as I didn't "Mackinac" the sweet bread and accidentally leave it behind like we did the fudge in Michigan. (*- I didn't. Julie loved it.) We also got three "Rum Bellies Vengeances". This felt like Gettysburg now.
After lunch, we tried going to the National Park's Visitor Center. As we walked through, I noticed that big steel doors had been pulled shut across the museum entrance, but it didn't register what that meant. When we got to the ticketing booth we learned that the Visitor Center had lost power. The whole thing was closed, and the lobby was apparently running off of auxiliary power. We were going to spend the afternoon in the museum there, and probably also the the movie and the Cyclorama, but all of that was closed. Even the bookstore was closed. It was probably the high winds that had done this.
So that left a big hole to fill in the afternoon, and we decided to fill it by driving around the battlefield. That meant duplicating a little bit that we had done this morning, but we pulled some highlights out for Tricia. We circled around the first day's battlefield again. We went to the 154th's monument and mural and looked around a bit there. We stopped at the dog Sallie on the 11th Pennsylvania's monument, but the wind gusts were ridiculously strong at this point. It was hard to even stand in the blasts, so we didn't stay long and spent almost all of the other stops in the car. We went from the Seminary down Confederate Avenue this time, and noted the sculpture in the state monuments along the way, including North Carolina's, Virginia's and Louisiana's. We then went to the Round Tops, and did brave the winds once more in order to get out at Little Round Top again and showed Tricia the view from there. We drove a bit randomly, but visited many spots on the battlefield. I pointed out the 4th New York Cavalry's monument because they had many members from Mount Vernon, NY, where Trish is from. We went around the Culp's Hill area. We stopped at the High Water Mark again, and did get out there to look around. We circled back to the Peach Orchard area. If I had known we were going to do so much driving on the battlefield today, I might have recommended doing an auto tour on CD instead of the ad hoc way we did it.
Eventually, we decided we had passed enough time on the battlefield. We parked at the hotel and walked a little on Steinwehr. We stopped at a few of the shops, where I bought Anna and Emma some hoodies. We considered going into the Diorama, and looked at the exhibits in the lobby. We decided against it, mostly because we didn't really know if it was good, but also because the soldiers weren't cats. I stopped by the Dobbin House again, because I still had their pager from when we had lunch. I went up to the girl and said, "Is our table ready yet? We've been waiting for hours!" I didn't leave her flustered for long though. We returned to the Appalachian Brewing Company's brew pub, right across from the hotel, and had dinner. I got some poutine for dinner and a flight of beer.
After dinner, Scott and Dawn had to depart. We went back across the street to the hotel lobby. Since Tricia has just seen her 50th birthday, we took the traditional picture of Scott holding a sign next to here. The first one was taken in my dorm room on her 20th birthday, I think, and the sign Scott held said "Old." There's been other birthday pictures that the two have taken. This year's sign said "Still older." We also finally got a picture of all four of us.
After Scott and Dawn left, Trish and I decided to do a barcrawl up Steinwehr Ave. I counted six places that we'd stop at, but we had already done two- the Dobbin House and the Appalachian brew pub. That left us with four to do. We started at the farthest one- the Farnsworth House-- and worked our way back. Though not technically on Steinwehr, the Farnsworth House is close and too cool not to include. The bricks on its southern wall are still pockmarked with bulletholes from the battle. The tavern area features actual costumes from the movie Gettysburg, which didn't impress Tricia much, but it is one of my favorite movies. I think I knew that stuff was there, but I'd long forgotten it, and was surprised to find it. On Steinwehr itself, we first stopped at O'Rorke's. It was here that Trish showed me the trivia game "HQ" and we played a round with literally over a million other people. The next stop was Gettysburg Eddies. While we were there, I learned that the place was named after a Hall of Fame baseball player from the town and the inside is decorated with old-time baseball stuff. There weren't many other people there, but they were all talking about disasters- the Holocaust, Oklahoma City bombing, 9-11, etc.- so it was kind of a depressing place to be that night. We hurried on to the Reliance Mine Saloon, which is also adjacent to our hotel. I had heard that it was the place where historians hung out, and I was surprised when one of the men there was Bill Frassanito. He is apparently a regular and several of his books were on sale at the bar. I bought Gettysburg: A Journey in Time, and he was kind enough to sign it for me. He also started talking to me about many other things too, including the state of schools today, the time he met Eisenhower, and his own service in Vietnam. He seemed like he would talk for a long time, and Tricia finally made an excuse for us to leave. We were practically at the hotel, and Trish had brought Irish music to listen to. We started in my room with my mandolin, but since it was midnight, I didn't want to raise complaints from the other guests. The building she was staying in-- the one with the indoor pool-- seemed to be empty except for her, so we moved the party there. We listened to Irish music and watched online Rush the Growler videos for a while. It was a nice end to the day.
We made arrangements to meet again at 9:30 for breakfast, and after meeting her there, I drove home. It was a long drive because I was so tired, but I made it home safe, thanks in part to all the music I had on my mp3 player to sing along with. We don't know when we will see each other again, Scott and Trish and I, but we all agreed as we said our goodbyes that we didn't want it to be long. And so another Gettysburg adventure for me drew to a close, and I managed to add a bunch of good memories to the ones I already cherish from that town.
.........................................................................................................
Update:
The day went really well, even if a few unexpected twists blew in.
I met Scott and Dawn in the lobby of our hotel at just about 9:30, like expected. Dawn and I can't remember the last time we've seen each other. The three of us went out on the battlefield, with Dawn driving. I figured a logical way to take them would be to start out on the First Day's battlefield, by the Seminary again. I pointed out many favorite monuments along the way-- I'm starting to feel like I know this end of the battlefield pretty well. When we got to the Eternal Peace Light memorial, Scott wanted to take a look around. From there we went to the 11th PA monument with Sallie the dog on the back, and we got out again to see her. We drove down around Barlow's Knoll, where I mentioned the Bayard Wilkeson story, and then tried to find our way through town. There was a lot of road work, including some on Stratton Street and some on Baltimore, so we had a lot of rerouting to do. Eventually, I took them to the Amos Humiston monument, where I told them the story of the picture of his three children, and we went to the 154th NY monument and the Coster Avenue mural, where we got out and looked around.
From there we made our way through town to the southern end of the battlefield and we stopped on Little Round Top. I knew that my interest in Gettysburg came from focusing on individual regiments from where I was from, so I tried to find some Monroe County stories for Scott. The most prominent one would be the 140th New York Infantry. They helped save Little Round Top from being overrun by Confederates by rushing into a charge with unloaded muskets. They were successful, but their young Irish colonel, Patrick O'Rourke, was killed in the action. The monument is relatively modest compared to others, but their story is worth noting. We went into "castle" of the 44th New York, and up onto its observation platform. The wind all morning had been strong and was building in intensity. The gusts were particularly powerful here on the summit of Little Round Top, and the two doors of the 44th's monument were making a wind tunnel that was intensifying the blowing. When we were done on Little Round Top, I took them around the Wheatfield area, and then up the "shank of the fishhook" to the High Water Mark area. I was telling what stories I could along the way, including those of Henry Fuller, the Irish Brigade, Father Corby, and the 1st Minnesota. Between the High Water Mark and our hotel was the monument of the 108th New York, the Rochester Regiment. I didn't know a particular story about them but they were certainly drawing men from Greece and Monroe County, where Scott and Dawn from originally.
It was getting close to noon, but we had gotten a message from Tricia to say that she was going to be a little later than expected because she had accidentally gone the wrong way on the interstate. Dawn had had enough of the heavy wind, so she stayed in the lobby next to the fireplace, but Scott and I decided to use the time to walk through the National Cemetery. It sits immediately behind the hotel, so was just a short walk away. We went through the cemetery to the East Cemetery Hill area. By the way, the old Homestead Inn that used to be the orphanage was bought by someone who made it into a diorama museum. The models depict scenes in the battle of Gettysburg, but all of the soldiers are teeny tiny cats in uniforms. Yes, cats. It's called "Civil War Tails." We didn't go in, but it was a running joke all day. We went back through the cemetery, and explored around a little bit. It's been a while since I've looked for it, but we found the New York section and were able to find Amos Humiston's grave stone, now identified with his name because of the picture of his three children.
When Tricia showed up, we went to the Dobbin House for lunch, just a few doors down. We waited a bit at the bar because I wanted a booth, and it was worth the wait, I think. I was excited to learn that they would sell us sweet bread by the loaf. It was the one thing that Julie wanted me to bring her back. I bought her the loaf to go, and I also ordered a loaf for the table to share. We only ate about half of that one, so Julie would get a loaf and a half, as long as I didn't "Mackinac" the sweet bread and accidentally leave it behind like we did the fudge in Michigan. (*- I didn't. Julie loved it.) We also got three "Rum Bellies Vengeances". This felt like Gettysburg now.
After lunch, we tried going to the National Park's Visitor Center. As we walked through, I noticed that big steel doors had been pulled shut across the museum entrance, but it didn't register what that meant. When we got to the ticketing booth we learned that the Visitor Center had lost power. The whole thing was closed, and the lobby was apparently running off of auxiliary power. We were going to spend the afternoon in the museum there, and probably also the the movie and the Cyclorama, but all of that was closed. Even the bookstore was closed. It was probably the high winds that had done this.
So that left a big hole to fill in the afternoon, and we decided to fill it by driving around the battlefield. That meant duplicating a little bit that we had done this morning, but we pulled some highlights out for Tricia. We circled around the first day's battlefield again. We went to the 154th's monument and mural and looked around a bit there. We stopped at the dog Sallie on the 11th Pennsylvania's monument, but the wind gusts were ridiculously strong at this point. It was hard to even stand in the blasts, so we didn't stay long and spent almost all of the other stops in the car. We went from the Seminary down Confederate Avenue this time, and noted the sculpture in the state monuments along the way, including North Carolina's, Virginia's and Louisiana's. We then went to the Round Tops, and did brave the winds once more in order to get out at Little Round Top again and showed Tricia the view from there. We drove a bit randomly, but visited many spots on the battlefield. I pointed out the 4th New York Cavalry's monument because they had many members from Mount Vernon, NY, where Trish is from. We went around the Culp's Hill area. We stopped at the High Water Mark again, and did get out there to look around. We circled back to the Peach Orchard area. If I had known we were going to do so much driving on the battlefield today, I might have recommended doing an auto tour on CD instead of the ad hoc way we did it.
Eventually, we decided we had passed enough time on the battlefield. We parked at the hotel and walked a little on Steinwehr. We stopped at a few of the shops, where I bought Anna and Emma some hoodies. We considered going into the Diorama, and looked at the exhibits in the lobby. We decided against it, mostly because we didn't really know if it was good, but also because the soldiers weren't cats. I stopped by the Dobbin House again, because I still had their pager from when we had lunch. I went up to the girl and said, "Is our table ready yet? We've been waiting for hours!" I didn't leave her flustered for long though. We returned to the Appalachian Brewing Company's brew pub, right across from the hotel, and had dinner. I got some poutine for dinner and a flight of beer.
After dinner, Scott and Dawn had to depart. We went back across the street to the hotel lobby. Since Tricia has just seen her 50th birthday, we took the traditional picture of Scott holding a sign next to here. The first one was taken in my dorm room on her 20th birthday, I think, and the sign Scott held said "Old." There's been other birthday pictures that the two have taken. This year's sign said "Still older." We also finally got a picture of all four of us.
After Scott and Dawn left, Trish and I decided to do a barcrawl up Steinwehr Ave. I counted six places that we'd stop at, but we had already done two- the Dobbin House and the Appalachian brew pub. That left us with four to do. We started at the farthest one- the Farnsworth House-- and worked our way back. Though not technically on Steinwehr, the Farnsworth House is close and too cool not to include. The bricks on its southern wall are still pockmarked with bulletholes from the battle. The tavern area features actual costumes from the movie Gettysburg, which didn't impress Tricia much, but it is one of my favorite movies. I think I knew that stuff was there, but I'd long forgotten it, and was surprised to find it. On Steinwehr itself, we first stopped at O'Rorke's. It was here that Trish showed me the trivia game "HQ" and we played a round with literally over a million other people. The next stop was Gettysburg Eddies. While we were there, I learned that the place was named after a Hall of Fame baseball player from the town and the inside is decorated with old-time baseball stuff. There weren't many other people there, but they were all talking about disasters- the Holocaust, Oklahoma City bombing, 9-11, etc.- so it was kind of a depressing place to be that night. We hurried on to the Reliance Mine Saloon, which is also adjacent to our hotel. I had heard that it was the place where historians hung out, and I was surprised when one of the men there was Bill Frassanito. He is apparently a regular and several of his books were on sale at the bar. I bought Gettysburg: A Journey in Time, and he was kind enough to sign it for me. He also started talking to me about many other things too, including the state of schools today, the time he met Eisenhower, and his own service in Vietnam. He seemed like he would talk for a long time, and Tricia finally made an excuse for us to leave. We were practically at the hotel, and Trish had brought Irish music to listen to. We started in my room with my mandolin, but since it was midnight, I didn't want to raise complaints from the other guests. The building she was staying in-- the one with the indoor pool-- seemed to be empty except for her, so we moved the party there. We listened to Irish music and watched online Rush the Growler videos for a while. It was a nice end to the day.
We made arrangements to meet again at 9:30 for breakfast, and after meeting her there, I drove home. It was a long drive because I was so tired, but I made it home safe, thanks in part to all the music I had on my mp3 player to sing along with. We don't know when we will see each other again, Scott and Trish and I, but we all agreed as we said our goodbyes that we didn't want it to be long. And so another Gettysburg adventure for me drew to a close, and I managed to add a bunch of good memories to the ones I already cherish from that town.
posted by Scott at
8:31 AM
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