Gettysburg- Tuesday, April 3, 2018

     I'm glad I did my big hike yesterday because the weather wasn't great today.  It was threatening rain this morning, and drizzly through the afternoon.  I'm still feeling it from yesterday, though.  I'm a little stiff and sore.  I feel it most when I'm getting out of the car or going up stairs.  Still, I'm glad I did it.  It was a great experience.
     With the weather being like it was, I decided to use the morning for shopping along Steinwehr.  Actually, I ended up going all the way to the town square, so I can't be feeling too bad from yesterday's walk.  I went to all the old favorites.  I started across the street at the Gettysburg Heritage Center, which used to be the wax museum, and then to the place that used to be the Conflict.  I went to the Regimental Quartermaster, the sutler for re-enacting.   From there I went to the Irish Brigade at the end of the street.  I went up Baltimore Street then, and stopped briefly at the Maryland Sutler, and a little longer at Forevermore Scrapbooks, where I bought two sheets of Civil War themed paper (but only two because they were on the expensive side).  I stopped again at the comic book shop I had seen last night.  Then I made a circle around the town square (or perhaps I made a square around the traffic circle).   The David Wills House, where Lincoln stayed, is now a National Park Service property.  I didn't know that and wanted to stop, but they were closed today.  Dirty Billy's Hats and one or two other places were also closed on Tuesday.  On my way back to Steinwehr, I stopped at the American History Store.  I bought a used copy of Ken Burns's Civil War soundtrack, and two shot glasses.  I'm not a whiskey drinker, but when I saw the shot glasses had the 154th's corps badges and were only $2.50, I decided to get both the white crescent and the white star.  I went back up Steinwehr and stopped at a t-shirt place.  I couldn't find anything I liked yet for the girls, but I did find one for myself and decided to get one for Julie too.  (I can write that here because she doesn't read the blog. ;-)  I browsed in the Horse Soldier, where museum quality relics are always on sale.  That place is like being in museum.  I stopped again at the former Conflict again and picked up two pint glasses.  One says "Gettysburg" and one has the Irish flag of the 69th New York on it.  I had been hoping to find one like that so that I could use it for beer at the hotel room later tonight.
     I dropped my goodies off at the hotel room, but the maid was almost ready to clean it, so I grabbed what I wanted for the afternoon, and took the iPad down to the front of the hotel to Facetime Julie again. 
     I decided to take the auto tour of the battlefield this afternoon.  There are several different ones, and we have at least four different versions at home.  I've took the one that is narrated by Stephen Lang (who played General Picket in the movie Gettysburg).  We started to take it around the battlefield once before, but we didn't finish it that day.  I decided to do the whole thing again, and figured it would take most of the afternoon.  It was a good way to do it because I didn't have to leave the car, for the most part.  I started at the Visitor Center (where I also bought a Blue & Gray magazine that features an article about the 136th NY and Orland Smith's brigade at Gettysburg-- the area right where my hotel is).  When I was out at the First Day sites, I could see how far I had walked yesterday and was both proud and glad I didn't have to do it again.  The story of Sally the dog made me cry, even though I already knew it.  After disc one, I was at the place southern end of the battlefield and took a moment to come back to town to buy gas.  I continued with the tour and got out at Little Round Top to see the sight there.   I took a detour from the tour before it got to Culp's Hill so that I could take a restroom break at the hotel.  That's one of the great things about staying in this part of town.  Then I continued where I left off. 
     After the tour, I went east of town to find the brew pub I had read about- the Battlefield Brew Works.  I ended up not finding it, but that's moot I guess, because it seems that they aren't open on Tuesdays either.  I did find the Appalachian Brewing Company which is out by the Gateway Theater.  I stopped there for dinner and had wings and beef on weck.  Neither was Buffalo quality, but they were OK, I guess.  (If you really need to have wings in Gettysburg, you should go to Tommy's Pizza like I did last night.)  I had the Appalachian Brewing Company's own diet root beer to drink while I was there, which was excellent.  Then, I got my two growlers filled to bring back to the hotel.  My only complaint with the place was that its basically the same place that is across the street from my hotel.  They are a chain has several locations, and one of them is the new one on Steinwehr, so I really didn't have to go all the way out to Gateway to have dinner.
     After dinner, I drove through East Cavalry Field.  It's a very rarely visited portion of the battlefield.  I've been there before, but probably not more than two or three times, and none recently.  It didn't even really look familiar as I was driving through and there was almost no one else there.
     I got back to the hotel, put on some Civil War music, cracked open a growler and poured a beer in my new 69th New York glass.  Then I Facetimed Julie again.  I wanted to get this portion of the blog typed so that I can pull out some musical instruments.  It's only a little past 7:30 as a finish typing this, so I'll probably do that while it's still early.