Gettysburg and Home- Friday, April 9, 2021

 

     We had to get used to some adjustments to hotel living on this trip.  Some of it was COVID related; some was not.  Of course, we had to wear masks whenever we left our room or came back from touring, but that was obvious.  A more subtle adjustment was the fact that our room wasn't cleaned during the day in order to keep from spreading the virus that way.  We could get clean towels if we asked at the front desk, but we carefully managed what we had and made due for the week.  More troubling was the fact that the waste baskets weren't emptied each day.  By Tuesday we were leaving a pile of bags in the hall for housekeeping to take away.  Since the piles were usually there the whole day and we didn't see anyone else doing that, we assume that the housekeepers didn't want to deal with our garbage.  As Julie pointed out though, we weren't going to stay in a hotel room with Abby's poopy diapers piling up, so we had to put the bags them somewhere.  

     Our sleeping situation was a little odd too.  We had two double beds and a couch that opened up.  Emma claimed the bed by the window (looking out over the cemetery!), and Julie built a wall of pillows on the next bed to keep Abby in while Julie slept on the other side of her.  Scott tried taking the couch, but the first night on it he discovered that the bar through the middle it made it virtually impossible to be comfortable there.  He solved the problem by taking the mattress out, putting it on the floor, and sleeping on it that way.  It was fine except that standing up from the floor in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom was a little more work.

     In addition to the bikes, Scott had hauled two of his instruments down, along with a music stand and a binder full of music.  However, the mandolin and the banjo had remained in their cases all week.  Scott had wanted to record a song at the 64th New York monument to add to the ones he had recorded with Brian Seibel two years ago, but that happen this trip.  He was going to try first thing this morning, but the light drizzle outside kept that from happening.  

      Really, we had amazing weather for all the rest of the days of this trip.  If anything, the rain encouraged us to get things pack and head home.  If the weather had been as nice today as it has been the rest of the week, we might not have wanted to leave.

     Scott did want to take Abby and Emma to Coster Avenue to see the 154th New York monument, and a slight break in the rain allowed the family to stop there on our way out of town.  Abby was sleeping again by that point, and even though Emma had been here before she seemed interested in seeing it again.  It was so long ago that she didn't really remember much of it.  Scott told her about the fighting that occurred there and how, even though he wasn't there for the battle, her great-great-great grandfather Langhans had his picture taken there with other veterans of his regiment.  He was very proud of the time he served with the regiment.

    We decided that we wanted to get on the road after that stop.  We skipped the rest of the shopping that we might have done and had left town before most of the stores were even open at 10:00.  

    When he got home to West Seneca, there was a bright double rainbow in the sky.  Abby was so happy just to see her home again.  She smiled and smiled and clapped and cheered.  

     On the drive home, Emma asked how we would rate this trip on a scale of 1 to 10.  Scott and Julie both agreed on 8.  It was not a perfect trip and had a few stumbling moments, but the sheer fact that we were out again made up for those times.  The near perfect weather and the great times we had made this a great trip.