Country Hearth Inn Gettysburg

... Trail and Mountains to the History of Washington and all the Civil War memorabilia … WOW!! It is simply staggering to soak this all up not to mention capture each and every highlight on film… My camera is working over time!!

So far our home away from home has either been a ‘Flying J’ Truck Stop or a Wal-Mart parking lot… All very first class I know but to be ...

... top floors. I hope that means a great view. Plus, Mongkok really isn't that far from everything. Hong Kong's a compact city after all.

I've also worked on pricing the multi-city airfare. Once I receive my new passport, I'm booking the flight with some help from AirTreks. The fare seems almost too good, so I'm going to work with the agent to make sure I'm not connecting three times through Wichita ...

... and embarrassed, aside from the headache... but what Arn said afterward made me feel better: "Hey, Mike, I really appreciate how you played so enthusaistically. It really means a lot to these guys. Seeing you have fun helps them to have fun. Because these guys don't get to play with people like you. Usually they're just on their own, mindlessly shooting the ball one after the other. So playing around with a guy who plays with energy and enthusiasm is refreshing. So, thanks."

Cool ...

Just some more updates about our week with YFC in Maryland. Just so you know, I'm writing this a week out, so the details will be minimal. Kind of just a glance.

The schools today were a little out of the ordinary. In the morning, we did a show for an alternative education school. These kids are all kids who have been kicked out of mainstream school. Some of them are pretty tough--all of them with pretty tough ...

Today we just had one school, but three shows throughout the day. Between shows, Kelsey and I had a nice talk with Arn (our host). We talked about life, finances, marriage, careers...
I realized that we're rarely in one place long enough to be able to sit and talk with someone for so long. Ordinarily, we come into a school, do our thing, and leave. But lately, we've established some ...

... Frederick. There, we passed the evening by playing Scrabble, playing cards, and sipping drinks amidst the ambiance of open mic performances.

It was so nice to hang out with some people our own age--they were very similar to us, socially, which made the the time very enjoyable. We laughed, we chatted, we had a great time!

And we get to sleep in a bedroom in a house :) We've been spoiled

... and feeling had he been in that Confederate charge looking across at the hopeless prospect of walking and running over a mile of open ground and up a bare ridge to what had to be certain death. He said that he would have been doing what any of them were doing. He would have been praying and looking down the lines at, friends, cousins, brothers and uncles and know that he would walk with them where ever they would go.

... Cemetery just as a tour was starting. This is where Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg address. At the time, the people thought that his speech was a joke and people were disappointed in what Lincoln said, little did they know the impact it would have. The ranger was a fantastic storyteller and told the stories of 3 veterans in the graveyard. At the time Gettysburg was only a population of 2400. There were approx ...

... effort, my valiant opponent. You have won. You have won." I think the honker was saying, "You [expletive]!" I guess we'll never know. We're headed to Amish country tomorrow. There will be fewer horns honking at us there, we hope. And then we are on to Baltimore to see EA Poe's grave. We will make it in to Washington DC tomorrow night and spend two nights there. Then we plan to spend two more days touring Virginia and then on in to Tri-Cities to visit the fam.

... across Seminary Ridge, which was where the Confederate forces camped during the second and third days of the battle. Naturally, there were a lot of monuments to the Confederate forces along this ridge. The most moving of these was the North Carolina Monument. This memorial, which was sculpted by the same artist that created Mount Rushmore, stands close to the staging area for Pickett’s Charge. The monument’s statues are posed in a way that ...