Day 129 Gettysburg - Hershey - Elizabethtown
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
136
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Elizabethtown,
Pennsylvania,
United States
Saturday, September 13, 2008
We set off to return to the historic site and information centre of Gettysburg, to arrive at around 8:25am, book a guide and had one available for, us at 8:30am.
Doug was our guide's name, and he accompanied us to our Castle and gave us a brief rundown of our intended tour.
We set off and during the next three and a half hours ( of a supposed 2hour tour) we were subjected to a tour of the whole battlefield of Gettysburg.
The battle took place over three days and to the credit of the Federal Government, the whole area has been preserved as an historic site.
The site covers many acres of land, as well as some buildings, still preserved from the battle, as are original canon, in place at the various sites all around the battle ground. All has been authenticated by soldiers that took part in the battle.
The site has numerous monuments to the various generals as well as to the soldiers from both sides.
The town itself, Gettysburg, has original buildings including, one with a canon shot still embedded in the brick wall up at the second storey level.
One amazing thing about this war, it cost in terms of Casualties over the three days of bitter and bloody conflict, there was only one civilian casualty from a stray bullet. The house she died in, is still preserved and also a museum site.
It would be wrong or foolhardy of us to attempt to recap on the information Doug recounted to us.
The amount of knowledge he has of the battle and the names of the Generals and the times of the different aspects of the battle, were just absolutely incredible.
It was possible to "feel" the battle unfold and the various players in the drama make the decisions they did in the heat of the battle to bring about the result, that is history.
We guess that everything we do or know is about; what if? Or maybe if this happened? Or a simple thing of being ten minutes later or earlier! A lot to contemplate!
We dropped Doug off and lunched in the Castle in the Car park, simply overwhelmed with information.
It is certainly a high, on the recommended list and are pleased we educated ourselves about this historic battle.
A turning point in the war that continued for another two years before the country became united under one flag again.
We left there and headed to Hershey, a town made famous for the production of chocolates.
No! we were not heading to obtain a chocolate fix, we headed for the RV show.
The rain had decided to set in by this stage; the trip was taken carefully through heavy rain and took around 1.5 hours northwest.
We required to obtain directions from the local library, there was a distinct lack of signage, to what is purported to be the largest RV show in the USA.
We donned our ponchos and headed in to this show, to see what we could snag for a good deal or simply to drool over the RV's offered.
The arena for the indoor section was in a huge ice skating rink, we walked around inside this for a start, mainly to shelter from the rain, but also to explore the bargains.
We felt the Sydney show has bigger and better displays and of suppliers offering their gear, we managed to obtain some ideas and a couple of possible bargains. We then ventured outside, Firstly looking at the 5th wheelers, we chose a line of one manufacturer, and headed down the row of various sizes and designs of fifth wheelers, along with caravans.
They are well set out with some wonderful features, of course the prices of the models varied, ranging from $26,000 to $70,000, definitely a lot less than we pay back in OZ!
We continued down this double row to also view the "travel Trailers" (caravans in our lingo) and again the prices are so much less than ours.
From here we chose to look at the large motor homes (buses) this is a world of luxury and the prices of these 35-38 ft motor homes ranged from $112,000 fully fitted, a far cry from the $250,000 up price tag at home.
Never mind it was good to view and enjoy, but we had yet to find a place in the area to stop for the night and with the RV show and the rain we figured it was time to sort this challenge.
We headed back to the Castle and sifted through our RV information, we found a KOA (Gettysburg/Hershey) only half an hour from our position, we phoned and booked a site and headed off.
We are now set up and comfortable with a misty rain around us, with plans to head to the nation's capitol tomorrow.
Washington DC here we come!
