To The Lake, Again

7:34

I woke at 6:15 on the lake, after a great weekend in Virginia with my daughter Jill's family and 720 mile road trip.  While it got up to 80º there on Sunday, it's a chilly 38º here at the lake, a typical morning with a leaf strewn yard, a partly cloud sky, and the sun rising over Bemus.

We left Virginia yesterday at 7:30, just after both girls left for school, Jill to work out.  We were not sure whether to head towards Gettysburg for the morning but it was such a nice day, we decided to bite the bullet and drive to Gettysburg, a two hour drive, a bit out of our way but eventually worth it. The drive to Gettysburg, on RT. 15, was surprisingly busy, making me wonder if any works anymore or has to be there at 8:00.  The roads, the traffic, certainly suggested the opposite.  We made decent time, arriving at the Gettysburg Battlefield Welcome Center just before 10:00.  We talked to one of the guides, who suggested we walk to the Civil War Cemetery than take the AutoGuide through the fields and town of Gettysburg, a good idea.

Fall At Gettysburg

Pennsylvania War Memorial

Greek Gods/Goddesses 

So we began our morning with an hour walk, to the cemetery, through woods, to the site of Lincoln's Gettsyburg address.  It was a sunny, cool day, a good day to take a walk, to see where many of our veterans have found there final rest.  Soldiers from various wars are buried there as well, not just those who died in the Civil War.  The cemetery is well taken care of because of the popularity of Gettysburg, a site on many people's bucket list.  Of the 46,00-51,000 soldiers that died at Gettysburg, just 3,000 are buried at this site. After our walk, we drove through downtown Gettysburg, its narrow streets, houses squatting a foot or two from the road, to the fields outside of town where the battle took place.

View Of Pickett's Final Charge Battlefield

One Of The Thousands Of Roadside Memorials To Those Who Died, Both Union and Confederacy

Lincoln

I was surprised by the vastness of the battlefields, having thought, from reading THE KILLER ANGELS, that it was a much smaller area.  But we drove on various roads, which crisscrossed each other, stopping at various recommended spots, and got out and view either a memorial or a battlefield, with useful descriptions usually of what we were looking at.  I cannot imagine what it must be like in the summer because even now, there were lots of visitors and buses.

Backroads Of Pennsylvania

We spent another two hours, taking our time, getting out and walking when we wanted and eventually, left town around 12:30, for our ride home.  And like always, it took longer than we thought, six hours, as we took a back road, RT. 30 West, to Breezewood, where it connected with our usual drive home from Virginia.  We stopped at the Ashville General Store on the way home to pick up a pizza and a salad for dinner and arrived at our door about 6:45; we were just glad to get out of the car and be home.  It felt like a long drive.

Fortunately, unlike most of our other trips, we had little to unpack, so we were relaxing with pizza and a salad by 7:30, back on our couches, enjoying or not enjoying the 'breaking news,' it always seem to be 'breaking news,'  We had enough by 8:30, so we watched the documentary WEINER on Showtime, which chronicles the rise and fall of politician Anthony Weiner.  What chutzpah this guy has, to run for Mayor after his sexting, embarrassing both him and his wife, Houma, now in the news because she is Hillary's top aide and confidante.