Once You Go Here, You Never Forget It!

Jim says:

It’s the Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle lasted from July 1 through July 3, 1863 and according to official Army statistics…51,112 died, wounded and missing in the three days of battle!

I was last here in the year 2000. Since then, they’ve built a new 20,000 square foot visitors center/museum that opened in 2008 to better handle the 3,000,000 people who visit here annually. I don’t want to hurt their feelings, but I liked the old museum better. I might have enjoyed today’s visit on a Monday more, if it wasn’t for the many hundreds of high school students running wild on a field day trip. It got so crowded on occasion, I felt like I was leaving a baseball game at Yankee Stadium!

First we sat through a very well done 30 minute film done in a mini I-MAX theater style. Then we were herded into the Cyclorama which is a 360 degree painting, 26 feet high, 377 feet long and weighs almost 6,000 pounds! In the Cyclorama they presented a 15 minute verbal/visual presentation of the battle. After that we spent 2.5 hours in the museum with the many hundreds of wild high school students. Sadly I saw only about 10% absorbing anything from their visit there…they seemed to more enjoy yelling, screaming, running around and talking on their cell phones. So much for today’s high school students! Then to the Gettysburg National Cemetery, site of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. From there, since it was raining, we took the Bronco and toured some of the actual battlefield sites.

Back to the motorhome for a late lunch. Then Mary wanted to visit the nearby Eisenhower Home/Farm. Back to the visitors center we went, bought our tickets and boarded the cattle-car-like tourist bus for our trip to the site. It wasn’t spectacular…just okay. It reminded me a lot of our visit to the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch in Texas last January.

Here’s five photos…

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania circa 1861.

Brother against brother as seen as part of the Cyclorama.

Just a few of the Union Soldiers.

The Soldier’s National Monument in the Gettysburg National Cemetery marks the location of the Gettysburg Address by President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863.

The Eisenhower home was situated on 189 acres a short distance from the Gettysburg Battlefield.

To see the other 70 photos I took, click this link…
.http://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver/GettysburgNationalMilitaryPark051710#

Here’s the official government website link…
http://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm

Here’s a Wikipedia informational link about Gettysburg, Pennsylvania…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg,_Pennsylvania

All in all a very nice day. Gettysburg awakens ones emotions!
Today we continue our journey in a Northeasterly direction.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2010
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com