We left early for our 40 minute drive to Gettysburg. Reservations for what we wanted to do were supposed to be made at least 3 days in advance but we didn't realize that so wanted to get there early to be put on the waiting list.
This is the off season. We arrived at 8:40, bought our tickets and at 8:45 we were enjoying a very informative presentation about Gettysburg - with 4 other people. It was so nice not being crowded.
After that presentation we went up a very long escalator to view the Gettysburg cyclorama. If you have never heard of a cyclorama, you are with us. It is a 360 degree painting. Oh, and this one is 42 feet high and 377 feet long. Cycloramas were a popular art form in the 1800s. This one depicted one of the battles at Gettysburg - there were several over a 3 day period. It looked 3D and there was a narrative to tell what was happening. This was a new, learning and quite moving experience.
We then had about 2 hours to go through a very large and educational museum. About this time a bus of high school kids were in the museum so a little more crowded.
We ate a little and caught our fully loaded bus for a 2 hour tour of the battlegrounds. After the tour we tried to comprehend the amounts of supplies that were used, the enormous responsibility of the leaders, the thousands of lives that were impacted in those 3 days.
One example of resources was the cannon. Each cannon needed 5 men to man it, 6 horses to pull it, a wagon (casson) for the ammunition, and 6 horses to pull that wagon. Multiple that by 360. I believe the people of that day were much more organized and better strategists than today.
One common question we heard asked several times was whether the movie "Gettysburg" was accurate. The consensus is that it indeed is, although limited because of time constraints. It would be impossible to include every detail of a three day battle (July 1-3, 1863) that involves nearly 160,000 soldiers and 51,000 casualties.
After the tour we were in information overload. We did get a tidbit on President Eisenhower. He only owned one home his entire life and it was adjacent to one of the battlefields at Gettysburg.
We drove 30 minutes and were at the plant that makes Snyder's Pretzels in Hanover. We were too late for the last tour but bought some pretzels. Back to our room for an hour nap.
Church tonight - Calvary Chapel York - was in a renovated warehouse. It seems to be in an industrial part of town. Worship was good . The pastor taught from James 2:14-26 about faith and works. Many examples, such as the 2 sons from Matthew 21:28-32 and Deuteronomy 1:19-42 spoke of faith being tied to obedience. Very good.
HOUSES IN PENNSYLVANIA: Don't know if you call them houses or not. They are two story structures and they are attached - side by side. There is usually a wide sidewalk and then the front of the house. Some times there is a very narrow strip of grass but not always . There are blocks and blocks of these. Absolutely no space - just "houses". So different from home.
DRIVING NOTE FOR PENNSYLVANIA: If there are two lanes, the inside lane stopping line at an intersection is about 20 feet further away from the intersection. Why? 2 reasons: 1) those turning left onto the street you are on cut the corners, 2) the streets are narrow and there are many large trucks that turn right and need a lot of room. This happened to us today. If we would have been up near the intersection we would have been run over or we would have had to back up. One problem with backing up - there were probably 10 to 15 cars behind us.
Small scene from the Gettysburg Cyclorama
