Finishing Up in Gettysburg Area...

Hard to believe that we are coming down the home stretch on the three parks in the Gettysburg area. The jobs have gone better than anticipated and we're looking forward to returning next year to grow the jobs and get even more advertisers into the guides. We've made good use of our weekend time to visit family and friends and did get to revisit the battlefield area in Gettysburg since it's been a long time since I've been there (if you grow up in Pennsylvania, it's one of the field trips you take in elementary school).

Last weekend Linda's oldest son and his family came down and stayed with her while I went north to get a final visit in with my mom. There was an all you can eat pancake breakfast, here at the park, that they all went to and had an awesome breakfast. Each Sunday, all of the farm animals are available for the petting zoo so the kids had a good time with that. Bella, Linda's grand daughter had a birthday recently so they made some cupcakes and celebrated Grammy and Bella's birthday together.

 

 

 

Kids, cows, goats, horses, pigs, peacock, turkeys, ducks, donkeys and a whole barnyard full of fun is here at the park ! I love the pygmy goats and the other day, when we came home from work, two of them had escaped from their pen. They were climbing up in the bushes to get clusters of berries to eat. A couple sat outside their rig watching the goats and a bunch of turkeys that were strutting around.

They were stretching, trying to get to the berry clusters in the top of the bush so I helped them out by picking some for them. If I didn't pick them fast enough, they'd jump up on my legs to see if I had any more. They are cute little rascals !

As I mentioned, we also got to check out the Gettysburg battlefield. I didn't realize that they had built a gorgeous new visitor center, in 2008, and it holds a large theatre that shows a movie of how the Civil War started (I needed a refresher course cause my memory isn't too great and I never was very good in history class). There is also the Cyclo-rama where they have moved the huge mural, painted shortly after the war, and put it up in this round facility. The mural was four stories tall and longer than a football field. It has been restored back to its original splendor and it's a great way to visualize what the battle might have been like. After touring the visitor center, museum and Cyclo-Rama we took the auto tour through the battlefields. They have created a trail, that you follow with your car, on a 24 mile loop through areas such as Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, Peach Orchard, etc. After hearing and seeing how the war was fought, back at the visitor center, it helps you to imagine what it looked like as different battles were fought and how the lines advanced and retreated. It was a war with massive loss of life and thousands of wounded soldiers but one that was the turning point for the war. The town has done a great job of preserving the battlefields...something that was done shortly after the war concluded. The towns people felt that history needed to be preserved and they set about to keep things intact.

Linda, her sister, Carol and I hiked to the top of the overlook....all 120 steps ! We had a good time....there is a lot to see and to do it thoroughly would take more than one day.

 

 

Linda and I also met up with Chad for lunch one day. She and Chad have been planning something behind my back and sprung it on me  over lunch. Linda has heard me say that I've always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Instead of my mom letting me take guitar lessons, at age 7, she made me take piano lessons. So she decided to get me a guitar. What a great early birthday present ! I play a little bit every day, working in the book that she got me and also with some info I found on the internet. I hope I can prove that it's never too late to learn.

This is our last weekend in the area so Linda is with her family, up in her hometown of Chambersburg. I am working on some final sales and paperwork (and practice time with my guitar). On Tuesday we will take the rig to a place in Gettysburg to get a rear sway bar put on. This should help stabilize the rig and not have the huge sway in the back end, like we currently have. Our drive up to Boston will be the test to see if it helps. Our next assignment is in Mineral, VA in mid-October. Fall has come to Pennsylvania....trees are getting pretty and the nights (and days) are getting cool. One of my favorite times of year !