Hopped into Charlotte and drove over to Gettysburg to check out the battlefield complex. We headed from E. Berlin to Abbottstown and then west to Gettysburg.
Gettysburg National Military Park has a great visitor center and a great self-guided auto tour. The tour costs nothing but the movie, the cyclorama (a big 360 degree panorama painting) and access to the museum costs $12.50 a head if you are not 62 or a AAA member. I think that the entrance fee was pretty reasonable because the museum and other stuff is very well done. The museum has exhibits even idiots like me can understand that clearly explain the chronology of the battle from the perspective of both the Union and the Confederacy, shows the type of stuff issued to the soldiers and officers, describes all the players and the parts they played and describes the aftermath of the battle for the locals.
After the museum, we took the auto tour which plainly demonstrates where each Confederate and Union unit was during the 3 day battle here. In 3 days, 51,000 casualties occurred from both sides with the Union being declared the winner although each side lost about a fourth of their complement here. It was a mess, particularly for the civilian residents who were obliged to clean up the dead horses, dead men and destroyed equipment starting 3 days after the battles ended. Must have smelled funky. Pictures taken during this period show puffed-up corpses about to split their duds so I imagine the clean up crew was real careful tossing these balloons into mass graves. Unfortunately, unseasonable rains floated a lot of the dead from their too-shallow graves. Yuk!
We took a spin through the town of Gettysburg which is a gorgeous place with beautiful masonry houses and churches. The places in town are small but the architecture is beautiful. Just driving through town is a sightseeing extravaganza.
We returned through Abbottstown where we slipped into a restaurant called Emig’s 81 just east of town. It is a little local diner with great food at a very reasonable price. I got fried chicken livers, sausage and potato soup, fried corn fritters, apple crescents and ice tea while Peg selected a cheeseburger, chicken and corn soup and iced tea. We both had pie for dessert and the total bill was less than $30. If we get near this place again, we will be heading in for another session at the trough.