After today in Gettysburg I wish I had paid better attention to high school history. I was so lost when the guide boarded our bus at Gettysburg National Park and began his 2 hour talk. Dan was fascinated and loved it while I was having trouble with the "moving in from the south" or moving around the hill to the west." I think the guide knew I didn't remember my history and that I did not have the directional chip. So you might think I was bored. NOT AT ALL! This guide was so fascinating and was actually brought up in the town of Gettysburg. He vividly remembers seeing Eisenhower on numerous occasions as well as Jimmy Carter. He took the then PM of Israel(Began) and Yassir Arrafat (?) along with Jimmy Carter to the battlefield while they were at a peace summit at Camp David. They guy had stories you wouldn't believe.
One cool thing is that over the past 35 years or so the parks department has been buying back land from the city and private owners so that they could restore the battlefield area to its original look. They use old maps, photographs, diary entries etc. to help with the re-
creation. What we saw today was a close replica of the battlefields with the exception of some monuments and tombstones that have been added. Many of the old buildings are still in place. It was suggested that we watch the movie Gettysburg with Sam Elliott because while some of it was fiction the battle fields, battle events, and buildings were accurate. Guess we will rent it when we get home and maybe I can pull this together.
This was Dan's favorite day and while much of it was over my head, I still enjoyed it. The bummer was that much of the day was on the bus, so we had to walk after dinner and I didn't make my 10,000 step goal. I could only get in 8,300 steps. I think that is around 3.5 miles. Well, I guess I could look at that as a 5K fun-run walk!
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