Gettysburg Day 2

 Last night we went to Dominoes for a pizza. It was a bit rumbly with thunder and the sky very black. Still only a very short walk. Whilst we were waiting for it to be ready I thought I would nip back to the hotel to get our coats. Just as I got to the door I felt a few spots of rain. By the time I got back downstairs it was absolutely hammering down. I decided I would drive the car to Dominoes. It was raining so hard the street had turned into a river with thunder and lightning all around. I managed to get it to Dominoes and was absolutely soaked just getting out of the car and into the takeaway. We decided to eat in! We waited until the storm had blown over and the flooding outside had subsided to manageable levels.

This morning it was off to The Gettysburg National Battlefield. We bought tickets for the film show, cyclorama and museum.

The film gave a really good overview of the causes of the war and the specifics of the battle. The cyclorama is a 360 degree painting dating from 1890. There is also a sound and light show. I wasn't expecting much from this but actually it was rather good. It was nice how they had incorporated real items in the foreground of the painting.

After an interesting trip around the museum we headed out around the battlefields and memorials. We joined a ranger talk on the first day of the battle. It was excellent. The ranger was very interesting and we did a walk around part of the area to understand what had happened. We met some Pennsylvanians who were very chatty and had to take our photo. One of them had visited Scotland and the head of the Monroe Clan as they had decedents from there.

We toured around and Pimple posed on the fences and by the Peace Memorial.

I went on a second ranger talk about the second day of the battle. Charlie had a power nap in the car. It looked like it would rain hard but after just a few spots it blew over.

Charlie and Pimple spent time deciding which Union targets they would fire on.

We finished the day with another ranger talk on the last day of the battle. The talks were all interesting and well worth doing. They brought home to you the struggles of the soldiers from both sides. Fighting in thick woollen uniforms in temperatures over 100 degrees. Often after long hard marches to get there with little food or water.

The park is full of memorials to particular soldiers, fighting units and to the various states taking part. Some of them are quite impressive.