On to Gettysburg today, about a 40-minute drive from our campsite, which really isn’t too terrible when we’re not pulling the teardrop and can zip around everywhere. After finishing our driving tour of Gettysburg, we’re both not quite so sure that we enjoyed it all that much. We were both looking forward to it as it’s such a historical landmark, but it just felt too much like a tourist trap with about a zillion monuments that aren’t marked to tell you what they are for and fifteen zillion plaques that have way too much writing on them to make it easy to read from your car and way too many plaques to stop at every single one. The driving tour, which is easy to follow on the map the park provides, is okay, but we passed by so many sites that weren’t marked and we just really didn’t know what they were.
Of course, there were some highlights of the park, like the North Carolina Memorial, honoring the more than 6,000 casualties (more than 40%) of NC soldiers in the battle, the most casualties of any Confederate state and over one-fourth of the casualties of all Confederate casualties at Gettysburg. We also really enjoyed walking around Devil’s Den, a rocky hill-top that was taken advantage of by Union forces while the opposite hill-top was taken advantage of by Confederate sharpshooters. Devil’s Den is also supposed to be quite haunted, but it was hard to get that feeling in the middle of a beautiful spring day with so many other people around.
Now, if we’d had more time, we would have probably enjoyed Gettysburg much more in the evening on a kind of sunset drive and probably would have really enjoyed staying the downtown Gettysburg and walking the streets of shops and other sites. I suppose we’ll just have to come back another time.
Once we finished with the battlefield tour, we made our way back to camp for an easy afternoon at the campsite. On the way, we stopped by a really neat family farm (Hollabaugh Bros.) with a store where they were selling their produce and other great things that they make. We got a freshly made apple pie and chocolate milk from a local dairy, in a glass bottle, with a really cool label. It’s some of the best chocolate milk I’ve ever had and Will says the apple pie was one of the best he’s ever had. Also, fun fact, apple pie is way better with chocolate ice cream (or in this case, chocolate milk). You’re welcome.
When we finally got back to the campsite we also realized that the Appalachian Trail museum was at the entrance to the park and that this area is also the halfway point for the trail.
Tomorrow we head towards Harper’s Ferry and Antietam. We’re a few days in now and are starting to get into a nice groove of things.
Life in the right lane,
Rachel
DMG Exploration 