Schellhase 2016 New England Trip: 17-18 June - Retrace Gettysburg, Dinner with April, Emmitsburg and a Little Hike

17 June
Today with drove around Gettysburg. We retraced much of the tour bus route and we stopped frequently to take pictures and read the memorials. In other cases we drove to areas not covered in the tour bus trip. One area was the McPherson Barn. The wife of one of the guys I worked with at the Air Guard is related to the McPherson family. There is also a McPherson's Ridge named after the family where a significant battle occurred early on. I took about 120 pictures but will only post a few here:

This is north of Gettysburg, a view from the Eternal Light Peace Memorial. The illustration is typical of those you see all around Gettysburg. They show you where various landmarks are and explain the battle from this view. Very informative.

Eternal Light Peace Memorial

A view of what the battlefield would have looked like. They have recreated the fences and removed trees etc to put it back to how it was when the battle occurred.

Hundreds of memorials like these are from specific units or states and are scattered throughout the Gettysburg area. Some are near the roads and some are out in fields, the exact locations where the units fought..

A unique memorial from a unit in Pennsylvania.

The Gettysburg battle only lasted a few days, but over 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing in action. This drove a need for hospitals. Every available building became a hospital, including barns, seminary, taverns and college buildings.

This is the McPherson barn. The owner is a relative of the wife of Jimmy Murrell. I worked with Jimmy at the Air Guard Base. The barn appears here as it did in 1861.

"This piece was the opening gun of the battle.." Amazing they have preserved history like this.

Cannons everywhere, beautifully preserved and restored.

Observation tower I climbed to get a better view of the area south of Gettysburg.

A selfie on the tower

Doreen, from the top of the tower with the telephoto lens

At noon we stopped at a shady spot and had a picnic. We then proceeded downtown Gettysburg and walked around some of the shops and famous sites:

The Gettysburg Hotel, 1797

Joel Danner House, 1824

The Wills House. President Lincoln finalized his famous Gettysburg Address here.

After returning to the campgrounds, we watched the movie "Gettysburg" (4+ hours) which we had purchased on DVD. then we drove down to Hanover PA and met one of our daughter Michelle's high school friends for dinner with her family. April Stanton Hill. We will see them again Sunday as April invited us to her house for Fathers day dinner.

April and her family with Doreen.

18 June
Today I drove Doreen down to Emmitsburg MD to visit the National Fire Academy. I attended the National Fire Academy back in the 1990's and our son dan is currently enrolled in the Executive Fire Officer Program there, which involves attending classes every year for four years and extensive research paper writing while back at home. He is about half way through that program and will return to Emmitsburg again next spring.

Also at the National Fire Academy is National Fallen Firefighters memorial and a 9-1-1 memorial.

A beautiful memorial to firefighters who were lost in the line of duty. Names are listed and the year they died.

Firefighters lost on September 11, 2001

A bugle and one of the National Fire Academy buildings in the background.

9-1-1 Memorial

The National Fire Academy Learning Resource Center. Dan has a paper that is published here.

We then traveled to downtown Emmitsburg and visited one of the local "watering holes". There are several within walking distance from the National Fire Academy. They are full of patches and memorabilia from all over the country. Here are a few from Iowa (Norwalk, Ankeny, 132d Fighter Wing Des Moines Airport)

On the way back to the campgrounds we took the scenic route and looked at the MD and PA countrysides. Beautiful rolling hills, orchard after orchard, little towns and boroughs. Very nice.

So after returning to the RV, we decided to take the dog out for a walk and not far from the campground is the Appalachian Trail. So we hiked the Appalachian Trail for a couple miles and took a few photos. We met quite a few other hikers that were obviously equipped for some long distance hiking!