Gettysburg

After Asheville, we headed to northern Virginia for a short stay with my brother. His house offers a lovely view of the Blue Ridge mountains and a very nice porch wherein we sit and drink beer. No pictures. You’ll just have to take my word for it. It’s a nice sojourn when we head east.

We left Virginia on a Tuesday morning. It had to be Tuesday. No other day would work. That’s because the Rice Market in New Hope, Peeyay, is open on Tuesday and Saturday. Since Saturday was out of the question, it had to be Tuesday. And why not? Tuesday is a good day. Rice Market is a big, honkin’ flea market with a bunch of flea market stuff. 30 acres of stuff. There was the Iron Age, the Bronze Age, the Information Age and now we are in the midst of the Moving Useless Stuff Around Age. What is a flea market if not a way to facilitate the moving of useless stuff? But, it’s fun to peruse a vast area of useless stuff. And then there are the funnel cakes – it’s like eating a donut brain. Yum.

We hit the road around 9am, the acreage of useless stuff is a four hour journey. That should have given us plenty of time to arrive, peruse and eat donut brains. As we close in on Gettysburg I ask the queen if she’s up for a side trip. At first she said yes, but then I suggested she check out the Rice Market hours just to make sure we can do both. Badda bing! Rice Market closes at one. What the French is up with that? Don’t they know people are traveling from far and wide to peruse useless crap?

Gettysburg it is.

We missed out on Rice Market but never fear, a museum gift shop is a good substitute. The Gettysburg museum gift shop does not disappoint. There you will find anything and everything with a surface capable of depicting the images of any of the main players of the United States Civil War. Except underwear. I don’t think they had Lincoln underwear.

The tour of the battlefield lasts about two hours. You can hop on a bus or take the self-guided driving tour. We opted for the driving tour, of course. You buy the booklet and cd, pop in the cd and an enthusiastic historian guides you through the battlefield. If you enjoy history, as I do, this is a must see. We did not take the entire tour as it was rainy and we needed to get on our way. But, it was fascinating. If you are a knitter, it’s a good chance to catch up on some knitting.

Gettysburg is monument land. A monument stands for every conceivable event upon the battlefield. I’m surprised there’s not one commemorating the spot of Robert E. Lee’s latrine. “… and here, upon this spot, this very spot, is where the great general took a leak…”

Category: Monuments, Pennsylvania, Scenic