Day 5, Friday 16Sep16 - Gettysburg

Friday we took the short drive from Hershey to Gettysburg. We went straight to the Visitor Center which was new in 2008.

We had been here with the kids but with the new visitor center the museum has been significantly upgraded, you could spend all day just in the visitor center.

Especially cool is the Cyclorama, it is a 360 degree 80ft x 340ft painting of the battlefield done in 1864. We saw it when we brought the kids here about 15 years ago but it was in disrepair, in 2003 it was shut down for a 5 year restoration and in 2008 opened in the new visitor center.  It is very cool this picture is just a sample.







From the cyclorama we spent a long time in the museum and did not see all of it, you really could spend the entire day inside the visitor center.

Eventually we visited Abe and moved on.














We decided to do some of the Auto tour in our Van before checking into the campground.  Again, we probably didn't cover 25% of it and may go back today, but the history here is very moving.

We made sure we paid our respects to the New York memorial, It was amazing how many New Yorkers gave their lives at Gettysburg. New York had over 20K soldiers engaged, second only to Pennsylvania, and had the highest casualties of any state.

There were many, many, NY memorials.

All the states that served on both sides have their memorials and there are many, it took us some time be we eventually found the most prominent Vermont Memorial




















We eventually had to break off the tour to get checked in at our campsite, so there is plenty left to see tomorrow if we decide to go back.

Also our friends, the Malloys, who live in Fairfax, Va, fought the DC traffic to drive 2 hours north to see us. We gathered at camp for a nice evening and meal, it was so nice to see our friends. Again good time were had.

Fred and June Bob....

















We have not yet decided if we will return to the battlefield today or just head north...regardless it has been a great trip overall.