Short Visit to Gettysburg

After a family wedding (hooray fun times it was 400 kinds of awesome), Jenny and I had some time to explore Gettysburg before we had to head home. I’ve never been there. I love going to historical places with Jenny because:

• I get my own personal tour guide
• She knows all of the good stories that the tour guides don’t tell
• She’s patient when I have to ask her for the sixth time who General Foozball is because my PA history is weak

We didn’t have a lot of time to spend, so she suggested the Pennsylvania memorial monument. A couple of other popular spots are closed for work right now, so this seemed like a great plan. We also had the opportunity to walk around that area and drive through some of the park to see the roadside memorials in the surrounding area. I would like to go back, but I need to go and read up on the battles again so that I can better understand the geography and what was happening where. Now I feel like I have the base framework so that I can fit those details into my brain in a way that will stick.

After I took the series that resulted in the last two photos, I was meeting Jenny back at the car, and this couple pulls up next to us and shares the anecdote that the locals claim that every year around this time there are groups of turkey vultures that show up across the battlefield. Then the guy says, “You know what they were feeding on back then, right?” … and drives off.