We once again got up early and got breakfast from the hotel. It promised to be another long day touring the battlefield.
So after breakfast we headed out along Emmitsburg Road so that we could start over by the Peach Orchard and head towards the Pennsylvania State Memorial. We found a bunch of monuments along Emmitsburg Road, which was kind of fun to try to photograph, but we were successful. It was difficult to try to remember which monuments we had photographed the day before and which ones we still needed since we had been in this area before. When we got to the Pennsylvania State Memorial, Melinda decided she was going to climb up to the observation deck. Since I'm afraid of heights I decided to stay on the ground and get photos of it and some of the surrounding monuments. That morning the grass was wet with dew which made walking on the marble a bit slippery. I was worried about Melinda climbing up all those stairs with wet shoes, but she was fine. There weren't too many people, which was awesome. It's always difficult getting photos of the Pennsylvania State Memorial later in the day when more people are there. Once Melinda was finished with photos from above and I was done with photos from the ground we continued our tour along Hancock Avenue.
Pennsylvania State Monument
We didn't really stop here along this road during our tour the previous day. Since there are monuments on both sides of the road, we decided to divide and conquer. Melinda took one side and I took the other. When we got to the High Water Mark monument there was a Park Ranger working on the back of it. This made it difficult to get photos of all sides, but I was able to find some angles where you can't see the Park Ranger. Not long after I got my photos I noticed that the Ranger had put up tape around it to keep guests from disturbing him. I was glad that we had gotten there when we did.
High Water Mark Monument
U.S. Regulars Monument
We finished up on Hancock Avenue each of us photographing one side of the road. We then headed up towards where the old visitor center was. They completely tore down the old visitor center! That was quite shocking. I would have thought they could have found a use for it, but nope, it is completely gone! It was so strange looking to not see it there. The parking lot is still there and now used for parking for the National Cemetery. So we decided to tour the cemetery before going to lunch.
Our first stop in the National Cemetery was the Lincoln Speech memorial. This is the only monument dedicated to a speech! Then we walked around towards the other entrance towards the monument for Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds, which was located also near some restrooms. Melinda and I both needed to go, so this seemed to be a sensible route to take. We found Reynolds and took several photographs before heading to the most disgusting, vile restrooms ever! YUCK! There weren't any locks on the stalls. It was dirty. The water was cold. The button for the hand dryer just looked really gross. We learned to never use those restrooms! EWWW It would have been better to wait until the Visitor center.
Lincoln Speech Memorial
Major John Reynolds and New York State Monuments
So after that we wanted to get photos of the Michigan graves and the Soldier's National Monument and go. It is always so sad to see all of the unknown dead. All of those men whose loved ones never knew were they were buried. So sad. So after laying a flag on the marker for the Michigan section and saying thank you to all of those who gave their lives for our freedom, we took some photos of Soldier's National monument. It is impossible I have decided to get good photos of each side. It seems that no matter what time you go, the sun is always in a bad spot.
Soldiers' National Monument
Unknown Michigan Dead
By this time we hungry and felt dirty and just wanted to take a bit of a rest, so we decided to head to the visitor center for lunch. When we were there the day before we saw that they had added a restaurant and thought it would be fun to try. Before lunch though we made sure to wash our hands in the bathroom to try to rid our memories of the nasty one. We then got in line. Melinda said she would wait in line and get the food. I told her what I wanted and went to go find a table. A few minutes later I see Melinda motioning for me to go up to the counter, so I go up to see what she wanted. I had wanted a Turkey panini, but didn't want it with peppers and onions. It turns out that all of the sandwiches are premade and can't be altered. Melinda wasn't sure what I would want, so she didn't order anything for me. So I was a bit annoyed. Since the no one was in line I decided to step over the rope queue instead of going all the way around. Big mistake! While stepping over the rope queue my foot must have snagged the rope and I was suddenly falling forward. With a large crash I landed on the ground on my knees amidst the ropes and poles. It felt as if all eyes were on me. When I stood up my right knee, ankle, and arm were hurting, but luckily nothing felt broken. I limped up to the counter to place my order. Everyone was asking if I was ok. I just wanted to crawl to under a rock. Melinda said she would wait for my order and let me take her food back to the table. Melinda came back to the table with the food and we proceeded to eat. I was still really embarrassed and just wanted to get out of there quickly. The food was good, but a bit overpriced. I ordered a ham panini, which did have onions on it, but it was pretty easy to scrape them off.
Saloon at the Visitor Center
So after we finished lunch we decided to go finish our tour. I was happy to leave the visitor center. My knee was pretty scraped up and my ankle was hurting. As we were walking to the car I worried if I would be able to drive. It didn't hurt too bad to accelerate, but braking really hurt my ankle. When we got to the battlefield I handed the keys to Melinda. She wasn't on the rental agreement, but it was either let her drive or have me crash the car. I wasn't too worried though since Melinda is an excellent driver and we would be on the battlefield road. We decided to continue our tour of the battlefield near Spangler Spring and Culp's Hill. There are lots of little roads and there are parts where you can go in circles. We found quite a few monuments that we were missing. Melinda even hiked through some weeds to get a photo of a missing monument. After we had gone down every road on Culp's Hill we headed for Evergreen Cemetery to find Jennie Wade's Grave.
Jennie Wade was the only civilian killed during the battle of Gettysburg. She was killed by a bullet that went through several doors to kill her while she was baking bread for the troops. The stone on her grave is beautiful. While we were in Evergreen Cemetery we also got a few photos of the Women's memorial.
Jennie Wade's Grave
Women's Memorial
After we found our way out of Evergreen Cemetery we headed for the East Cavalry battlefield which is about 3 miles east of Gettysburg. Since we were going to be driving on the main roads, we switched drivers, though my ankle was still hurting. While we were looking for the East Cavalry battlefield this person behind us was driving like a maniac. I know I was going slow, but we were trying to find the driveway and I knew from previous experience that the driveway is sort of hidden so I didn't want to go be going too fast and miss it. I was happy when we finally found the driveway to be rid of the jerk behind us. Once we were back on the National Park roads, we switched drivers to give my ankle a bit of a rest. There isn't much at the East Cavalry battlefield, but the reason we go is for the Michigan Cavalry monument. It is beautiful, even if General Custer is on top. When we got to where the Michigan Cavalry monument was there was a group of people climbing on it, which is not only disrespectful, but against the rules. Luckily when we got there they decided to leave. Since the Michigan Cavalry monument is so tall it is difficult to get a really good photo. The sun never seems to be in the right spot. One of the parts of the East Cavalry battlefields is that it is VERY quiet. Almost no one else goes there. It is sort of eerie in how quiet and empty the area is.
Michigan Cavalry monument
Once we had photographed all of the monuments at the East cavalry battlefield we headed back towards the main portion of the battlefield. Earlier when we were near Spangler Spring we noticed a one way road near the Indiana State Monument, but we weren't sure how to get to it. When we looked at the map, we found the road and it connected to the road that you take to the East Cavalry. We found a few more monuments along the way. Since East Confederate Ave comes out near Spangler Spring we went back around to see if there was anything we had missed.
Next we headed towards the start of the tour and McPherson's ridge near where the 24th Michigan and the Iron Brigade fought since we hadn't photographed those monuments yet. After we were satisfied that we had photographed all of those monuments we went back to the hotel to rest a bit.
For dinner that night we decided to go to Friendly's. We had gone there on our previous trip and we really enjoyed the food. This time we decided to get an appetizer called Munchie Mania and we got to pick the items we wanted. We choose chicken quesadillas, Honey BBQ popcorn chicken, and mini mozzarella cheese sticks. It was soooo good! Then for our main dinner I had the Turkey Club SuperMelt with mashed potatoes and gravy. Soooo good! Melinda ordered the Chicken Parmesan SuperMelt and even got the cheese on it! She also got mashed potatoes and gravy. She said hers was also very, very good. Our waitress was really nice and very efficient. Since we were stuffed we didn't get any ice cream.
We decided to go back to the hotel and watch some DVDs before bed. We also had to pack up our stuff since the next day we would be leaving for Hagerstown, MD.
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