The road from Hershey to Gettysburg is about 30 minutes. But as far as time goes, it seemed to be about 160 years.
Much like last years trip to Vicksburg, the place freaked me out. The ghosts, the history, the signs warning "relic hunters". Gettysburg begins with a movie. Jammed into a theater with the normal childrens tour groups, most of whom have no idea what they are seeing, the movie sets the scene. The planning, Lee's hope to break the Union, the blood and guts, the turning point.
Onto the Gettysburg cyclorama. A 360 degree painting of the battle scene that really is quite remarkable. No matter where you stare, you swear you can see them moving.It's really hard to stop looking and move on to the normal museum stuff. The history of the Civil War, the posters, the stories. And the gift shop. Oh the gift shop.
The gift shop is full of teens. Teens hanging with friends grabbing fake guns and hats and posing for selfies. It's jammed. Now I hate to sound like the Get Off My Lawn guy here, but the teens dont move, dont say excuse me, push their way past you and in one unfortunate case, wear red hats with Make America Great Again on them. This kid began a downward spiral of Gettysburg that I may never forget.
The drive thru tour is very moving, Its creepy. It has lots of statues. Lots of monuments. Lots of signs describing where you are and what happened here. But no relic hunting. It has lots of buses of kids stopping where you happen to be and them piling out and climbing onto the statues in my Get Off My Lawn head is pretty goddamned disrespectful. Your job is stay one step ahead of the buses. As soon as they showed we moved on to the next stop. It kind of worked.
The town of Gettysburg is a different story. It may be in the North, but it has a Southern vibe. A sign in the front yard of a house. The head of the Democrat Party is the Anti-Christ Be Warned. And then there's General Pickett's Buffet on the way out of town. General Pickett is a Confederate General who said fuck it and charged his men in a sort of suicide mission that failed and ended the Battle of Gettysburg. They named a buffet after a Traitor? Ok then. The buffet itself was mediocre at best. The gift shop therein is a wonder. Perhaps an abomination is a better word.
General Pickett's Buffet Gift Shop contains more crap celebrating right wing America than anything we saw in the South. Hats with Rebel flags. Hats with Rebel flags with "Heritage Not Hate" as the message. Gun propaganda. Signs touting how the owner of the property will gladly kill you if you trespass. Mouse pads with the face of another traitor. Donald J Trump. T shirts of Confederate Generals. Ya know what the gift shop lacked? Lincoln stuff. Union stuff. Anything celebrating the winner of the war.
Who won the Civil War again???
A map of avoiding that expensive ass Turnpike was made. Out of Pennsylvania through rural Maryland, rural West Virginia, rural Pennsylvania again and into Pittsburgh. Oh thank gawd for a city again.
Being from a state that is 90% rural I get rural. What I dont get is really rural. The "rural" around here is sophisticated compared to what we saw there. As we drove thru the dying towns, the trailer parks, the backwoods places of America nobody sees I understood how this Orange Traitor won. He is such a con artist and scammer and somehow understood that these people are the way to victory. Yeah they are economically anxious, but they are also willing to fall for the con because they know nothing will ever change no matter who they vote for. So they go with the flim flam guy. Yeah they are racists and xenophobes and homophobes and not all that bright, but this grifter spoke to them about making America white again. Lets face it. To them, equal rights equals losing rights. Ok enough about the politics of driving.
Because Pittsburgh was great.
Day 5 Over.
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