Chapter 13, Gettysburg Pennsylvania
- traci wilson
- May 24
- 4 min read
We stayed at Gettysburg Farm Thousand Trails Campground, an actual working farm! The site Dave had reserved was only a 30 amp with no sewer as that was all that seemed to be available online four months ago. When we checked in, Dave asked if they happened to have any full hookup 50-amp sites available that we could change to, and as luck would have it, the ranger said they did! But when we pulled around to the new site there was already someone in it setting up their site.
We went back to the front, feeling deflated after just celebrating our good fortune, and let them know someone was already in the site. Long story short, and about a 45-minute wait sitting in the truck, we ended up getting the site after all. Turns out, the people who were setting up in that particular site were not supposed to be there, so they had to move.
Later, we walked by the site we were supposed to have gotten, and it was muddy, small and on the side of the road, so not having the full hookups was not the only issue with that location. We thanked our lucky stars for being able to move as the new spot was spacious, clean and in a much nicer area of the park.
The main reason for coming to this location was to visit the historic Gettysburg National Military Park, so we decided that on the other two days, one of them being Mother’s Day, we would take it easy and try to catch up on some things we’ve not been able to get to. The farm itself was a real treat! It’s a 120-acre spread with horses, sheep, goats, chickens, a donkey and an alpaca. At certain times of the day they allow people to pet and feed the livestock. There was a barn, corrals, and large fields of vegetables to complete this picturesque farm.
On Saturday (the day we arrived) the little store was open for only four hours. We thought that was a missed opportunity because the store was hopping busy while we were in there! The best part—they served Hershey’s ice cream! We were even able to buy a dozen farm fresh eggs, and I mean fresh! The guy went out and gathered the eggs while we waited.
The main event, Gettysburg National Military Park, was on Monday May 12th. We knew this was an important historic site in the civil war, but otherwise really didn’t know what to expect of the military park. It turned out to be much larger than we imagined. The visitors center also had a large museum and a gift shop, but we couldn’t go through it because of the dogs (it was too hot to leave them in the truck and too far away to have left them in the trailer).
We originally thought we’d hike around the park with the dogs looking at some key historical points until we found out how big the place is, and opted instead to do the 20-mile self-guided tour that hit all key areas. We still wanted to walk around with the dogs for exercise, and, in hindsight, should have done that first before the driving tour but I guess we were so excited to see everything that we went off without thinking it through.
It took just over three hours to complete the tour, and I have to say it was quite impactful. I’ve never been a history buff (Dave is bigtime), but I learned so much about the civil war and I was deeply moved by it all. It’s one thing to sit in a classroom and read about this stuff, but to actually be here and see the sites where the battles took place over a three-day period, where so many Americans died on both sides was surreal. To think about the idea that Americans were fighting each other, and to know this was the bloodiest battle of the entire civil war, almost brought me to tears.
I’m not going to turn this into a history lesson as all the information about the civil war is easily accessible, but I will say, coming here in person is something every American should do at least once in their life. Over seven thousand men died in the three days between July first through the third and there were approximately 50,000 casualties between the dead, wounded, or missing from both sides. Remember, this was in 1863! The area today looks much like it did during the battle, driving the impact of what happened here even deeper. Truly a somber experience.
After the driving tour, we tried to walk the dogs but by this time it was so hot we only made it about two miles. It was a good day all in all, in a very different way.
Comments