Second day at Gettysburg

 You can't do Gettysburg well in one day at least I can't. And I also wanted to spend some time in the town itself, so today we had an early start for a second day in and around Gettysburg. We spent most of the morning on the battlefield doing the bits we had missed out on the first day. Cemetery hill and the remainder of confederate avenue. I just love being amongst the statues and other memorials of the past. In fact I think I could spend weeks or months here just exploring or sitting quietly. Most of my friends do not understand this. I already often get the same questions. Are you going to do those battlefields again? You have seen them by now. 

We took a break for lunch. A holiday around Gettysburg is not complete for me without at least one meal at the Dobbin house. I love the atmosphere and they serve great food. It is one of the few times I splash out on food. But going into town was a bit of a dissapointment for me. A lot of my favorite shops were just gone. The Dallon gallery was not there anymore and I know there were many more shops that sold paintings and posters and there were just very few left. Or they moved to another area. The little courtyard with shops next to the cemetery was completely gone. The Farnsworth house used to have a huge used book section and very little was left of that as well. So I was not feeling my best. I had hoped to score some second hand books. We had a chat with the very nice man in the gettysgear store and he told me that some shops just did not survive the corona period and that others had gone into ghost tours instead of selling books. That is so sad! What do ghosts towns have to do with history? And most baffling of all. I found many spiritual shops in town. Don't get me wrong, I love those. But I love those in my other favorite town in the world, Glastonbury. I do not want to see them in Gettysburg which for me is about history. Ok. rant over.

Just as we started on the culp's hill part of the day an indicator light came on in the car. And it was one that could be trouble. We decided not to take any risks and drove to the nearest Ford dealer about half an hour away. It was a huge and very busy one. First they told us they would not have time to help us. But after a lot of pleading one of the guys did have a look at the car. It could be ok but the car could also stop running. It was a small chance but still not one we were willing to take. It would be ok to continue today but we decided to get a replacement anyway and arranged with the rental company to pick one up on our trip the next day. There was nothing close here.

We picked up our tour around the Pennsylvania monument and then finally got around to the Culp's hill area as well. It was around five that we went back to Steinwehr's avenue and by chance I tried one more of the souvenir shops and this one finally made me happy. I bought a few souvenir t-shirts and they had a whole set of selfmade framed Kunstler calendar prints amongst them a few that I have been looking for for years. They would just about fit in my large suitcase. This resulted in a very happy end to this day together with having dinner at the Dobbin house as well. 

Then it was time to say goodbye to Gettysburg again. I hope it won't be another ten years before I will be able to visit again. If only I was able to drive longer I could do it on my own. Just fly to Dulles and stay here for a week or two. But with the fibromyalgia it is very hard to predict when I will have good or bad periods. There are times when I can just about drive around town here but nothing long. And to be honest some american drivers just freak me out. To say it politely, there are more idiot drivers on the roads than you see in Europe. That and the insurance on rental cars are just insane. You pay the same amount on the insurance than the whole care hire. If just public transport was a bit better. 🤔