Gettysburg arrival

    We left the toll roads today and drove some back highways to Gettysburg.  Both my campground planner and our GPS routed us on US30.  However, the first thing I saw as we got onto the highway were signs which warned truckers of "sharp curves and steep descents."   We have been on some challenging roads out West so we weren't too worried.  We did a long slow climb through beautiful hardwood forest that is just beginning to turn to gold.  As we got higher we could see long ridges of the mountains.  Pockets of fog hung in some of the valleys.  Just glorious views, but no place to stop for pictures.  We soon reached the summit of the mountain and started down with warnings that it was a 3 mile drop with an 8% grade.  Whew!  Our camper and driver did great and we easily made it to the flat.  THEN there was another climb and another set of warnings.  This time it was 3.5 miles at a 9% grade.  I was very happy to be at the bottom of that one and on our way to Gettysburg.
   We drove through a bunch of small towns.  The houses are all of brick or stone and many of them sit right up next to the road - with their front door about 8' from the traffic. The roads are narrow without much shoulder.  We are over 8.5' wide so it gets pretty tight in places.
    Our campground is outside of Gettysburg by several miles.  We had a short drive today so after settling in and having lunch we drove to the Gettysburg National Historic Battlefield.  It was nice to be driving our little CRV through downtown Gettysburg which has beautiful old buildings - all very close to the street.  It would be fun to stay downtown and just walk around visiting the historic buildings.  The map of the battle of Gettysburg shows that we are probably camped near where some of the Confederate soldiers gathered before the battle.
    We went to the Gettysburg Visitor Center to get an orientation to the battlefield.  A beautiful movie which has both actual black and white photos from the battle as well as a very well done reenactment of the battle. From the movie we went to view an enormous Cyclorama which is a painting that is 359 feet long, 27 feet high and weighs about 3 tons.  It was painted in 1882.  It is set up so that it wraps around a viewing platform as though we were standing on a hill in the center of Gettysburg.  Then, through lights and narration, the battle of Gettysburg is described as though we were there.  The Visitor Center also has an extensive museum with many short videos which describe the events and battles of the Civil War, including Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  I was very proud that I still can recite the opening paragraph.  Junior High history has stuck with me pretty well.
   We will be more prepared tomorrow and will bring the camera to capture the beauty of this corner of history.  I am quite inspired!