Oct 12, 2013

Well for anyone who has been paying attention the Federal Government shutdown is still in place and we were booked in for a tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield, the site of the battle in the American Civil War believed to have been the decisive battle in July 1863 which led the Union troops to victory however because the visitor centre, Museum and tours are run by a foundation (not the National Parks Service) they were allowed to continue to run … even though they couldn’t access much of the park. We did a bus tour with a comprehensive commentary of the battles and the perspective of the geography and where and how the battles were planned and fought. Our guide Paul gave a great commentary and our driver was terrific. We travelled on through roads through the park which were left open to local residents and also had vantage points from private property with permission. Had the weather not been pouring rain like it was on our ride in yesterday afternoon we also could have gotten out of the bus but no one did. After the tour we headed for the Visitor Centre and visited the Museum and the Cyclorama and had some lunch.



This was the statue of Abraham Lincoln outside the visitor centre.



And this is part of the Cyclorama a magnificent oil painting on canvas measuring 42 feet high and 377 feet in circumference. I’m glad we had been on the tour before we saw it as it made much more sense and was a fitting end to our tour. Very moving. Massive to think this was a war between a country’s own people. Brutal.



A second shot of it.



And a third.



And the last one. We also learnt that in the 1800's there was a Cyclorams in Melbourne!



After we left since the rain had dissipated somewhat we decided to drive some of the routes we had taken on the bus to get some photos of some of the memorials put in place by the regiments to show where they had fought. This is from a car park in a bus tour operation on the edge of town with sign compliments of the National Parks Service.



And some fences with barricades as used through the war on one of the roads through the battlefield road and a memorial visible in the distance.



And a mural on a building wall with our hotel on the bottom.



And after Norm and I had a massage to try and keep the backs from locking up here is what we found on our return to the hotel and the area is under flood watch so who says all we’re doing is kicking back and having fun! A number of the areas we travelled through yesterday are in flood today and the small streams around here are now large.