Wednesday, September 14, 2005

A Day on the BattlefieldPooped out after 7 hours on the Battlefield! Was worth it though - driving tour and accompanying cassette tape were excellent. Having read the 1st half of the Killer Angels so far, gave us a big leg up on understanding the battle and the characters behind it. I'm telling you, these were some damn tough characters back then - hike 28 miles and then storm Little Round Top - ugh - man, I wouldn't have even made it 28 miles, let alone have the strength to charge a hill or load a weapon. And of course there was the minor little distraction of cannon balls exploding around your head.

Rounded off the day with an all you can eat buffett at Pickett's Buffett - I'm sure General Pickett stopped in here for a hearty meal before charging across that 1 mile expanse. If his boys had eaten as much as we did, I doubt they would have made it more than a few hundred yards. They probably hadn't eaten in some time and thus decided to charge across the field cause they knew Pickett's buffett was just around the corner. :) It was a hot, sticky day today, just like the days these guys fought in - can't imagine wearing those hot uniforms and running barefoot across some of those rocks. Somehow, I suspect them boys had a mite more fortitude than this ol' couch potato.

I'd post a pic of the day, but too pooped for that craziness.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Vacation Time!Haven't posted in a bit and am now off on a 2 week vacation to Gettysburg, Philadelphia, and NYC. Will hopefully find some time in the evening to post a few pics and give you a vacation update. Spent most of the day today driving from SW VA up to Gettysburg - about a 6-7 hour drive. Didn't seem like the drive took very long, because Janet and I were listening to the audio version of Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels", arguably one of the best historical novels ever written. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction back in 1973 and much later (in the 90's) was made into a film by Ted Turner, entitled "Gettysburg".

I had read it some 20 years ago and recently saw the film Gettysburg again, plus have read a ton of Civil War stuff, but it is a nice review before touring the battlefield. Excellently narrated.

We'll spend most of Wednesday touring the battlefield.

Time to go back to listening to the audio book!