Gettysburg, the Big Apple and New England - August 2007

I’ll bet you remember studying about the Civil War and the battle at Gettysburg. (Maybe you’re like me and had to memorize the Gettysburg Address.) But this doesn’t really help you get your head around what happened on those three days in July in 1863 when over 44,000 men were killed or wounded. We took a driving tour of the battlefield and tried to picture the troop movements on the current landscape - which looks much as it did then. The fields and farmhouses are still there, no condos have been built on the hill called Little Round Top, and the same clump of trees still stands where Pickett’s Charge almost breached the Union lines. It’s very peaceful and bucolic today, with only the 1300 monuments that have been erected across the battlefield to remind you of the carnage. I took a horseback tour of the battleground to get a closer view of the countryside but it’s only the cemetery that gives you the sense of how many men died here.

From Gettysburg we drove on to Florida, New York, about 20 miles outside of New York City. The Hudson River Valley is beautiful country, very green with picturesque small towns and neat little farms with red barns and silos. We signed up to take a van tour into the big city to see the sights. (Al, our tour guide, has been married for 40 years to a former Rockette - and has he picture to prove it!) Unfortunately, this was the day when an actual tornado hit Brooklyn and it rained so hard it flooded the subway system. As a result, our one-hour drive into the city took three excruciating hours. We still got to see all the required tourist highlights including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero, and Rockefeller Center. I guess we’re not big city people though, because when our tour guide let us out to wander around for 45 minutes in the theatre district, we took one look around at the buildings and crowds and retreated to the nearest Planet Hollywood for a drink! And that was enough of NYC for us!

We felt much more at home on the coast of Connecticut. Ez was stationed in Groton at the submarine base during his Navy days, so we visited some of his old haunts and toured the nuclear submarine Nautilus. Then we drove a short way down the coast to the town of Mystic. Not only is it a charming old seaport town with great historic homes, it’s also the home of Mystic Pizza! And guess what? They make great pizza – so we ate there two days in a row!

We also spent an afternoon exploring Mystic Seaport, the New England seaport equivalent of Williamsburg. We toured a couple of historic sailing ships including the last wooden whaleship in the world. These youngsters were part of a group of about 30 getting ready to take their small sailboats out for a lesson. We watched them chase each other around the marker buoys with only a few upsets. Mystic Seaport also features a recreated 19th-century seafaring village complete with stores, taverns, a chandlery, a print shop, and a cooperage. And like Williamsburg, docents in period costumes are available to tell you about their field and answer questions. We’re suckers for this historical stuff, so it was a great day.

From Connecticut we moved on to Hatfield, Massachusetts to visit Mike and Florence, friends we met on the road. They’re spending the summer as work campers at an RV dealership and arranged a spot for us to stay for a few days. This area is home for them, so we enjoyed letting them show us around. This is the best time of year in Massachusetts and the gardens are at their absolute peak. We also visited the famous Yankee Candle factory which is like the Vegas casino of candle shops – so big you can get lost and never find your way out!

Now we’re off to the Massachusetts coast and then to Maine. Ez wants to get his share of fresh lobster before we leave this beautiful part of the country.