NEW DATE
Let's hope for better weather this time!!!! Sunday, 06 May. Same time, same place, same plan! See below for details. I'll need a headcount again to make reservations for lunch!!!
0800-0830 at the Belk's parking lot - Westminster Mall - Rt. 140/97 in Westminster.
Leave Gettysburg to return around 4 PM.
Leaving promptly at 0830. Be early so you can register.
Registration is free (although we will do a 50/50 and door prizes) and will include an American flag for your antenna while in Gettysburg, and a map of the cruise route and stops. It's about an hour to Gburg. Watch speed limit through Littlestown!
We will catch up in Gettysburg at the first stop and mount the antenna flags. We will make several stops, then break for lunch at 1130.
We have reservations in town at O'Rourkes for 1130. Please RSVP if you are coming so we can get a head count.
Following lunch, we will continue the cruise through the battlefield. The # of stops depends on how we are doing.
I am planning to end the cruise and head back about 4 PM.
If the weather looks bad, we may cancel, so check this site often for the latest info.
Mark your calendars! We will do a leisurely cruise to Gettysburg, PA from MD on Sunday 22 April. Rain or shine. Details, times, etc., will be announced later.
We will meet in Maryland Near Wesminster along State Route 97 and follow into the town of Gettysburg. We'll trace the steps of the soldiers as this epic battle unfolded during July 1-3, 1863.
Back in the day, I was an official Park Service tour guide and will take you to some of the coolest places on the battlefield with personal stories of the soldiers who fought there. I'll probably make some up too so you will be totally impressed! LOL!
We'll find the now hidden hand dug trenches on Culp's Hill, where Marylander fought Marylander during the bloodiest fighting of the battle.
We'll walk through Devil's Den, Little Round Top and learn battle trivia, trivia about the monuments, and other totally useless, but interesting facts...and we'll take a break for lunch and some shopping at the outlets.
We'll stand in the woods where Longstreet commanded Pickett's Division and ordered nearly 200 artillery pieces to open fire on the Union line...and then ordered nearly 13,000 Confederate soldiers to march nearly 1 mile across open ground. Many never returned. Then we'll stand at their objective, a small clump of trees now known as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy. The spot where the South came the closest that it would ever come to independence from the North.
We'll stand on the spot where President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address, as a secondary guest and an afterthought.
This is truly Hallowed ground where over 50,000 men were killed, wounded, or went missing in the three days of battle, and General Lee lost nearly a third of his officers. Remarkably, only one civilian was killed. Gettysburg was the decisive battle of the Civil War and it is in our back yard.
On the same day that Lee was defeated at Gettysburg, the town of Vicksburg Mississippi fell and the Confederacy was mortally wounded, but continued the fight for two more bloody years. This is a good chance to discover local history during the years of the 150th anniversary of the war.
It will be a full day with more details to come. Should be a blast! All cars are welcome.
