The "office" will only let me take one week off at a time. It took two days to drive to Gettysburg and it would take two days to get back, that is if that old truck of mine made it back. That left me two days in Gettysburg and one day to recover from the trip. I spent the first of those two days touring the battlefield. Somehow I managed to turn the 3 hour driving tour into 9 hours. I did spend a lot of time out of the truck and reading the monuments, plaques and markers. If you've been following these posts for a while then you know that I took lots of pictures too. I don't know how far I walked that first day, a lot further than I'm used too! Because when I got out of bed that second morning, my calves and shins were killing me!

I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to walk at all. There is almost no parking in Gettysburg but my hotel was only six blocks from the other end of town. Perhaps I could just walk out my soreness and stiffness.

That morning began like all of them in Gettysburg, coffee and cigarettes on the porch of my hotel room while I watched the town wake up. I sat there and watched as the stores across the street open for their days business. Shortly after ten, I stepped out to explore the town.

I had been all over the town the night before, I walked downtown and back once just to try to discover if there was any night life in this tourist trap. Not much to speak of. By 10pm, the side walks were pretty well rolled up. Which was fine with me, I'd had a rather active day.

During the daylight hours there were all kinds of antique shops and museums and restaurants open. I stuck my nose in just about all of them before that day was over. As I walked along the street I left as though I was walking funny. Fortunately, nobody was stopping, pointing and laughing. Each step was an effort of mind over matter. I worried some that I would get downtown and not be able to make the six blocks back to the hotel. Surely there were taxis in this town, at least I hoped so.

One of the first shops that I stopped in was full of military history memorabilia. Not just Civil War stuff, but WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm... For those of you that are reading the internet version of my writings on this subject, you know that every once in a while I make a comment about tipping my spiked helmet to so and so for something or other. I don't really have such a thing, sorry to burst your bubble on that one, but I did find a WW1 German spiked helmet in this store.

The helmet wasn't metal as I had thought, but leather. The trim wasn't chrome either but brass. Brass that could have stood a polishing. At $500, it wasn't something that I was likely to buy and if I did I wasn't about to wear it around the house while I played or wrote about some crazy old computer tank game. Although if I ever find a cheap modern made knock off, I just might!

There were all kinds of patches and uniforms and bullets and shells... But in one of the cases was, for me, the premiere Civil War thing to have. The center piece of a collection. A cavalry officers sword! In this case a Union Cavalry officers sword. It was in like new condition, except that you could tell by looking at it is was very old. At $12,500 it wasn't something that I was going to be buying anytime soon or for that matter am I likely to ever be able to have such a thing. But it would be very cool. It was just cool to be so close to one and know that it was for sale. Who knows, maybe someday...

Not far down the street was a book store and since it was in Gettysburg, every book in the place was on the Civil War. At least all the books on the main floor were, when you went upstairs to the second level there were more books and videos of other wars. Rooms on that floor were dedicated to one or another war. This place was a historians dream come true. I didn't buy any books but I did get a copy of the TV mini-series Gettysburg, that appeared on TBS a few years ago. The mini-series was based on a book by Michael Shaara titled The Killer Angles. The book and the movie have some historical inaccuracies, the point of the book wasn't that it be completely historically accurate as it was to get in to the mind of the principles of the battle; Lee, Longstreet, and Chamberlain. There are others but these are the most important characters covered in the book.

It was interesting that as I walked down Baltimore Street that a lot of the buildings had a plaque on the front that indicated that they were built in July of 1863. The town most have gone through a growth spurt after the battle. I've been trying to figure out why, but I haven't come up with an answer.

Yet another shop that I was in had case after case after case of collectibles. Not just Gettysburg or the Civil War, or War in general, but movie and TV stuff, silverwear, toys, all manner of collectibles. One of the things that struck me was the Confederate money. I remember reading that when the southern army moved into Pennsylvania Lee's orders were that nothing was to be pilfered and everything would be paid for. Paid for in what the Northerners thought was worthless script, Confederate dollars. In one of these nearly endless cases was a display of $1 Confederate bill priced at $40 US. I laughed inwardly when I saw that. Not so worthless anymore. That's a pretty good turn on your investment, even if you had to wait nearly 140 years to get that return.

In another case in this store was a Civil War Surgeon's medical kit. I didn't look anything like tools of healing, but more like the tools you'd expect to see in a medieval dungeon of torture. I gave serious thought to buying that, too. But it too was a little pricey, at $475.

The next shop that I was in had all kinds of paintings and few (in comparison to other shops) collectibles. But the stuff in this store was truly top notch! Actual Civil War muskets and rifles, from $3500-$4500. They had a very very cool 1863 Colt 45, with all matching serial numbers for only $6500. That Colt 45 was really calling my name, but there was absolutely no way I could or can afford it. But again it would make a great addition to any serious Civil War collectors collection, along with a couple of muskets with bayonets.

It would have been easy for me to have dropped fifty grand in just a couple of shops. Instead...I bought a $2 musket ball.

This one is .69 caliber and weighs nearly an ounce. I'm sure that getting hit with one of these would knock you on your rear pretty fast and give you second thoughts about getting up again.

Shortly after I got back I was asked what a McDonald's Happy Meal tasted like when washed down with beer. I don't know. I've never had a Happy Meal nor do I plan too. I can tell you that I ate like a king while in Gettysburg.

The first night I had Fettuccini Alfredo at a local restaurant. What I mean by local is that it wasn't a tourist restaurant. It was a local hang out. It was wonderful! The next night I had New York Strip steak (my favorite) at the Irish Pub next door to my hotel, O'Roukes. It was great too!

Upon returning to my hotel at the end of my second day in Gettysburg and after shopping all day, I showered and took a nap. When I woke up, I flipped on the weather channel to see what the weather might be like for the return trip to Iowa and I saw on the radar a heavy line of thunder storms bearing down on Gettysburg. I opened the door just to get a look at the sky to figure out just how close they were. Over my head was a line of very dark and menacing looking clouds. I quickly got my stuff together and headed for O'Roukes, just a couple of hundred feet away. I had hardly sat down at my table when a gust of wind came up blew all the umbrellas outside into probably the next county and sent the outdoor customers rushing inside with their plates in hand looking for a place to sit. I thought, "Couldn't you people see the same clouds I did? Did you not think that a storm might be here any moment?" I was happily trapped in O'Roukes for a couple of hours until the storm blew over. I had stuffed Lobster that night. Man, was that great!

It was still sprinkling when I returned to my hotel. I tired to organize my things a bit. I turned out the lights and stretched out for my last night in Gettysburg. As I lay there in the dark, I knew that in the morning as I headed down the open road on the return trip to Iowa, everything that I had seen and experienced in the previous two days would be only a memory.