2018 Gettysburg motorcycle trip
Day 3
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June 9
 This morning when I put the GPS on the bike I walked around the house to check things out. It was a beautiful morning. Cloudy skies mostly but no rain predicted. There is plenty of flat parking for the bikes and trailers.
 The house is located at the end of Charmian Lane. This is looking back towards the road. The house next door is currently unoccupied. Many of these houses are second homes for people who live around Washington, D.C. and are vacant this time of year. Some of the houses we passed on Charmian Road are large and expensive looking.
 Here are the railroad tracks across the road. I missed a train last night because I was too tired. I hope to see some this week. I'm not even sure what railroad uses these tracks.
 My sweetheart on the rear deck. All of us spend a lot of time out here. It is shaded and has a wonderful view.
Our bedroom has a small deck. This old house uses window air conditioners.
 Around 9:30 the bikes were warming up. This morning Debby gave me the addresses for the Gettysburg Military Park Visitor Center and the place where we will meet for our haunted tour this evening. I entered them in my GPS. Today will be a full day. First we will tour the Gettysburg battlefields. After that we will eat lunch then check out the town. This evening we are doing a haunted tour.
 I told the GPS to take us to the Visitor Center and it chose the route. Here we are going through Emmitsburg, MD. Emmitsburg is the site of the National Fire Academy, so as a volunteer firefighter I've heard a lot about it. It's a pretty little town.
 Passed Emmitsburg we turned north on US15 and cross the Mason-Dixon Line. We were through here on our 2014 fall trip. John radioed and said Debby noticed I had a taillight out. I'll put it on the fix-it list.
 The GPS did its job well and led us to the military park without error. The front parking lot was full so we rode to the back lot. We try to park somewhere shady.
 We visited the gift store and checked out the many displays they have. Neither Donna nor I had had breakfast so we split a pretzel and some water. The pretzel was very good!
 The plan is to do the auto tour. John & Debby visited here a couple years ago and are familiar with the tour so they will lead. We decided to go helmetless since the tour would be low speed. There was noticeable humidity and the wind in your hair felt good.
 The first stop was near the visitor center at the Soldier's National Cemetery. It is a short walk from the parking lot to the cemetery entrance on the hill.
 I have heard of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address since I was a kid. It was cool to be near where is history was made.
 Soldiers from the Civil War to the Vietnam War are buried here. It's a solemn reminder that freedom isn't free.
 Some of the trees are huge and pre-date the Civil War. If those trees could talk. We made the loop in the cemetery and headed back to the bikes.
 Some other bikes pulled in as we were getting ready to leave. One was a CSC trike like Mike's. They talked for several minutes and the fellow trikester gave Mike some tips.
 The auto tour took us through Gettysburg. We saw some of the places in town we will visit later in the day. I have always been interested in the Civil War but I am not a buff nor a historian. Forgive me if my battlefield descriptions aren't 100% accurate.
 He we are on Reynolds Avenue where the first battles of Gettysburg were fought. General John Reynolds was killed near here. He was the first Union general to die in the battle.
 Next we moved to the northern end of the battlefield. In the distant right is where we came from. This was the site of Confederate artillery. On the left is Seminary Ridge. I imagine the sight of tens of thousands of troops doing battle in the distant fields. This is where General Lee viewed the battle on the first day.
 Driving down US30. We will turn right and soon be on Seminary Ridge. There are lots of museums and buildings to visit but time is limited so we kept riding.
 We stopped at the southern end of Seminary ridge to read some signs and monuments. The side of the road was a little off camber so I parked carefully. Advantage trike.
This is near the site of Pickett's charge.
 We stopped to watch a non-firing cannon demonstration. It was interesting until a rude lady pulled up and left her car running. The electric fan was so loud we couldn't hear the presentation.
 Our next stop was Round Top. They had had a prescribed burn in the area. It was interesting to walk where soldiers had fought 155 years before.
I can imagine soldiers using the boulders and caverns for cover.
Close by is Little Round Top. The place was crowded so we parked where we could.
 The view from Little Round Top looking down on the rocky area known as "Devil's Den". The sniper fire from here was brutal. You realize how vast the battle was.
All the parking spots at Devil's Den were full so we pulled off the road the best we could.
 Mike served in the First Calvary and is well-versed in the history of the Battle of Gettysburg. Standing at the Devil's Den was on his bucket list. This was the last stop on the battlefield tour. The girls couldn't remember the name of the place we planned to eat. Something Tavern. I did a GPS search and found Dobbins Tavern. That's it. I led us back to town.
 Their parking lot was full so we decided to squeeze into an end spot when one of the employees told us we could park along the end of the building. Thanks!
 We made our way to Dobbins Tavern. There was a ~30 minute wait so we sat outside their gift store. The shade felt good. The meal was tasty but some of the things the girls wanted to try weren't on the menu. The place is only lit by candles for an old time feel. After lunch we decided to stay in town until time for our haunted tour. Now we faced a common issue in touristy towns...where to park? We drove through town looking for parking spots. There were parking meter spots here and there but it would have cost a small fortune to park for several hours (a quarter bought you 10 minutes).
 We turned around and drove back to the area we started at. We pulled into a hospital parking lot to decide what to do. Someone noticed that since it was after 5pm we could park there. Problem solved!
 We decided to take a rest break at the Appalachian Brewing Company. The shade felt good, my feet were tired, and there was a nice breeze. The Ks and Donna sampled some of the brewery's offerings. The people at a nearby table had a friendly dog that we petted. It was fun to watch. John & Debby had went to their bike for cigarettes so the rest of us walked back to the downtown area. They had heard of another place with wine tasting...Reid's Winery Tasting Room and Cider House. It was several blocks away. None were thrilled with the wine. After the wine tasting it was about an hour until we needed to meet at the haunted tour place. We decided to stop at the Farnsworth House Inn for a snack. The Potters joined us here. As we looked at the menu the girls realized this was the restaurant they had intended to eat at instead of Dobbins. The snack food was delicious. We decided to come back here on our shopping day.
 Around 8:30pm we assembled at Gettysburg Ghost Tours to await our 9pm haunted tour. I am a non-believer of ghosts but I found the tour interesting. We walked for several blocks and our tour guide presented a lot of interesting facts on Gettysburg history beyond that of the spirit world.
 After the tour we made our way back to the bikes. Even though it was late we had one more stop. Walmart. We have been compiling a list of things we needed. There is a high chance of rain tomorrow so we decided to shop tonight. While walking through the store I saw a Walmartian...a guy wearing makeup, high heels, and Daisy Duke shorts. He was getting his freak on. It was close to midnight by the time we returned to the house. We all crashed. John stayed up to edit some of the video he had recorded. He said a train came by about 2am. Missed another one!
68 miles. Click here for the next day's adventure.
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