Rivers and Battlegrounds

Rivers and Battlegrounds

Day One…

It was one of those days when you didn’t know if you should set the windshield wipers on low or leave them on intermittent.  The rain was of that sort that morning, letting you know that it was still around, still flexing its muscles and not wanting to go away, but still easing off once in a while to tease you with begrudging dry spells from time to time.

We’d chosen to proceed to our first destination by a different route than maybe someone else would have chosen.  Our GPS directed us south and east for about half the journey, then more north and east for the remainder.  It wasn’t a terribly long drive, but far enough for all of us to get a little fidgety in the car.  So in the late morning of the first day we arrived at the Carnegie Science Center just across the river from downtown Pittsburgh.  Walking from the car to the building helped ease some of the stiffness from the trip and soon we were inside.  The three of us, my wife, my son and I had toured similar places before, so the contents weren’t terribly unfamiliar.  Plenty of science exhibits and demonstrations, of course.  My son seems to enjoy checking out things like that.  Along with the permanent displays and artifacts, most places like this have special exhibits that show up for a certain period of time and then are replaced by others.  The special ones at Carnegie at the moment all seemed to concern robots.  They had displays of famous movie and television robots – Robbie from the movie “Forbidden Planet”, the similar one in the TV show “Lost in Space” (who used to shout “Warning, Will Robinson!”) and Gort from “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.  Then there was the HAL9000 from “2001 A Space Odyssey” and maybe the two best know ones, R2D2 and C3PO from the “Star Wars” franchise.  There was an operating robot that shot basketballs, one that played air-hockey with you, another that would converse with you and numbers of others.

Another fascinating exhibit was a gigantic model train setup with dozens of different landscapes.  Even if you weren’t a model train enthusiast it was very interesting.

An exhibit that we all enjoyed was displayed in the Ohio River just outside the museum.  It was the submarine USS Requin.  It was available for touring and we enjoyed ourselves doing such.  It never fails to amaze me how many sailors and officers served on one of these subs.  At one time!  It felt cramped with a dozen or so civilians like us wandering around onboard, so it seemed incredible as to the many men who would normally crew it.  We enjoyed ourselves squeezing through the tight quarters and maneuvering through the difficult hatchways.

A little later we watched an IMAX movie about repairing the Hubble space telescope.  Watching the astronauts do the repair job while weightless in space was fascinating.

Many, many children joined us in our museum adventure.  There seems to be NO escaping kids when you tour one of these venues.  They are as common as freckles on a redhead’s face.  You just quickly learn to step aside when they surround you and let them through.

After touring the Museum and after a few minutes to check into and rest a bit in our hotel, we adjourned to Rivers Casino to meet my cousin Lorraine and her husband John.  We ate at the very nice buffet they have there and enjoyed the food and conversation for quite a while.  I ate a LOT of things and, of that, I’ll talk about a bit later.

We finally finished our dinners and wandered down to the casino.  Lorraine pointed out a few slot machines she had been lucky at in the past and we gave them a try.  It was a good decision for me, at least for a while.  I was up to about 4 times my original wager and feeling pretty good about it.  I was going to stop there, honestly, but got a bit greedy trying for the big one, and ended up “donating” a large portion of my winnings back to the casino.  Easy come and easy go I suppose.  I was playing with their money you know!  At least that’s what all of us gamblers like to say.  Of course, in reality it wasn’t.  Once you win it, it’s yours.  It was fun though and we always go into a place like that with our eyes open and a fixed amount we’ll wager and no more.  We never really get hurt.

After bidding adieu to my cousin we returned to our hotel where I spent a restless night with a too-soft mattress and a too-soft pillow.

My stomach was also quite active during the overnight hours.

Day Two…

We ate the hot breakfast provided by the high-end hotel we were staying at in the morning.  Food was good, unfortunately my stomach wasn’t.  Apparently something I’d eaten at the buffet the previous evening was playing havoc with the ol’ digestive system.  I won’t go into details about the specifics of my difficulties, but needless to say I was NOT good company for my wife and son for most of that day.  Perhaps it was the 88 crab legs I’d devoured?  (not really quite that many)  Or the sushi and wasabi?  Or the coconut gelato?  Or some ruinous combination thereof?  In any event, I suffered for better than half of this day with the stomach jimjams.

We’d planned to take a tour boat along the rivers to see Pittsburgh that day.  My son had never been there and it’s a good introduction to the city.  It was raining hard and thundering when we awoke, so we played the waiting game at the hotel to see if it would pass.  Our luck was good that day and by noon we were sitting on the dock waiting for our boat.  The tour was quite enjoyable and we were blessed with a brighter sky for its duration.  We even got a little bit of sunburn through the clouds!  After the river excursion we rode one of the two existing incline rails up to the top of Mt. Washington.  We took some pictures of the stunning city views from there (the day was clearing nicely by then) and soon were back at the bottom of the hill, in the car and heading east toward our second destination.

I let the GPS show us the way down the road to our next stop – Gettysburg.  The road trip was fairly uneventful besides my still quite uncomfortable stomach.  Luckily, one of the plazas on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, along with a variety of fast foods, had some Pepto Bismol for sale.  Hurrah!  After purchase I chugged a couple large gulps of it and my misery started to ease almost at once.  We arrived at our destination in the late afternoon.  Our hotel this time was a more economical one than the previous night, but the beds were blissfully firmer as were the pillows.  A good night was anticipated.

Supper that evening was at a family-type restaurant recommended by our hotel’s clerk.  Quite tasty and my belly had recovered enough that I could enjoy it.  We were soon back to our accommodations a little after 9 p.m. and asleep before 10.

Day Three…

Breakfast this morning was at a Perkins – slow service, good food – and then we were off to the Gettysburg Tour Center not long afterward.  We took the 11:15 bus for a 2-hour tour of the battlefield.  Our guide, who narrated the entire trip, was extremely knowledgeable and kept our interest up with fascinating stories about the 1863 battle.  He was one of the officially licensed guides and those boys really knew their stuff!  We stretched our legs and looked a little closer at two stops during the tour and listened to our guide again describe what was going on at those points back during the Civil War.  I’m a bit of a history buff, so this sojourn into the old days was one of the highlights of my trip.  After a mandatory (according to my wife) trip to the souvenir shop, we walked over to the Jenny Wade house, which was quite near.  Jenny Wade, as astounding as it seems, was the ONLY civilian casualty of the Gettysburg battle.  We walked all over the house she was staying in during the battle and shuddered at the number of bullet holes on the outside and the inside, including the one made by the bullet that bored through two doors and took her life.  It was a fascinating story and well worth the time to see it.

We headed to the official (run by the National Parks Service) tour center then, toured the museum and saw the Cyclorama.  This last item is a 360-degree painting, originally 42 feet high, 365 feet around and weighing six tons.  It was first viewed in 1883 to critical acclaim.  It’s a breathtaking depiction of Pickett’s charge and other scenes of battle from an elevated viewing point.  It’s an amazing sight and a very lifelike depiction of the battle that day.

We took a hotel break after this to cool off and relax a bit.  In the late afternoon we drove our car back to the battlefield and took some pictures of the more distinctive state and regional monuments on the field.

Please be aware that visitors to Gettysburg can be deceived by first impressions.  As you tour the battlefield you can easily see that this is a very peaceful and bucolic area of south central Pennsylvania.  The bees buzz, the birds sing, the wind blows through the green and verdant landscape and you couldn’t visualize a more gentle place on earth.  But superimposed upon this present view is the knowledge that one of the most savage battles in our country’s history took place where you now stand.  The fields and the creeks in those three days in July literally ran red in blood.  Many Americans, both North and South, either died or were horribly wounded in the three days of that battle.  It is a place that, if you listen closely, the peaceful summer sounds will fade and the echoes of war will take their place with booming cannons, the crackling of musket fire and the cries of men dying or in the frenzy of war.  It’s even been said that on certain nights you can make out ghostly campfires far out in the battle fields and smell the bacon and johnnycakes cooking in the breeze.

And, if you’re into that sort of thing, it’s purported to be a very haunted place.

After supper we drove to the shop where our next “adventure” would take place.  We bought tickets at one of the flourishing ghost tour establishments.  A lady dressed in black period costume nicknamed Spooky was the one who led our tour.  She took us down some dark alleys and side streets near the shop and would stop every now and then to tell stories concerning that area 150 years ago and what had happened there during and after the battle.  She recounted tales of bloodshed and horror and was very good at describing the spookier aspects of them!  She encouraged photography during the tour and warned us that lots of times people would get pictures of ghosts!  I was, of course, quite skeptical, but kept on taking pictures all along the tour, just in case.  Spooky was a good talker, an interesting woman and her tour was quite interesting.  We’d all endorse it enthusiastically!

As a side note, when we examined the photos taken during the ghost tour on the computer at home after the trip we were astonished to see orbs in a number of them!  I’d known about the orb phenomenon from before and was quite surprised to see it demonstrated in pictures I had personally taken.  Apparently the orbs are manifestations of ghosts or ectoplasm in spherical form.  Still don’t know if I’m a firm believer yet, but the evidence, such as it is, is right there.  As Mr. Spock from Star Trek might utter – “Very interesting!”

Side note number two.  This week in Gettysburg was bike week.  All throughout the town there were motorcycles, motorcycles and, you guessed it, more motorcycles.  They rumbled and growled up and down the old streets of this town in their hundreds and hundreds.  It seemed, sometimes, like all the men you’d see had bandannas on their heads and gray beards on their faces.  An “interesting” added attraction to our visit.

The trip home was long and, with the exception being the beautiful mountain vistas we enjoyed, fairly uninteresting.

All in all it was a nice trip to Pennsylvania with many interesting things done, many historic sights viewed, many ghosts visited (?!?!) and, as a bonus, a great get together with one of our favorite couples, my cousin and her hubby.

Who could ask for anything more?