This is our last night here in Gettysburg. Tomorrow we will leave about 10 to go to Staunton Virginia. It will also be raining all the way there. Oh well.

A few pictures from the battlefield.

The campground, which is on the Taneytown road. This area was used as a vast supply area, with thousands of wagons and artillery pieces in reserve during the battle.

IamonLittleroundtop,aunionposition.LookingdowntowardtheDevil’sdenandHouck’sridge.The confederates overtook this area from the union. There is a little stream in the valley called Plum run, but after the battle it was called Bloody run. Between the trees and the rocky area, on the left side is called the Slaughter pen as there was over 100 dead confederates found there after the battle. The confederates had about 3500 men on this ridge and tried 3 times to take Little round Top but failed.

This view is from the Devil’s Den looking up to Little Round top. The union had cannons and about 1500 men on this hill. To the far right where the hill drops is where the 20th Maine Regiment after running out of ammunition mad a bayonet charge down the hill, and taking the confederates by surprise stopped there charge

This picture is looking out toward the area of Pickett’s charge. I am on the union center, where there is about 100 cannon and about 5000 men. Out in the distance about 1 mile in the tree line is the confederate line. At about 1pm on the third day of battle about 140 confederate cannons opened up on the union center, it lasted for about 2 hours. After it was over 12,500 confederates came out of the woods and formed there lines and started to attack. It took them about 20 minutes to get to the union lines, all the while the union guns were firing long range exploding shells. Then as they got close they fired canister rounds, which is like a big shotgun with 27 little round balls in it. In less than an hour it was over, only about 200 confederates got to the lines only to become prisoners. Of the 12,500 who made the charge only 6000 returned, the rest were killed, wounded or missing.

This is one of my favorite monuments,  I have a number of them but. It is located on Powers hill, which is rarely visited. The hill was a union artillery platform during the battle. It supported other artillery in firing at confederate positions.

 

Last week we had our dear friends Mary and Don come visit from Ohio. It was a great time had by all. The weather was good, and we visited the battlefield for two days. Being there first time here we took a battlefield guide and toured the battlefield. I then showed them around other areas of the battlefield. We had some great laughs and a good old time. Went to a few good spots to eat, and caught up with all the news all the way around. Before you knew it they had to leave. We have two days left here until we head further south. Tomorrow we will get the Rv ready to go for Thursday. For now that’s all.

This is our last weekend here in Gettysburg, today it was 87 and sunny. The past week has been around 80 or so and sun and clouds with no rain. so we have had a good week with weather. Have been around the battlefield walking a lot. The campground this weekend is packed I think because of Columbus Holiday tomorrow. A lot of boy scouts in tents, along with a lot of big driveables here.

We leave here Thursday for Staunton Virginia. It will be about a 187 mile trip, 4 hours or so. The weather looks cool but no rain, we will see. Will do a little cleaning of the Rv and Wednesday get ready to leave. Will update when we get to Walnut Hills campground.

We have been here at the Artillery Ridge Campground here in Gettysburg for16 days, it has rained for 13 of them. I mean all day rains not just a few hours, but long periods of rain. They say it has been like this since may. Last night we had a torrential downpour for an hour, water was running under the Rv. There is mud everywhere and no one in the campground is out of there Rvs set up or anything. After tonight it is suppose to be sun and clouds for the next 8 days or so, without any real rain, hope it holds true, it needs to dry up.

To say the least it is depressing and a little boring as you just cannot do much outside.. We have been able to see some of the battlefield and other areas around. Not off to a good start with our full time adventure, but I guess we are learning fast. Cooper has been to day care more than we want, but he is getting his energy out which is good. We both are trying hard to not get upset and take it in stride, as there really isn’t much we can do with the weather. We will be here till the 11th of October, so about 2 weeks to go. With the weather getting better, we hope to be hiking the battlefield more and seeing more of the area. We did go to the UTZ potato Chip factory in Hanover the other day. It was pretty neat, it takes 27 minutes from the time the potatoes go on the convers to when they are packaged into the shipping boxes as potato chips, still hot. Quite neat to see the process in action. It takes 4 pounds of potatoes to make 1 pound of chips. Other than that we will see what the next 2 weeks bring here.

 

This weekend was our first full timing weekend. Saturday we got up a little later and had a nice breakfast. After that we both spent almost 4 hours, sorting organizing and putting our stuff away. I am very proud of Melissa, she brought a good amount of cloths, and whittled it all down to fit in one closet and a few drawers. After that we took a good long walk, about 3 miles,part of which was on the horse trail leading from the park to the battlefield. Yep you have to watch for horse poop. Cooper does not like horses. The weather was mostly sunny and 80 degrees. The park was pretty full yesterday but today Sunday, a lot left. Today we spent the day just relaxing, although Melissa wanted to go to church so we found one. I went to the battlefield, and took a good walk, then picked her up and we came back to the Rv for the day. After dinner we took a walk around the park and met a few nice couples, along the way. Warm and sunny today with a good amount of humidity. Tomorrow we get the remnants of Florence, so they say a lot of rain, we will see.

Yep, we are here. Got here Tuesday afternoon about 4:30 . Got setup ,and was glad to be here. This has been the week. We left home Monday about noon, and got to Hills Creek State park in Pa, near Wellsboro. It took me 4 hours or so to go 211 miles. The drive was Ok ,but it does take a lot out of you towing a 14000 pound behimith behind you. The campground was not easy to get to, the GPS took me through a few dirt roads, but we got there and pulled into our site and levelled up. It has been raining here like crazy, roads and other campgrounds are closed. Rained most of the night. In the morning we got ready to leave, but took a walk around the park for a while as the sun was trying to peek out. We left the campground around noonish. Took another way out which was on paved roads and it was a lot easier. Drove about 206 miles and it took about 4 hours. The roads here suck. One thing I learned is that you loose a lot of speed going up an incline, which most of the highways have. Melissa said I did a good job driving and even I was a little surprised I was not more nerveous.

We are now at Artillery Ridge Campground in Gettysburg It is located right behind Little round top on the southeast side of the battlefield.

After we checked in and got to our site, a nice big pull through, we noticed it is really wet here. They have been getting a lot of rain also. It was not raining when we setup so that was good. It rained a good amount on Tuesday. I was relieved to go to bed Tuesday night, I was tired. Wednesday we got up and noticed the day was to be brighter with some sun which it was. We spent the day getting things sorted out inside the Rv. We have more empty space than I thought we would have. Took a good walk around the park it is about a half mile to the office so it is not close. During our walk we met two other fulltime Rvers and talked to them for a while. One couple was just starting as we are but they have been living in there Rv for 3 years. The other couple saw our Heartland owners club placard and came by as they have a Heartland Rv. They have been full timing for 8 years and go to all the Heartland rallies, which they suggested we need to do. They also have been all over the country and seen a lot. They came by our Rv after they had dinner and we spent 3 hours talking to them. It was a good time and I learned a lot.

So here it is Thursday already. The day has been some sun, hot and humid. We went out for breakfast and took Cooper to his first day care session at Cooper’s Kennel, not far away. We then did a little shopping and kind of had a relaxing day. Picked up Cooper about 6 (he is pooped out)  and had dinner.

We will be here for a month, so this will be our break in period. Will update soon, and below are two pictures of our site here at Gettysburg.

Boy oh boy, it’ here time to go , moving the last of the stuff out of the apartment today. will be in the Rv tonight. After all the years of planning and getting ready, we are one day away from hitting the road. We both are pretty nerveous, but I hear that is normal. Said all of our good byes the last few days to all our friends and family. It’s not really good, we are still around just will be traveling the country.

Ready or not here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went to Sleep Hallow Lake Campground for the week during labor day weekend. Had the same spot as last year, except I drove this year with our truck. Backed in pretty good, and set up was good. The week was nice, and hot a few days. Got to see some good friends who have seasonals there, and spent a good amount of time with them. Good to see everyone and said good bys till next year. A few pics are below of our site. That’s all for now we are super busy getting moved out of the apartment and over to the Rv. Be leaving for the winter this coming Monday the 10th. OH boy is it coming fast, not a lot of time to think.

Took the Rv in the other day to have the brakes and wheel bearings checked. With only 600 miles on the unit, a few people said I was wasting my money and time, glad I did not listen. The front left wheel bearing seal was blown out and grease got all over the brakes and system, not good. They checked the other three wheels and 3 more seals were cracked so they had to be replace. The problem they said was too much grease in the bearing assembly. I never even had the tries off, so this was done at the factory or dealer where I got it. Needless to say I was not happy.

So it all was fixed, I paid the bill and off I went, happy to have had it checked, but not happy with so little miles, I had such a problem going on. So I wrote a letter to Heartland, we will see where it goes, most likely no-where.

It is getting very close to departing time, and we are doing a lot to get moved out of the apartment and into the Rv or store stuff at my brothers. I have to say I am getting excited and a bit nervous and apprehensive, but I guess that is all part of it.

Made a few more improvements to the Rv lately. The first one was to get rid of one of the recliners. we originally thought it would be good to have them in the back of the coach instead of the side. While it is O.K. you cannot see the Tv. when you are sitting in the one. So we decided to put a table there, this will also let Cooper get under it as we want his bed to be there. We think it looks pretty good there and matches quite nice. The other thing I did was to take the little area in the bedroom they have for the washer /dryer, and made it into a computer area. I still have to do a few things yet but it turned out good also. Happy with the improvements I have made lately.