Day 11 - Gettysburg

leg 8: 301 miles:.
total miles: 2,710.

It was another warm, sunny day when we left Roanoke and headed back on the road. We had a leisurely morning, leaving the hotel a little before 9 am. Returning to I-81 the way we came into town we headed back north and spent the next hour or so weaving in and out of varying lines of trucks and behemoth RVs pulling cars.

At Raphine, north of Lexington, we left the interstate and made our way east on route 56 for the Blue Ridge Parkway. As we passed through the small hamlet of Vesuvius we were given a hint of what lay before us:

Indeed, the road was narrow, winding, with numerous hairpins and switchbacks all the while climbing ever higher to the top of the ridge. We saw no car going up and but three coming down.

Once at the top of the ridge we turned onto the Parkway and continued our run north passing some dramatic overlooks.

Susan contacted one of her late brother William's motorcycle buddies who lives near here to see if we might be able to drop by and pay our respects to the shrine they had created for him in their workshop.

Sadly, he informed her that one of their other riding buddies, a fellow with the nickname of Jumper, had recently passed away in Marshall, VA and they were assisting in disbursing his earthly goods, thus not being home in Elkton to let us into the shop. We first met Jamie and his wife Marty seven years ago at William's memorial service in Grand Rapids and they struck us as friendly, lively and generous. Alas, our hoped for current day meeting was not to be. Perhaps next time.

At the end of the Parkway we switched back to normal roads and took US 64 back to I-81 north at Staunton. We soon passed through West Virginia and zipped right through Maryland into Pennsylvania. We exited at Chambersburg and turned onto US 30 which took us right into Gettysburg.

After settling in we headed off for the (new) visitor center. Built in 2008 we were amazed at the size and scale of the place. We also noticed how much that part of the park had changed: parking lots dotted everywhere it seemed and we were convinced they had re-routed the auto tour, creating more and confusing one-way portions of the drive. This became particularly acute for us as we attempted to negotiate our way to the Peach Orchard. But more of that shortly.

backside of the visitor center showing a portion of the cyclorama

After parking in the visitor center lot we walked through the main lobby out the other side and took the Cemetery Ridge Trail to the National Cemetery.

Kentucky memorial to Abraham Lincoln near the site of the Gettysburg Address

Once inside the cemetery we found the Michigan section at the far end near the Kentucky memorial to Abraham Lincoln.

graves are listed by row A-H beginning in the rear and coming forward to the state marker

Of the 171 Michigan soldiers buried here 10 were members of the 3rd Michigan Infantry; three errors are noted, however: Erson Smith was not killed but taken prisoner and died of his wounds in Richmond in September of 1863, Reuben Tower is listed incorrectly as Reuben "Power" and John M. Brown is incorrectly reported in the 3rd Michigan cavalry. For photos visit my 3rd Michigan website.

As we began to leave the cemetery the heavens, as they say, opened up and a light rain began to fall bolstered by a strong western breeze. Since our raincoats and umbrella had been left in the car -- the day had been hot and a bit humid when we began our walk -- we waited the passing spring shower out beneath a large sweet buckeye tree.

Once back in the car we broke out the guide map and headed off for the Peach Orchard, which is where the 3rd Michigan fought on 2 July, 1863.

Yes, I know but you can never have enough photos of the 3rd Michigan Infantry monument in the Peach Orchard.

Since they were nearby, we tracked down the 4th and 5th Michigan monuments located next to the Wheatfield and just to the rear of the Peach Orchard, before ending our day.

4th Michigan

5th Michigan

Tomorrow I plan to track down and photo-document all the other Michigan monuments. Susan has agreed to act as chief map-reader although she finds the official guide map frustratingly clumsy and poorly laid out. We were trying to recall if there were so many one-way streets on the battlefield in our previous visits; she seemed to think not but I'm not so sure. Anyway trying to find specific monuments without some seriously unnecessary driving can indeed by frustrating.

That evening we scoured the town for a place to eat and eventually settled on a familiar name, the Dobbin House, where we had eaten years ago. It wasn't as good as we remembered and in fact we thought it was mediocre. I know, we should've turned to Yelp straightaway. . .