Gettysburg

We spent 3 days in August at Gettysburg National Park and Museum.  It was amazing.  I am not a civil war buff or even a history buff, and I enjoyed it.  The visitor center houses a museum, movie theater, food, book/t-shirt store.  They also have a cyclorama!  In the 90’s I worked in the Cyclorama Building in Buffalo, NY.  A cyclorama is a picture in the round that people used to pay to view, like going to the movies today.  I just worked in the round building, which made the cubicles a challenge, but I had never seen a picture that was displayed in one.  The visitor center houses one of the battle at Gettysburg.    The oil painting is 377’ long and 42’ high.  Learn more here: https://www.nps.gov/gett/learn/historyculture/gettysburg-cyclorama.htm.

The battlefield is littered with monuments.  Each statue commemorates a person, regimen, brigade or state; the emotional part is they each say how many fought, died, were wounded or missing.  Even with this accounting it is impossible to imagine the carnage.  I think I was most reassured by a deeper understanding that our country had endured a struggle, survived and was improved by that struggle.  Is it perfect today? No, but it is better than yesterday.

My first camping review:  We stayed at Artillery Ridge Campground.  Showers and toilets were clean.  The roads are stone so no mud even though it rained.  Mature trees so there was nice shade.  Spots were too close together, in my opinion.  There was a horse path that led to the battlefield very near the Pennsylvania monument, we rode our bikes in the park a lot.  Overall the town is not very bike friendly.  There are no bike lanes and in many places no shoulder.  On some roads bikes are specifically prohibited. 

Forgetfulness

I have to write stuff down.  I don’t really think this is a function of age, it is a function of ambition.  I have a lot of stuff to get done, I accomplish a lot of stuff and sometimes, some of it falls off the list.  I work with college kids all the time and believe me, most of them need to write stuff down.  I blame my forgetfulness on my very full mind.  We all juggle a lot of different stuff.  Up in the air at all times are family member’s schedules, family finances, short and long term work goals, etc.  In addition to that are all the things these various constituencies pay me the big bucks for, like knowing where I put last year’s taxes, what the kids are doing this weekend.  I don’t know if my mind used to be sharper, but I do know that it was less cluttered.

Which Way is Up?

A friend recently suggested I should write about the great things about aging.  I think learning to drive without the aid of google maps was a blessing.  I was good at reading maps, because I had to learn to get from point A to some unknown location of point B.  I generally have an idea of where I am based on the compass;  I am south of here or we need to head north east, etc.  But combining these old map skills and the google map app on my phone can be a challenge.  First of all, is there even a North arrow on these maps?  By the time I blow up the map enough to see the street names, then it is so large I cannot view any of the other landmarks.  I would like there to be a pause button on the app.  There probably is, I just don’t know about it.  If I decide to detour, leave me alone for a while, I don’t need the constant rerouting. Don’t get me wrong, I use google maps religiously, but I miss pulling over and getting a map out of the glove compartment and just figuring out where I am and where I need to go.