We met in Greensboro at A. Adalene and U. Buck's plumbing shop. The plan was to leave our cars here while on the trip and go over to the airport to rent our car. I had reserved a Chevy Equinox online from Alamo. Dad, Jim and I went to the airport to pick up the car, but they didn't have an SUV. They found one at Enterprise; a Dodge Journey. They gave us a discount since we had to wait; $621.00 instead of $671.00.
We went back and picked everyone else up at the plumbing shop and go on the way. We made it a few miles and dad realized he forgot his cell phone, so we turned around and went back. I had to climb the fence to get over to the cars, since we'd already locked the gate and didn't have a key. A. Adalene and U. Buck had opened the gate, and then left for the beach.
We were finally really on the way about 11:00am. We'd planned to leave by 9:00am "ish". Dad had cooked sausage and livermush biscuits, so we could eat on the way instead of stopping.
We stopped in Salem, Va for a bathroom stop at Chick-fil-a. Jimmy misunderstood and ordered food because he saw dad having a snack. I decided to just eat lunch there too, that way we didn't have to stop again. Mom didn't eat anything. This turned out to be a good idea since we were short on time.
We made it to Gettysburg, Pa about 6:00pm. We went to the Visitor's Center and gift shop, but decided all we really had time to do was tour the cemetery and the NC Soldier's Monument. We drove over the cemetery and parked. Jimmy and I walked over to the Cemetery Ridge side of the battle field to Mead's Statue and everyone else went to the cemetery. We all walked through a small part of the cemetery. The cemetery is a combination of Gettysburg Soldiers, a National Cemetery for other military personnel, and a public cemetery for Gettysburg.
We drove on to the NC monument and we made it before dark. We drove around the rest of the battlefield, and even made it to Little Big Top before dark. A. Mae showed us where she fell a few years before. Jimmy wanted his picture taken with his mom on that spot, so a stranger offered to snap it. The man told them to smile, like they were back on their first "date" again. Needless to say, everyone thought that was funny except Jimmy.
We ate pizza in Gettysburg at Tommy's Pizza. We lucked out at this place...this was good pizza.
We drove a two lane road back to Hagerstown, Md to our motel. The GPS picked the curviest road in Maryland I think. We stayed at Days Inn. This wasn't really a nice place on the outside, but the rooms were fine. Jimmy and I had separate rooms, mom, dad and A. Mae were together.
Long Day...
