Gettysburg!

After peeling ourselves out of our humid tent, we braced ourselves for a 95 degree muggy day in Gettysburg at the 150th anniversary reenactment event. We brought our umbrella because we hoped the heavens would burst open and pour down some nice rain to cool us all off. Didn't see a drop, but we did use our umbrella for shade (as did the 4 million other spectators who had the same brilliant idea to see this reenactment--sheesh!).

We stood in line to catch a bus and saw a lot of this. Go America! Matt and I didn't get the memo because we were both wearing black.

The reenactment was fun to watch. There was a narrator who explained the battle, but also gave lots of good info on the weapons, the modes of communication, the flags, etc... 

Plenty of heads in my way, but mine was surely in others'. C'est la vie!

 A lot of guns went off.

Check out the crowds on the other side of the battle field. There were equally as many where we were, and more on the stands. You did NOT want to use the porta-potties!!

 A soldier down. They were supposed to remain there until the battle was completely over.

 Or did they resurrect??

After the battle was a live mortar shooting that was hard to see without binoculars (Christmas list alert!) but here's a pretty good video. 

Then we went to the "living history" section where the reenactors lived and had their shops. I couldn't believe how much clothing they had to wear... PLUS they had to stay in the time period: playing games, cooking, cleaning, washing, everything but dreaming. I did see one woman with her iPhone.... tsk, tsk!

Chili was on the menu for tacos. The participants came from all over the country. They were really nice and friendly. And they loved the NRA. 

When we ran out of our own water and realized we'd have to fork over $3 to stay alive under the heat, we were -this- close to dunking our heads in the horses' water troughs. Instead Matt was like "I'm going to find free water. You don't actually think these thousands of reenactors pay that kind of money every day, do you?" Minutes later, Matt filled up our water bottles from a huge water tank.

The only other way to get away from the sun was to attend events: brass bands, string bands, a civil war wedding, and tall tales of ghost stories--pretty creepy by the way!!

We had a great time all day but it's the kind of thing that you probably only want to do once, unless you're a big civil war nerd. 

No one announced that the last bus was leaving, so there we were: hungry, tired, dehydrated, and no way to get back to the parking lot. The good news is that there was a good dozen or so with us, so they had to figure out a plan B and get a van. 

Too bad... I would've liked to eat some of that chili and sleep in their tents. Maybe one of them snuck in an AC unit?