Amish, Kissing Bridges and Gettysburg

Rosie still has not confirmed yesterdays stop over location but I do believe it was in New Jersey, sure narrows it down abit….The Operator drove for about 40 mins and we entered Lambertville, a lovely town built on the Delaware River, directly opposite,on the other bank is the sister town of New Hope.

 They are certainly two beautiful towns, once again quaint old gingerbread villas line the streets reminiscent of old world English but with a wooden colonial twist.  Rosie would have loved to wander the shops but it was Sunday, nothing was open, which was refreshing to see, and Rosie and The Operator were keen to get in Pennsylvanian Amish Country for a nosey around.

    Pushing into Pennsylvania fields and crops started appearing, it all looked beautiful in the morning light, the sky was blue and it was going to be a cracking day!  The churches in these parts have good patronage as the carparks were all full and people were out on the streets of the small towns all dressed in their Sunday best.     

The farms were pretty close together and the Operator reckoned that the holding would be about 100 acres each or so.  Each farm had approximately 30 – 50 cows, living the simple life means they are all milked by hand and each house had a huge kitchen garden in the back yard.

The fields were still full of dry yellow corn waiting to be harvested and there were fields of pumpkins and tomatoes as well.  The tobacco crop which is the biggest cash crop of the Amish….even though they do not smoke was already picked and hanging drying in the barn.  They grow a broad leaf tobacco which is used for rolling. 

 Next Minuet, plodding along the road comes an old bearded man wearing a straw hat with his wife next to him in a buttoned to the neck dress and a cloth cap, squeezed into the wee buggy.  The Operator parked on the side of the road and Rosie was poised with her camera to take a photo….well Rosie didnt need to be poised….the bloody horse was that slow she could have cleaned the car first.  Snap snap Rosie took a few pics….as they passed Rosie felt abit guilty and disrespectful…both of the old couple were holding their hands up over their faces to hide them.  The Amish believe that by having an image taken of them it steals their soul, so by covering their face it protects them.  The Operator wasnt too fussed, if we saw one we will see another, the hunt was on.

Oh yes, the Amish traffic jam, I wonder what it would be like when they all come to town, the roads are really narrow and only the main road has a kind of ‘buggy lane’.  The buggy’s also didnt seem to have any number plates….but they did have reflectors and lights.

 Amish lunch break must have been over, dads were out in their driveway in long shirts, pants and braces washing and brushing the horses, as a world away we clean our car on a Sunday afternoon.  These two lads were heading out up the road on giant wheeled scooters.  Rosie and The Operator were heading for a Kissing Bridge.

Lancaster County has many covered bridges, locally they are called Kissing Bridges.  An unmarried Amish couple cannot go courting in a covered wagon, it must be an open one, so by driving into a covered bridge it gives you the opportunity to sneak a peck unseen.  This is the Hunseckers Mill Bridge, it was built in 1848 and is the longest span covered bridge in the county at 180 feet.  It was rebuilt in 1973 after being lifted off its abutments and washed down stream due to the rising water from Hurricane Agnes.

 After leaving Lancaster we drove for about 40 mins to Gettysburg, we did not explore the township but headed straight for the Gettysburg National Military Park.  This is a visitor information centre and museum, it is newly built and houses modern comprehensive displays and artifacts from the battle as well as gives a movie presentation on the events which is narrated by Morgan Freeman.  For our admission we also have access to the the amazing Gettysburg Cyclorama and can do a self drive tour of the battlefield if we were so inclined.

Rosie and The Operator knew nothing about the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the Civil Wars most bloody and decisive battles, and I am not sure if I was that interested….until we saw the video presentation.  In a nutshell, Honest Abe Lincoln was President, a southerner by birth he was wanting to abolish slavery in the south and make all men free in America.  Northern states had abolished slavery a few years back and the government campaign was fierce for the south to do the same….all the wealth of the south however depended on slavery to harvest their crops and pick their cotton, they were totally against the notion and wanted to break away from the government and have their own Independence.  North (Unionists) and South (Confederates) went to war, no one was untouched by it, in some cases it was brother against brother and the country was impoverished by it.  The South, led by General Lee was looking to move north and attack Washington, they had an army of 70,000 and used the cover of the Blue Ridge Mountains to sneak into Pennsylvania.  By chance The Northern troops led by General Mead were on location nearby and the two armies touched by chance at Gettysburg, the North only had 3000 men positioned there and were terribly outnumbered when the first battle started on July 1st 1863.

 The Unionist army by a miracle held the Confederates at bay while they advanced, reinforcements were called and by the 3 and last day of the battle they were pretty evenly matched.  Due to a couple of miscommunicated battle plans by the south, the north was able to push through and for the first time force the Confederates into retreat, the casualties were enormous, by the end of the day 51,000 men were dead, wounded or missing presumed dead.  This cannon looks out over one of the battlefields and gives an idea of the terrain.  General Lee crippled by such heavy casualty’s begins to withdraw and his army turns for Virginia.  This victory was the turning point for the North and the Civil War as this was the closest the South ever got to toppling the Capital.

The National Cemetary instigated by Lincoln is a poignant reflective place like all of the other cemeteries we have seen so far.  Every small square of marble measures 200x200mm and are numbered if they knew the name of the soldier  interred which is then recorded in the cemetery logs…..these small squares stretch as far as the eye can see. 

Look what was sitting on one of the monuments…the Operator reckons she was looking for mice….she was certainly scoping the grass, she was huge with shaggy feathery legs and bright beady eyes, a real beauty.  We were at the end of our tour….you could get an audio tour and drive through the battlefields, or you could join a bus tour or even have a guide narrate the story to you personally in your own car…we are not that into it…plenty were, I tell you.  A few debates were happening over the big battle plans on the wall that depicted army movements on the day, there are alot of redneck buffs here.  Every month the battle is recreated with soldiers dressed in period garb….pass on that one…