September 17, 2014

Travel day from to Kinzers, PA to Gettysburg, PA

Knowing we only had to travel about 70 miles we lounged around this morning. 

Once we got around to packing up it went quickly.

 

 

 

 

We traveled through one small town after another before reaching Artillery Ridge Campground by 2:30PM.  I had called earlier in the day to make sure they had open sites.  The first person I spoke to said that they only honor the Passport America Rate on Sunday and Monday.  When I responded that according to the Passport America website they accept the rate Sunday through Thursday I was handed off to someone else in the office who admitted the website was correct.

I was told we could have site 85 for Wednesday and Thursday for the PA rate of $28 a night.

When we arrived and checked out site 85 we knew it was not going to work for us.  We went into the office and were given a map with a choice of six sites to check out.  We chose site 423 all the way in the back of the campground.  That actually worked out great for us because it was in an open area where we could pick up a good satellite signal.

When we registered we were given a couple of coupons to local attractions.  After we set up we set off a couple of miles to the Gettysburg Diorama and History Center. 

We had to wait a few minutes for the next showing so we walked around the gift shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The diorama is a miniature of the Gettysburg Battlefield that represents 6000 acres putting the battle into perspective as it appeared in 1863.

  The diorama was carefully researched and meticulously assembled containing over 20,000 hand-painted soldiers, horses, cannons and buildings. 

The second attraction tickets we were given was for the Ghost Lab in the same building as the diorama.  When we arrived at the diorama we discovered the Ghost Lab was only open on weekends but the tickets would be honored at the Lincoln Train Museum located a block away.

When we redeemed our tickets we were given tokens to use in the turnstile.

 

  We walked through a hallway past a series of screens where Lincoln gave a history of our country from the beginning through the wars including the attacks of 9/11. 

The final screen invited us to enter the train museum, a miniature train collectors’ dream world.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Our “conductor” instructed us to enter the train to accompany Lincoln and his son Willie from Washington DC to Springfield Illinois displayed with an audio and video history of the experience.

 

 

On the way back to the car we noticed a sign stating free admission in front of the Gettysburg Heritage Center.  They were getting ready to close so we took a quick walkthrough.