Pillow Fight!

 

This was Luke's attempt at "schooling" his uncle!

 

Notes from Taber

07.01.11We're in the car on the way home and Beth is at the wheel.  We had a terrific day yesterday at Harpers Ferry.  Luke decided that the drive is the least favorite part of the trip.  He threw up shortly after lunch and is now occupying the front seat and trying to sleep.  I'm sitting behind Beth and after getting a short nap in I'm attempting to hack out a blog post.  My bright idea was to skip to Chicago by staying south and heading across Ohio and Indiana. The traffic has been great and we've avoided the large number of tolls that we had to pay on the way out to Gettysburg, but it seems like it is taking a little longer.  On the way out we had a head start with the trip to Wisconsin Dells so the return trip is already a little longer.

When we were driving into Gettysburg earlier this week we had passed some funny signs and talked about wishing that we had gotten photos so we made sure to stop and get photos on the way home.  The photos are of some store signs and probably won't seem funny any more!  We'll post them and you can be the judge.  "Sheetza" is a gas station and we thought their pizza ads we entertaining, but none of our photos turned out real well so I stole one off of the interweb.

We had also passed signs for the Flight 93 Memorial and talked about visiting it, but never stopped or turned around.  We detoured the return trip and stopped there this morning; adding another powerful experience to the trip.  The memorial is temporary right now, but you can walk to an overlook and see the construction site and the memorial is supposed to be complete by September 11, 2011.  The temporary building is an old mine or quarry building that was orignally reclaimed by the FBI and is now houses simple displays and information about the terrorist attacks and a step by step through the events all the way through the construction of the memorial.  One of the things that intrigued me was transcipts of the radio traffic and some of the phone calls that passengers made. I had never understood everything that took place in such detail and it was interesting, but as I indicated earlier it was also very sad and tragic.

On Thursday we spent the day outside of Gettysburg with a trip to Harpers Ferry National Historic Park in West Virginia.  Harpers Ferry is of course the home site of John Brown's short lived rebellion.  The site had many other stories to tell and was interesting and beautiful.  The museum is interwoven into the historic buildings and seems very much like you are in the historic town in the 1860s.  We were disappointed that there were modern cars driving throughout the town as we explored, but the beauty of the area outweighed a couple cars.  Hearing all of the stories was interesting, but as we experienced in Gettysburg there were bigger and better interpretive events planned for the weekend and we read about all of the great things to come.

When we drove out to Harpers Ferry we passed signs for the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Emmitsburg, MD and Luke and Beth were patient with me as we stopped on the way home.  Adding to the Gettysburg battlefield this was also very powerful, but in a different way.  The names of firefighters who died in the line of duty each year are identified on plaques for each state, year by year.  There is a separate plaque for the 343 firefighters who died on 09.11.01 and a special tribute to the FDNY firefighters who gave all.  There is a brick lined path leading to the memorials and each brick is available to be purchased, inscribed and placed on the path.  I'll be submitting a request to the LFD Relief Association to "purchase" bricks for the path and inscribe them from Lakeville Fire Rescue.

Luke was determined to find an 1860's era civilian vest and as we drove back into Getysburg we tried to sneak in to the site where the Gettysgurg re-enactment was getting set up to see if we could visit a sutler tent.  We probably tried to do things too properly and were sent on our way because we didn't have passes and the event wasn't yet open to visitors.  We also visited a great little covered bridge as well.  The rest of the day was easy going and we had some down time in the hotel room with pizza and a movie.

Day 4 - Around Town

We started off the day by doing nothing and sleeping in!  The "to do" list for today had very little on it including visiting some sutlers and wandering around  the town of Gettysburg. We were out of the hotel after 10 and we visited several shoppes and a couple historic sites.  We visited the Museum of Gettysburg (highlighted on American Pickers), the Shriver House and the home next door - the Pierce House.  The Pierce home was significant to us because Colonel Colville of the first Minnesota recovered there for several months after being wounded at Gettysburg. The Pierce home is a private residence, but the Shriver house has been restored to an 1860 appearance and provides the civilian side of the Gettysburg story.  The story was presented by a tour guide, who did alright - she had obviously told the story many times and it was a little too rehearsed. 

Lunch was ice cream!  We visited a couple more shoppes and Luke and I visited the Gettysburg Diorama, which is a tourist trap in the back of a souvenir shop (first photo).  The presentation provided a good insight into the battle.  The large diorama needed to be cleaned and have some minor restorations and updating done, but it was a helpful visual to see how things were laid out and came together. 

We had dinner at the Appalachian Brewing Company and wandered back on to the battlefield for the sunset.  Tomorrow we're headed to Harpers Ferry for the last day of touring before we start the drive back to Minnesota.

I know this will be hard to believe, but after having two cokes with dinner Luke had plenty of energy and this is a shot of him goofing around on the battlefield - in this case he got left behind because he couldn't get off of the cannon before the car left.  Don't worry - he caught up when we stopped later on!

Farb

We love to talk about a farbs and to truly confess - I am farby most of the time I'm in costume as there is some inaccuracy that I can't quite get away from.  Here is what the all knowing site - Wikipedia! has to say!


Farb is a derogatory term used in the hobby of historical reenacting in reference to participants who exhibit indifference to historical authenticity, either from a material-cultural standpoint or in action. It can also refer to the inauthentic materials used by those reenactors.

Also called "polyester soldiers,"^[1] farbs are reenactors who spend relatively little of their time or money maintaining authenticity with regard to uniforms, accessories, objects or period behavior. The 'Good Enough' attitude is pervasive among farbs, although even casual observers may be able to point out flaws.
Farbiness is dependent upon context as well as expectations and is somewhat subjective. For example, while a "mainstream" reenactor might accept an object that looks right from a spectator perspective, a "progressive" or "hard core" reenactor might consider the object to be farb if it's not made in a historically accurate manner.

Etymology

The origin of the word farb (and the derivative adjective farby) is unknown, though it appears to date to early centennial reenactments of the American Civil War in 1960 or 1961.^[2] Some think that the origin of the word is a truncated version of "Far be it from authentic."^[3] An alternative definition is "Far Be it for me to question/criticise,"^[4][5] or "Fast And Researchless Buying".^[6]Some early reenactors assert the word derives from German Farbe, color, because inauthentic reenactors were over-colorful compared with the dull blues, greys or browns of the real Civil War uniforms that were the principal concern of American reenactors at the time the word was coined.^[7][8] Since the word was coined, it has become widespread throughout the reenactor community.

Day Three- Gettysburg! (Luke's version).

So now I guess I get to write the more humorous version of today's events. We woke up bright and early to head down to the restaurant area at our hotel, where we ate some good breakfast and listen to the waitress lady complain about how tired she was and that she hates to get up early (great service, really!). Afterwards we headed out to the brand-spankin' new Gettsyburg Visitor Center (well, three years old, but still pretty nice and new). We went to watch a 20 minute video about the war and then went to view the Cyclorama, which is a big pic-, sorry, oil PAINTING that goes around in a circle. The thing is super huge and is about 43 feet high and 300 something feet in length. Then after THAT ( I know, lots of museum) we went to the huge exhibit, (I know, this place is endless). So 10:00 o'clock rolled around and we met up with our tour guide, Howie. Howie was an  retired Navy service man, and has been a licensed tour guide for the Gettysburg battlefield. Howie talked A LOT, which for the most part was great! But sometimes it seemed a little bit intimidating to ask him a question because you didn't want to interrupt his talking. So after about 2 1/2 hours we said goodbye to Howie and went to look for a place to eat. We found a Friendly's restaurant and sat down, now here's where it gets good.

Here comes walking up some very, and I mean VERY elderly lady by the name of Rita. Rita has probably been working at Friendly's since it's been open (1940s). So we ordered our meals and waited for awhile. Then after awhile Rita comes back with our food. Smelling like smoke and handling the food with her big, long, yellow nails, she handed us our food and hobbled away. So a little background on Friendly's before I go on, Friendly's is like the East Coast version of the Mid-West's Perkins, But instead of breakfast, Friendly's is famous for it's ice cream. So we decided to order some ice cream. Rita came to the table while I was going to the bathroom, and asked Beth and Taber if they wanted to order their ice cream now, they said no because I was in the bathroom. Rita say's in her crackly voice (at least in Beth's version) "Oh alrighty, I'll be back in a little bit). So I get back and we wait for Rita, and we wait, and we wait, and we wait. I don't know what "a little bit" means in Rita's world, but I know that in the real-world it's like 5 minutes. Well, we waited about 25 minutes before she even came BACK to order our ice cream And then you know, about another leisurely 15 minutes to make the ice cream. So, that was the fun we had at Friendly's. After some more driving around the battlefield revisiting some sites, we headed back to the hotel to relax and re-cooperate. Then we went to the Farnswoth House for some period dinner. They had some cool, unique foods there (like Dutch Relish, Spoon Bread Pudding, Sweet Potato Pudding). It was a nice dinner and we walked around afterwards, and then finally after our long adventurous day, headed back to the hotel. 

So now, I'm sitting here in the freezing hotel room (Beth turned on the A/C and never stopped it!) finishing this blog post. Thanks for following along and reading! 

Day Three - Gettysburg! Written by Taber

Luke agreed that after I post he will write a post, so I won't write too long!

Today was an incredible day.  We were up early, had omelets (breakfast is "free" at the hotel) and started our day at the Gettysburg Visitor Center.  Following the advice of many we had arranged a tour with a licensed battlefield guide and that was set for 10am.  We took advantage of the time before hand to see the 20 minute video with Morgan Freeman and Sam Waterston and visited the Cyclorama.  The video was well done and I found myself a little choked up at the thought of what happened here.  The cyclorama was also a great way to think about the war and the detail was outstanding.  It is amazing to think that the painting is over 100 years old and the detail rivals a photograph.

We met Howie, our battlefield guide, at 10 and spent the next 2 1/2 hours with him.  The photos is of Luke and me at Little round Top with Howie.  Right away he told us that he was a talker and he lived up to that, we had to time our questions and slip them in between breaths.  Howie is a wealth of knowledge and did an extraordinary job orienting us to the battlefield, sharing stories and answering questions - of course!  Hiring a guide was very reasonable an excellent way to learn about Gettysburg and understand what was happening.

By the time 12:30 rolled around we were tired and hungry so we took Luke to an East Coast fixture - Friendlys.  Luke promises to share all the details on Rita, our server, but a simple lunch ended up taking more than two hours before we were back on the road.  We had several places that we wanted to return to visit and our museum passes were only good for today so we wanted to get back and check out the museum before it closed at 6. 


After lunch we returned to the battlefield and visited the two monuments to the First Minnesota (the only Minnesota regiments at Gettysburg), The monument to the 20th Maine and several others, including a monument to Pennsylvania soldiers, which is massive and sets the bar very high.  We also visited the soldier's cemetery that Lincoln helped to dedicate.  This was another very powerful experience for me.  The cemetery was very quiet and gave me to time to reflect on the events that transpired her 148 years ago and what Lincoln's address was truly about. The museum in the visitor's center was another fee, but it was extensive and we spent out time going through the exhibits.

We had a little re-grouping time at the hotel, had dinner at the Farnswoth house, which has bullet marks all across the brick and serves period meals in a cozy home.  After dinner we did a little exploring on foot and we plan to do some walking and shopping tomorrow. I wrote about some of the powerful moments, but there has also been a lot of goofing around and fun!  I've had to tell Beth AND Luke to cut it out a couple times and Luke is taking photos of all sorts of things and we're enjoying the time together.

A haunted Gettysburg tour is still on the maybe list.  We've asked several locals if these things are worth it and none of them have ever gone on a tour, but Howie did tell us that is essentially a story-telling walk.  Stacy asked what it is to be "farby".  First of all these are "farby".  A farb is someone who tries to re-enact a different period, but doesn't do it accurately - i.e. a Civil War re-enactor who is wearing a wrist watch or talking on his/her cell phone while in costume. 

Thanks to everyone for the comments - keep following!

Day Two - Getting to Gettysburg!

Today is Taber's turn to post.

We spent last night in Country Inn and Suites outside of Toledo and we were on the road by 6:30, which proved to work in out favor later on.  The day started off on a great note with a very friendly hotel clerk who chatted us up during the "free" breakfast.  We made terrific progress until shortly after we entered the long state of Pennsylvania and found that the Turnpike was closed.  Note to self - next time we drive on the east coast keep a tally of what we pay for tolls!  I was surprised that the turnpike was closed - it seemed like it was closed for construction, but who closes a turnpike?  Pennsylvanians apparently, as they closed a lot of it.  The good news was the we saw some beautiful rolling countryside Including the photo of the bridge), some interesting store names (more from Luke on this) and getting on the road early paid off as a 7 hour ride turned in to a 10 hour drive.  It was ten hours because when you close a turnpike an re-route all traffic on to small two lane roads traffic tends to get backed up quite a bit.  We had great opportunities to sit in the car, play games and listen to podcasts on the Civil War, hauntings in Gettysburg and other bits of interesting information.

We arrived in Gettysburg around 4:30 and we rolled right into part of the battlefield, which was exciting, navigated through a great town and then up to the hotel.  Beth took a little nap and then we were off to dinner at a great Irish Pub in town.  After dinner we walked about the town, did some planning for tomorrow and then visited some easily accessible portions of the battlefield.  There is a presence there and both Luke and I felt it as we explored.  Tomorrow we plan to start the day at the visitor center around 8 and then meet our personal tour guide at 10 for a two hour guided tour, which will include the First Minnesota and 20th Maine.  In the afternoon we hope to do some more exploring, dine at the Dobbin House http://www.dobbinhouse.com/ and we make join a haunted Gettysburg Tour (if we can find a non-"farby" tour!).

More soon!  Thanks for reading.