<– Day 17 – Mon. May 20th: Gettysburg and A Little Slice of Heaven  | Trip Overview | Day 19 – Wed. May 22nd: Old Cars and Chocolate Shots –>

TWO UPDATES From the original post:

1. We will spend Wednesday in Hershey, PA. We have plans for Thursday in Lancaster and Friday morning in Kempton, PA. From there we will be driving to Long Island on Friday and meeting up with my son (unless they ship him out to Oklahoma). We’ll be staying in the Sea Cliff area through Tuesday morning and then driving up to Connecticut. I hope to have a map update in the next couple of days.
2. On Wednesday morning I finished version one of the Amber Panels of Konigsberg book (YEAH!). I still need to build one graphic and dump the text into the formatted book template, but then I’ll be sending it to the publisher for printing. I plan to do a limited run of fifty books as a “Bantam Festival Special”. LIke the last book, I’m sure there are a few errors that people will find. Once I fix the text, I’ll open the book up for general sales (sometime in mid-July?).

On Tuesday we spent the day with Tom, then Merlin, then headed to Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Merlin and Ann driving in a 1941 MB down a forgotten Maryland road.

Tuesday’s drive from Gettysburg to Hershey

After we left Gettysburg on Tuesday, we drove a few miles east to Tom’s house to check out his Truck and Wagon. Tom’s 1948 truck is his daily driver. He’s added some disc brakes and a Ford 302, so it’s got some power and stopping speed. He also rebuilt the entire rear bed and it looks great!

The wagon is a cheap beast he bought that his son now plays with. It’s got lots of rust issues, but runs good.

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<– Day 16 – Sun. May 19th: On the Road to Gettysburg | Trip Overview | Day 18 – Tues. May 21st: Food and Jeep Rides –>

Adam, Me and Frank inside the large shop that houses their collections.

On Monday we took full advantage of a lazy morning and didn’t leave the motel until the crack of noon. Our first stop was downtown Gettysburg, where we walked around a bit. I can’t imagine why Lincoln would be so popular around this town!

Soon, we were hungry, so we stopped at  Hunts Battlefield Fries and Cafe, a place just south of downtown known (according to the internet) for it’s fresh fries and good burgers.

True to our internet source’s information, the fries were good and there were a lot of them! Ann had a grilled ham/cheese/bacon sandwich that she enjoyed. I had a burger with a good bun and tasty meat. They put no extras on the burger . . . maybe I was supposed to ask for them? It was good anyway.

After lunch we drove to the Gettysburg Battlefield National Park Visitor’s Center. It’s a beautiful new structure. While the surrounding park is free, the museum, the cyclorama and the movie at the visitor’s center costs money. We tried all three and liked the movie the best. After the movie we were whisked upstairs to see the cyclorama. We wished they’d explained what a cyclorama was and underscored how old the cyclorama’s painting was before the show began rather than at the end.

The museum had several groups of school kids completing assignments, so we moved through it rather quickly. It didn’t hit us until near the end of the museum that the different areas of the museum represented each day of the Gettysburg battle. I think it would have been useful to have a sense of nightfall and sunrise as people pass from Day 1 to Day 2 and Day 2 to Day 3.

With the visitor’s center complete, we did a quick tour of the surrounding area:

After touring the park, we headed over to visit Frank at his home, just a few miles north of Gettysburg. Frank had explained that he had some jeeps for us to see.

Entrusting our visit to Siri (iPhone), I asked her to get me directions to Frank’s house. All was going well until we turned into Frank’s long driveway. At that point, Siri warned us to park the vehicle and walk. Ann and I turned to each other and started cracking up. Apparently, Siri was concerned about our well-being and felt we were too far off the road. We were convinced Siri would start yelling “Danger, Danger” and start assimilating us to force us to turnaround. Eventually, I had enough of Siri’s warnings and shut her down.

We finally found Frank and his son Adam at their shop where they keep their collections. As Ann and I marveled at the beauty of the shop, the surrounding barns, and the rolling landscape, Frank explained that he owned three hundred acres of land. He called it a slice of heaven. We could not argue with that description.

Frank and Adam gave us a tour. As you can see in the pictures, they’ve assembled some great stuff. There jeep collection includes a few original paintings, five military jeeps, toys, models, and a CJ-2A they are restoring. They enjoyed sharing their collection with us and we felt honored to be invited. Here are a few photos.

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<– Day 15 – Sat. May 18th: At the Reunion; A Brick Shy of a Full Load  | Trip Overview | Day 17 – Mon. May 20th: Gettysburg and A Little Slice of Heaven –>

On Sunday, we didn’t participate in the ritual Sunday drive through Cuyahoga National Park. Instead, we headed for Gettysburg. However, I was able to get a few pics from the ride:

As folks toured in their jeeps, we exited Hudson, Ohio.

Sunday’s drive from Hudson, Ohio, to Gettysburg.

As we wound our way through Pennsylvania to Gettysburg, the toll roads lightened our wallets to the point we were considering taking out a bank loan. In addition, we encountered clouds that were as thick as fog as we traversed a few tall hills. Isn’t it summer yet?

Finally, it seems the only photo we took all day was a blurry photo a barn. On the bright side, we got a killer deal of $51/night at a Marriott hotel using Priceline, so we plan to stay two nights in Gettysburg.

Tomorrow we will see the Gettysburg battlefield and museum.

<– Day 15 – Sat. May 18th: At the Reunion; A Brick Shy of a Full Load  | Trip Overview | Day 17 – Mon. May 20th: Gettysburg and A Little Slice of Heaven –>

<– Day 12 & 13 – Wed. May 15th & Thurs. May 16th: Mixers, Foodies & Heavy Equipment   | Trip Overview | Day 15 – Sat. May 18th: At the Reunion; A Brick Shy of a Full Load –>

Friday morning we awoke in Hudson, Ohio, a short distance away from the reunion, to a beautiful sunny day. I spent the morning honing Saturday’s presentation. I will be sharing with the audience (assuming more than just Ann shows up) why I run eWillys, how I do it, the challenges, and what the future holds.

On Friday afternoon we made our way to the Clarion Hotel where the 2013 Midwest Willys Reunion is being held. After a quick practice run through the presentation with the slide projector, Ann and I went out to look at all the jeeps.

It seemed every few steps we took someone approached us to share how much they enjoyed eWillys. It’s great to know the site is enjoyed by so many enthusiastic readers and it was fun putting names to faces and shaking hands.

As you can see from the pictures, there were plenty of jeeps to browse today. More are expected tomorrow.

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<– Day 8 – Sat. May 11th: Fire Engines, 16,000 Toys and A Destroyer  | Trip Overview | Day 10 & 11 – Mon. May 13th Rest & Tue. May 14th: Crust, Raisins, and Smoked Pork –>

On Sunday we spent the day sightseeing.

Sunday’s drive was a short one down to Ypsilanti and back.

On Sunday Ann and I drove down to Ypsilanti, MI, which is about an hour south of where we are staying in Fenton, MI. Our goal was the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum (aka Miller Motors), which has a real Tucker and a fiberglass fake Tucker (or so I’m told) made for the Tucker movie.

Ever since I learned Ypsilanti was home to Preston Tucker, I’ve wanted to visit this museum. So, I triple checked the website to make sure it was open on Sunday. The site confirmed this was true. Confident the museum would be open, we arrived at noon Sunday, only to find the museum closed. I was bummed.

So sad . . . I looked in all the windows.

Brian had mentioned the Michigan Firehouse Museum in Ypsi was worth a look. So, we decided to check that out. It consists of an old renovated fire station with a building extension that housed different types of fire trucks, fire fighting equipment, and information. It is a fine exhibit, but after Saturday’s experience with Jim Dobson, our fire-museum quality bar was set pretty high.

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