Building Your Imagination Around the Information

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Who would have thought that Amish country would enable such immaturity spring to life so easily. It’s impossible to not think of sex when you see it on the map. But apart from taking the photo of the sign upon arrival and the word making you think about it. This place has not much to do with it at all.



Pittsburgh is on the west of Pennsylvania and the long drive toward Philedelphia was broken up as we drove along the south of the state. Along the highway I noticed a sign saying Flight 93 memorial and it triggered my memory that the 4^th plane of September 11 crashed in the open fields of this state.



I turned off and told Robert Parish when he woke up that, “We have a detour.” Nothing much is to see here really just an open field with some trees nearby but it’s a memorial in progress. A long boardwalk takes you to a marble wall with the names of the passengers and flight crew who fought off the terrorists. Behind that is an area designated to only the families of the dead where their final resting place is. I eavesdropped on a guide and she said that they don’t include the 4 terrorists because they are basically not human.



There are plans to make a grand memorial with 40 wind chimes, a tower of voices, a future flight path walkway and a field of honour. It was a weird feeling walking toward the crash site. It’s quite here and the decision to take on the terrorists saved DC, which was only 18 minutes flying time away.



The silence and the thought that if this didn’t happen than DC would have got hit a second time, leaves a confused feeling. A bit like well thank Christ this happened and oh why did this have to happen? In years to come this place could be a major memorial area and tourism will pick up. I would have liked to ask locals what their thoughts on the memorial is and how it has and will affect the lifestyle of the local people.



Before Amish country we headed to Gettysburg the major Civil War battlefield. Fought from July 1-3, 1863. It saw the largest number of casualties in the civil war. It is said to be the turning point of the war where General Lee’s Confederate army ended their push north. Around 46 000 -50 000 soldiers were either killed, wounded, captured or missing. Around the 25-30% of the participants.



To get an idea about the death rate of the American Civil War. Both World War deaths combined still fall short of the amount of deaths in this war. World Wars make up for it in the wounded category.



I’ll talk briefly on the reasoning’s of the civil war that I can gather. There was an economic difference, with the north relying on industry for economic growth whilst the south concentrated on agriculture mainly cotton. This meant the south relied heavily on slavery to function this economy efficiently.



Abolition of slavery became a big part with the Unions encouraging black soldiers to fight for the cause. Another was after the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican War. What will the policy on slavery be once the new states that come in? Are they going to be slave states or free states?



The other one was the election of Abraham Lincoln. Said to be anti slavery and tendencies toward the north. 7 states had succeeded before he became president. South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas - Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and parts of Missouri and Kentucky who later joined the Confederates.



We arrived late in the afternoon so we weren’t able to spend as much time here as we wanted to. So much in a hurry to get here, we didn’t stop off at the ultimate strip joint that we drove past on the road trip to try and beat the dark. This strip joint was a dirty shack next to the state highway next door to trees and potentially had the elusive strip joint with a pregnant women stripping. I heard stories about people’s first hand experience of this but Gettysburg was deemed more important.



But anyhow back to the Gettysburg National Military Park. We honestly didn’t know what the hell we were looking at. We started driving around some tree line and it turned out to be the confederate’s trench behind the lines. Than a long whip around to the front line looking toward Gettysburg town, a small town that hasn’t grown much since the battle times. That is in the background; in the foreground is the green open pastures of the battlefield.



Our first views were on the Confederates side and it’s a deceptive look giving an appearance that it’s flat. The highest viewpoint on their side is where the eternal flame is that looks down on part of the battlefield. On the wall of the eternal flame it says “AN ENDURING LIGHT TO GUIDE US IN UNITY AND FELLOWSHIP.”



Apart from the Civil War it is also known for the Gettysburg speech and Abe Lincoln’s “Four Scores and Seven Years ago.” There are a lot of civil war sites and they are scattered around this part of the country and going south. The only way to really scope a scene is to move toward the Union lines. Using the famous fishhook shape as there line of defence. They had one strategic advantage up on a rocky hill that basically saw nearly every movement on the battlefield.



Unfortunately I have lost the detailed info I wrote down on the name of the place and the map on the Internet I can’t work out. Standing there as you read the plaque in the closing moments of light. The sun gone, you can build your imagination around the information. Here the confederates charged up and were winning, to retaliate reinforcements from New York came up from the other side of the hill to force the confederates back and a major attack was repelled.



One place to see is Cemetery Ridge where On July 2 a guy called Colvill led the first Minnesota group charge down the slope. He was leading his men to a larger Confederate force in order to buy a few minutes (that’s all) for Union reinforcements. They lost over 80 percent of their men. It was the most deadly encounter of the war. Colvill survived the attack, but was permanently crippled from his wounds.



There are so many ridiculous stories like this and just one of many that instill that patriotism within this country. They may be around the world trying to sort out problems and make sure they are personally sweet. But they went through a lot of blood and tears to get to the point they are at, at the moment. It is something that is not known well. How America was not always a big shot and acted like a lot of the countries they are trying to help.



Through the wars and bickering, freedom and peace came and soon after along came the residence of Lancaster County, which was our next stop and it was here the best-known Amish Country lies. There are others in Ohio south of Cleveland but here’s the place where eventually you head toward the town called Intercourse.



The idea is to get off the main road and drive the back streets. Surprisingly there is a lot of development but it’s generally to do with the farmland. Cars were at a minimum in the form of ours and a few others, the rest were horse and black concealed carts. Horse and cart parked on the driveway, ridden along the street.



We passed a school and saw schoolchildren playing softball. I felt kind of paedophile like or a spy with my telephoto lens poking out of the car to snap up this other world experience. But hey its different but because of its closeness to the major highways its hard to see it in its uninfluenced way but once the horse and cart is seen or the ox carting the farmer through the field it takes you back.



Previously I went to Paraguay, which has, the Mennonite community which follows a similar lifestyle and that is probably a better experience but mainly because it is so secluded in the unhospitable Chaco. There is some respect towards these people for holding onto their beliefs and customs and its even more so when within 10 minutes there is major fast food chains. There are options to ride a bike around which is a more natural way to see it but we had a car so why not.



My sister and David her fiancée went to the Ohio area and it sounded like they had a better experience than I had. Highly recommended was Northwest of Auburn near Shipshewana. There is a restaurant called Essenhaus. Go with the Raspberry and Custard w/cream pie or the Raspberry and chocolate w/cream pie. I quote David “Best freaking desert pie I have ever had, every element of that pie was distinct yet melded together effortlessly, amazing.”



Food here was LARGE it took me two goes to get through dinner. In Paraguay the dairy product was the best I have ever had but here was just normal. Combined with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Pennsylvania provides a good scale of America. A big historic city, a big blue-collar city, a civil war site, September 11 memorial and example of a community free to believe and live the lifestyle they chose.

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