Daily Narrative    Well this was quite the day.  It began early with Theresa bounding out of the Gettysburg KOA for a run and Brian finishing up the last few web page narratives to catch up from the New York City/Martha's Vineyard drought.  We headed into Gettysburg around 9:00 for a little Civil War touristing and stopped at the National Park Service's visitors center.  In all fairness, with neither of us being big civil war buffs and having ended up in Gettysburg on accident, this building had more information on the famous battle than either of us could process.  The volume of artifacts, from uniforms to the largest complete collection of civil war firearms, is mind boggling.  Something we were able to wrap our heads around, and the absolute highlight of the visit, was the "Electric Map"!  The Electric Map is a 1950's era auditorium sized color coded relief map of the area, with hundreds of little light bulbs of different colors all over it.  As you sit and listen to an exhaustive description of the three day battle, the lights are turned on and off in groups to demonstrate troop movement, points of interest, etc...  An excellent example of "retro-technology".  Our next stop along the morning's road was actually the reason we had aimed for the Gettysburg area instead of going directly south, the Harley Davidson factory.  On the outskirts of York is the Harley Davidson Final Assembly Plant, where all Harleys spend there last moments before going public.  The tour started first in the museum with a representative sample of Harley Davidsons from 1906 to the present and then lead on to the assembly plant itself.  Fabricating a Harley obviously involves a fair amount of pressing metal from blank sheets of stainless steel into fenders and such, but it also involves a surprising number of lasers and robots.  Although we both walked out of the factory going, "Cool!", Brian is still not allowed to have one...  As we left York, heading to a metro station on the outskirts of Washington D.C., the bus made a hugely discouraging noise in the rear engine hatch that sounded like a coffee can full of bolts being shaken at warp speed.  The rest of the day involved another very nice tow truck driver, a long tow to a little VW shop in between Baltimore and D.C., and the pleasure of meeting Bill and Phoebe (our buddy Rachel's folks and our buddy Dion's in-laws).

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Daily Pictures

Early morning in the firefly infested Gettysburg KOA	Gettysburg, where everything is about the civil war
A dark picture of the very awesome Electric Map	Authentic Civil War cannons
Probably a fair comparison of the actual height differential	The Gettysburg memorial cemetery, where most graves in this section did not appear to have stemmed from the battle
A good piece of the Harley Davidson Final Assembly plant's employee parking area	A pilgrimage for all things Harley
A 1906, first mass production model (they made 50!)	A 1929, we are sure we learned a lot about this one, but like it mostly because it looks so cool
1966, the year of the first Sportster and, oddly enough, Brian	It seems like we've been here before.  Preparing for the 80 mile tow around Baltimore to Laurel, Maryland
Harley, the extremely friendly tow truck co-pilot	Into Maryland, but not in the driver's seat

Off the roof and inside it goes, our latest mechanic doesn't appear to work in the best area of Maryland...

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