Never a Dull Moment!

Life is never dull...especially my life! Yesterday I was headed up to York, Pennsylvania to go to the music store when all of the sudden I heard a REALLY loud noise. It sounded like a helicopter was hovering over the car!

After driving for a few more seconds, I realized that it wasn't a helicopter, but the CAR that was making all that noise. I slowly pulled over to the side of the expressway and listened very carefully. The noise stopped. Not even thinking that it might be tire trouble, I kept driving until things got very bumpy and loud. I thought "Oh great! The engine is giving out!" (shows you my ignorance about car problems! :)) I knew that I had to try to get off the expressway before the car gave out entirely, so I VERY SLOWLY pulled off an exit that was nearby and found a place to stop the car.

When I got out of the car, this is what I found...


The tire had almost ripped off! It was no mere flat tire; I must have hit something that slashed it like that, but I have NO idea what it was.

My first thought was to call Adam, of course. I called and called, but he didn't answer. I thought that was strange, since he usually always carries his phone with him. After a few more times I realized that his phone was inside the car with me! Agggghhhhh! I finally realized that I could text his email, which he would probably check since he was working on his computer at home. Thankfully, he did answer, but couldn't do anything to help me because he had no transportation.

One of our church members (Rick Walls) lives close to the exit that I stopped at, so I quickly got in touch with him. He and his sons do a lot with cars, so I thought he would probably be able to help me. He hopped in his truck and was there within 10 minutes fixing my tire!

You may ask, "Why didn't you just change the tire yourself?" Well, I have 2 reasons. First of all, I don't know how to change a tire. :) Secondly, because the tire was ripped so badly, I was afraid that something might have gotten damaged other than the tire. I didn't want to drive the car until someone could look at it.

Well, Rick Walls was able to put on a spare tire and his daughter and son-in-law (Matt and Abby Plowman) helped us find a garage to get a new tire. Praise the Lord for good friends! We are also so thankful that nothing else was damaged, and that I was safe.

What a day! :)

Gettysburg

Since yesterday was Adam's day off, we decided to take a day trip to Gettysburg while the leaves were still on the trees. It was such a BEAUTIFUL day! The weather was just perfect, and we so much enjoyed the time spent together.

We've both been to Gettysburg before and have done the tape tour, so we just stopped by the National Museum and Visitor's Center to get a map and some quick pics before we drove around our own self-guided tour of the battlefields.

This sign struck us as being REALLY funny! Not only is it in between the men's and women's restrooms; it's also in between two different sized water fountains! Too funny! I wonder if they meant to do that?

Abe "wanna-be"...

Like the hats?

We began our little tour by stopping at McPhearson's ridge. So beautiful!

On top of the observation tower overlooking the ridge...

These cannons are everywhere! We decided to have a little fun with them...

We drove up to Seminary Ridge next...

The Virginia Memorial

Charge!

It was so beautiful on Seminary Ridge that we took out our lawn chairs and had our lunch while we enjoyed the spectacular view!

Our lunchtime view.

Next we stopped near these neat fences to get a few pictures and view the battlefields.

We decided to go up a REALLY high observation tower. It was a LOOOOONG ways down!

For me, the highlight of the trip was our climb up Big Round Top. The forest was so lovely! Doesn't it look like a fairy-tale?

After a long, tiring climb, we finally reached the top!

Civil War re-enactment :)

The hike down was lovely as well...

We had to stop next at Little Round Top. The view was awesome!

I liked the fall foliage in this shot, so I thought I'd share it (plus, the man is kinda handsome, too :))

By the time we reached Gettysburg National Cemetery, Adam was wiped out. He stayed in the car to nap while I explored the cemetery.

It was here that Abe Lincoln gave his famous "Gettysburg Address"

These neat poems were all around the graveyard...

Civil War "unknown" soldiers were marked with a number...

The soldiers who were able to be identified were buried here and their names were engraved into the stone. There are lines upon lines of these!

This is what I found when I returned to the car :)

All around Gettysburg are quaint little shops. I liked this hat shop!

This picture was rather interesting to me. Supposedly, the soldier in the picture and the girl entered into a secret engagment during the war. If the soldier lived, the girl would marry him after the war. If he died, however, she promised never to marry. The solider DID end up dying, and the girl became a nun for the rest of her life. How sad!

A replica of the dress the girl was wearing in the picture.

We ended our day by driving another 45 minutes to Frederick, Maryland, where we met up with Tizzy. Here we are at Olive Garden. It was great to see her and the War Team again! Love ya, Tiz!

THE END. :)