Busy Monday on Baltimore St

Monday, May 22, 2006 Baltimore St Tour

This tour really goes to show that you never know what you're going to get, as far as group sizes go, on any given night. There was 40 people with me Monday night, compared to only 14 the Friday before. One would assume that it would be busier on Friday, but this time that was not the case! A group of 20 high school kids from Pine Grove, PA did make up half of the group, but hey I'll take it! I love bigger groups and this one was just about at maximum capacity for what I prefer for the Baltimore Street Tour. So off we went.

It is always interesting to see how a group is going to react when half are school children, or in some cases boy/girl scouts, and the rest are the "normal type" tourist; people on vacation, couples out on date night or something like that. These kids were in the AP History class and they talked their teacher to take them out of school for a half day and go to Gettysburg. When school groups tell me something like that, I seriously get a warm, fuzzy feeling. There is nothing better than a school group that has studied the battle a little and their only stop on the field trip is Gettysburg! They're not thinking about going to Hershey Park or NYC. These kids were great.

There were some really nice folks that joined us Monday night. There were four people from Santa Fe, New Mexico. I haven't had anyone from NM in quite some time. I had some locals and couples from Virginia and Maryland as well. I had a little trouble getting to greet everyone the way like to. We started in the court yard at our headquarters and it was tough to tell who was in the school group as there were people scattered everywhere. I hope I didn't miss anyone.

Since there was a group of high school seniors on the tour, I went to the GAR hall on Middle St and told some of the college stories. It's amazing how one little joke about college kids and partying can make you "cool" to a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds. It almost never fails!

It seemed like everyone had fun, I know I enjoyed it!

From tours gone by...A few years go on the Seminary, when I asked who came the fartherest to see the Ghosts of Gettysburg, there was one guy who thought he had it! He proudly boasted "California!" and awaited his kudos. Before I handed him the lollipop prize I kept going around the group asking where they were all from and came to a guy who was from Hawaii! He was a native Hawaiian, belonged to the Navy, was stationed at Pearl Harbor and was on vacation with his family. My Californian tourist was crushed! I gave him a pop anyways! How's that saying go? "So close but so far away." In his case, being so far away brought him close, but not close enough!

Sleep Well.

"Rick Saunders"