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Now in Charlottesville after a three day no internet and no battery stretch that took us from Bull Run to Gettysburg to Hasburg. It was a lovely stretch of Civil War memories, with much of the highway we followed called "The Hallowed Ground Trail". We did feel the hallowed ground, particularly at Gettysburg where we ran alongside Cemetery Ridge and stopped at the spot in the middle of the Union Line where the line was breached by the Confederates at 7pm on the critical day two of the battle. Just when the left end of the line at Little Round Top was holding, against all odds thanks to Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine, came this new danger. The Union was saved by General Win Hancock, who saw the breach and rallied a brigade of Minnesotans to plug the gap- at great cost the Minnesotans held until more reinforcements arrived. The Union was saved.
And on to the batteries: with the help of John Hansen, an old friend from Alexandria, who was one of four couples from that era who joined us for lunch at Bull Run, we diagnosed dead batteries as our situation. Calls to Charlottesville unearthed a battery supply store who had our models in stock. We headed for the store, but first we finally unearthed the access to the batteries- difficult to get to under our bedding and other layers. Lo and behold, one of the connector wires had shaken loose. So, instead of $400 for new batteries we simply bought a new connector wire for $14, and we are now fully in business!
Tomorrow we will switch to a hotel here for a reunion with Rhodes Scholar classmates, should be able to add more pics finally.
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