Gettysburg

At 9:15 we departed for the Hershey water park. On time if you can believe that. But our excitement didn't last long. Believe it or not we were stopped on the highway because our bus driver was driving too fast. Roughly 30 km above the speed limit. Yeah the driver that complained how slow the other two bus drivers are. Pennsylvania state trooper (state police or something like that) walked on our bus and started the questioning. Bus driver said we were from Russia. We corrected him that we were from Slovenia. We said we were scouts. The trooper asked if we are soccer players. Until we said Boy Scouts he didn’t have a clue what was going on. Welcome to USA I guess. Police officer called for backup and we drove backwards on the highway to the nearest exit. Then to the gas station to wait for what's gonna happen.

Oh and the Chinese bus driver got stopped as well. His argument why he was driving too fast: I just followed the bus in front of me 🙈 Sure. While waiting at the gas station:

I guess if the kid has a toy, dad should have a bigger one.

We arrived to the Hershey park two hours later then planned. Off-course the line to get into the park was loooong. Anyway we stopped for lunch in some random fast food then headed to the pool. Yeah I know they told us not to do it in kindergarten but we have only 3h left so who cares. Nobody puked for the record.

We had to wait in order to get even into a swimming pool. Don't get me started on the lines for roller coasters and slides. So we went into a pool that was simulating waves. Waves were pretty strong. Kind of cool experience, if you subtract the other hundred people in the pool. Warm shower was probably the highlight of the day. Though not worth 40$ (thank god for the discount from price of 70$ per person). So as showers go I guess that was my most expensive shower so far.

The whole entertainment park was quite a shock for me compared to the calm routine of the Jamboree. I guess I'll never get that. People are actually willing to spend 70 dollars and a whole sunny Sunday to walk one over another. And then call that having fun. Not me. Though I never was a fan of big crowds anyway.

I made a strategic mistake and had to much stuff with me in the park. Well I guess I have a way to go on my minimalism path.

We departed back to Gettysburg on time and arrived there without any hiccups. At the camp site our guests prepared for us a presentation of the US civil war. Apparently the north had 35 million inhabitants at the time and south around 5 million. On top of that the slaves were not allowed to fight in the south. So odds were not in the favour of the south.

As it turns out the Gettysburg was the largest battle in the civil war so the town is full of historic sites. The place where we had our tent camp served as a medical facility. We had the opportunity to shoot with the rifle from that time:

and something a bit louder. A cannon:

The other more interesting part was the tour of the house that served as a hospital.

The house was somehow preserved that much that forensics found blood spills all over the house almost two hundred years later. So yeah as you walk from a room to a room the tour guide tells you without hesitation who died where. House was apparently a hospital for officers and the barn was for the normal soldiers. As far as the US medicine goes the civil war was the time when US introduced some major changes into the medical system. They introduced first specialists. If it turned out that you were cutting legs the fastest you became specialist for that. It's a bit sick but makes sense.

Next thing were ambulances. They noticed that wounded soldiers didn't manage to get from the battlefield to the nearby hospital. Surprise, surprise so transport was invented. There's another funny story behind ambulances. An officer from the northern army proposed to congress in DC that they introduce ambulances and few other changes. The congress agreed and they posted posters with improvements for the medical treatment across the Washington city. There was a counter argument against it that the southerners will get the information too, but president Lincoln insisted that every American should get high quality medical treatment. At the end the southern army was the first to introduce ambulances.

When we walked around the barn the guide told us what specific place in the barn was meant for. One corner for example was dedicated to leg amputation. Once the leg was cut they would throw it out of the window and a solider who was on probation would have to collect them. Guide told us that the legs and arms are buried over there where we are drying our towels 🙈 We were kind of like ups we should move them. Apparently it was fine since there's something buried everywhere around here.

When you hear some of those stories your stomach turns and you realise that the conditions we leave in today are really nice. Despite all the downsides.

We wrapped up the evening with snack packing for the trip and a dinner. Somehow I ended up in a conversation with few younger scouts about issues in Slovenian troops. It's so funny how some issues remain the same, the only difference is that the generations change. You might wonder why? Well every generation of leaders has to learn something and how would they learn if every problem has been solved by now?

As the night started to fall we light up the fire and played the guitar long into the night. Tomorrow we are heading home 😂