east or west?

monday june 19th:

at some point during our iowa escape cristian and i began discussing our trip home. originally our plan was to be gone three maybe four days and here we were on the eve of week two.

cristian broke out the mapbook and after a few moments said dad, you know we are really not that far from gettysburg.

how far was far in his mind only about a thousand miles.

the look on his face told me all i needed to know we were going to gettysburg.

back in california he has done civil war reenactments and has well over thirty books on the subject. visiting gettysburg was something he had dreamt about but thought he would not get to do until he was an adult.

what the hell i thought.

sure cristian we can go to gettysburg.

don't joke around dad that's not funny.

i'm not joking if you want to go to gettysburg we will head for points east on the map.

by this point he was bouncing off the dq wall in disbelief.

life has not always been easy for him. with the pressure his mom has him under. with my illnesses. no life has not been easy.

i may not be able to give him the world but at least i can give him gettysburg.