Home!

I’m home again after a terrific but hectic and exhausting weekend at my 25th reunion at my alma mater, Dickinson College. I will spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say that it was truly wonderful catching up with old friends, fraternity brothers, and classmates whom I have not seen in 25 years. There were 20 in my pledge class. Two transferred and one flunked out, meaning 17 of us graduated. Seven of us made it back this weekend, and we had a great time getting caught up on the years that have flown by.

And Susan’s really a good sport for coming along to suffer through stories that mean nothing to her, and meeting all of these people that I’ve known for years, but which have no real significance to her. She’s a great sport, and I love her for it. I only dragged her along because if she hadn’t come, I would not have had a single weekend with her in the month of June. Kudos to Susan for going above and beyond the call of duty.

I also had a very successful book signing at the college bookstore Saturday morning. Many of the purchases were by my classmates, and they pretty much bought up every copy of both One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863 and Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg that they had purchased for the event. I even had a couple of Carlisle residents with no connection to the college come by to pick up signed copies of the books, which was very cool indeed.

I had a blast, but I’m worn out. I then had to mow the lawn when I got home, which didn’t help things much. I have three days in the office tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then it’s off to Virginia to lead battlefield tours.