MyTrip to Maryland (Part 2)

So, in our last episode, Monday was ending after a trip to Gettysburg. On Tuesday, I went back to work and I found out what we were doing there. Basically, there are thousands upon thousands of transactions performed by the VA. Many of these are not done with all of the required information in the purchase orders or credit card records and this make it hard to categorize what was puchased. In FY 2009, our $17 billion was spent which fell into this category. It wasn't wasted (at least, not necessarily), but it was "Uncategorized". So, the VA hired an outside firm which developed a software program to help. It takes these transactions and compares them to what it already knows and tries to guess what each would have been for. For instance, if the vendor was FedEx, it was probably something to do with shipping. If the money came from the Prosthetics Department, it was probably something prosthetics related. So, this company, took about 9,000 of these educated guesses and wanted us to go through them. There were three categories: The first were items which it was pretty sure was accurate, the second had two choices and it wanted us to either pick one of the two or find a more accurate one, and the third category was pretty much the computer saying that it had no idea and please help. It wasn't exciting work, but I can see its usefulness.

We finally started working on Tuesday at about 1:00 PM once all of the logistics were taken care of. We stayed until about 4:30.

After work, I drove to Baltimore to catch an Orioles games. They were playing the Rays (Matt Garza was pitching) so it held some interest for me. It was also cheap bleacher seat ($9) and free t-shirt night, so that was cool. Michelle Obama was there to promote her "No Fat Kids" initiative. It rained right up until gametime, and then the sun came out and it was pretty muggy. The Orioles started out pretty well. Three straight batters got home runs off of Garza who is one of the best pitchers in baseball (he had a no-hitter last night). The scoreboard said that the last time the Orioles had three home runs in a row was in 1992. For the first few innings, they were doing well. Then, in the sixth, the Rays scored 4 runs and took the lead. It was starting to rain again, so I figured I'd leave since the Rays looked like they were about to run away with it anyway. Plus, I realized that Orioles fans are pretty boring. There wasn't a single attempt at a wave or any "Let's go Orioles" cheers. It was like they were there against their will. Well, the game turned into a classic after I left and it wound up going 13 innings with the Orioles winning on a walk-off hit. Oh well.

After work on Wednesday, I was pretty tired so I just sort of laid low. I went to the mall and then to dinner and then to Walmart. Nothing too exciting.

On Thursday, they told us that we'd be done early, so I worked on cancelling my hotel room and changing my plane tickets. I ended up leaving at about 4:45 on Thursday and drove to Manassas to find the marker about the 20th NYSM (Walter's regiment in the Civil War). Thankfully, I found a website that had the exact coordinates of it or I would never have found it. I had to drive about 3 miles down a dirt road and then hike about another mile after that along an area known as the "Unfinished Railroad". I was glad I made the trip though. It was a much different feeling from Gettysburg. At Gettysburg, everyone knows about it and it is really crowded. It deserves it of course, but I'm just saying. When I found this marker, I was by myself in the woods on a spot where the 20th lost a lot of men in one of their first battles. In fact, one of the men who died was Colonel George Pratt, the first wartime commander of the 20th. I had written a report on this area and I had tried to picture what it would have looked like. To actually see it was really a neat experience.

There is a webpage about the marker here.

Also, about a quarter-mile away is the marker for the 15th Alabama Infantry, the regiment that was fighting against the 20th. I've read the stories that some of the soldiers from the 15th wrote which made this all very real to me. It was just nice to be alone with my thoughts about the battle and the brave men who fought in it.

My hotel for the night was back in Baltimore. I had gone about an hour out of the way to visit Manassas, so now I had to drive back in rush hour traffic. When I got back to the main road, I turned the opposite direction I had come and there was the rest of the Bull Run battlefield. Somewhere on this field, another ancestor of mine had died, Horace Merrithew. He had lied about his age and enlisted in the 104th New York Infantry, only to be killed in his first battle. I've been trying to find a reference that would show where he fought in the battle, but to no avail.

It took about 2 hours to make the one hour drive to my hotel. I had gotten a hotel closer to the airport as I was flying out the next morning. I took a dip in the hot tub, changed, and then went down to have a drink at the bar. I met a guy in a Twins jersey and we started discussing baseball. A little while later a couple more Twins fans showed up and we wound up chatting for about an hour and a half. Each of them were on quests to visit as many baseball ballparks as they could. The older guy said Camden Yards was his 30th location, and the younger guy said it was his 21st. I did the counting in my head and I am at 8: Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago (Comiskey), Cincinnati, Kansas City, Texas (Arlington), and St. Louis (old Busch Stadium). If I go back to Maryland, I'll try to add Washington as well. I need to get my number up.

Anyway, I flew home Friday and everything went well. Hannah picked me up in Tulsa with her mommy, Mama, and Papa. We stayed in Tahlequah that night and drove home to Fayetteville the next day.

This is where the story of my trip ends, but the story of our backyard continues....