I made this video right before we really started doing work on the house for our move this coming Saturday. Our house goes on the market tonight after the realtor comes over and helps us through all the paperwork.

Here are some pics of where we’ll be living from August 1st until the end of September:

We haven’t seen it in person, but it’s only a 1/2 hour bus ride to my school and only 800 dollars for both months. Dale scouted the location and said that the neighborhood was safe and clean. Rock and Roll!

The Franklin Family is moving to Chicago. In Two weeks.

Q: Why?
A: Because I want to teach in a great inner city school. And there’s this school that’s really neat in Chicago. And they’ll pay me.

Q: How did you pull this off?
A: Interviewing 4,000 times, teaching 3 lessons, completing multiple essays, staying up long nights studying Mesopotamia.

Q: When will this happen?
A: We’re there by the end of July.

Q: How long have you been planning this?
A: Plan? What Plan? I got the job offer on Tuesday.

Q: Are you crazy? Two weeks?
A: Yes, we’re crazy. Do you need to buy a house in Cincinnati? It’s really nice, and I can give you a deal.

Q: What are you most excited about?
A: Harrassing Duncan Teater.

Q: Where will you be living?
A: We’re not sure. Oak Park? Wicker Park? Bucktown? Somewhere yuppy and nice and walkable and expensive.

Q: Are you really going to go to church at an Opus Dei Parish?
A: Maybe. I’m quite fond of Albino Assassin Monks.

Q: Are you crazy? Two small children a husband and wife in two weeks?
A: It can be done.

Yes, things do get weird. Things change. People freak. Hang on tight kiddies. Riding the wave is a gamble, but so are most things. We can’t ever predict the outcome on anything important, really.

We visited Gettysburg, PA on our way home from Boston. My favorite movie when I was younger was the movie Gettysburg starring Jeff Daniels as Colonial Joshua L. Chamberlain and Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee. Sam Elliot played the union cavalryman James Buford and has since been one of my favorite actors. I first read the book Killer Angels when I was 13 and have had a fascination with the civil war since I was a young boy.

The Battlefield, to me, is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, it’s just amazing to see the place that I’ve read about in books and seen in the movies. The battlefields, of course, didn’t look anything like I expected them to look. Even though I was familiar with the major skirmishes and major actors, I still couldn’t get a sense of what was happening by looking at those battlefield maps in books and on the history channel. You really need to be there to get a sense of what was going on. I didn’t even realize that the Devil’s Den was right across from Little Round Top!! Second, the park is amazing because it covers 25 square miles and has a vast amount of monuments. You wouldn’t believe the monuments, one for probably every regiment that served during the battle. They’ve paved a road along where the main Confederate line was encamped and it helps to drive it and really get a sense of how stretched out Lee’s army was during the battle. Also amazingly, you can rent a personal guide for your car for 2 hours for 45 dollars!

I would really like to go back and see a reenactment or maybe spend some time reenacting. Is that too geeky?

It was a real treat for me to be able to meet, quite by chance, Author of God’s & Generals and The Last Full Measure, Jeff Sharra. After we finished our tour of the battlefield, we decided to walk around town and get ice cream. We noticed a large white tent with a placard underneath that said, “Friends of Gettysburg”. And who did we spy sitting at the table signing autographs? None other than Jeff Sharra author of Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure himself!

Later, after iced cream, we came back and I was able to meet Edwin Bearss, the pied piper of civil war history himself!

It was a great day.