Before Plymouth, there was… Jamestown (04-28-13)

  How many places do you know that qualify for a Quadricentennial Plaza? Jamestown, VA does.  This town became the first permanent English settlement in North America when 104 men and boys arrived in May of 1607. The first few years were extremely difficult.  They didn’t realize they had arrived during one of the worst droughts ever.  The first year they were here they did ok because they had brought enough food to last until the first harvest.  Unfortunately the harvest didn’t provide enough food and by early 1610, two thirds of the settlers had died from starvation, sickness or Indian attack. Still, more settlers were sent, with some women in the mix now, and families were started in Jamestown.

Jamestown is the site of an ongoing archeological dig and one of the things they found was the footings for the original fort, so they know exactly where it stood.







There are actually two sections to modern day Jamestown- the National Park, which is the part we went to, and the Living History Museum, which charges a higher admission.  We decided to pass on that until we toured the national park- then we’d see if we wanted or needed more information (we didn’t).


 

The national park has rangers giving tours and we went on a tour with “Rebecca”. She was one of the best interpretive rangers we have ever seen. She was funny, and informative, and played quite a character, complete with accent.  Her “role” was essentially the town busybody, and we, as a group, were the latest batch of indentured servants getting off the ship. She taught us the ropes- what to expect for our daily lives, what the work would be like, working in the tobacco fields, and explained how much better life is there “now” compared to a few years ago. 

After describing the life, and how people literally drop dead in the field, she asked why we had come, and why did we sell 7 years of our lives to get here?  By asking questions and cleverly answering them herself, she taught us that England is a land of “haves” and “have nots” and we all came from the “have not” side of the equation.  There would never be any hope of ever having more, of even ever owning a house, in England. 

America was the land of opportunity.

Tattoo Tonight! (04-25-13)

Nope, not that kind of tattoo. The musical kind.  After trying, and being unable to figure out a way to get to Canada by early June to attend the International Tattoo being held there, we were astounded to learn that there was one being held this weekend, in Norfolk Virginia, a mere hour from where we are staying.  So, what is this kind of Tattoo?

The name is derived from an 18th century term  "Doe den tap toe", or just "tap toe".  Literally translated, it means “close the tap.”  The British encountered, and adopted this term while stationed in Belgium. The Corp drummers, or pipe and drummers, would signal, with music, for the tavern owners to close the tap, and stop serving soldiers drinks, so they would head home and get a decent night’s sleep.
Nowadays, its an extravaganza of military music.

We bought tickets for Thursday night, figuring it would be less crowded than the weekend shows.  We arrived in time for “hullabaloo” which takes place for the two hours before the show.  Hullabaloo is outside, and features food and drink, as well as many musical groups. We heard bagpipers, fife and drum corps. and military jazz bands from all over the world. Hullabaloo was great because the music was free to the public, and it was up close and  personal.

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New Orleans Military jazz band

Colonial Williamsburg

Fife and Drum Corp

Scottish Pipe Band

Virginia is home to a large military population, and I took this picture when this group of guys pulled up in their jeep.  I didn’t think much of it until 15 minutes later when they pulled in front of the stage…

  

Within two minutes they had completely taken apart the jeep, and put it back together again.  Then they drove off. They are the “Jiffy Lube” team.

The Hullabaloo was awesome, but the show inside was even better. Precision marching, singing, dancing, and of course band music were all part of the show.  One French group came out singing, moved on to playing musical instruments, and ended up dancing. Strange, but cool.

 



The United States was represented by the Air Force, the Marines, the Navy and the Army. International performers included groups from England, Australia, Norway, France, Canada and Scotland.
These are some of the videos I took of the Tattoo itself:

Becoming Americans (04-23-13)

I’ve been to other live history museums- such as Plimoth Plantation and Sturbridge Village, so the thought did cross my mind that we could skip Colonial Williamsburg.  Boy am I glad we didn’t. There are several things that set this living history museum apart from all others.  One is the sheer size- it’s the largest museum of it’s kind, and encompasses 300 acres.   We elected to get a multi day pass, which was smart because they rotate which years they are interpreting. Tuesdays they represent 1775-1776 and Wednesday they interpret 1779-1781.  I think what I liked most about this place was that this timeframe in our history was so dynamic, volatile and, well, historic! 

Our first stop was the movie theater to watch “Becoming a Patriot” a movie about a fictitious family in Williamsburg, 1775, and what life was like for them. Great movie.

To get to the “town”, you cross over a bridge where you “walk back in time”.  On the ground there are plaques that contain a timeline with information from different years. One plaque says “1865- from this date back, you know people who own other people.”

On the outskirts of the town was a small farm, where you could talk to farm workers and slaves about the work they were performing. From the slave’s perspective all the talk of freedom and  claiming independence didn’t mean much, because no one was talking about the slaves being free. It was ironic that colonists were willing to fight for freedom yet they all owned slaves.

There were numerous side roads with small houses, gardens, and many trade businesses.  We checked out the wheelwright, the cabinet maker, the joiner (which, surprisingly is a separate job), the brickyard, etc. Paul enjoyed watching them work using only tools available in the 1700s.

Main Street was full of houses, shops, taverns, and government buildings such as the courthouse, the powder magazine and the Capital building.

1775-1776

Our first stop inside the town was the Governor’s Palace, where we learned about the mood of the town in 1775 and what events were taking place that were causing unease among the townspeople.  Relations between England and America had been strained for many years by this point, and King George had recently declared that no more gun powder could be imported by the colonies.  Soon thereafter, the Governor of Virginia stole all of the gun powder that the people of Williamsburg had stored in the town powder magazine.  He made the excuse that he had heard a rumor that nearby slaves intended to revolt and steal the gunpowder, but that was proven to be a lie. The tension level in Williamsburg rose quickly after that.

   As we walked down the street, we could listen to, or converse with, townspeople  who were discussing taxes, what should be done about the Governor and his thievery, and whatever else they were worried about that day.

Later in the day there was quite a commotion as a rider came storming into town with the news that shots had been fired in Concord Massachusetts between colonial militia and the British troops, who had been given orders to seize the colonists’ military supplies.Quite an argument ensued, since many of the townspeople were still  loyal to the crown.

The boiling point was soon reached and Virginia, the wealthiest and largest of the 13 colonies was the first to declare it’s independence from England, in May of 1776. The war, which was already being waged, intensified. In July of 1776, all 13 colonies reviewed and signed the Declaration of Independence.

1779-1781

The reality of war and the daily sacrifices that everyone has had  to make are the topic of conversations in the street.

At noon, Thomas Jefferson spoke to a large crowd about the process of writing the Declaration of Independence.  He was part of a committee of 5 who wrote it.  He insisted that the ideas and words incorporated into it were not new, but merely formalized the thoughts that had been in the heads of Americans for many years. “Common sense” was the term he used. As a speaker, he was absolutely fabulous.


He also discussed the the phrase “we the people”  and the definition of who that actually meant at the time.  Government officials were elected by the people, yes, but in the 1700s, very few people could actually vote. You had to be white, male, over 21, Protestant, and a landowner who has no mortgage on his property in order to vote in elections.

Later in the day the streets were buzzing with the arrival of British troops who (in 1781)seized control of Williamsburg.  They were led by Benedict Arnold. The British occupied Williamsburg for several months.

The final visitor of  the day was General George Washington, who arrived in town to muster the troops and head to Yorktown. The battle of Yorktown was the last major battle in the Revolutionary War.









I had a great two days and learned a lot of great information in a fun way.

Virginia is for lovers? (04-22-13)

If Virginia is for lovers, then how come so many battles were fought here? We’ve settled ourselves in historic Williamsburg, Virginia, to explore the wealth of history in this area. We’ve also taken some time out to do some long range planning, and have made several reservations for later in the year.  We booked a spot at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October, and we booked a month at an RV park in San Diego for Christmas. With those chores out of the way, we started exploring.

Yorktown:

We’ve spent a lot of time visiting Civil War sites over the last few months, but now we are going even further back in time to the Revolutionary War.  In 1776, after years of arguing and fighting with England, the Congress of the U.S. colonies wrote and signed the “Declaration of Independence”, declaring the united States of America to be an independent nation, free from allegiance to the British Crown.

Of course, England didn’t just roll over, and in the following years, a war between the two countries raged on. In some ways it was a Civil War- people living here were English subjects and some considered thoughts of independence to be treason. In 1781, there was no victory in sight for either side.  It was during that timeframe that the battle of Yorktown took place.  Yorktown was held by the British at that time, and General George Washington was situated in New York, preparing to engage the British there.  He heard that a French fleet was headed towards Chesapeake Bay and the town of Yorktown, to maintain control of the harbor for the colonies.

Why so dark?
This is the actual tent used by George Washington. 
Low lighting helps protect the artifact.

Washington decided to take advantage of the edge the French would give his troops, and changed his plans.  He did everything he could to convince the British that he would soon attack New York, even setting up a fake camp, complete with empty tents.  In the meantime, he and his men headed to Yorktown. By the time he arrived, he had amassed an army of 17,000 troops.

Yorktown- many buildings were built in the early 1700s.

In cooperation with French troops, Washington led the fight against the British at Yorktown, who were led by Lord Cornwallis.  After several weeks of fighting, Cornwallis was left with no option but to have his 7000 troops surrender.  The siege of Yorktown was the last major battle of the Revolutionary war.

The original Purple Heart was a patch that was
worn over the heart area of a uniform.

One of the interesting displays was about the Purple Heart Medal, and it’s origin. When General Washington ordered the attack on Yorktown, he told his men not to use their muskets- only their bayonets.  He felt that reloading would slow them down and distract them too much, so the British lined up and essentially mowed down the first row of American soldiers (the first “line” was appropriately called The Forlorn Hope). After the siege, Washington created the decoration The Purple Heart to honor soldiers for “singularly meritorious action”. It’s one of the highest military honors and is only given to those who have “given of his blood in defense of his homeland”.

OBX, NC (04-20-13)

Before we left Asheville, we needed to look at a map and figure out where we wanted to head next.  Our options were to stay along the Blue Ridge, or head for the coastal area. 
Our next bookend ( hard reservation) is in D.C., so we'd eventually need to head to the coast anyway- since the weather isn't conducive to hiking in the higher elevations of the mountains, we decided to head to the OBX,  (short for Outer Banks) and the town of Hatteras, NC.

the wind blows the tops off the dunes and onto the road

Hatteras is South of Kitty Hawk, and let me tell you, after only one day here, we understand why the Wright Brothers came to this area to fly their plane.  The wind is incessant!  Oh, and with temps in the 50s, 30-40 mph winds, and rain, the weather hasn't really been an improvement over the mountain weather.

This area of the coast is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, so it made sense to pay a visit to the museum named The Graveyard of the Atlantic.  The price was right for this little museum (free) because although it had some interesting information, it was presented in a disjointed way. 

There have been hundreds of shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina, in large part due to Shoaling and shifting of the ocean floor. To save lives after a ship has been wrecked along the coast, Life Saving Stations were set up along the North Carolina coastline.

The  U.S. Lifesaving Service was first started in Massachusetts in 1787, and consisted of huts along the Mass. coast to provide shelter for shipwrecked mariners. In 1807, William Nantucket was commissioned to build the first life saving boat, which could be launched from shore. That system was also used in North Carolina, and by 1874, seven shelters had been built along the coastline here.  The service remained in place until 1915 when the Revenue Cutter Service was merged with the Lifesaving Service to create the U.S. Coast Guard.

There are several well known towns here in the Outer Banks.  One of them is Rodanthe, home to a herd of wild horses known as the Banker ponies.  I was hoping for a glimpse, but it turns out the horses don't run along the road.  Go figure.  In fact, to see them in their element, you need to pretty much take a tour, and go four wheeling.  I've seen wild horses before, so we passed on that excursion.

Wright Brothers National Memorial

One of the other famous towns is Kitty Hawk, where, in December of 1903, the Wright brothers were the first to fly a motor driven airplane. 

They flew 4 flights that first day- the first one lasted 12 seconds and went a distance of 120 feet, and the 4th one lasted 59 seconds and flew a distance of 852 feet. The rock in the foreground represents where the plane took off from, and the white rocks in the distance are where they touched down again.  You can barely see the marker for the 4th flight, way off in the distance.

The brothers regularly enlisted the aid of off duty Life Saving crew members to help them move the planes around, etc.  and one of them was in charge of taking pictures of the actual flights on that first day.

On the walls inside the museum were paintings of individuals who had a major impact on flying, or were the first to do something. Some of the names were very recognizable and some were not:

George Bush- first military flyer to become President,     

Clyde Cessna-Aviation Pioneer,

Igor Sikorsky- first to build and fly a helicopter in the western hemisphere,

Albert Berry- first man to parachute from a plane,

Yuri Gagarin- first man to orbit the earth.

The one that I was surprised to see on the wall was Herbert Kelleher- founder of Southwest Airlines. He started the company in 1971 with three planes, and the company has grown to a fleet of over 600 planes flying 3400 routes.  The airline has never had an in-flight fatality, has been profitable for 40 consecutive years and has never furloughed any employees.

Asheville, NC (04-15-13)

  The Biltmore Estate is in Asheville, NC and exploring it was our first adventure in Asheville.
It was built in the late 1800s by George Vanderbilt, and is the largest home in the country that is owned by a family.

There are all kinds of specialty tours you can take- architectural, behind the scenes- etc,  but we just did the "do it yourself" tour, using a map.  No picture taking is allowed inside the house.  There are 240 rooms, and 43 bathrooms.  We were allowed to tour 44 rooms.

The stable has been turned into a restaurant- this is the loft, looking down into it.  Paul and I had lunch in a converted horse stall.

The Vanderbilts entertained extensively here in NC, usually hosting parties for at least several days, and sometimes a week or more.  By the time George died, in his 50s, their fortune was waning, and his wife Edith opened the house to the public in order to help with expenses.
The original estate was 125,000 acres because George wanted to own the land "as far as the eye can see".  Edith eventually sold much of it to the Federal Government, and its now part of Pisgah National Forest.

The gardens are extensive, with the tulip garden in full bloom.  In another few weeks, the Azaleas will be creating a sea of color.  We won't be here to see it.








Among the many people needed to care for the house and lands, George hired Carl Schenk, a forester, to take care of and maintain the many acres of forest.  Carl noticed that there was a lot of interest from local young men as to what his job entailed.  Carl approached Vanderbilt with an idea, and the result was the Biltmore School of Forestry, the first forestry school in the country.




Wealthy young men came from all over the country to learn how to maintain their family forests, which they considered to be a very valuable "crop".
We toured the Forestry museum in nearby Pisgah National Forest,and took a guided tour on the grounds that gave the history of the school.
In the course of his work, Dr Schenk created a measuring stick that he called The Biltmore Stick, that was used to measure the height and width of trees, so a determination of its value could be made.  Wood was such an important crop in the early 1900s, that the IRS even had a Tree department, people knowledgeable in estimating the value of lumber and trees.

 

The outing I was most waiting for was a trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Due to the winding roads and hills, we had decided not to tow the trailer on it, but to park in Asheville and explore the parkway in the truck. Our first venture wasn’t what I was looking for.  The fog was so thick visibility was less than 50 feet in some places. 

Not deterred, the following day we headed back up to the parkway, and finally got to see the views I was interested in seeing:

We spent a couple of days hiking in Pisgah National Forest, which has tons of hiking trails, with lots of waterfalls along the way. The weather really wasn’t very good for most of the time we were in Asheville- especially at the higher elevations, so we didn’t get to do as much as we would have liked.

Dozer enjoyed his stay in Asheville- with plenty of grass and a site that backed up to a river, there was plenty for him to do.  He just wished the weather was more favorable for us sitting outside.

“We Interrupt This Blog…” (04-19-13)

  The last few days have been difficult for a lot of people and devastating for others.  On Monday April 15, two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Most people know that I grew up in a suburb of Boston, where Patriot’s Day is an extremely important holiday, and the marathon is considered to be one of the first signs of spring.  It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized that the whole country didn’t celebrate Patriot’s Day as a holiday!

Like many people, I’ve been following the news, watching the search for the culprits, listening to reports about the victims, and waiting for new details on an hourly basis.  I guess our lack of privacy in this modern world actually helped lead to a resolution of the situation. The subjects were videotaped, showed up on multiple surveillance cameras, and police asked for any and all witness’s digital pictures that might show something of value.  Within a day or so, we knew what these two guys-brothers- looked like.

Throughout this ordeal, my Facebook page has been littered with “Boston Strong” pictures and messages of solidarity.  The New York baseball fans sang the Fenway theme song “Sweet Caroline” at the Yankees game. 

At the Boston Bruins game, when Rene Rancourt started singing his usual rendition of our National Anthem, the sound of his voice was drowned out by the singing from the Boston fans. He shut off his microphone and turned it over to the crowd.  An amazing moment.










Last night, after a police chase and firefight, one of the two suspects was killed, and the second on was on the run.  He ran to the town of Watertown, a town I know very well.  I have had friends from there, my brother used to live there, and I have shopped many times at the Arsenal Mall, which was on the edge of the 20 block police perimeter.

empty streets of Boston

It is amazing to me that Massachusetts police and FBI were so committed to catching this guy that they essentially shut down the city of Boston and many of its suburbs, to cut off his escape routes. No school in session, no busses running, no mass transit, no trains, and no taxis were on duty.  Businesses were asked to stay closed and citizens were asked to stay in their homes and lock the doors.  Absolutely unprecedented. My son lives in one of the towns that was in “lock down” mode.

So today, even if I had wanted to go out and explore, I felt glued to the TV as the more than 9000 police officers held a perimeter while conducting a house by house search.  In fact, I installed a police scanner app on my ipad so I could listen to what was happening, as it was happening, even before the media reported on it.  I am exhausted, and I wasn’t even there! I had the scanner on one Apple product, and the map on the other, so I could track the movements of the police. 

Early this evening, after completing the 20 block search and finding no one, the police were getting ready to close that particular operation when they received a call from a local resident who noticed blood on the tarp covering the boat in his back yard. Soon after confirming that he was indeed hiding in the boat, “suspect #2” was apprehended.  And now, like everyone else, I get to relax and breathe a sigh of relief. 

The Flooding of Tallulah Gorge (04-13-13)

It’s Playtime at the Gorge! Several weekends a year, water is released from the dam at Tallulah Gorge, making the river navigable by kayak.  The day we were leaving was one of those days.  We had found out the best vantage point and headed out early in the day. We got to the dam at about 7:50, in time to hear the warning siren that indicates the water is about to be released.  There doesn’t seem to be that big a difference between the two pictures, but the flow rate on the left is 45 cfs (cubic feet per second) and on the right, it is 500 cfs.  The following day, it will increase to 700 cfs to accommodate more experienced kayakers.















We knew it would be an hour or so until the kayakers are allowed to start- they have to wait until the water flow has stabilized.  We stopped along the way to watch the first gush of water hit one of the waterfalls.

We were one of the first people at the observation deck so we got a front row seat for watching.  No one is allowed to hike down into the gorge on water release days, so everyone watches from up above. It seemed like we waited forever, and it was, in fact over an hour, before the first kayakers came down the stairs and got ready to put in.

Once they did, it was a steady stream of colorful boats.
 

They go down the river in small groups, not by themselves.  I was surprised that many groups stopped after each section of rapids, to re-group before moving on.

Some actually took the kayaks out and portaged around some of the more difficult spots. 

This is the main waterfall that we could watch from where we were:



Oceana Falls before the water release



Oceana Falls after the water release

We watched one kayaker flip over, and have some difficulty righting himself.  It was his two friends who elected not to brave that waterfall, and portaged around it.













We were dismayed to see one kayaker actually fall out of his boat after going over the waterfall, and were surprised when we saw a safety rope being tossed to him.  We hadn’t realized that out of our line of sight there were spotters watching for anyone having trouble.  That kayaker got out of the water and was still sitting on a nearby boulder, with his kayak, when we left.