The Rest of the way to MA(07-26-18)

To be honest, this part of our trip is a bit of a blur…..I had to pull up my pictures and my credit card receipts to even remember where we were and what we did.  Mostly its because once we got to MA, we were socializing nonstop.

But first, we had to get there:


After our mini vacation we went back to work in VA, spending more than two days buried in archive records at the Library of Virginia in Richmond. We didn’t find anything interesting, but we will probably come back after we go to Nova Scotia, if we have any better leads.

Paul traces his family back to early Jamestown VA, and although we’ve been there before, we decided to take another look with that knowledge fresh in our heads. I wasn’t particularly thrilled when he decided he wanted to take the archeological tour,  but I agreed to go.

  Our guide introduced himself and let us know that years ago, the archeological tour was a mere 20 minutes long but that there was so much new and exciting information, that it now lasts more than an hour and a half.  I think I groaned out loud. He did assure us that there were no hard feelings if we wandered off before the end.









He started by explaining that by 1992, no archeological digging had been done here in many years, and none was planned.  They had long ago given up the hope of ever finding the original fort. In 1993 the park needed a new administrator, and hired Dr. William Kelso, an archeological historian.


For the next two hours he walked us around the site, while hilariously telling the story of Dr. Kelso’s impact on the park.









Dr. Kelso had some ideas on where the original fort could be and thru his persistence, convinced the VA historical society to let him dig where he thought it might be.  He was given ONE chance to find it,-with no budget, no staff, and no equipment. The first place he thought the fort was, he found nothing.







After months of pestering, they let him dig in a different area.  Still nothing. Over the course of a few years, he was allowed to dig in small areas, looking for the fort. He found a little more evidence each time as to where it could be- and finally- he found conclusive evidence- and the fort was found.  Jamestown is now one of the most prolific archeological sites in the world.

The two hours passed by incredibly fast, I was never bored, and I learned a lot.

On a serious side, he talked about the Starving Time. While trying to settle the area, the pioneers became surrounded by hostile native Americans and had to hastily build a fort.  They could not venture out to search for food, and of the more than 400 people there at the time, fewer than 70 survived.  Eventually they decided they had to leave, and go back to England.  They packed up the ships and left but before they even got out of the harbor, they ran into a fleet of supply ships, and made their way back to Jamestown.

After leaving Virginia, we stopped for one night in Maryland, making our way north pretty quickly.













 
Cunningham Falls State Park can’t handle big rigs, but was perfect for the truck camper. Quite a few times we have stayed in places that would have been a challenge, or impossible, with the trailer.











We enjoy waterfalls, so before we left, we hiked the 1.4 mile hike to the waterfall and back. It wasn’t much to write home about, but it got us out and moving for a bit.














For the most part, we have stayed off the interstates, which means it takes longer to reach our destination, but we see more interesting things along the way.
















Sometimes we’ll find an awesome pullout where we can stop and have lunch.

I will say that although the driver prefers the smaller roads, the navigator has a more challenging time, having to pay attention to potential low bridges and such.

Pennsylvania was also a “one night stop” along the way.  We did really enjoy the fireflies that night- there were tons of them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                

And soon enough we were in Massachusetts.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

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.