Archive for the ‘Virginia’ Category
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6
Jul
2009
Williamsburg, Virginia
I visited Williamsburg, Virginia, in 2006, the year before the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. I definitely do want to go back at some point. They were building a huge new museum at Jamestown that was to be opened in time for the anniversary. A lot of people forget, the pilgrims weren’t first. The first permanent English Settlement was at Jamestown, and a lot of colonial and revolutionary history is to be found in that stretch of land from Jamestown to Williamsburg and Yorktown.
Founded in 1607, by the early 1700’s the emphasis had shifted to Williamsburg, which had become the new colonial capital of Virginia. And Jamestown slowly vanished from the map, its exact location actually being lost for many years. Williamsburg eventually became something of a backwater too, but the small town including some colonial buildings survived into the 20th century. In the early 1900’s, a reverend, Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin became became Rector of the local Parish church, parts of which dated into the 18th century. He lead a successful effort to restore and preserve the church. He was transferred to upper New York state where he lived for a number of years before returning to Williamsburg in the 1920’s. Seeing the number of deteriorating colonial buildings and fearing that there would soon be nothing left of them, he began a movement to save the historic core of Williamsburg. He managed to get the interest and financial support of John D Rockefeller, JR. Much of the town was bought up and everything was restored to its colonial appearance. Buildings that were original were restored and other buildings that had been lost were rebuilt in what was believed to be their colonial appearance. Colonial Williamsburg became a large living history museum that attracts visitors by the droves each year.
To the untrained eye, Colonial Williamsburg is a remarkable recreation of Colonial life in America complete with performances of key events in the colonial period by actors, etc.
During my brief visit in 2006, I came away with several photos that are, to me, reflective of the timelessness of the place.
Williamsburg - Picket Fences
I could not find anything specific about this little home other than it’s part of the property of Benjamin Waller, onetime notable of Williamsburg. The actual home is adjacent to this. I’m not sure if this little building was a cottage or a shop or what, but I love the look of it. It is the epitome of Americana to me. This little house with it’s picket fence and little dormers would once have been the American dream, before people decided they wanted to live in McMansions that filled their tiny lots. I hope we may boomerang back to this dream. I’ve been looking at lot at small homes. If I ever buy somewhere permanent again, I’d love a little house like this, the once upon a time American dream.
Williamsburg Courthouse
The courthouse at Williamsburg is actually one of the surviving structures from the Colonial era. Completed in 1771, it was the courthouse for the community for over a century and a half before being restored and becoming part of the living history exhibit at Colonial Williamsburg. The Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War was announced here.
Old Grandeur - Governor's Palace
The Governor’s Palace for the Governor of Virginia during Colonial days was long gone when the current living history museum was established, but this was built on the original site and used the original plans, methods and traditional fired bricks to recreate what to most of us would appear to be a spot on re-creation of the original.
Little Pink Houses
When I first saw this little pink house on Waller Street in Williamsburg, I love how tiny it was and the color of it! So charming! It’s actually one of the original colonial houses in Williamsburg, rather than a reproduction. Apparently the first records of it are when it was purchased in 1778 by Isham Goddin, so it’s now known as the Isham Goddin Shop, even though it was sold by him only a few years later when he left Williamsburg.
There are more photos from Williamsburg which can be found in my Rural America and Americana prints.
4
Jun
2006
The Long Ride Home
So, it’s Sunday, and I finally have the energy to relate the journey back to metro ATL.
I was good for my word and got an early start. Unfortunately, I had piddled about the night going through the photos from the day and such, so I got only about 6 hours of sleep. In the morning, that didn’t seem so bad. Later, I would regret that.
Still, I was on the move before 8am (okay, you have your early, I have mine). Having no real idea where my stop at Flowerdew Hundred was, I had once more put my travel in the hands of AAA’s triptik. The route it planned look sane enough. And for a rather cool effect, it included a ferry across the James River. Yayy!!
I had not been on a Ferry at all in decades and never a proper ferry in the sense of the one across the James River. I had seen it going across during my visit at Jamestowne. So, that was kind of cool. My experience with Ferry’s before had been back home, where for years Macon County had the last operating Ferry in Georgia. I don’t recall when a bridge finally replaced it, but it was a staple for some people at least into the 80’s if not the 1990’s . I had only ridden it for fun, as it was not on any normal path of travel for us. It held, I think, a maximum of two cars, but the ride was all of a couple of minutes anyway. I never drove onto that one myself, either.
So, about 20 minutes into my trip, I was waiting on a pier on the James River and watching a Ferry approach. I found it amusing that the same vague feeling of dread that comes across me before a plane flight hit here as well. I guess it’s the loss of control as I don’t have that feeling when I set forth to drive somewhere. A few minutes passed as the cars coming from the other side exited, and then they let us on. Lost in reverie for a moment, I missed the start of the trip but suddenly felt movement and my foot automatically went for the brakes. I found the sense of movement very disconcerting. I realized sheepishly after a second that the Ferry, not my car as such, was in motion. I wanted to get out but wasn’t sure if that was kosher. I saw a family in an RV unloading behind me and I decided there was safety in numbers. I never saw any locals get out, for whatever reason. As I enjoyed a good view of Jamestown from the River, I reflected that I’ve never been fond of small boats. I hate the feeling of them on the water, but give me a good solid boat and I enjoy it. The Ferry Pocahontas definitely fit the bill. Anything that holds a few dozen cars and is only half full has some heft behind it. The only boat with a similar feel to it was the hydrofoil that Brandy and I rode to Capri last January. The ocean breeze coming up the James River from the Atlantic was perfect. The trip was only about 20 minutes long but was just the perfect way to begin a journey. As the opposite dock came into view, I got back in the car and again felt that sensation to put my foot on the brake. Odd that I didn’t have that feeling on the decks, but the moment my body was back in my parked but moving car, I again wanted to stop it!
Now, came the fun… AAA’s map told me that I’d be on VA-31 for 8+ miles before my next turn… but did the mileage include the Ferry trip or not?? The line item on the map began with getting on the Ferry and gave the mileage. I didn’t realize until on the other side VA-31 continues and I was to be on it for?? How long? Did the Ferry include the 8 miles or not? And the next irritating thing that I’m mention to AAA when I get the time, whenever roads have names, they provide those INSTEAD of giving you the highway number… Well, when you’re on the road, you can about count on the highway numbers being up there, but you’re lucky if you can spot a street name before you pass it. The next turn was so marked by the road name rather than the highway number… booo… I don’t know how I managed to find it. Obviously I was not tuckered out just yet.
By 9:30am, I was sitting outside the Flowerdew Hundred museum waiting for it to open… half an hour from then… Let me say, this place is REALLY in the middle of nowhere. The road to it after the last turn led straight there. Nowhere else, at all… just this little museum with some farm buildings and a huge house nearby. hmmm… 10am finally rolled around and I’d yet to see a car pull up. If got out and followed the path to the museum (formerly it turns out an old house and before that a school house). When I got to the door, there was a sign stating the open hours and to pick up the phone in the box by the door… ooookay…. A guy answered and I told him I was a the museum… At this point, I was really beginning to question why I’d come out here. At any rate, he said someone would be out.
I’m horrible with names, but the lady who came out was probably Ms. Shriver, the curator. She thought at first I was a party that had an appointment that day, which of course I was not. So, she had to ask how on earth I came to be there. So, I said that I had family that had lived in the area quite some time ago, the Woodsons. She said, “Doctor John Woodson?” Yes! Reaching behind the counter, she produced a packet full of info. with name Woodson on the front and asked me to sign the registry and to check yes for being one of the original Flowerdew families. She listed a handful of the major names that people tend to show up claiming descendcy from, Woodson being one of them. So, they keep information for those people on hand.
I am admittedly not fully versed on this part of the family. The Fitzpatricks, Woodsons, and Napiers were comparably well researched parts of the family, so I’ve spent most of my time on other parts of the family tree over the years. I know only the highlights, that Dr. Woodson, a surgeon to a company of soldiers, arrived with his wife, Sarah, on the ship George in 1619. They came with Sir George Yeardley, the new royal governor of Virginia, and his wife, Temperance Flowerdew. John and Sarah after arriving, had at least two sons, John and Robert, before Dr. Woodson died in the Indian massacre of 1644. My family is descended from the son, John. I knew they came to live somewhere called Flowerdew Hundred, but what was that? I knew nothing about it.
The museum is the result of 30 years of archaeological work at the old plantation. The name never made any sense, but I had never examined it. The Flowerdew part is in honor of Yeardley’s wife. But Hundred? Hundred was an old English term that roughly amounted to enough land to support a company of 100 fighting men. And the division of new lands into these Hundreds along the James River was the first expansion of the English settlement. The people who came over did not settle inside Jamestowne but along the River in more forts as the colony expanded. It originally supported a colony of people dependent on one another, but in the 19th century, it came to be a family owned plantation and today is part of a 1,400 acre modern farm. Fortunately, the area has been studied since the early 1970’s by archaeologists from the College of William & Mary, University of California at Berkeley, and the state of Virginia. My guide is still in the process of cataloguing all the material finds that were made.
I intended for a brief stop, but after touring the small museum and nearby grounds (there’s actually a driving tour I decided I didn’t have time for), I got to talking with the curator. She told me a lot about the history of Flowerdew when my family was there as well, it turns out that she and her husband have been to London as many times as I have, so we began to compare notes. In the end, I was there over two hours (closer to three if you include my half hour wait for the place to open). It was a great stop, and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything, but it pushed an already long drive back by hours…
Back on the road, I hurried towards I-95. Country roads quickly gave way to a small town on the edge of the interstate. I had one last meal in Virginia, at a Wendy’s. I passed three McD’s trying to find something fast but different… They don’t appear to have learned the joy of Chick-fil-A up there yet. I saw one in Williamsburg under construction… sigh… Took my meal to go and headed down the interstate… I shortly was lost in the mind-numbing sound of the interstate passing under my wheels. I was determined to at least get out of Virginia before stopping again.
And I made it to North Carolina… The lack of sleep started to hit me, so I began a vicious cycle of drinking coke and stopping at half the rest stops on I-85… Soon, I graduated to water realizing it was more the fluid than the caffeine that did the trick. Still, didn’t stop me from popping a few vivarin. And the road kept passing. I finally stopped at the first Chick-Fil-A I’d seen in hours for dinner about 6pm. I lost time but I decided I needed out of the car for awhile, so ate there instead of on the road. I started questioning the sanity of getting back in the car with the intent of driving on, but I also just desperately wanted after all this time on the road to get back to my house.
Not long after I was back on the road, my Mom returned a phone call from earlier in the day. We talked for about an hour before I had my next rest stop. That really helped. By the time I had finished recounting the morning to her from the Ferry ride to the museum and information I’d gleaned on our ancestors, I felt awake and aware again. Which was good, because now it was pouring rain… great… now it’s dark and I’m tired, and it’s raining. Mom’s comment that it was raining there as well (quite some distance south of Atlanta) didn’t bring me much hope that I’d ride out of the rain anytime soon.
After our conversation and that last rest stop, I only made one more stop for gas before leaving South Carolina. And I arrived home a little before 11pm… I barely unloaded anything from the car. Took some aspirin, called my Mom simply to say I was home, and collapsed.
I slept late Saturday and never left the house. Today, I’m doing laundry and generally just trying to catch up. I’ve only been out today to grab lunch. Later I need to go get some groceries as there’s frightfully little in ye olde cupboard. The funny part is as tired as I am, I’ve already been reading the airfare tips I’ve gotten via e-mail the last few days but didn’t have time to review. No plans yet, but you never know how long that will last.
1
Jun
2006
It’s History
Last day in Williamsburg. Ah, a mixture of melancholy. More to do, but time to go.
Although I had dreams of making an early start today, I was wiped last night. I notied glancing over my BLOG from last night that I made some really bad typos. I mean, there are typos, and then there are “I’m half asleep and this won’t make sense later” typos… I see the latter…. Joy, I’ll have to fix that later. So, that’s why it was not an early start. Not in the cards when I’m nodding off at the keyboard before going to bed.
But, I got up and out to Yorktown. Again, I drove myself. I didn’t want to wait for a bus and lose more time. Like Jamestowne, Yorktown is two different attractions, administered by two seperate groups. One is the actual site of the battle, which is handled by the National Park Service. The other is a dramatic re-enactment down the road from the actual site. I had a feeling I wouldn’t make both given my late start, so I made my choice for the legitimate article. I can’t say I made the right choice or the wrong one, but I don’t regret it.
Now, there’s a lot of imagination required at the original site. We are talking about a battle from 1781 after all. Yorktown was the site of the last major battle of the American Revolution. The victory there by the American and French decided the outcome of the war, although it would be two more years before an official treaty was signed. I managed to walk in perfectly in time for a ranger led walking tour. She showed some of the artilery used in the battle and where and how the earthworks were made by both sides. And she explained how this really was a battle that was decided by firepower more than anything. The Americans and French boxed Cornwallis and his forces in and then pummelled his earthworks with artilery until he surrendered.
To those who actually read this, it probably feels like I always find a family member to mention, but there’s a reason I’m going where I’m going, you know? My great, great, great grandfather, William Johnston, was said to have been at this battle and to have been there for the surrender. Honestly, that’s probably the only reason I didn’t spend another day in Williamsburg. Honestly, if you’ve seen one pile of grassy earth works from the Civil War or Revolution, it feels to me as if you’ve seen them all. There’s some really cool information to be had there, but you could get the same from, GASP, a book! Still, it was the first in-depth information I’d gotten on the battle and it was interesting to me in the context that a scant few generations back was there. In fact, I could swear I’d read somewhere that at the time of the Revolution he lived in York County. He was a Virginian at any rate, wherever he might have called home while he fought in the Revolution as a young man.
Oh, funny thing for the day. The park service offers an audio you can purchase to listen to as you drive around the site…. Okay… It was only $4.95 for the CD, so I got it, popped it in the changer and started out…. uhmm… It was recorded for someone with a “tape recorder” and a portable one at that… I kept waiting for the beep to advance the film to the next slide (if you don’t remember those, I don’t want to hear it!). So, it was a scary old audio guide…. That would have been enough… But, they also expect you to be using a portable player to listen to it… It’s in the changer in my trunk…. So, everytime I got somewhere, I had to listen to the commentary, then get out and go try to figure out what it was talking about. By the time I finally reached Surrender Field, I realized that I wasn’t even at the right part of the guide anymore, so I listened to the past two stops and surrender field before getting out. Yes, it was that confusing. And yes, I finally understood why I hadn’t seen anything described at the past stops…. So, the moral is if you visit the national park, ask about the audio guide and if you need a portable player for it. If you go to Yorktown, you can have my audio guide with that caveat…
Back in Williamsburg, I ventured over to the old Gaol (jail in modern day). Was very interesting, especially since it’s the same vintage as the capitol (well, the capitol is a re-creation, but Gaol is original). So, early 1700’s jail that survived and was still used by the city into the early 1900’s! Yoiks! I meandered through quite a few buildings and then finally made my way down to the College of William and Mary. I wanted to see the Wren building, as it’s called. The original main building of the campus is supposedly designed by Sir Christoper Wren of London fame (think St. Paul’s Cathedral for example). Now, there’s some question as to the truh of this. Still, very old college building. I never made it down to tour the inside, but it’s a beautiful building, so I followed the outside of it taking shots here and there.
After that, I watched “General Washington” talk to the townsfolk about how the war is faring. And then watched a fife and drum corp march down the main street. Those are the moments where the old music is going and you almost feel transported back. For a moment, the out of place clothing of all the tourists is gone and you’re just there.
The last stop on the agenda was a re-enactment of the debate of whether or not Virginia would support the Revolution or not. We got to hear from multiple townsfolk and why they were supporting the Patriots or the King. And then we were all given little slips of paper with the name of a person who reprsented their county at that meeting and whether they were Patrio, Loyalist, or Moderate. I was a moderate from Amelia County. The funny part? Guess where William Johnston was born? Yep… Surprise, we voted for independence, altough it was like 30-something to ten. The original vote was near unanimous.
That done, I walked around and took my last shots of Williamsburg before I ran out of space on my memory cards. And back here for dinner. Yum McD’s… where they seem to think a ketchup only burger means mustard only… garrggggghhhh….
Oh well, first real fast food in days and the only meal I had today other than breakfast… Still, I digress. The trip was great fun. In a matter of a few days up here, I got to see the beginning of the English colonization at Jametowne, the middle of that time when the first sparks of the Revolution played out here in Williamsburg, and the concluding moments at Yorktown. And the mark of any good trip, in my eyes, is when there was such a wealth of things to see that there are things I didn’t see but hope to some day. Would I come back next week? No, but between the 400 year anniversary next year and the consant research and changes at these sights, the landscape will be different down the road and worth another visit, I’m sure.
Tomorrow I leave Williamsburg, and I’ve decided it’s a one way long trek back to Georgia. I had thought I’d stay on the way back somewhere, but I could never come up with somewhere I just wanted to stay the night. So, I plan to actually make a real early start of it and get my butt home. I do plan to stop at Flowerdew Hundred and see the land my 10 greats grandparents called home. It’s not like there’s a house there or anything, but there is a museum, etc. So, it could be cool. It’s not per se on the way, but it’s not out of the way. It just means that like I did on my way in, there will be a round-about journey back to the interstate. Here’s hoping it’s at least scenic!
Now to bed, and then the next stop, my own bed sometime tomorrow night!
30
May
2006
Another Day in Virginia
Wow, it’s quiet tonight; I mean needle-hit-the-floor-and-echoes quiet. I didn’t realize the level of noise here until tonight. You see, the same day I arrived here, a bus load of high school students descended as well. Every room around me was filled with them. They were failry well-behaved, but it’s still a lot of kids, so the noise levels were there. Luckily, I’m someone who can sleep in a hostel with minimal disturbance, so it was never a factor.
Anyway, I woke up this morning to the sound of the diesel engine on their bus idling outside as they loaded up. So, having an early start, I decided to drive myself to Jamestowne. I’m actually quite glad I went that route, as the Colonial Parkway has all these little stops you can make and look at the James River, etc. There’s also a loop around the bottom of Jamestowne Island that I would have missed on the shuttle down there.
First a word to anyone thinking of visiting Jamestown right now. If you’re into history at all, it’s an excellent place to visit. But you might want to wait a year or so. Next May is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestowne colony, the first permanent English settlement in North America. As such, the place is one big “Pardon Our Progress” poster as they prepare the place for the big to-do next year. If you wait until either 2007 (or after if you want to avoid the major rush), you’ll get brand spanking new facilities and interpretations and such on your visit. I’m sure I’ll come back eventually just to see what results from it.
The interesting thing about Jamestowne turns out to be that even here there’s frightfully little original left. The church tower is later 17th century and maybe one other building. If you survey the scene at Historic Jamestowne (the acutal site of the original fort and town), you see lots of brick foundations and the like, but you soon discover that the archeaologists excavated what was there, recorded it, and then reburied it. Most of what’s above soil is a recreation of the ruins below! So, that’s kind of ironic! But it’s still really something to stand there and imagine being on a boat for 5 months before finally landing in a new world that you have no clue how to survive in. My ancestor who was there arrived in 1619, so still considered part of the original colony, but nonetheless, he and his wife, my 10 greats grandparents, at least had a small trial blaed for them by the time they arrived. But I digress…
The original settlement was on an what was then an isthmus. The site was abandoned at the close of the 1600’s when, according to one version I read, the water source went bad. The land slowly eroded into an island, and for many years, it was believed the original site itself had been lost to the James River currents. But in the 20th century, it was recognized that the majority of the site was intact and the government sat about preserving the site and began to dig. You can still today see Archealogists at work and talk with them. Today they were digging up an older well – they thought perhaps the first well in the Fort. From what they said, wells frequently went bad or dried up and new ones were dug. The old one would then become a convenient trash pit, which is what makes them appealing to archaelogists. Not only can they find the components of the well, but the bits and pieces of refuse from everyday life. There was a BBC film crew there today. Not, mind you, that I’ll be on TV, but if you see a science piece on a well at Jamestown, I was there!
Completing that tour, it was nearly 2pm, so I headed over to the Jamestowne settlement. I was a bit afraid it would be Disney meets history. And in some respects it is, but it’s still quite fun, and I think an excellent way to introduce kids to history. They have recreations of all three of the original ships that brought the Jamestowne Colony to Virginia. The Godspeed and Discovery aren’t that big but still fun. The susan Constant, however, is great fun to tour. They also have a recreation of the original fort and a Powhatan village. My one nit is that all the Indians are pale faces in buckskin, but I guess this is where I have to use my imagination. I will give them an unusual kudo in their committment to being accurate. They have a recreation of the first Anglican church in Jamestown within the fort. It turns out that recent digging at the original site shows that they have the location of this church wrong. Seems you could just point that out to people and leave it be? Nope, not here. The guide said they were rebuilding the whole thing… ouch… at this point, the foundation is on the correct site. Wasn’t sure if they were rebuilding it entirely or just moving it. Either way, that’s committment.
It was after 6pm when I got back in. I grabbed lunch/dinner and came back to the room for a bit before heading out for some photos of sunset on the Colonial highway. The sunset itself wasn’t all that spectacular, but the light was great and I think I got some nice ones. We’ll see. Then on to Williamsburg for tonight’s “tour.” I use the term loosely as it was the re-enactment of witch trial in 1705. There were only three of us in the group of 60ish people that weren’t part of a school group. It was still fun, though. As first there, I got to sit up by the Royal Governor during the trial. The lot of the actors were great. It really was at times almost as if you had landed in a court from pre-revolutionary Virginia. As it was, she was found not guilty, which surprised me. It was based on a real trial, but the original outcome is lost due to a fire in Richmond during the civil war. It’s presumed she was found innocent as her will is from 30+ years after the trial.
Tonight, I took the bus from the Visitors center into the historic area and back. So, a little rest on the tired feet. The funny part is I must have been the LAST tourist out of the town. I was the ONLY car in the HUGE parking lot when the bus rolled in, and I was the lone person on the bus aside from the driver. Not quite as good as getting chased out of Herculaneum, but close. I think I’ve closed another historic attraction!
Tomorrow is partially Yorktown battlefield and a wrap up on Williamsburg. Friday I check out and head south. I have to decide what I’m doing then. I had thought to go to Richmond to the museum there as a rifle that’s been in the family since Dr. Woodson in the early 1600’s is on display there. The thing is, I got a response from a curator that leads me to believe: A) There’s little left original on the weapon, and B) there’s some doubt that any of the gun truly dates from when family history says it did…. hmmm… The other option is a visit to Flowerdew Hundred, the land that they lived on after their arrival in Jamestowne. Not in the same direction, so I need to decide shortly… hmmm…
30
May
2006
Williamsburg, Colonial Capital
Exhaustion has definitely set in, but it’s a happy exhaustion.
I woke up ahead of my alarm this morning so got an early start. I was in Williamsburg before everything opened, so the beginning of the day was peaceful, before the masses descended.
I had a 10am tour that, as luck had it, was lightly attended. The guide and I got to talk a half hour while we waited to see if ANYONE else at all would arrive. Turns out he had been visiting family in Buford, Georgia just yesterday and had driven all the way back yesterday… My sympathy… When the tour started, it was just me. But about 5 minutes in, a trio of ladies from New Jersey, who were just a tad my Mom’s senior showed up. They said they had come to Williamsburg on their Senior trip and had continued to come back together over the years. The group was so small they had passed me and the guide looking for the group earlier.
It was a shame more people didn’t show, but we had a great tour of the artifacts that have been uncovered during excavations at Williamsburg. We also got a lot of the history of those excavations and how they’ve changed over the years. Now, the practice is to dig in parallel pits leaving much of the site undisturbed in case future archeaolgists have more sophisticated methods so that they can uncover more of the past with less destruction that we do now. The minutia of their jobs is astounding. From pottery shards to the silica contained in plant cells, they catalog everything they find at a site. Being a private, non-profit deal, the digging ebbs and flows, but if what we saw is a sample, as they said it was, then there’s a wealth of history in that warehouse.
That tour ended, I decided it was time to take lunch. If I thought Biltmore was bad… Lunch was $20… Granted, $10 of that was for a plastic tanyard that I can get refilled for free as long as I’m here… The dark side of this is that I’m at yet another Pepsi only location. Still, I more than got my money’s worth of Pepsi products just today. I’m sure they make out like a bandit off some people, but there are those of us getting our money’s worth of liquid refreshments… I had a grilled chicken sandwich in one of the taverns. I would have also had the bread pudding had I any cash left… Maybe tomorrow or Thursday. My grandmother made a dish that she called the same and it looked like hers. Actually, she made it for me exactly one time. She was in a memory lane mood and she loved to bake, so she made it for me because she remembered her mother and grandmother making it. So, it appears to be an old dish. Thanks to my Uncle, I have her recipe, but I’ve never had the heart (yet) to try making it.
I also had an afternoon tour, which was called “Bits and Bridles” – a horse teamed tour which the lady at the ticket office yesterday recommended. It was actually quite good and went beyond horses into the animal sciences group at Williamsburg, who are working on saving a number of “rare breeds.” Not limited to just colonial animals, mind you, they also are working to preserve animals such as plow horses who have been on the decline since the mechanization of farms in the 1930’s. I now know more about horse shoes than I ever thought I would. I wouldn’t count on me remembering a lot of it in a few days…
In amongst all this, I visited some of the colonial buildings. One guide today said that 80% of the buildings are recreations. The part I want to know is more about which ones aren’t. While the recreations are fantastic, I want to get a chance to see the ones that are authentic. I visited the storehouse where the gunpowder that sparked the revolution was stored. That is, authentic. I also visited the parish church, which is authentic to 1715. It’s really something to sit on pews that Jefferson, Washington, etc. had sat on. And the baptismal font in the church was moved there from Jamestown, so there’s a chance my Woodson ancestors had been in contact with it.
Even though it was a recreation, I visited the Governor’s palace, which is really amazing. It’s life began as a place for the royal governor. It later was home of the first two Governor’s of Virginia (Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson), but it’s life ended as a make-shift hospital in a fire in 1781, after the removal of the capitol to Richmond. There are a lot of authentic to the era pieces inside and the items that aren’t were often made by companies still in existence today that made furnishings for the Governor’s palace in the 18th century. As the tour completed, we had just a few minutes to tour the gardens before closing, so I will have to go back again. Really beautiful.
After all this, I broke for awhile and came back here for dinner and a little rest for the feet. I had a ghost tour at 8:30pm, so it was nice for some down time. I didn’t walk back from here. I had a few groceries to pick up. The neat part of my hotel room (and there aren’t many) is the fridge and microwave so that I don’t have to eat take-out constantly. So, provisions taken care of, I decided to drive to the Welcome center and try that approach. I had yet to walk from that direction. It was at least as long a walk as from the hotel. Maybe longer… But nice as there were buildings I had not yet seen in that direction. However, I’m glad there are buses running back because after the ghost stories, I wouldn’t have relished the dark walk back on that winding, woodsy path…
The ghost stories were just great. They were all period stories, which regardless of truth, were stories that were told in the day when Colonial Williamsburg was one of, if not the most, important cities in Colonial America (can you tell I’ve been feed propoganda all day?). Each were told inside authentic Colonial homes by candle light! Wheee! One had some familiar family names but I’ll have to check my notes at home to see if there’s a connection or not. Not uncommon names, so it could be merely a coincidence, but I’ll cross check it eventually.
I’m spent, but tomorrow is another day. I plan (hopefully) to get an early start so that I can drive over to the welcome center and hop the bus to Jamestown. There are two attractions there, one is the actual site of Jamestown where the first settlement was back in 1607. My Ancestors, Dr. John Woodson and wife, Sarah, landed there some years later in 1619, but that’s the draw for me outside of the history of the place itself. The other attraction is a recreation, somewhat like Williamsburg, of life in the original settlement. Unlike Williamsburg, the recreation isn’t on the actual site. I like that in some ways since when you visit the original site of Jamestown, what you see left is genuine, and you can watch the archaeolgists dig. When you visit the other site, you know it’s entirely a recreation. Not a bad thing, mind you.
Random fact learned today. In colonial times, the maximum distance a person could travel in a day was 70 miles. The max, mind you, was less than most of us drive on a wide open interstate highway in an hour… Remember, this is before rail travel. People traveled by boat or horse.
