Round and Round We Go

Mildred, our GPS lady, and Ron had a disagreement this morning about which road we should take to Waynesboro.  First we went around the same roadway twice before realizing that Mildred was saying to do  and then when we did realize what she was saying, we were in the wrong lane so had to find a place where we could turn around, not always an easy thing to do with 40 feet and a tow car behind you.

While the road Mildred took us on was a pretty drive, it was a narrow, two lane curvy, windy road  and very slow going with the uphill and downhill twists and turns.  After about two hours, we finally arrived at the Interstate highway and could breathe a sigh of relief.  The countryside here in Virginia really is beautiful no matter what road you take.  It has been especially interesting to see so many old, old homes with two, three or more chimney, something we do not see in the Southwest.  Yes, we do have some very old buildings, but they look a whole lot different than these old Colonial and Federal period homes.

Arrived at our campground around 2 p.m. and have a lovely spot toward the back of the campground where we plan to stay for the next couple of weeks while visiting Kathy's son Bill and family.  Bill and his youngest daughter came by tonight for a short visit while the other daughter was home studying for her final exams from 8th grade.

Tomorrow we will attend our granddaughter's graduation/award ceremony and spend the remainder of the weekend catching up with the family.  It has been 3 years since Kathy has seen her granddaughters and they certainly have grown up.  The oldest is 13 and the younger 10.

Appomatox

On April 9, 1865 Robert E. Lee surrendered his men to Ulysses S. Grant in what is now Appomatox Court House National Historical Park.  Lee's surrender signaled the end of the Southern states' attempt to create a separate nation.  This may have  taken place over 150 years ago, but being there today opened our eyes to how destructive war can be and how people lived from day to day during that time.  We now have a better understanding of this War, the honorable terms of the surrender and how this war and the surrender affected our nation then and today.

We began our tour of the Park (approximately 31 buildings) by listening to a 15 minute video and then walking with a Ranger through the Park as he explained the details of the conflict leading up to the surrender.  Very interesting.   The quiet, stillness and the devastation of the events not only here but at all the battle grounds we have been to recently, made us stop to think and consider what might have happened had Lee not surrendered.

While the Appomatox Court House building was here at the time of the War and events did take place around it,

the surrender  actually took place at the McLean home shown below.  The other buildings below are the kitchen and the slave quarters.

The inside of the slave quarters.

Down the road a short distance from the Park is a small Confederate cemetery which holds the graves of one Northern soldier and 18 Southern soldiers who were killed on April 8 and 9.

We took a break from all the thought provoking issues associated with visiting the Park to have lunch at the Babcock House B & B which was recommended to us.  The house was built in 1884, has six guest rooms and is furnished with period antiques.  Lunch was delicious and very reasonable.

Our last stop for the day was at the Museum of the Confederacy in Appomatox which was very interesting.  The Museum interweaves stories of the Confederate government, the military, civilians and enslaved and free African Americans along with a very comprehensive collection of artifacts and documents from the period including the frock coat and sword that Lee wore to the surrender.

Tomorrow we will leave here for Waynesboro where we will stay for at least a week while visiting Kathy's son and family and taking in the local history sites from that area.

Lynchburg, Virginia

Our drive today was a short one, only 120 or so miles from Max Meadow to Lynchburg, VA  under overcast skies and some elevated humidity.  We took I-81 north and got off on Highway 460 for the remainder of the drive to Lynchburg where we will spend two nights.

Lynchurg was established in 1757 when John Lynch established a ferry across  the James River.   The town was laid out on 45 acres of Lynch's land where he built the region's first tobacco warehouse in 1785.  During the Civil War the city was a supply base for the Confederate Army and it was for these supplies that an unsuccessful  Union attack was fought on June 28, 1864.  Lynchburg also served as a major hospital center during the War.

After settling in at the Elks Lodge for the next couple of days, we drove to the downtown area of Lynchburg to see what is here.  The Visitor's Center sent us to an old home called "Point of Honor" to take a tour and to the Museum located in the Old Courthouse.  Unfortunately, the Museum was closed by the time we finished our tour  as everything here closes at 4 p.m.

Point of Honor gets its name based on legends of duels that were fought for honor.  The house was completed in 1815 and was the home of one of Lynchburg's most prominent citizens, Dr. George Cabell, Sr. a physician and friend to Patrick Henry and a frequent correspondent of Thomas Jefferson.  The house fell in disrepair but in the 1970's was  restored to its former glory.  The house sits atop a high hill overlooking the city and the James River below and stands on a tract of land that was cleared from wilderness where Monocan Indians once camped.

The kitchen building

The carriage house now used as the Gift Shop.

After the tour, we drove around in the area known as Daniel's Hill Historic District.  While there were many, many huge old period homes and Victorian style ones, most were in disrepair and needed major work.  Very sad to see.

From here we proceeded to the Old City Cemetery which was established in 1806 and is one of the oldest public cemeteries in the U.S. that has been in continuous use since its founding.  Nearly 20,000 people are buried here including political, religious, social and cultural leaders, the city's indigent and veterans of every major American war and conflict with three quarters of those buried being African American both free and enslaved.  One third are infants and children under the age of four.  The cemetery also included a Hearse House and Caretaker's Museum, Station House Museum, and the Pest House Medical Museum.  The oldest part of the cemetery contained a number of iron work enclosures for family plots common in most old cemeteries.

Returned to the Elks Lodge and enjoyed a drink and dinner at the Lodge with the locals.   There is much more to see here, but tomorrow we will travel 35 minutes to spend the day in Appomatox to see where the Civil War ended.

Rural Virginia

Today was another day of driving through the back country of this southwest part of Virginia.  We began our trip by driving back to Wytheville (about 10 miles west from our campground) to drive another 20 miles on a two lane picturesque road to see Big Walker Lookout and the B &W Country Store which also included a suspension bridge over the parking lot to the lookout tower.  Don't think my knees or legs could have withstood the walk up the tower so we just took pictures and said we were there.

The view from the lookout point; however, was spectacular.

 We saw these flowers yesterday along the highways and more of them today everywhere we went.

Leaving the Lookout area we drove back toward I-81 and took the scenic road to Rural Retreat which was an interesting little community with some beautiful old homes and included a winery which unfortunately was closed for the day.

  Saw this on the side of an old building in Rural Retreat and are guessing it is the school mascot.

Continuing on we drove through more of rural America than I have ever seen.  Lots of farms, old Victorian houses and just plain beautiful countryside.  This beautiful old house and barn were found off on a side road.  Who would have known they were there.

Amazing that so many people really do live out in the country way away from any kind of city.  Makes me wonder how they do their shopping and if they still have big gardens in summer and can all their produce for winter consumption.

Again today we drove through some interesting communities with names like Cedar Springs, Sugar Grove, Troutdale, Volney, Mouth of Wilson, Independence and Speedwell.  In all we probably drove about 200 miles through the countryside on a very windy and curvy road all of which had no passing areas.  Even so there were no irate drivers trying to get around other cars.  Passed this river flowing alongside the road at one point.

This picturesque old courthouse was found in the town of Independence.

Tomorrow we will leave this area and continue north to Lynchburg and Appomatox to learn more about the end of the Civil War.

Southwest Virginia and the Blue Ridge Parkway

Sunday, May 24, 2015

We arrived in this beautiful part of the country on Friday afternoon and have been exploring the area ever since.  On Saturday, we took a drive to the community of Wytheville (pronounced WITH vill) which was founded in 1792 and named for the first signer of the Declaration of Independence - George Whythe.  Stopped at a couple of antique stores and drove around the town admiring the many, many Victorian and historic homes.  The house below is an old log house built in 1776 and now used as a restaurant.

Today we left our campground in "Max Meadow" headed for the community of "Fancy Gap" where we began our drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway driving about 35 miles along the two lane highway through beautiful wooded and flowering shrubbery lined areas and open space.

The "Parkway" actually extends for 469 miles along the crests of the Southern Appalachians and links two east national parks - Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains running from northern Virginia to the southern end of North Carolina.

After a wrong turn off the Parkway on to a local road but still with beautiful scenery along the way, we saw this haunted looking house.

When we stopped, we are sure we heard banjo music coming from the house.  We righted ourselves and continued admiring the beauty, laughing at the many quaint named communities (Max Meadow, Fancy Gap, Tuggle Gap, Orchard Gap, Grahams Forge, and Meadows of Dan  to name a few) and stopping at various overlooks and a picnic area with this structure

and at the Mabry Mill (built in 1910) where we spent considerable time enjoying the old buildings and the local blue grass music being played in the open air.

This picture does not do this "Flame Azalea" shrub justice.  We saw many of these and beautiful bright red rhododendron shrubs growing along the road and in home gardens.

Front side of saw mill

Water powered saw blade cutting a log

Back side of saw mill

Musicians 

 Leaving the Blue Ridge Parkway to return to the campground, we came upon this farmer cutting and baling his alfalfa.  The piles of alfalfa were quite high as it is being baled into large rolls rather than the regular bales that we usually see.  Quite an operation.

Repairs and a Tour

Wednesday, May 21, 2015

Yesterday we finally got the leak in our roof repaired.   Though we had thought the repair would be done the day before, the mobile RV repair guy never showed up so we left yesterday for Red Bay, AL where Tiffin RV's (including our 2008 Phaeton) are made and had a local shop there do the work.  (Red Bay is not near the water and got its name from the red clay soil and the bay trees that grew in the area. It is located just over the border from Mississippi.)  Stayed all night at the Allegro Campground on the Tiffin Service Center's property.  We talked to them about other work we want done on the RV.

This morning under overcast skies, sharply cooler temps and some wind, we took a tour of the Tiffin facility. The tour was an hour and a half and very interesting showing how the RV's are made from the chassis to the final product.  Most of their components are made by Tiffin and those they don't make are produced by locally owned businesses.

This is a 1976 Tiffin with avocado and gold fabrics and shag carpet.  The first Tiffin was made in 1972 in what had been a cotton storage building and Tiffins are today still being made in that building plus others.

The chassis

 The side inside walls

 Cabinets being added to the chassis

 The roof

 Slide outs after they are installed

 A view of a slide out before being installed

Leaving Red Bay around noon, we took a four lane divided highway across Alabama to Chattanooga, TN where we will spend the night.  The roadway took us through scenic countryside and many small rural towns as well as by Wheeler Lake which is part of the Tennessee River which flows through the upper portion of Mississippi.

 In Huntsville, AL we passed by the Davidson Center for Space Exploration.

Turns out our neighbors tonight are from New Jersey, she from Point Pleasant and he from Rumson.  Point Pleasant is the town next to Manasquan where Kathy went to elementary school.  Small world.

A Pan B Day

Monday, May 18, 2015  

Today was our first Plan B day even though we didn't have a Plan B.  Our early morning wake up was about 12:30 a.m. when the first of many weather alerts awoke us to say there were severe thunder storms approaching Vicksburg with later reports telling us there was going to be flash flooding.  The thunder rolled, the lightening lighted and the rain was torrential.  It hardly let up  a bit.  At 5:30  when getting up for an early morning call to you know where, I noticed that the floor and the end of my side of the bed was wet.  Turning on a light, we discovered that the light fixture was dripping water onto the floor and the very end of my side of the bed.  Stripping off the covers and putting down plastic and the rubber sided bath mat to absorb the water we returned to bed only to discover this was not going to work.  I had to put a pan under the dripping water which I then emptied about 4 times over the next couple of hours with about 1/4 inch of water in the bottom each time.

Deciding that we would just stay at this campground and wait out the storm, we had breakfast and saw a couple of our fellow campers outside getting ready to leave.  Ron ventured out to see that the culvert with bridge across from the campground to the office was full of water nearly to the road out of the campground and the ground next to the road out was showing signs of erosion from the water.  My son in law the Fire Chief in Texas always told us, if the water is up to the steps of your RV, you better get out.  This not being the case but noting that we might be in danger if the waters in the area rose any higher, we like others immediately got ready to leave.  After leaving the campground, we made a check of the RV and car to be sure everything was in order before proceeding further.  We also had discovered that the weather in this area and north where we had planned to go,was going to continue for the next five days which would only mean more water in the RV, etc..

Time for Plan B.  Seeing that it was clear to the east of Jackson, MS and further on, we proceeded to I-20 and headed to Alabama where we found a campground in the little town of Helena, just south of Birmingham where we will stay for two nights.  We are able to contact a mobile RV repair man who can look at our problem on Tuesday.  Hooray!

The Sights of Vicksburg

Yesterday we spent the day close to the RV, but today (our last here) we ventured out to drive around the town   We took in the river front, the historic downtown and stopped to tour an old antebellum mansion called Anchuca that is now a B and B.  The Greek Revival home was built in 1830 but not completed until 1847.  After leaving prison, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, gave a farewell speech from the balcony of the second floor.

Gentlemen's Parlor

Interesting staricase

Vicksburg is steeped in Civil War history and the downtown  has been carefully restored and full of some interesting shops and restaurants.  Today we found most everything closed which we certainly are not used to in New Mexico.  There are some beautiful old homes downtown, but some of the outlying residential areas are also very nice with brick homes set on probably acre lots with lots of green, green grass.

On our drive we passed this old firehouse still being used just large enough for a new engine to fit front to back.

Tomorrow we will head up the Natchez Trace Parkway  from just west of Jackson, MS
headed to Tupelo, the birthplace of Elvis Presley.