Petersburg, VA

We had been looking forward to Petersburg for a while, mainly because we would finally be in a spot long enough to get the back window fixed.  It took all the time we were there, they installed it this morning, but we are now put back together.  When we got there on Tuesday I had to do all the sandy laundry from our visit to OBX and grocery shopping.  Funny how in this great adventure certain tasks still need to be done!  This campground, though comfy for our trailer, was not kept up at all.  Frankly, their laundry room was gross.  I started the laundry and asked Myra to start folding it until I could get back from the shopping.  She didn’t just accept the filth, she grabbed the broom and cleaned it!  Amazing girl!

On Wednesday we took the opportunity to get some trailer tasks completed and also went to Marshall’s to replace Zina’s summer clothes since we had just brought what she wore last summer.  She found some really cute outfits!  So, we didn’t get out to see what was in the area until later in the afternoon.  At that point we just googled “museums near me” and headed to the Violet Bank Museum.  We should try that more often!  When we pulled up there was no sign on the house but there was a man and a woman loading a box into a car.  I made the kids get out and ask if the museum was open.  It was!  And Wendy gave us a great tour.  The area experienced the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War.  It held artifacts from all those wars. The house had been the Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s headquarters during the Petersburg campaign, his final campaign of the war.  He had all of his meetings in the house but did not sleep there because he found that sleeping with his men improved morale among his troops.  The yard of the house also held the 2nd largest Cucumber Magnolia in the USA, planted in 1720 (the largest is in Canton, OH so we may see that one also when we go to the NFL Hall of Fame.)  It was a BEAUTIFUL tree.  Reminds me of one you might see in a movie when a mythical tree is called for.

Thursday I had to do a lot of Addium work because of month end tasks so we didn’t get out of the trailer very early.  When we did get out, we headed to the Petersburg National Battlefield.  Petersburg was the final campaign of the Civil War.  Petersburg was protecting Richmond and when the Union broke through the Confederate defenses the Confederacy could no longer protect their capitol.  Lee retreated to Appomattox (a little south of Petersburg) and surrendered there.  We did drive the battlefield tour but it was quite a warm afternoon and we only got out to  see the Crater.  The Crater was made by a Union plan to tunnel under the Confederate defense and blow it up.  It was a plan made by a group of Pennsylvania miners.  They succeeded in blowing up the lines but some higher ups changed the attack plan for political reasons without getting everyone on board so the actual battle was considered a draw.  It was a pretty tragic outcome but you can still see the crater and the air shaft that provided air to the diggers. Wendy had told us to make sure to see the Blandford cemetery because there were some really old graves and a really pretty church.  The church has Tiffany stained glass windows, one for each of the confederate states.  But, we were too late to go into the church to see the windows and they were hard to see from the outside.  I could have stayed there and looked at the old graves for a long time but everyone else went and climbed in the truck.  I was able to see the grave of the highest ranking British military officer buried on US soil from the Revolutionary war.  

We were excited to have more plans with the Lundgrens on Friday.  We headed out to see Jamestown-the earliest US permanent settlement and the Yorktown battlefield where the deciding Revolutionary War battle took place leading to General Cornwallis’ surrender. We were in the process of heading to official looking museums I found when I googled these places but as we were driving I found that these places also had National Parks!  We stuck to the National parks and had a great day.  We listened to a ranger talk about what it would have been like to be a woman in that first settlement.  It was no easy thing to establish a colony on US soil in the 17th century! They almost starved (and there is evidence they had to resort to cannibalism) and the nearby Native Americans were not happy about the invasion and on one occasion killed about ⅓ of the colony.  Zina was excited to see the Pocahontas statue and Will was amazed that she only lived to age 20, dying in England.  We had brought a picnic lunch which we ate at the Jamestown visitors center picnic area.  After lunch we saw their Glasshouse with live glass blowing demonstrations.  There would have been glass blowers in the original colony so they would have things to trade with the natives.  I LOVE watching glass blowing demonstrations, I am always amazed.  There was a master glassblower and an apprentice.  I didn’t get to watch as long as I had hoped because Zina just wanted to visit the glass shop.  We did find a birthday present for Lucy Bowman and a souvenir for home and got them shipped to the Bowmans.  We didn’t have as long as we would have liked to see Yorktown but they had a great exhibit and move.  National parks are awesome!  Because we saved so much money by visiting the National Parks instead of the commercial museums, we went to dinner at the 2nd Street Cafe & Bistro in Williamsburg.  Rachel is so good at picking places and we had a great dinner.  It was sad to say goodbye to them.  They are great travel companions.

When I looked at the date on Saturday I realized that we should do a Be Like Mike ride. Our family tries to memorialize the life of my late brother-in-law, Mike Dixon, by doing a bike ride around the anniversary of his passing.  David found us a nice trail along the Appomattox River.  It was a beautiful day for a bike ride and the trail was really beautiful.  Part of the Be Like Mike tradition is ice cream after the ride.  We googled “ice cream near me” and found a very unlikely shop, Ice Cream Cakes & Crepes, that turned out to be awesome.  It looked like the proprietor had found a place with low rent near some funeral homes.  BUT, the place was really well decorated inside and we had a great treat.  David & I had savory lunch crepes and the kids tried the cakes and ice cream.  When we walked in we were the only ones there and the owner was serving us.  Then other people showed up and there was a long line.  In walked a lady with a sleeping baby.  Turned out she was the owner’s wife.  Without any fuss she put the baby in the back room, put on an apron and she began serving the ice cream while her husband made the crepes!  We bought all we could, hoping that their business will be a success. That night we watched National Treasure to get ready for our next stops on the sabbatical.

I had a great Mother’s Day as David and the kids washed all the dishes and made all the food.  They made sure I got a chocolate buffet and Myra even improvised a flower table decoration!