R & R Time at Chesapeake Bay RV Resort in Gloucester, Virginia

  After a busy  time in Williamsburg we needed some down time to just relax.  We drove a whopping 33 miles to the Chesapeake Bay RV Resort for a week.  Jenny enjoyed riding her bike or just walking around the huge park.  Noticed one area had permanent  people in camp sites .  We had a good site close to the bathrooms and could see the river. 
Dan found a bunch of people that like to play pickleball.  He also found a bunch of Geo Cache's.
Bought a nice custom made picnic  table cloth and bench covers

A Great day In Williamsburg Virginia

  We had a great time in Williamsburg Virginia.  The Royal Governor's Palace was my favorite building. We took a tour through it and the gardens behind it. The Foyer made all of us on the tour say " WOW "as we walked through the door. On the walls were lots and lots of swords and guns  and beautiful woodwork and marble floors.

The first two Virginia Governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson , resided in the Palace during their terms. Toward the close of the American Revolution. The Palace functioned as a hospital for soldiers wounded in the Siege of Yorktown.

The original building was destroyed by a fire in 1781. The reconstructed building was finally open to the public in 1934 . I loved the gardens behind it and got this great shot of the Butterfly and loved the vined pathway. Inside the rooms were huge and tall and interesting seeing the lumpy canopy beds. In the dining room you saw fine China and it had a huge room for entertaining.

I was beat tired after touring all the streets, shops, houses  but LOVED all the history of the area, so glad we had the chance to come here.

  Modes of Transportation in Williamsburg Virginia in the 1700's.

 

It was really neat to see everyone dressed up in Colonial clothes, felt like we have stepped back in time

  Before going into the Historic Williamsburg Virginia we passed through this Pioneer Farm and talked with the guides there.  Dan even fed some corn to some very large Pigs!
Williamsburg is a ALL DAY of WALKING tour, so if you get too tired you might want to split this day up into two days. I did alot of walking!!

There are carriage rides through the streets for a fee.

Jamestown ships and Jamestown guides

Here are the ships that look like the ones from the 1600's and the map that went from England to Virginia.
At one point on our tour a thunderstorm was coming in and they rang the bell on the ships and shouted that everyone had to get off the ships and go back up to the museum and wait out the storm. IT POURED and thunder and lightening were right over the top of us!! In a way it was ok because it gave us time to tour the museum. I just wished I could have taken photo's inside.

Many museums will not allow cameras so I had to purchase tour guide books of the museums. Which I liked because it helps me with the blog history.

English Ships

These Ships are reproductions of the Ships Susan Constant (100 tons), Godspeed (40 tons) and Discovery (20 tons). Including the crew and 104 men and boys that left from London England on Dec 20, 1606 and arrived in Jamestown on May 14,1607.

Many of the passengers were upper class people who had never worked in England and did not wish to work in the New World. This added to the difficulties of the settlers.

In 1607, Jamestown became the first permanent English speaking colony in America. Unlike the Pilgrims who established a settlement in Massachusetts 13 yrs later, the English did not come to Jamestown for religious reasons. They came as part of the Virginia Company expecting to find Silver and Gold and jewels which would permit them to return back to England rich but they found none.

Jamestown was chosen as a settlement site because it could be defended from Spain, Spain proved to not be the problem though, bad water, disease, and Indians took a terrible toll on the settlers.

At the settlement we saw alot of people portraying people who lived in Virginia back in the 1600's, very good historians and learned alot about how hard it was for the Colonist's to come over from England and survive here.

Views around the settlement, I liked the statue of Pocahontas daughter of the powerful Indian Chief. She became a Christian and adopted the name Rebecca after marrying John Rolfe in 1614, she had a son Thomas in 1615. A year later she sailed to England and died there at age 22. She is buried at Gravesend on the river Thames in England. Her son Thomas was left in England with a guardian and his father John Rolfe came back to Virginia but was killed in a Indian massacre in 1622.

The church tower on Jamestown Island dates back to 1639 and is the only 17th century structure above ground. The church is a replica of the early structure, you can see the original foundation under glass in the church.

Slaves in Virginia

We had a fantastic guide that took us back in time to the character Anthony Johnson who was brought over on one of the slave ships and made a indentured slave . After Seven years Anthony was granted to be a Free slave and Anthony purchased and owned his own land in Jamestown with his wife Mary and his children. It was so hot that day and this poor man was sweating galore wearing colonial clothes, I could just imagine this person dressed like that every day and living without air-conditioning back in that era- whew!!! This guide was awesome telling us the tale and really made you think what life was like for people to be ripped from their homes and sent over on a ship and sitting in the bottom and getting seasick and then made a slave.

Indians at Jamestown

Long before the English came to Jamestown the Indians lived here for over 12,000 years. In the 1990's Archaeological digs in Jamestown reveled thousands of artifacts from both the English and the Indians.
There were about 14,000 Indians in Virginia during the 1600's. Those living around the Jamestown area were the Algonquian nation. one of over 30 tribes that comprised the confederacy ruled by the Powhatan, called " Wahunsonacock" by his people. He controlled an alliance of more than 6,000 square miles.
Most of the villages were along the rivers or creeks. Food was plentiful then, Deer,bear, raccoon,possum and wild turkey. Rivers and creeks provided fish,oysters, clams and crabs. When in season huckleberries, strawberries, blackberries, wild cherries, persimmons, walnuts and hickory nuts. Farming was a way of life for the Indians. Garden tools were made from animal bones, deer antlers, sharpened sticks. Children would hide in a structure built of reeds and hides to scare off the birds and wild animals from eating their crops.
It was the Indians who taught the Colonist's how to grow Tobacco.

  We enjoyed having guides tell us about life in Jamestown back in  the 1600's. It was not easy  for the Colonists. By 1619 disease and malnutrician had taken 1,000 of those who came to Virginia. After decades there was progress, over  the next 300 years, tens of millions of European, African and Asian people arrived on American shores to begin their lives anew.

Virginia here we come!

Arrived to a very nice park that was a Outdoor World campground, part of the new parks we picked up adding the Mid Atlantic & Outdoor World to our Thousand Trails membership we upgraded. I loved taking advantage of the swimming pools and hot tub after all the walking we did in the Historic Virginia Triangle- Jamestown-Williamsburg and Yorktown.

We have had a great journey East!!
We are seeing so much History on this journey, my High school History teacher Mr. Bort is in heaven and smiling that I am loving History and not just reading about it but seeing and touching it!! I know my Aunt Rete is delighted we are seeing so much.

Wright Brothers National Memorial

On our last day in North Carolina we spent the day at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. We are loving the senior pass that gets us into all the National Park services for free and not have to pay a fee.
The Wright Brothers were genius's, they took notes from Otto Lilenthal who was the first true glider pilot and Octave Chanute who encouraged the Wrights who used his biplane glider design to create a glider that would fly

The Wright Brothers chose Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hill because it provided isolation, high dunes, strong winds and soft landings.
A 60 foot Monument now stands on Kill Devil Hill honors the Wright Brothers and marks the hundreds of glider flights that preceded the first powered flight. Below the hill you can see the granite markers were the first planes left the ground. Very interesting area and the Visitor's Center has a reproduction of the 1902 glider and the 1903 flying machine. The original glider is in the Air & Space museum in Washington D.C. and we got to tour that museum and see all that has been created since that first flight of the Wright Brothers. Very interesting tour.
I had taken a photo of the painting of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins that day, sad to hear that Neil died the next month in August 2012

Outer Banks OBX North Carolina

We had a great time over at the Outer Banks. Took a LONG Ferry ride, Dan enjoyed it, I thought it was boring LOL. All we saw was water and once in awhile a Shrimp boat. I did enjoy seeing the light houses and due to my left hip hurting from all this walking I could not climb up all the steps and by the time we got there they were about to close so I was content not going up.

We could not believe all the rental beach houses. Almost everyone had a rental sign on it. We saw many that had special shutters on them to close over the windows when storms are approaching. Dan just shook his head and said he'd never live on the beach where powerful storms could hit you.
Dan decided to do a bunch of Geo Caching so that was my chance to go shopping- Hooray!!! I did buy a new swimsuit and got a free T-shirt that says " Outer Banks " on it.

Went to "Dirty Dick's" Seafood restaurant one night for Seafood dinner and then Henry's Restaurant another night after we did the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. Both places had great food.

I got a kick out of seeing this Flying Saucer along the side of the road and was really curious. I guess at one time it used to be a hot dog stand. Scary alien masks were inside the windows of the " Alien Ship", funny attraction. We had fun just exploring this area, lots to see and very much a young tourist area from what they were selling in the shops.

Heading Down The Road Again

Monday July 30th we packed up and left the Goldsboro area, I swear I cried half the morning that I had to leave and would not see our sweet Renee another day...it was hard to say good-bye . She's very special to us.

We arrived to Shawboro North Carolina, our last stop in North Carolina. Dan and I found it real interesting that every town ended in "Ville" or "boro" on our journey.

North River was a beautiful park surrounding a 5 acre lake. Plush grass, every site had a great view of the lake. All motorhomes faced the lake and the 5th wheels and trailers backed into the sites. Many 5th wheels have the huge windows in the back so they also got a great view.

We went to North River so we could be close to The Outer Banks before we left North Carolina.

Happy Birthday Kathy!

Sunday 29th Dan, Renee, Gladis "Grandma" & I went over to Renee's Aunt Kathy's to celebrate her birthday with her. She cooked a 5 star meal that fed no less than 20 people. Kathy said that's normal around her house and Renee chimed in that it was true!! Woody her husband cooked up a huge batch of fried chicken with Kathy's secret Bar-B-Q sauce. Had a huge spinach & strawberry salad, loaded mashed potato's, fresh green beans.....it was SO GOOD!!!!
Birthday cake and Peach cobbler for dessert. Woody took Dan over to the hog barn that he had and Dan was shocked to see he had over 650 hogs!! Dan and I were both impressed to see the collection room in the old part of the house. Kathy had a collection of Madam Alexander dolls, Woody had old pioneer things and other collections but what got my attention was the Tiaras and trophies in a glass case. Kathy's two daughters were beauty pageant winners. The oldest girl is Harley and we just thought she was just the sweetest girl we had ever met, she was a real chatterbox but we loved talking to her and listening to her Southern accent delighted us!

Critters and Kids

  Kathy & Woody had a menagerie of critters at their house, the horses were beautiful and I ALMOST brought home a kitten but I didn't. I swore I was not going to bring another cat into the RV.  Renee kept teasing me but I knew Kathy liked the one I kept holding so I left it with Kathy.

The kids were having a ball keeping cool in the swimming pool and we all got soaked splashing water back and forth at each other.  A great day with Renee's family celebrating her aunt's Birthday.

  We had lots of fun going over to Renee's house.  I did not like seeing the Banana spiders at Grandma's house and Aunt Kathy's- they are poisonous!! Renee has a beautiful home that she shares with her 3 cats and Grandma lives next door.

Jill & Beth live not far away in Goldsboro, it was really great getting a chance to see them although it was not long enough! Sweet gals and true blue friends of Renee's

Time with my very Special Borrowed Daughter

  Some people come into your lives to teach us certain lessons in life. I believe Renee was meant to be in my life to show me how much a family can show love.  She has been a God send to my life, a true Angel full of wisdom and love and I love her so much!!!

Thank-You Connie for sharing your wonderful daughter with me, it means alot!!

Renee took the time every day to come see us after work and spend precious time with us.  She introduced me to her co-workers at Toyota where she works, even introduced me to people she knew in Walmart when I had to stop and pick up some things from the store! On Sunday she took me to church so we could pray together and meet her pastor.  We got to meet her great friends Jill, Beth & Kelly. We had a great time with her parents Connie, John & Danny who are a hoot. We spent time with the rest of the family and they made us feel like we have known them for years!!  What a great bunch of people, talk about true Southern Hospitality!!!  I cried when we had to leave, I did not want to keep going on! We felt so much love and acceptance we were overwhelmed!!  This family is wonderful and having Renee in Our life has been wonderful , thank you God for placing them in our lives..

She may not be my birth daughter but she is my heaven sent daughter.  She always makes me laugh, keeps in touch and always there for me .  I am truly blessed to have her in my life! Thank-You God!!