2014-09-29 & 30

Yesterday, the 29h, we drove to the Jamestown Historical National Park. . The Virginia Colony was settled in 1607 by a group of men from England’s Virginia Company.  The first thing we did was take a Guided Archeological Tour. We saw a circle in the dirt that the archeologist said was where a corner post of the 1608 James Fort had stood. . It is exciting to be able to state that a post from 1608 had been in that hole. Bodies were dug up and iron crosses have been used to mark their location. . Leaving the park, we saw some wildlife. .

 

Today, the 30th, we toured the Yorktown Battlefield National Park. .  The 17,600 man allied American, French an Prussian army defeated Lord Cornwallis and his English and Prussian army at the 1781 siege. We had a very informative Ranger led talk about the siege by this extremely demonstrative young Ranger. . We followed the signs on the auto tour. . Along the way we saw the restored Moore home where the articles of surrender were decided. .  A Yorktown Victory Monument was authorized by the Continental Congress ten days after Cornwallis surrendered.  Of course the funds for the monument were not provided for 100 years. . In 1956, the head had to be replaced, and they added a lightening rod to the top of the head.

Yorktown endured battles in two wars: once during the Revolutionary War; and again during the Civil War. There is a national Civil War Cemetery on the grounds of the Yorktown National Park. .

Hugs, and type at you later.

2014-09-28

From Anvil Campground, Williamsburg, VA.

Today, we drove the Jeep to the Fort Monroe National Monument Thank you, Nick Russell for mentioning this fort in your blog. We might otherwise not have made the trip. Located on the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula, at Old Point Comfort in Hampton, VA. Fort Monroe is the largest stone fort ever constructed in the US. Construction began in 1819, and lasted for 15 years. One of the first picture we took at Fort Monroe was the Old Point comfort Lighthouse.  .  Robert E. Lee spent time at Fort Monroe as a Lieutenant engineer. . After he was captured near Irwinton, GA, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was confined to this cell at Fort Monroe. .  After spending about 3 hours reading the signs and looking at the exhibits in the Casement Museum, we walked up onto the parapet over the casements. There, we found a sign under the Fort’s flag describing the origin of Retreat, and how people should act during the sounding of Retreat. .  Since the sign is hard to read, I thought the information worth including.

“Retreat is a custom first used by the French and dates to the crusades. Retreat is sounded at sunset and its purpose was to notify sentries to start challenging until sunrise and to tell the rank and file to go to quarters.

Courtesies

During Retreat personnel in military uniform will render the hand salute. Personnel in civilian attire will place there hand over their heart. Male personnel wearing hats will remove their hats and using their right hand place their hat over their hearts.”

We decided to walk all the way around the fort on the parapet. It is a long way around with ins and outs due to its star shape. There are numerous little headstones on the parapet marking where people buried their pets. . One of the oldest we spotted was dated 1936. . We decided that if you were having trouble naming a pet, a walk along this parapet should give you many options.

Fort Monroe remained an active military base from 1819 to 2011. It taught the use of Artillery until it was split into Coastal and Field Artillery. The need for coastal artillery ended after WWII due to Missiles and Air Defense, I was in the Field Artillery in Vietnam, and was trained in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Hugs, and type at you later.

2014-09-26

Today, we moved 199 miles from Ramblin Pines Campground to Anvil Campground. Our route took us on I-70 west to MD 27, south to I-270, to I-495 around D.C to the west to I-95 south. Then just north of Richmond, we took I-64 east to Williamsburg, VA. Once again, we are two sites away from railroad tracks and trains.

Hugs, and type at you later.

2014-09-25 Baltimore

We are still at Ramblin Pines Campground until tomorrow.

Marilyn is definitely not a “he” as I noted in my prior blog, and the restaurant was McGarvey’s despite autocorrect.

Yesterday we drove the Jeep in to Fort McHenry, and the Baltimore, MD Inner Harbor. We had planned to take the Free Water Taxi to the Fort, but could not get into a parking garage near the visitor center. I was always in the wrong lane. So, we drove out to the Fort instead. . This is where Francis Scott Key saw the Star Spangled Banner on the morning of September 14, 1814 after the British withdrew their warships. This flag contained 15 stripes and 15 stars to reflect the number of states at that time. The picture of the flag flying over the fort during our visit was a replica. The original is in the Smithsonian. . The fort is star shaped, and guards the entrance to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We walked around the inside and outside of the fort reading the exhibits. .  After leaving the fort, we followed the GPS to the Inner Harbor, parked  for $21 and walked to the sites we wanted to see. This turned out to be the least expensive way. If we had parked here and taken the Water Taxi to the fort, we would have paid an additional $24. The first thing we saw was the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse. . Marilyn even climbed this lighthouse. .   We each ha good crab cake sandwiches at .  At the Inner Harbor we saw the US Coast Guard Cutter ‘Taney’. It is the last warship still afloat after having seen action on December 7, 1941 in Hawaii. .  We also saw The Lightship Chesapeake, the submarine USS Torsk, and the Warship USS Constellation. .

We have had a good time here in the Baltimore area, but Marilyn says we will not drive in downtown Baltimore again.

Hugs, and type at you later.

2014-09-22 Annapolis

We are still at Ramblin Rose Campground in Woodbine, MD.

Our week near Baltimore is coming to an end. Today is for vegetating, cleaning, this blog, and getting ready to leave in the morning to go a little further south.

On Monday, the 22nd we drove the Jeep to Annapolis, MD to tour the State House and the US Naval Academy. It was a full day of sightseeing  First stop was at the Visitor Center to find parking. Of course we still had to pay to park in a parking garage, but we were able to walk to both of our destinations.

This is our first view of the State House. . Of course that was not the only picture of the outside that I took. . The Maryland Statehouse was built in 1772-1779, and was used as the capitol of the US from November 26, 1783 to August 13, 1784. It was also the place where George Washington resigned his Commission from the Continental Congress as Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. . Next are pictures of the House of Delegates Chamber and the Senate Chamber which have been used since 1906.

Next, we walked down the hill to towards the Naval Academy. Along the way, we saw this flag hanging from an upstairs window, just a couple blocks from the US Naval Academy, apparently owned by an Army Fan. It says “Go Army, Beat Navy”. . The US Naval Academy has a student body of about 4,500 Midshipmen. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the Naval Academy, since he retired from being an instructor at the Academy. After a few stops we arrived at Bancroft Hall,named after the founder of the Naval Academy, George Bancroft, former US Secretary of the Navy, for the weekday noon before marching to lunch. All 4,500 of them gather for announcements in front of their dormm. . Then they marched in to eat lunch all together, to the tune of “Scotland the Brave” played by their Pipe Band. Our guide said they cycle through 3 different groups. The guided tour ended at The Crypt and Chapel.  The tour ended at the Crypt and Chapel. (Note: Theodore Roosevelt decided that the Naval Academy needed to have a hero buried under the chapel . So he had the Ambassador to France find where his body was buried, and then have it shipped to Annapolis. These are pictures of the Chapel and Crypt. . After our guided tour was over, we went to the museum. .

It was now about 2pm, so after leaving the Academy we needed lunch. The young lady at the harbor information booth suggested McGuire's Restaurant. . Marilyn and I each had crab cakes; 2 for he and a sandwich for me.

Later.