November 4,
2017
Sabbath we went attended
Patterson SDA Church in Richmond, VA. It
is a church in the middle of the city where you park along the street – where
you can find parking. Have you taken
advantage of and thanked the Lord lately for your churches’ plentiful parking
lot? You never realize how blessed you
are until you are without… It was a very
multicultural church full of music and traditional costumes from around the
world. People were very friendly and a
family invited us over for lunch. The
husband grew up in the part of the world and the wife was from Brazil. They had two freshman in high school
daughters. Their home was full of
animals including a parrot who loved to talk, dance, and bite. It loved dancing on the top of Levi’s head or
shoulder while he played the piano. If
the parrot doesn’t like someone’s music it tells them to “shush.” He never did that to Benjamin! They also had the most well-trained Shitzu
dog I had ever scene. It actually prayed… a picture is attached. We had a very lovely
Sabbath together.
The husband commutes 2 hours 1 way into Washington DC every day; because
of the high cost of living they chose to live in the outskirts of Richmond. He drives on average more hours per day than
we do on our roadtrip around America!
November 5,
2017
Sunday we were planning on going
to Williamsburg but the fee for the living history museum was almost $200 for
our family and it was rebuilt buildings vs. original. We decided it wasn’t worth the money for us
despite the great reviews. Jamestown was
also a living history museum, but only $90. We learned that Pocahantus never
did marry John Smith nor was there any romantic connection – she was a child of
11 when she befriended him. We learned some facts through their museum about
how the colony was established then checked out their outside features: 1. a
replica of the Jamestown settlement where they were cutting up meat and
vegetables for stew (we were glad we were vegetarians as the flies were flying
all over the raw meat!) 2. A replica of an Indian village where we
learned how they burn down trees and and burn our their dugout canoes. (start
little fires at the base and then scrape the burned area off; same method once
it is down for inside the canoe.) 3. 2
replicas of the ships the came in – and they sure were small! We left a couple hours later pretty
disappointed at spending so much money for something that wasn’t that special.
We then headed to Historical
Jamestown – the actual island the Jamestown settlement was on. We were free thanks to Lucas’ National Parks
access pass – but otherwise it would have been around $15 for our family. They had an excellent video and an extremely
informative museum with lots more information and without an agenda woven into
it but just the facts stated how they were.
We took a tour from an archeologist who is employed digging the site. We found it very interesting as we learned
about how archeologists do their work. Then we took a tour from a park ranger
who basically contradicted everything the archeologist had said about
Jamestown. So in the end we were all
utterly confused and frustrated. Even
the experts can’t agree on what happened!
Some people say they starved to death the winter of 1610 and there was
cannibalism; another says they don’t believe they starved to death but maybe
they didn’t eat the food because they thought it was poisoned or
something…. Neither theory really added
up with the facts – I mean they were sitting on an island with a boat and I am
going to guess a bunch of ducks, birds, fish, etc. Bottom line is, “Were you there?” Well, then you don’t really know the
facts. People can twist things to
believe whatever they want and write a book and be an expert and thus it is
considered fact, when who knows…..
Bottom line this is what the people wrote back in the early 1600’s: All of the coastline of North and South
America was considered by Spain to be theirs because they had explored it. England wanted their stakes in the profit
too, so they decided to settle it and claim it.
Virginia was named for the virgin queen Elizabeth and the Virginia Company
was a stock-holders company that was funded largely by lottery tickets and sent
men there to find the riches.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t gold just sitting on the beaches but there
were Indians and many fights. The rate
of survival was not very high. The
winter of 1610 was the worst; they said they were starving (don’t know why
though) and only 10% of the people survived the winter. Eventually enough people were brought over
from England and the true key that made it work was when they brought women
over. Tobacco was their first big cash
crop. There was lots of fighting within
the leaders also and John Smith left after a short time and never returned to
Jamestown. He did return to the area and
mapped it out including New England and he wrote books – although they think
the stories in his books were grossly exaggerated.
The moral story of the day, we are done spending high amounts of money
for the cool stuff – the good stuff in life seems to be free. Not just on travels – but even in everyday
life. The Lord is the best – and He
offers all His gifts free. Most of the
really cool things in life that are priced high just aren’t really worth that
much.
November 6,
2017
We went to Yorktown this morning
– this was the last major battle in the Revolutionary war. Basically - basically to sum it up, George
Washington knew he could not win the battle on his own. Fortunately for him, the French decided to
help. He knew it would still be a
challenge. The majority of the British
were in New York City and the other group in Yorktown. George Washington was outside New York City,
but he knew he would lose if he attacked.
So he was waiting for an opportunity… His opportunity came when the
French joined and said they would send a naval fleet to the Chesapeake bay. He left empty tents and did everything
possible to make the British think he was setting up to attack New York City
while he secretly marched his army from New York City to Yorktown (east of
Richmond.) By the time the British found out they sent their naval force South
but the French attacked them and won.
Then the French and George Washington went towards Yorktown. Cornwallis, the British officer at Yorktown
retreated from his outward dugouts because the British promised help in a few
days. The French and Americans then
moved in and dug and fought and night.
Cornwallis went to depart on ships in the bay but a storm came up and he
could not. He then surrendered his
army. However, he was too proud to
surrender his sword so he handed his sword to his assistant who surrendered the
sword. Lol It then took England 2 years to communicate
via old communication and come with the Treaty of Paris that finally ended the
war – but the battle of Yorktown was the last major battle and settled the
fate. England was tired of fighting on
all fronts and dealing with their rebellious child.
In the afternoon we decided to
take the 18 mile bridge/tunnel system (the longest in the world) across the
Chesapeake Bay and onto the Eastern Shore of Virginia. While driving across I saw several
dolphins. It was crazy to think as we
were going through the tunnels huge ships could be going over us! We were just going to drive across and back,
but then we stopped at the visitor’s center and changed our mind.
We headed to Assateague Island
to see the wild Chincoteague horses. The
story is that centuries ago a Spaniard ship wrecked off the coast with all
these horses and they have lived on this island for years. We found a place that for $220 would give us
a boat ride to see them, but we decided to just head to the island and see what
we saw. We passed a place that is
supposed to be in the top 5 icecream places in the U.S. I told Dave if he found
a wild horse he could have icecream.
Well, after a couple minutes of driving in there were several horses a
couple hundred feet away in the swamp.
We watched them – they were beautiful!
Then we headed to the vast sandy beach.
I’m not sure if the sand is real or not – there was a bulldozer there
that obviously at minimum moves the sand
all around. The kids played while Dave
and I walked the beach and found tons of big conk shells and had a lovely
time. It was a gorgeous afternoon with
clouds in the sky and a gorgeous sunset.
As we drove out of the park just at dusk, here were the horses in the
middle of the road! I got out to take
pictures and two walked a few feet in front of me right by me! These horses are much shorter than the horses
I am used to being around – but they are gorgeous! I wanted to just hop on and go for a bareback
ride. And the icecream was
delicious… And we saved $220 – once again
the best experiences in life are free and priceless all at the same time.
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