Van Wert Fairgrounds

We are parked at the Van Wert Fairgrounds in Ohio. We will be here for a little over a month. We plan on visiting family and making trips to Fort Wayne, IN to the genealogy library. The campground here is right next to the horse track where we get to watch the trotters work-out each day. It's fun to watch the ponies run. Life is good!

In the Trees

We left Gettysburg yesterday and drove to Morgantown, WV. In the past 53 days we have stayed in 16 different states. We spent last night at Sand Spring Campground....surrounded by trees! It rained, then the fog rolled in. We traveled today to Westerville, Oh to the Tree Haven RV park. We are not in the trees, so we decided to spend a few days. I finally have the internet satelite dish up and am able to post to the blog. The campgrounds in Virginia, Maryland, Pennslvania and West Virginia sure have a lot of trees and makes it almost impossible to get the dish locked onto a signal. Time to kick back, relax and unwind from our Revolutionary War/ Civil War history tour of the south. We enjoyed ourselves...it was worth the trip! Life is Good!

Gettysburg

Ed & I left the DC area on Monday, July 9th and traveled to Gettysburg to visit the battlefield. WOW! We got a CD to play in the car on Tuesday and we traveled the 18-mile auto tour that traced the three-day battle in chronoligical order. We listened as the narrator described the battles as we viewed the battlefields. The fighting at Gettysburg is history...but the battlefields are still here, they say that much of it looks the same today as it did in 1863. It was very tragic that over 51,000 US citizens were killed, wounded or went missing. Most of the dead are burried at Gettysburg National Cemetery. I am glad that we ended our 43 day history tour here at Gettysburg! If you are interested in the Civil War, you must visit Gettysburg.

Site of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Barn with cannon hole

Check out the cannon ball hole in the top part of this barn. There are so many buildings still standing that were used by the Union and Confederate troups during the Gettysburg battle. This barn was used as a hospital at that time. With over 50,000 killed, wounded, captured or missing in the three days of fighting here, they had to turn every large building available into hospitals.

Little Round Top Battlefield

Ed and Max at the top of Little Round Top Battlefield.

National Air and Space Museum

Here in the picture is the Spirit of St. Luis, in which Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight. To the right of it is SpaceShipOne, the first privately built, piloted vehicle to rerach space. The orange Bell X-1 and on the floor below is the red Breitling Orbiter 3 gondola. Just outside the picture was John Glenn's Mercury Friendship 7 capsule and the command module Columbia that carried home the astronauts from the first landing on the Moon

Dinosaur bones

Here Ed and John check the dinosaur's in the National Museum of Natural History.

The Hope Diamond

Washington DC

We spent 2 days visiting Washington DC. July 7th & 8th. On the first day, we took the Metrorail into DC and then took the Tourmobile ...a sightseeing tram around to 40 major sites on and around the National Mall and in Arlington National Cemetery. We had a narrator on the tour who filled us in on little-known facts about DC. We were able to get on and off the tour. We got off at the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the Korean and Viet Nam Veterans Memorials. We saw and took pictures from the tram of the White House, the Capitol, Washington Monument, and other federal buildings. We got off the tour in Arlington National Cemetery and visited JFK and Robert Kennedy's gravesites. We watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns and a wreath being placed there by veterans of WWII. We did so much walking we were really tired when we got back to the motorhome Saturday evening....but we got up the very next morning and took Metrorail back into DC to visit the Smithsonian. We spent most of the day checking out the National Air & Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History. I have post only a few of 176 pictures I took in DC.

Viet Nam Veterans Memorial

Ed at the Wall

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

A Declaration of Independence!

WOW. I can't remember when I have enjoyed the celebration of Independence Day more!!! We spent the past 2 days walking the streets of Colonial Williamsburg, talking with Revolutionary Patriots, and watching as the past came alive! At 12:30pm today we listened while the Declaration of Independence was read to the citizens of Williamsburg, We took an active part by cheering during the speech. If you plan on visiting Williamsburg, you must get the 2 day ticket. You just can't see it all in 1 day. As it was we missed a few places because we just got too tired!!! Life is Good...we live in the United States of American! God Bless America!

Benedict Arnold

We were visited by the American turncoat...now British Brigadier General..."Benedict Arnold". He road in to seize Williamsburg and to announce the rules of occupation. We the "citizens" of Williamsburg, yelled and booed him.

An American Patriot Speaks About Revolution

We listened while "Patrick Henry" spoke about important lessons in citizenship, our rights and responsibilities, and what independence means. He ended the speech with his famous quote..."Give me liberty or give me death!" What an appropriate speech for Indendence Day.

Fife and Drum Corp

We watched as they marched and performed in front of the Capitol Building before Patrick Henry's speech.

Firing of a cannon

American troups were mustered on the Market Square. They fired off cannons as they saluted the original 13 stated. We enjoyed the 30 minute program as we listened to the fife and drums, and watched as the soldiers loaded and fired the cannons.

Governor's Palace

The Palace was home to seven royal governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. Construction started in 1706 and was completed in 1722. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1781, and was re-built in the early 1930's. They uncovered the foundation and used artifacts, drawings made by Thomas Jefferson, General Assembly records and copper plate engravings discovered in Englands Bedleian Library in 1929.

Bruton Parish Church

The Bruton Parish was established in 1660. This is the 3rd church to occupy this property. It was built in 1715 and is still being used as a church today. The church was used as a Union hospital during the Civil War.

Capitol Building

We toured the Capitol building which housed the House of Burgesses, then the Capitol of Virginia after the revolution, until it was moved to Richmond.

Archaeological dig

We watched while they uncovered artifacts from what they think was a kitchen. They believe the house foundation is behind (in the green area).

Shoemaker

We saw many craftmen in Williamsburg. Here we watched a shoemaker. He informed us that he was a shoemaker...NOT a cobbler. A cobbler repaired shoes and is only allowed to work with used leather while a shoemaker works with new leather.

Yorktown

We visited Yorktown today. The houses along with several others on Main Street were built during the colonial period. The house on the right was the Customhouse built about 1721 by Richard Ambler. The house on the left was Cole Digges House built about 1720. In 1697 when the first county courthouse and Grace Church were constructed there were about 200-250 buildings in town. The town reached its peak in the 1750s when the population was about 1800. The siege of 1781 destroyed so much of the town that by the end of the Revolutinary War the number of buildings were reduced to fewer than 70. The 1790 census listed 661 residents. During the Civil War, Confederate and then Union forces held the town. Though smaller today than during colonial times, the town continues to function as an active community.

Grace Church

Built about 1697, this still-active church served the York-Hampton Parish in colonial times. The cemetary to the right of it has the grave of Thomas Nelson Jr., Esq. a signor of the Declaration of Independence.

Moore House

On October 18, 1781, officers from both sides met at the home of Augustine Moore to negotiate the surrender terms for Cornwallis's army.

Yorktown Battlefield

Two pictures taken of the British Inner Defense Line. This battlefield was the last major battle of the American Revolution when Cornwallis lost to Washington and had to surrender 7000 troups in 1781. This battlefield was also used in the Yorktown siege in the spring of 1862 during the Civil War when the Union General McClellan began his campaign to capture Richmond.

Historic Jamestowne

Sunday, July 2nd we visited Jamestowne ruins. Here on this site the first permanent English settlement in North American was started in 1607. Archeologists continue to work in this area, adding to the knowledge base of Jamestown history. They have uncovered the 1607 James Fort and many foundations from buildings in the area. If you visit the Williamsburg area, this is a must see!

Jamestown well

This is one of the many wells in the Jamestown area. Sometimes they didn't dig the well deep enough and the water turned brackish so the well was turned into a trash dump. They have uncovered thousands if artifacts from the wells.

Glass blower

Glassblowing was one of Virginia's first industries, started in 1608 at Jamestown.

Petersburg Battlefield

On Saturday, July 1st we visited another Civil War battlefield in Petersburg, VA. This was a very important battle of the war. General Grant captured Petersburg which is just south of Richmond It was the last major battle of the civil war. Ed and Marge are in the picture with the small cannon and John is in the picture of the very large mortar called the "Dictator"

Funny Sign

We saw this sign while in North Carolina on I-73/I-74 just south of Greensboro. We had a good laugh and had to pass it on.