Virginia - 2008

April 16, 2008 to April 22, 2008

Our first real trip of 2008 has us heading down to Topping, Virginia. Joyce found a nice campground which is on the south shore of the Rappahannock River. The campsite has excellent facilities and hookups. I haven't seen such a well kept campground as Grey's Point in our travels. All the transient sites were paved and had 50 amp electric service, sewer, water, and cable. Wednesday and Thursday nights there were only 5 or 6 rigs in the camp. Friday, there were more than 40, including a noisy club from Maryland near our site. The weather was beautiful, clear skies, warm during the days and cool at night. We used the A/C during the day and the heater at night.

Thursday, we headed down the Jamesburg to see the first settlement in the New World. I made a wrong turn just after leaving the camp and we ended out on a point where the Rappahannock and James Rivers meet. I started using the GPS after that.

The site of the first settlement had replicas of the ships the settlers came over on and of the buildings they erected. The ship were unbelieveably small for such a long journey. When we think of the trip westward we usually picture of a course to the north. They actually left England, sailed south to the Azores, headed west to the Americas, and went north to the colonies. The leg of the trip across the Atlantic took a month. The ships we saw had to be less than 60 feet long.

The village showed how the settlers lived and worked. The settlement was inside a stockade. Everything the settlers needed either had to be made or grown there. Crops were grown outside the walls. There were also displays showing how the local indians lived. They were outside the settler's stockade.

Friday, we visited Colonial Williamsburg. We started with the gardens of the Governor's Palace gardens and skipped the tour of the palace itself. We walked around the town going into most of the homes, shops, etc. Many were not open to the public, at least not that day.

We had lunch in a great restaurant across the street from William & Mary College. Pricy, but worth it. We did a bit of shopping before heading back to the Gov's palace for our tour.

..........and then the rains came.........

The cloudless skies of the past three days gave way to four days of heavy overcast and waves of heavy rain. There was a tornado in our vacinity according to the New York television news programs. We did manage to get some sightseeing in between the rain drops.

Saturday, we rode up to Robert E. Lee's birthplace, Stratford Hall. The tour of the main house was interesting, but we weren't permitted to take any pictures inside. The tour was limited to the house due to the deluge that was happening outside.

Sunday, took us to Yorktown, where it rained (surprise). We saw the visitor's center then took the self-guided tour of the battlefield. We got out of the car once when the rain let up.

Monday was scheduled to be our trip to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. The only thing here was that somebody forgot to tell them we were coming. The park is only open during the weekends prior to Memorial Day. We should have gone yesterday.

When we got back to the RV, we decided to head for home Tuesday instead of Wednesday. We left Virginia and were greeted by the sun in Maryland.

Other than the rotten weather we had at the end of the trip, we did have a great time and would go back to that area on a future trip. I may not stay were we did. It was a beautiful campground but it ended up being out of the way of where we ended up sightseeing.