Williamsburg, Virginia.....lots to see around here!

Thursday, October 25
We left Cherry Hill Park outside of Washington just after 9 AM in order to avoid the dreaded DC rush hour traffic. We succeeded in that and had a good trip south on 495 and then picked up I95 south toward Richmond, Virginia. We used the 295 bypass and than turned on to Hwy 64 East. We arrived at the Thousand Trails Williamsburg RV Resort in mid-afternoon. This was an RPI resort and it's the off season which means we stay here for $15/night full services.

Nice light DC traffic!

We're heading toward Richmond.

A last look at DC from the Potomoc River.

Another new State for us.

Interstate 64 heading East toward Williamsburg.

Our site under the huge oak trees. There were acorns dropping on the roof all the time we were here.

Friday, October 26
We headed in to Williamsburg to get some chores done. The truck needed an oil change and I had an appointment with the Chev Dealer. We went for a late breakfast across the street to a diner that was highly recommended (and we agree). Cheryl had her hair cut at Supercuts by a very talented young lady. Next, we stopped at Colonial Williamsburg to buy some admission tickets for our visit here early next week. Next it was off to get some groceries and then home before the rain started. We were getting the remnants of the hurricane that crossed Mexico a week ago. It started to rain early afternoon and it continued to rain, sometimes quite hard for the next 24 hours.

Saturday, October 27
The rain stopped near noon and we decided to head over to the Shirley Plantation for a tour. The Shirley Plantation was established in 1613 and is still occupied by members of the Carter family who are direct descendants of the original plantation owner. This actually makes it the oldest family business in the US.

The tour guide that took us through the first floor of the house told us many interesting stories about the people that lived here. It turns out that General Robert E Lee spent time here as a boy. His grandparents lived in the house. As the house is occupied by the owners we were only allowed to visit the first floor and we were asked not to take photographs inside the house.

This is one of the few homes that was not damaged or destroyed during the Civil War. Although it is located in Virginia and on Confederate territory it was home, in a sense, to wounded Union soldiers after a battle further east of here. The occupants of the home took pity on the wounded soldiers and tended to their needs until the Union Army could rescue them.

Beautiful quiet roads.

Hard to see but this was a recently harvested cotton field and the whitish looking stuff was cotton (not snow).

The trail to the plantation.

The main house. The owners live on the second and third floor.

The main house looks exactly the same from the front and back.

The smokehouse

Inside the smokehouse.

The corn crib

The stable and implement storage.

Implements

Livestock!

Cute donkeys

The Dovecote. Only wealthy plantations had a brick Dovecote.

There were 180 pigeon nests in the Dovecote

Storage building.

This is a huge oak.

Southern belle waiting for her ice tea!

Bo, the dog.

Amazing brickwork for a house that is over 300 years old.

The root cellar

Root cellar entrance.

Stone floors

The kitchen. Kitchens were in separate buildings due to the fire risk. The cook and kitchen slaves lived upstairs.

Ice house and storage.

The ice pit was very deep.

We drove down the road to the Berkeley Plantation.

We drove our one-ton carriage down the road.

The Berkeley Plantation. Unfortunately the tours were closing as we arrived so we didn't get to go inside.

So we got to see our fist plantations. I'm sure they won't be the last as we'll be spending the next month in the Carolina's and Georgia.
We're looking forward to seeing the historical locations and natural beauty of the area.

.....and that was Our View From Here!