Highlights:
Jamestown & glass blower *********
York Town battlefield & Visitor Center *********
Miss Hampton cruise - Chesapeake Bay *********
Colonial Williamsburg *****
Virginia Landing campground, Gloucester *******
Colonial Williamsburg,
Jamestown, & York Town, Va
Oct,. 9-11, 2008
162 miles and 3 1/2 hours from our last stop
Bob & Jenny's Cross Country Adventure
Days 54-56
Welcome to
Jamestown, VA. This is the site of the first permanent English colony settlement. England was overpopulated and largely deforested. The first people who came over were the wealthy who had no expertise in living in the wild. Their dream was to find gold hanging from trees. No gold was found, so, you can understand why 400 settlers diminished to 60 in one year. Quickly, the focus went to glassmaking since the heavily treed forests provided the fuel for glass making. In the church above, the original foundation has been excavated (inside) and the church has been rebuilt several times. It is a replica of how it would have looked in the 1600's.
Holding hands with Pocahontas.
She is credited with saving John Smith's life twice! She was "kidnapped" by the settlers, after which she converted in culture and religion, and married, She traveled to Europe and unfortunately died there in her early 20's.
In :Jamestown, the amazing art of glassblowing can be seen. Settlers made glass bottles to be sent back to England, and glass beads were made for trade with the Indians,
Standing by a long range cannon that could shoot a 32 lb cannon ball 3 miles used in the battlefield at Yorktown. This was the French position.
The British dug trenches and strategically placed pointed stakes to prevent the Revolutionary soldiers from advancing into Yorktown.
Jenny standing next to a Howlitzer cannon on the Yorktown battlefield.
The Moore House. Here, negotiations for the terms of surrender of the Brittish were drawn up in the battle of Yorktown.
In Colonial Williamsburg, a carriage passes a "criminal" being punished with a stockade.
The Governor's Palace, Colonial Williamsburg.
We took a Miss Hampton cruise on Chesapeake Bay. Black Beard the Pirate was caught and beheaded here. His head hung on a post in town for years to ward off pirates, until the 1930's when a college sorority took the skull and had it bronzed as a silver mug for ceremonial toasts.
Originally Fort Monroe, and now known as Fort Wool. It took seven years and thousands of car-sized boulders to build the island before the fort could be built. Years later, it was noted to be sinking, and Robert E Lee (a Westpoint graduate of engineering) was the one who came up with the solution to slow the rate of sinking. It sounds like a ton of money went into building this place. Never really used except in the Battle of the Ironclads, maybe it was a good deterent from attack?
The Chesapeake bay is home to the Norfolk Naval base. You can see many naval ships here. The USS Cole was in port (in the middle-back of the photo). The Chesapeake Bay tunnel/bridge which is 16 miles long was built to allow the fleet to be able to come in and go out without any restrictions.
USS Eisenhower. This ship has a gold anchor which is symbolic of a very high re-uping percentage. Notice the Marine on the front deck? He is there with a machine gun- watching.
