WILLIAMSBURG - JAMESTOWN - YORKTOWN, VIRGINIA

Thursday, April 17, we drove from Kosmo Village RV Park in Glen Allen, Virginia (near Richmond) to a Thousand Trails park, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia. It is a very large park with 355 full hookups, gravel roads and sites. $2 extra for our 50-amp service. No cell phone service and the internet is very slow. Satellite is good. It is beautiful here with their 280-acre preserve situated on the Piankatank River, one of the pristine rivers in Virginia, located just 13 miles upriver from the Chesapeake Bay. Scattered with hardwoods, pines and dogwoods, the preserve offers two piers for fishing and many activities for the young and young at heart. Three quaint little towns nearby are Gloucester, Matthews, and Urbanna.

Gloucester is a county of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Formed in 1651 in the Virginia Colony, it was named for Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester, third son of King Charles I of Great Britain. Located in the Middle Peninsula region, it borders the York River and the lower Chesapeake Bay. It is about 75 miles east of Virginia's capitol, Richmond. As of the 2000 census, the population was 34,780. Gloucester is steeped in history of the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. It was the site of Werowocomoco, a capital of the Native American group known as the Powhatan Confederacy. It was home to members of early First Families of Virginia and important colonial leaders leading up to the American Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson is said to have composed much of his early work for Virginia and colonial independence at Rosewell Plantation overlooking the York River, then the home of his close friend and fellow student in Williamsburg at the College of William and Mary, John Page. From one of the First Families of Virginia, John Page himself was a famous patriot serving as both Governor of Virginia and in the U.S. Congress; Gloucester County Public Schools named Page Middle School in his honor. As the war concluded at Yorktown directly across from Gloucester Point, the county almost served as the escape route for the British land forces led by General Cornwallis. A French effort kept British naval forces from assisting him. Long the domain of Virginia watermen and its fishing industries, Gloucester County is also rich in farmland. It is home to two Starbucks, a Wal-Mart as well as several smaller companies and a regional, family-owned chain of supermarkets that contribute to its small town, friendly, southern atmosphere, such as the stores around the main street area at the county seat, Gloucester Courthouse. Ray's Reflections: Although we spent most of our stay visiting the all-important past and the beginning of our great country, I did have time to enjoy the gently rolling hills dotted with many farms and beautiful spring blossoms on the bike. The country roads were very good with little traffic and comfortable to ride with few surprises, which is good. Chesapeake Bay has many fingers reaching out into the countryside and dividing the region with tributaries. The daytime temps around 70s. Although we did have several days of rain this was a good stop. The three historical sites above were 40 miles from our park, therefore a longer stay would have been more desirable April 18 - The Historic Triangle Story The Historic Triangle gave birth to the United States, and a huge nation grew from a tiny place in Virginia. In that same tiny place, Europeans, American Indians, and Africans first lived together and became the seed of the American people. The first permanent English settlers sent by the Virginia Company of London were at Jamestown. The ideas of revolution were fanned at Williamsburg. Independence was won in the final victory at Yorktown. Representative self-government started in the Historic Triangle, as did civilian control of the military and the right to private ownership of property. If even one of those concepts, any one, had been missing, the United States would be a completely different place. It might not even be the United States. At times before our independence, the Dutch were to the north, the Spanish to the south, and the French to the north and west. If the Jamestown settlers had given up or the revolutionaries in Williamsburg been less intent or the British had won at Yorktown, what nation might have moved in? We would not necessarily be better or worse, but we would be different. Europeans, American Indians and Africans met each other here. It was not an equal meeting. Europeans enslaved Africans and killed and displaced Indians. Four hundred years later, we are still trying to deal with the results of all that began in the Historic Triangle. COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG -1700s - We planned on at least two days to explore and learn all that there is available to us on our visit. We found the whole experience so much more than we anticipated. The Visitors Center is state-of-the-art, with two theaters that show two films every half-hour. Both are very informative and we saw them the second day due to timing. The film on the start of the Revolution was created with some well-known actors. The other film is about the Rockefeller Family and their commitment to preserving Colonial Williamsburg. To begin your journey, you take a bus to the Colonial Williamsburg entrance. They give a 15-minute orientation designed for young guests, "Get Revved" gives visitors the chance to hear a person from the past talk about the scenes they will see in Revolutionary City. You can hear a costumed interpreter explain differences between our world and theirs, and it gives you the opportunity to ask questions The people living in Williamsburg, preachers, house servants, farmers, actors, and artisans—both enslaved and free—were architects of a new nation no less than General Washington, Governor Jefferson, or Governor Henry. As you travel down the streets, you will meet the men and women who helped shape their times. See how their lives, like our own, are affected by the promises of the Declaration of Independence, whether realized or unfulfilled. A number of events occurred in Williamsburg that was pivotal to the evolution of Virginians from subjects of a distant monarch to citizens of a self-governing republic. These events led Virginians to declare that the colonies were no longer under British rule but free and independent United States of America. Witness the difficult choices facing the townspeople as you walk the streets, visit the many businesses, and hear from the townspeople dressed in period costumes. The only transportation allowed in Colonial Williamsburg today is by foot or horse driven. The colonists realized that Williamsburg was in danger if they went to war with England since they are located near a deep-water port. Colonial Williamsburg became run down and lost its appeal until the Rockefeller Family Foundation took a keen interest in the town and through trustees bought the town. The Foundation has invested over $68 million during the course of time to restore it to its present state. They moved the Capital to Richmond.

The Capital of Virginia. The first colony to speak for American independence did it with unanimous voices of the gentlemen who gathered in the Capitol. Patrick Henry's fiery 1765 "Caesar-Brutus" speech and the May 15, 1776 Resolution for Independence, which led directly to the July 4th Declaration in Philadelphia, is among the stirring events that occurred on the Capitol site. It is amazing how well preserved these sites are for the future of our children to learn about the history of the United States.

GOVERNOR'S MEETING ROOM - Capitol - General Assembly Room - HOUSE OF BURGESS IN CAPITOL - interpreter was the best one we saw - quite knowledgeable and great speaker. Day 2 - COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG - GOVERNOR'S PALACE - The elegant imposing Governor's Palace, residence of seven royal governors and the first two governors of the Commonwealth of Virginia, has been reconstructed on its original foundations on Palace Street in Williamsburg. The residence of seven royal governors and the first two elected governors of Virginia - Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson - is shown as it was when Lord Dunmore, the last British governor of the Virginia colony, lived here. It was truly the focus of the city's fashionable society and finest entertainment. You step back more than 220 years to the eve of the American Revolution. From 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the political and cultural center of Britain's largest New World colony. Governor's Palace Front and Back Views

Interior receiving area has the crossed swords and rifles on all four walls. The spinet and other musical instruments are in the large ballroom. THE COLONIAL NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK - YORKTOWN - Sunday, April 20 - We left around 2:30 pm (45-minute drive from our park). We stopped at the Colonial National Historical Park Museum, Yorktown. We were able to see a video, tour a famous house, etc. before Park Services shut down at 5-pm. One ranger told us we should rush over to see the Moore House before it closed. We had 45 minutes before the last film was shown. The famous Moore House is the site of negotiations for the last major battle of the American Revolution and a direct link to American independence, and has been preserved as one of the truly significant homes in American history. . In 1630s, Governor John Harvey named the site "York Plantation". A century later, it was part of a 500-acre plantation called Temple Farm where Lawrence Smith II built a family home. The home changed hands several times and in 1767, Augustine Moore inherited three plantations from his father and the following year he purchased the Moore House, and became a gentleman farmer. This is the room where the actual treaty was signed to end the American Revolution.

In 1781, the Moore family probably temporarily moved to Richmond during the Yorktown siege. What they could not have known was that their home would become a site of national significance on October 18, 1781, when it was selected to be the backdrop for one of the final scenes of the American Revolutionary War. In the spring of 1781, the American War of Independence was in its seventh year. The British has practically abandoned efforts to reconquer the northern states but hoped to defeat the South. By doing so, they unwittingly set in motion a train of events that would give independence to their colonies and change the history of the world. Yorktown TODAY is a picturesque and old-world town on the waterfront of the York River. Due to the late day, we were not able to tour the Yorktown Battlefield, but took this picture of one of the original embankments. JAMESTOWN and the COLONIAL PARKWAY - Tuesday, April 22 -The rains stopped and we quickly left for Historical Jamestown. We took the Colonial Parkway that would be beautiful under full sun, but was very dismal. Linking Williamsburg with Jamestown and Yorktown, it is the scenic way to get there. The Colonial Parkway was completed in 1957 to mark Jamestown's 350th anniversary. It's designed for pleasure driving and is an unusual road in many respects: three unmarked lanes (the center for passing) with a concrete/gravel mix surface rather than tarmac that results in a light tan color and a buzzing sound as you drive it. It's also one of the few roads in the USA to have distances marked in kilometers. The drive leaves Williamsburg via a tunnel under the Historic Area and then heads straight for the shoreline, following it to Jamestown. You have to cross a swing-span bridge over the Chickahominy River and it didn't look very sturdy as you can see in the picture below. The drive is 23-miles threading amid dogwood and redbud trees. The Parkway has several scenic pull-offs along the way with interpretive signs and historical markers. What is Jamestown, Virginia, you wonder. On 14 May 1607, an expedition from England landed here and founded what was to become the first permanent English-speaking settlement in North America. The settlement, initially led by Captain John Smith, was founded by the Virginia Company of London as a commercial enterprise. Eventually, the settlement grew and evolved into the Virginia Colony with the first representative government in the Americas. Wrapped up in this story are the encounter with members of the Native American Pamunkey people (including Pocahontas) who were already living in the vicinity, the search for a money-making crop that led to tobacco farming, and the first African slaves, brought by Dutch slave traders in 1619.

Jamestown Settlement - Ship Replicas- Susan Constant, Godspeed & Discovery in Jamestown Harbor Jamestown Settlement - Ship Replicas- Susan Constant, Godspeed & Discovery in Jamestown Harbor Jamestown Settlement is a museum of 17^th-century Virginia. We stopped by too late as it takes three hours to see everything and they were closing in one hour. We did see the docudrama film that chronicles Jamestown's origins in England, the colonists' struggle to survive and thrive in Virginia, interaction with the Powhatan Indians, the arrival in 1619 of the first Africans from the kingdom of Ndongo in Angola. You can experience the story of America's beginnings at Jamestown Settlement and the Yorktown Victory Center. Through film, artifact-filled galleries and outdoor living history, these museums engage visitors in nearly two centuries of our nation's history - from the founding of America's first permanent English settlement in 1607 to the decisive Revolutionary War victory in 1781 and implementation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Godspeed replica was in the museum.

The Godspeed was one of three ships that brought America's first permanent English colonists to Virginia in 1607. Re-creations of the three vessels are on exhibit at Jamestown Settlement, a living history museum of 17th-century Virginia located near Williamsburg, Virginia. John Ratcliffe (died September 1609) was captain of the Discovery, with 21 people on board, sailed from England on December 19, 1606 to Virginia, to found a colony, arriving May 14, 1607. He later became the second president of the colony, which later became Jamestown. He was killed by the Powhatan Indians.

Upon our return home, Ray rode the Gold Wing to pick up the mail and stop by the Historic Christ Church in Weems. It is a National Historic Landmark completed in 1735. Best-preserved and most finely crafted of Colonial Virginia's Anglican parish churches. Robert "King" Carter was one of colonial Virginia's most prominent citizens. Member of the House of Burgesses and Speaker, Treasurer and Acting Governor of Virginia. He built Christ Church for his family and his community at his own expense. Its brickwork, distinctive roof, compass-headed windows and monumental entablature are among the features that make Christ Church one of the most important examples of Georgian architecture in America. Robert Carter died in 1732, three years BEFORE his "new brick church" was completed. After the revolutionary war, Americans were free to worship anywhere. The Church of England was disestablished and the state confiscated its property. But, because Christ Church was built with personal funds on privately owned land, it was not seized. Hundreds of volunteers through the foundation today interpret and present the history of the parish and its people through guided tours, public lectures, etc. Congregation looked up from high-backed, wainscoted box pews to the rare triple-deck pulpit above. Notice the plainness of the walls and windows.

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