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Published: September 25th 2017
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Campground rock
Campers paint and hide rocks for others to fine. Like a treasure hunt. This one is on my campsite. My first ever Hello, loyal readers. I know I owe you an ending to Quest for The Stamp, and I promise I will give it to you by the end of this trip. I have a lot of unposted fun pictures I need to share from that trip, and a trip wrap up.
For the past few years, the camping girlies have been meeting at Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay Preserve, Gloucester, VA, for a week of eating and sightseeing. This year, Kathy and Ginnie are on their own trip, kind of like a Pacific Ocean or bust trip. They left the east coast mid August, traveling in Ginnie’s RV, towing her car, 2 ladies, 3 dogs, and, from Kathy’s blog, they are having a wonderful time. They are at the mouth of the Columbia River now, and plan on being back east by Thanksgiving, just in time for a winter trip to FL. Kim and I planned to continue the tradition, and planned a week stay. As it happens sometimes with good plans, Kim’s long awaited variance hearing with the town of Sea Bright, NJ as a result of superstorm Sandy damage, got scheduled smack in the middle of our week. Changing dates
was not an option for me. We had 3 days together, and boy did we stay busy. She left Monday, and I am here until Saturday when I travel on to Lake Marion, SC for a week long camp out with the SELows, the southeast chapter of Loners on Wheels. I am going to enjoy my solitude and catch up on blogging, and crocheting the numerous projects I have going on simultaneously.
I left Wilmington on Friday and had a leisurely trip to Richmond, then east to Gloucester which is on a finger of land, I think called Guinea Neck, surrounded by the Piankatank River and York River where they meet and join the Chesapeake Bay. Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown are all an hour away. The campground is not open during the winter, but has many annual/seasonal sites, all waterfront or water-view. Indoor and out door pool, mini golf, boat storage, dock, ramp, beach, etc. there’s a very nice rec hall, and the kitchen is open for dinner on weekends. We went for dinner, and had a really food hamburger and fries. Kim and I are parked next to each other, and have a great water view. She has
The fees
Thank goodness for our Senior Pass her 3 special rescue dogs, and we walk a lot…..well, she does, I am babying my knee.
Saturday we drove the hour to Jamestown, a National Park for which we needed a Passport Stamp. You remember Jamestown from Grammar school, The first permanent English Settlement in the New World. The area is divided up into 2 separate parks to visit. Plagiarized from the web site:
The Jamestown Settlement, is a living-history museum where 17th-century Jamestown comes to life. You can learn all about Pocahontas in the re-creation of a Powhatan Indian village complete with dome-shaped houses and a ceremonial circle. Kids can try on armor, watch blacksmiths forge metal objects, and see historical interpreters cultivate crops and prepare meals in the re-created fort. You can step aboard replicas of the three ships they sailed on in 1607 from England to Virginia – the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery – and talk with an interpreter about the journey.
We opted instead for The National Park option (can two forms of the same word be used so close together?) Historic Jamestowne is an archaeological site on Jamestown Island where the remains of the original James Fort are
still being excavated. More than 2 million artifacts have already been uncovered, including finds that have been ranked among the top 10 in the world.
We explored the island on a self-guided walking tour, meeting an Indian along the way who showed us how to make fire, and an archaeologist who told is about the dig at the church. We toured the Archaearium (I challenge you to pronounce that) archaeology museum which we found boring as all of the artifacts were behind glass. All. We dined at the onsite bistro type café and I had a really great ham and cheese sandwich and Kim selected the beet salad.
The National Park movie was presented in a round theatre and spoke only of the archaeological explorations. The very tall closed captioning was very distracting. We needed a little more history. Guided tours are also available, as are behind-the-scenes tours. One such tour lets you “go under the ropes” and walk where Captain John Smith and Pocahontas once walked. On another, get an up-close behind-the-scenes look at artifacts from Jamestown’s early years.
This is the only National Park we have visited that charges a fee. The normal fee is
$15, but with our Senior Pass it was $5. We were told that the company that is performing the dig has a deal with NPS; they own the land, the fees fund their work. We were ok with that. We stopped at the 1608 Glasshouse and saw artisans practice the art of glassmaking, one of the earliest industries attempted at Jamestown. I bought my ILM girlies Christmas gifts as well as a blown glass starfish to hang in my window.
It was very hot, and the long walk left me short of breath at times. Yes, will get that checked when I get home. The good news is I did almost 10k steps and my knee didn’t hurt much. Spaghetti dinner at the campground. Free for their annual members, $9 for us. Decent, not wonderful. I have leftovers for dinner.
Sunday morning we took off for Yorktown, again about an hour away. We visited the National Park there last year. We spent time touring the quite excellent Art Stroll where I discovered the haunting digital photography of Jennifer Gleason.
https://www.jagartistryimages
Kim found us a 2 hour schooner cruise, under full sail. A schooner is a
sailing ship with 2 or more masts, typically with the foremost mast smaller than the mainmast and having gaff rigged lower masts. Uh huh. It was a gorgeous day with gentle breezes. The captain was a young man, the two crew, young women. We met nice people on vacation from Nebraska who were eating as much seafood as they could find. We had one of the crew girls tell what she has done in her life. No college. Her first job out of school was Katrina cleanup. She has worked on horse farms in Hawaii and Barcelona. This was her first sailing job and she learned on the fly. On and on with unusual jobs, some for pay, others just for room and food. After this season closes she will go live on the land her parents bought in Swansboro, NC and learn about it and help her parents get it ready for them to move to. She is 22.
We stopped at dinner at Bubba’s Shrimp Shack, a local place in a strip mall that got excellent reviews. The combination fried shrimp/catfish dinner with slaw and Mac and cheese was awesome. Sadly, there was not room left for
Church dig
First few courses of dark red brick date to 1640s us to stop at the local ice cream boutique.
Kim departed Monday morning for her meeting with the Sea Bright administrators. Good luck. Sad to see her go, we sure had some good laughs and saw some good stuff. I am here for the next 5 nights. The campground is pretty empty, and I am fine with that. I have 3 crochet projects I must be working on, and lots of writing and photo editing. The weather is gorgeous, and all is right in the world.
Kat out
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