The Occaneechee Indians

We're tootlin' down the highway on another of our day trips.  John did a little research online and decided that there were some other things we might appreciate in the Petersburg area.  So off we go.  The first thing I say as we pull out of the driveway early in the morning?  "I absolutely love traveling!"  John agrees.

And so we're off to Petersburg on another quest for understanding history.  It's been raining for a couple of days and is still cloudy with a chance of rain.

Out Virginia Highway 58 (also known as the Jefferson Davis Highway) toward South Hill and Interstate 85 we pass a little sign - like the ones you see in town with a street name on it.  It say, Covered Bridge.  Whoa, Jenny!!  John makes a u-turn at the next crossover and we head back.  Lil' Miss GPS starts complaining.  (She's so funny sometimes!)  A little Internet research shows that there are five covered bridges in Virginia listed on the Virginia Department of Highway (VDOT) website.  Hmmm.  This one doesn't seem to be listed.  When we get back to the location, we decide maybe it's because there isn't a road - only a path.  As I said, it's been raining and things look pretty soggy, so we decide to file the location in our memory and maybe come back.

We're on the road again, and Lil' Miss settles down. 

We've come to a lake - or a really wide river, of which there are a lot of in Virginia.  On the other side of the bridge we see Occoneechee State Park.  (John is always looking for campsites.  He has a phenominal memory for these things.  We can come back here five years from now and he'll remember everything about this place.  We don't get a chance to do all of this stopping and starting on vacation.  Being medical travelers seems to pay off in bonuses more and more.)  Again with the Internet...  Turns out this is a lake - Virginia's largest lake - Buggs Island Lake.  It has over eighteen miles of trails and explanations of the life and times of the Occaneechi Indians and plantation life in the 1800's.  From 1250 to 1670 the Occaneechi lived on an island on the Roanoke River near here.  (The tribal name seems to be spelled both ways, in case you're wondering.)

According to the Virginia State Park website:

In 1676, Virginia Councilman Nathaniel Bacon led a group of men from Henrico County to destroy the Occoneechees. Bacon's attack succeeded only in slaughtering Indians that were perhaps the friendliest to settlers in the Commonwealth. Neither Governor Berkeley nor most Virginians approved of Bacon's actions.
The lake and land is under control of the Army Corps of Engineers, it is being leased to the state of Virginia who is operating the park.  There are mostly "terrace" campsites:

If you have a camper or motor home you park it up here and have a "deck" to sit on.  If you have a tent, you can set it up on the terrace.  I can't say I like the idea of setting a tent up on a rocky surface, but if you have air mattresses or cots it's okay.  Kinda tough on the flooring fabric of the tent though. 

But we move on toward Petersburg.  It's getting to be lunchtime and John's stomach is growling like a grizzly.  He decides to stop at Hardee's and gets a man-size burger:  2 thick meat patties, 2 layers of bacon, and 3 layers of cheese.  He tops it off with onion rings, but settles for iced sweet tea instead of an ice cream malt.   Not bad for $7, and he digs in!

Not to be outdone, I got their new Southwest burger covered in jalepeno peppers with a ton of fries and a soda. (One patty, no bacon or cheese.)

Next stop, Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier.