Our reservations are made for our trip to Chimney Rock, North Carolina. Our best option was to get a room in Asheville which is about 15 miles west of Chimney Rock. Using our Hotels.com Welcome Rewards we booked with one free night - which cut our hotel cost in half. (Woo-hoo!)
We visited Asheville when Granpa was contracted with Danville Regional back in 2011. Go to our earlier posts (http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2011/12/asheville-north-carolina.html) and read about the origins of Asheville, their role in the Civil War (or lack of it), and then check out the posts about the Biltmore Estate by going to the "Search" field in the top right-hand corner of the blog, type in the word "Biltmore" and it will give you a cascade list of all the posts mentioning that word.
While you do that, I have to go prepare to get outta town tomorrow. Granpa usually gets off early on Thursday of his three-day weekend, so I won't have time tomorrow to do much of anything but load the car. If you believe future weather forecasts it should be an absolutely stunning weekend to go clamber up some mountains and check out the waterfalls. Should be a ton of fun!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Europeans Settle Into North Carolina
I'm prepping for our trip into North Carolina to visit the Chimney Rock area. Now, the setting for "The Last of the Mohicans" story was in what would become New York, but the film was made in North Carolina. The backdrop for the
story was the French and Indian War, so that's kinda what I'm gonna focus on here.
Just after the death and resurrection of Christ people were known to have been living in the area we now called North Carolina. By 1000 A.D. the Mississippian culture was established. They were not nomadic Indians, and over the succeeding 600 or so years they built large cities. They weren't sedentary, though, because they had huge networks of trading contacts they maintained.
Some of the individual tribes were the Chowanoke, Roanoke, Pamlico, Machapunga, Coree, and Cape Fear Indians. These tribesmen spoke Algonquin. The Meherrin, Cherokee, Tuscarora, Cheraw, Waxhaw, Saponi, Waccamay and Catawba spoke Iroquois.
Then in 1584, ol' Sir Walter Raleigh shows up and establishes two settlements (one of those being the famous "Lost Colony" on Roanoke Island), but both attempts end in failure. Over the next 50 years, European Virginias began moving south into the Albemarle Sound area along the coast. In 1663 the King of England, Charles the II, granted a charter to begin yet another settlement named Carolina.
The population didn't start to grow until the 1730's when folks from other colonies up north began to look for more land to settle. Getting into the Piedmont area of Carolina wasn't too easy, though, because the rivers were shallow and full of waterfalls. They were good for farming and powering mills, but not for travel. Most traffic was on the Great Indian Trading Path that started in Petersburg, in the colony of Virginia and ended in what is now known as Mecklenburg County in the Piedmont area of the Carolina colony. Otherwise, settlers used the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road that came down through the Shenandoah Valley. (See one of our earlier posts about the road.) They were the American descendants of original German and Scotch-Irish immigrants. They came to the Carolina colony in such numbers that six new counties were created in the Piedmont between 1746 and 1763. Throughout the French and Indian War, the English descendants (Quakers and Baptists) also came from central Virginia to the Carolina colony.
The French and Indian War lasted from 1754 to 1763. It was all about the King of France and the King of England trying to end up with the most land in America. (They were already at war with each other in Europe in what is known as the Seven Years War.) Right off the bat Carolina raised an army of 2,000 men to fight. (That was a lot since estimates on the population of the Carolina colony was only 36,000-ish.)
On the 4th of July, 1754, George Washington had to surrender Fort Necessity in the Pennsylvania colony. A force containing men from the Carolina colony marched north and joined up with Washington in the Maryland colony where they built Fort Cumberland.
By 1757, the English and colonists weren't faring too well against the French and those Indians that had chosen to side with the French. The Cherokee sided with the English because the English promised to build and supply forts in an effort to protect the Cherokee settlements from Shawnee attacks. One fort was built at Bethabara (see our earlier posts about Bethabara), and others built around Carolina were Fort Prince George, Fort Loudoun, two forts named Fort Dobbs, and Fort Granville.
Late in 1758, some Carolinians and Cherokee helped capture Fort Duquesne (what we now know as downtown Pittsburgh.) The Cherokee felt wronged somehow in the way they were treated in that campaign and over the next several months decided to switch sides
1759, saw Cherokee raids on Carolina settlements on the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers. Folks in the southern Carolinas made the Cherokee accept a treaty, but (duh) it didn't last. (How can you force someone to make peace? You can make them stop warring, but that's not the same as peace.)
1760 could be known as the year of massacres. In January and February the Cherokee raided throughout the Carolina backcountry and killed everyone they found. They laid siege to Fort Loudoun, and an attempt by English forces to reinforce the fort in July failed. The fort was surrendered to the Cherokee in August - resulting in its commander and most of the garrison being massacred. THIS sounds like the movie version of "The Last of the Mohicans." (Again I say, all Native Americans were NOT kumbaya kinda Indians.)
Actions by the British in 1761 - like destroying 15 Cherokee towns and 1,400 acres of their corn - caused the Cherokee to want the peace this time, and by December they signed the treaty.
Ultimately, the British won the French and Indian War, and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 officially ended it and the Seven Years War in Europe. The huge financial cost of these wars resulted in England levying what colonist's thought were unfair taxes on them - ultimately leading to the colonist's war for independence from England.
Just after the death and resurrection of Christ people were known to have been living in the area we now called North Carolina. By 1000 A.D. the Mississippian culture was established. They were not nomadic Indians, and over the succeeding 600 or so years they built large cities. They weren't sedentary, though, because they had huge networks of trading contacts they maintained.
Some of the individual tribes were the Chowanoke, Roanoke, Pamlico, Machapunga, Coree, and Cape Fear Indians. These tribesmen spoke Algonquin. The Meherrin, Cherokee, Tuscarora, Cheraw, Waxhaw, Saponi, Waccamay and Catawba spoke Iroquois.
Then in 1584, ol' Sir Walter Raleigh shows up and establishes two settlements (one of those being the famous "Lost Colony" on Roanoke Island), but both attempts end in failure. Over the next 50 years, European Virginias began moving south into the Albemarle Sound area along the coast. In 1663 the King of England, Charles the II, granted a charter to begin yet another settlement named Carolina.
The population didn't start to grow until the 1730's when folks from other colonies up north began to look for more land to settle. Getting into the Piedmont area of Carolina wasn't too easy, though, because the rivers were shallow and full of waterfalls. They were good for farming and powering mills, but not for travel. Most traffic was on the Great Indian Trading Path that started in Petersburg, in the colony of Virginia and ended in what is now known as Mecklenburg County in the Piedmont area of the Carolina colony. Otherwise, settlers used the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road that came down through the Shenandoah Valley. (See one of our earlier posts about the road.) They were the American descendants of original German and Scotch-Irish immigrants. They came to the Carolina colony in such numbers that six new counties were created in the Piedmont between 1746 and 1763. Throughout the French and Indian War, the English descendants (Quakers and Baptists) also came from central Virginia to the Carolina colony.
The French and Indian War lasted from 1754 to 1763. It was all about the King of France and the King of England trying to end up with the most land in America. (They were already at war with each other in Europe in what is known as the Seven Years War.) Right off the bat Carolina raised an army of 2,000 men to fight. (That was a lot since estimates on the population of the Carolina colony was only 36,000-ish.)
On the 4th of July, 1754, George Washington had to surrender Fort Necessity in the Pennsylvania colony. A force containing men from the Carolina colony marched north and joined up with Washington in the Maryland colony where they built Fort Cumberland.
By 1757, the English and colonists weren't faring too well against the French and those Indians that had chosen to side with the French. The Cherokee sided with the English because the English promised to build and supply forts in an effort to protect the Cherokee settlements from Shawnee attacks. One fort was built at Bethabara (see our earlier posts about Bethabara), and others built around Carolina were Fort Prince George, Fort Loudoun, two forts named Fort Dobbs, and Fort Granville.
Late in 1758, some Carolinians and Cherokee helped capture Fort Duquesne (what we now know as downtown Pittsburgh.) The Cherokee felt wronged somehow in the way they were treated in that campaign and over the next several months decided to switch sides
1759, saw Cherokee raids on Carolina settlements on the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers. Folks in the southern Carolinas made the Cherokee accept a treaty, but (duh) it didn't last. (How can you force someone to make peace? You can make them stop warring, but that's not the same as peace.)
1760 could be known as the year of massacres. In January and February the Cherokee raided throughout the Carolina backcountry and killed everyone they found. They laid siege to Fort Loudoun, and an attempt by English forces to reinforce the fort in July failed. The fort was surrendered to the Cherokee in August - resulting in its commander and most of the garrison being massacred. THIS sounds like the movie version of "The Last of the Mohicans." (Again I say, all Native Americans were NOT kumbaya kinda Indians.)
Actions by the British in 1761 - like destroying 15 Cherokee towns and 1,400 acres of their corn - caused the Cherokee to want the peace this time, and by December they signed the treaty.
Ultimately, the British won the French and Indian War, and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 officially ended it and the Seven Years War in Europe. The huge financial cost of these wars resulted in England levying what colonist's thought were unfair taxes on them - ultimately leading to the colonist's war for independence from England.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Luray Caverns
I have a follower that is so faithful she knows more about our trips than Granpa does !! Hi, Marie!!
After some legal wrangling, the caverns ended up belonging to the Luray Hotel and Cave Company, a subsidiary of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad. The railroads were super powerful influencers back then with lots of money. Hmmm, I wonder how they managed to win ownership?
It was so black-out dark that this is the best picture I could get of Granpa, even with a flash! Amazing, huh. Well, the poor tour guide keeps it together. He's only in his 20's maybe and suddenly he's got twenty tourists with small children and feeble old folks to worry about. They've not been too cooperative so far, and he doesn't know if any suffer from achluophobia (fear of the dark), but he keeps telling us not to worry, not to panic, the lights will come back on in a minute. And he keeps telling us. And keeps telling us.
Finally the tour group guides in front of us and behind us get together with our guide. Seems the phone lines to the top don't work either. By this time everyone has their cell phones out using them as flashlights. (Everyone but me that is, I happen to carry a flashlight in my purse... Mommas are like that. Yeah they are!) They decide to turn us around and head us back the way we came. The only near-panic person was the tour guide. I'm certain he suddenly felt a great weight of responsibility in a way he'd never experienced before. He was a good guy and took this very seriously.
So we came out on top and they were giving vouchers for a return visit, but when I said we were from Texas they offered a full refund. Granpa's really grinnin' now! It seems the power was out throughout the entire town of Luray. We never did find out why. We just hopped in the car and drove down the mountain to the battlefield. Granpa grinnin' all the way.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Another long weekend; another road trip! This time we're on our way up and across the Blue Ridge and Skyline Drive. This will be a double bonus trip because after we see the caverns we will have a chance to visit the New Market Civil War battlefield and the famous Field of Lost Shoes.
The remnants of tropical storm Andrea drop rain on us all the way up this side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The rain slacks and stops as we turn west to cross over Skyline. I love the skinny little side roads. We're surprised around every twist and turn. Now we're surprised by a detour. (Oooh, I bet lil' Miss GPS is gonna have something to say about this!)
The road they divert us onto is definitely skinny. The twists and turns come more often as the road climbs the side of the mountain to the pass. The sights and homes and vistas are fabulous! I love detours - as long as the sun is up and there are other folks following the detour with us. I just wish we could stop and take some pictures, but the only place to pull over is someone's driveway. I don't particularly like people stopping in front of our home in Texas - even though we know log homes invite that kinda thing - so we're not doing that to others. Just trust me: detours in life can bring wonder and joy if you will simply go with the flow.
Ultimately we end up back on the main side road. (Is that an oxymoron: main side?) We cut through the pass and are kinda surprised when we are then directed onto Interstate Highway 81. Faithfully following lil' Miss' directions we exit at New Market and start another short climb up Massanutten Mountain to Luray.
Massanutten is kind of a stand alone mountain rising out of a long, wide valley between the Blue Ridge mountains and the Shenandoah Mountains. The three major cities in the valley are Harrisonburg, Staunton, and Lexington. THIS is the famous Shenandoah Valley! This is the inspiration for that beautiful song, Oh Shenandoah. Wow, the stories behind THAT song are fabulous - especially if you're an old romantic like me.
The area surround Luray Caverns is really nice. Blue sky breaks through just as we reach the top of Massanutten and see the parking area for the Caverns. Boy, there's lots to do here besides spelunking: there's the Car and Carriage Caravan Museum with things dating back to 1725, a ropes course, a Garden Maze that covers an entire acre, and the Luray Valley Museum that exhibits the Shenandoah culture back to the 1750's, as well as miles of hiking trails! This is a two-day trip for sure if you want to do it all. Caves are my thing, battlefields are Granpa's, so we're going to cut things really short but do both.
However, the entrance fee is $25 apiece. The price includes everything though: car museum, the maze and the ropes course. Hmmm. Well, we'll pony up the cash and then decide what to do after we climb out of the cave.
As we wait in line there are display cases of artifacts from way back when. This photo shows the actual guest register from 1879. That's how long folks have been coming here to see this wonder. Think about it: there were no electric lights in 1879 to light this cave. Can you imagine how spooky and dark it would have been? And ladies didn't wear britches back then. How crazy must it have been to crawl down into a cave with those long skirts? (I woulda loved it!!)
After some legal wrangling, the caverns ended up belonging to the Luray Hotel and Cave Company, a subsidiary of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad. The railroads were super powerful influencers back then with lots of money. Hmmm, I wonder how they managed to win ownership?
In 1901, a Colonel Northcutt bought some land next door and built a home and sanitarium, Limair, a hospital for recuperating patients. Accessing the cool, purified air from the caverns, he literally air-conditioned these buildings and claimed the title of the first air-conditioned house in the world.
Then it's down into the cave for us - and about 20 other people in our group! Concrete stairs, soft lighting, the cool clammy cave air so familiar... And immediately we are in a huge area filled with stalactites and stalagmites. (Stalactites hang "tight" to the ceiling, stalagmites grow like mice
from the floor - at least that's how I remember which is which.)
The "x" back there shows the small crawl space original explorers used to get down in here in the beginning. Now, there are absolutely no tight spaces and it's not really a cave so much as it is a series of caverns - reminds us of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.
To appreciate this scene you need a full size computer screen and maybe some muted lighting around you. If you study it, and can do a little mind control on yourself, you will realize that what you're seeing is the ceiling reflected in perfectly still, perfectly pristine water. This underground lake covers about an acre I think the guide said, but it's only a few inches deep.
They call this formation "bacon." (Which reminds me, I think I'll have a BLT for lunch!)
The walkways are brick and there are handrails all the way. These caves, er, caverns have been owned and successfully operated by the same family for over a hundred years. I surely HOPE they've invested some money into making things nice and safe for their visitors! However, it was right about here that the lights went out. No. Really. Out. As in original-cave-pitch-can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face-black!
It was so black-out dark that this is the best picture I could get of Granpa, even with a flash! Amazing, huh. Well, the poor tour guide keeps it together. He's only in his 20's maybe and suddenly he's got twenty tourists with small children and feeble old folks to worry about. They've not been too cooperative so far, and he doesn't know if any suffer from achluophobia (fear of the dark), but he keeps telling us not to worry, not to panic, the lights will come back on in a minute. And he keeps telling us. And keeps telling us.
Finally the tour group guides in front of us and behind us get together with our guide. Seems the phone lines to the top don't work either. By this time everyone has their cell phones out using them as flashlights. (Everyone but me that is, I happen to carry a flashlight in my purse... Mommas are like that. Yeah they are!) They decide to turn us around and head us back the way we came. The only near-panic person was the tour guide. I'm certain he suddenly felt a great weight of responsibility in a way he'd never experienced before. He was a good guy and took this very seriously.
So we came out on top and they were giving vouchers for a return visit, but when I said we were from Texas they offered a full refund. Granpa's really grinnin' now! It seems the power was out throughout the entire town of Luray. We never did find out why. We just hopped in the car and drove down the mountain to the battlefield. Granpa grinnin' all the way.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Virginia Museum of the Civil War, New Market, Virginia
The Museum in the Round is what this ought to be called, but it is the Hall of Valor at the Virginia Museum of the Civil War. It's located in New Market in the Shenandoah Valley, but it's not just about the New Market Battle. (Don't you love the mountain in the background? That's where Luray Caverns is located.) This museum isn't run by a bunch of "squints" (like in the TV series, "Bones.") This museum is administered by the Virginia Military Institute, so I dare say it is done in love and reverence, not just as a job. Maybe that's why I think it is so excellent.
Positioned out front are the original headstones for the cadets killed during the fighting at New Market on May 15, 1864:
Inside is a tribute to all those who have given everything in defense of the country they love:
Artist Frederick Volk's attention to detail in the veins in Travelers face, the buckles of his tack, the folds in Lee's gloves and coat, the concern and burden shown in Lee's face... Excellent!
In this one location you can get the best overview possible in such a limited space of the Civil War in Virginia. The aerial photo on the right shows the entire Shenandoah Valley; the diorama on the left shows the New Market battlefield. As you circle these levels, if you read the information presented and ponder the artifacts, you will come away with a really good understanding of what was going on. We HIGHLY recommend this museum. It would be a good place to come and stay for several days - especially if you have a whole family, because you can take the kids over to the Luray Caverns and do all the touristy stuff there, too. I'm a minimalist at heart, so I truly appreciate this presentation.
We had a really, really good time on this little outing of ours.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
The Field of Lost Shoes
This is a representation of what the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington, Virginia, looked like in 1858 just prior to the Civil War. It began in 1839 as America's first state-supported military college, the vision of a local attorney, J.T.L. Preston. (What's with the folks of the mid-1800's, naming their kids with three names or initials?) Preston's vision was to create "fair specimens of citizen-soldiers." I'm all for that!!
This building housed the state's arsenal in Lexington, and Preston thought it would be a great idea to house the college there and let the students guard the weapons. Two for the price of one; I'm all for that!!
The first student body consisted of 23 cadets (all male back then) and one of the early faculty members was none other than Thomas J. Jackson - later and forever after known as "Stonewall" Jackson. (Who knew that a college professor would become one of the Civil War's greatest generals?)
Another faculty member was Matthew Fontaine Maury, a.k.a. "Pathfinder of the Seas," because of his work in charting ocean currents. Think about how important that was in the mid-1800's. Where one could go in the world was determined by wind and currents in the ocean because all ships were powered only by the wind and currents! Ocean currents were the super highways of the oceans until the steam engine came along. Can you imagine how incredibly difficult it was to map anything in the 1800's much less an ocean!
During the Civil War the cadets of VMI were a part of the contingent that helped preserve order during the execution of John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859. John Brown's plan was to instigate a major slave rebellion, and with 18 men he attempted a raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. They were caught and executed. The VMI cadets, interestingly enough, also helped train recruits for the Rebel army. In all, they were called on fifteen different times for active participation in defense of the Confederate States of America. (C.S.A.)
The cadets most notable achievement during the Civil War, however, was at the battle of New Market, Virginia in 1864. The entire student body of 257 cadets turned out at the request of Major General John C. Breckinridge even though some of the cadets were only 15 years old. He hoped to just keep them in reserve, let them guard wagons maybe, instead of actually participating in the battle.
Just to reach New Market, the cadets had to march eighty miles in just four days - and then were immediately thrown into the war. Do you think you could walk twenty miles in a day? They were students, not soldiers coming out of basic training! And four days of marching?! They were exhausted to begin with!
The cadets were formed up with the rest of the Confederate soldiers but toward the rear as reserve. The rebel's line of attack was through thick mud, and they cleared those "damn Yankees" out of New Market in about an hour and a half. Then the Union's 34th Massachusetts under Union General Sigel began to break down Breckinridge's line, so he ordered the cadets forward into the breach. They marched across a freshly plowed wheat field during a pouring rain - and most lost their shoes due to the sucking mud and muck that they had to push through. That field on Bushong's Hill is now known as the Field of Lost Shoes.
Use your vast and vivid imaginations, my children, and conjure up what it must have been like for the Bushong family to stand inside their home and watch the advancing Confederate army cross their fields.
Working with seasoned rebel fighters, the cadets, in the lead, were able to push back Sigel's troops, forcing his men from the field and completely out of the Shenandoah Valley. (I wonder how Sigel must have felt when he realized he'd been beaten by a bunch of Rebel cadets???)
It was a victory! But at what cost? Of the 257 cadets, 10 were either killed outright or mortally wounded. It was the only time in American history when an entire student body participated in pitched combat with such casualties.
Since 1866, each year, on May 15, the anniversary of the Battle of New Market, the cadets at VMI form up and pass in review at the campus memorial to honor their comrades killed in battle. Their names are called and, with each name, a cadet in the ranks responds, "Died on the Field of Honor, Sir." The Roll of Honor is then given to the VMI Commandant and a wreath is laid at each of the cadets' grave markers beneath a memorial statue entitled "Virginia Mourning Her Dead." That statue was created by world-renowned sculptor, Moses Ezekiel, who was a cadet at VMI and actually participated in the Battle of New Market with the rank of private.
Later in 1864, Union Major General Phillip Sheridan came to the Shenandoah Valley. He destroyed the buildings at VMI, but never damaged the spirit of VMI at all.
Today, VMI accepts candidates from all over the world, both men and women.
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| "Don't Do Ordinary. We haven't since 1839." |
My sincerest congratulations to VMI !!
Saturday, June 15, 2013
"The Last of the Mohicans"
Granpa surprised me last night with a copy of the movie, "The Last of the Mohicans." It is one of my favorite movies of all time. (Have I mentioned that before?) The story is awesome - based on James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Saga" - and the location it was filmed in is truly awesome. Even though we've seen the movie several times (the 1992 version with Daniel Day-Lewis),
the two hours seemed like ten minutes. That's how enthralling the movie is!
Throughout the movie, when the most spectacular scenery is on display, we muse about where it might have been shot. Granpa is pretty convinced it's in the northwest, somewhere out the west side of Glacier International Peace Park. I opine that the upper northeast has the same type of scenery, but he's never been there so he sticks with the northwest.
Then I think maybe it was filmed in Canada, maybe British Columbia, because Hollywood started going up there to save money in the making. Silly me, instead of wondering - ask Google. So I typed in, "Where was the "Last of the Mohicans" filmed?" GOOD GRIEF! I absolutely do NOT believe it! It was filmed in NORTH CAROLINA! We are five miles from the North Carolina stateline! Can anyone say, ROAD TRIP !!!
A little more research and we discover it was filmed in and around Chimney Rock State Park which is south and a bit east of Asheville, North Carolina. (Remember Asheville? Where the Biltmore Mansion is? See our earlier posts on the Biltmore.) The last 17 minutes of the movie was filmed in the Park, other scenes were filmed in places like Hickory Nut Flats and the former Carson City as well as several other places in the western part of North Carolina. I'm thinking this road trip will have to be a two-nighter!
Once I discover that it was filmed in North Carolina (and the movie is over) I can't get Granpa off of his new tablet. He's researching the whole road trip. He wonders out loud if I can manage an hour of mountain climbing. (This whole dehydration thing that goes along with Sojgren's Disease is kicking my fanny! I've all but given up on drinking my precious hot tea because it's a diuretic, and I drink bottled water by the case. But I still dehydrate so fast that his question is a good, valid question.) I am up for giving it a shot as long as he's willing to carry a backpack full of bottled water...
And so next weekend is set. Now, where can I get some leather stockings?
the two hours seemed like ten minutes. That's how enthralling the movie is!
Throughout the movie, when the most spectacular scenery is on display, we muse about where it might have been shot. Granpa is pretty convinced it's in the northwest, somewhere out the west side of Glacier International Peace Park. I opine that the upper northeast has the same type of scenery, but he's never been there so he sticks with the northwest.
Then I think maybe it was filmed in Canada, maybe British Columbia, because Hollywood started going up there to save money in the making. Silly me, instead of wondering - ask Google. So I typed in, "Where was the "Last of the Mohicans" filmed?" GOOD GRIEF! I absolutely do NOT believe it! It was filmed in NORTH CAROLINA! We are five miles from the North Carolina stateline! Can anyone say, ROAD TRIP !!!
A little more research and we discover it was filmed in and around Chimney Rock State Park which is south and a bit east of Asheville, North Carolina. (Remember Asheville? Where the Biltmore Mansion is? See our earlier posts on the Biltmore.) The last 17 minutes of the movie was filmed in the Park, other scenes were filmed in places like Hickory Nut Flats and the former Carson City as well as several other places in the western part of North Carolina. I'm thinking this road trip will have to be a two-nighter!
Once I discover that it was filmed in North Carolina (and the movie is over) I can't get Granpa off of his new tablet. He's researching the whole road trip. He wonders out loud if I can manage an hour of mountain climbing. (This whole dehydration thing that goes along with Sojgren's Disease is kicking my fanny! I've all but given up on drinking my precious hot tea because it's a diuretic, and I drink bottled water by the case. But I still dehydrate so fast that his question is a good, valid question.) I am up for giving it a shot as long as he's willing to carry a backpack full of bottled water...
And so next weekend is set. Now, where can I get some leather stockings?
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
The Shenandoah Valley
When I hear "Shenandoah Valley" my mind sees bountiful fields of crops, tall trees green in the summer and sporting fabulous colors in the fall. I see isolated communities - isolated from the hustle and bustle of the east coast mega-cities and the exposed, windy central plains of the west. To sum it up, it all seems peaceful but productive.
But apparently it is a valley that had to be tamed - and George Washington played a part in that taming. George grew into manhood moving through the western part of the colony of Virginia, first as a surveyor (You can go to one of our earlier posts on "The Natural Bridge" and see George's initials carved into the arch) and later as a part of His Majesty's Virginia Militia.
Now, here's something you won't hear elsewhere, and I credit it to this website from ancestry.com: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/the-fort-loudon-skeletons.htm if you want to check it out. According to ancestry.com, (and what reason would they have to not tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?) according to ancestry.com, in 1754, George set off the French and Indian (that's the French and Indians against the colonists) War and the Seven Years War in Europe. (Wait a minute. How could something George do in western colonial Virginia set off a war in Europe??) And it was due to "incompetent decisions" George made. Now, I heard that he had, like all of us, a learning curve that he had to overcome as a young military man, but to read that website it's like ol' George single-handedly caused the "first global war." This will take a LOT more research! Then it will all boil down to "believe it or not."
So, in 1754, the farms in western Virginia, the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes regions were pretty isolated. The Indians weren't blind, though. They could see more and more and more Europeans moving in and settling down, building homes and growing crops. So, their warriors began attacking those homes in the Shenandoah Valley. Well, the Indians along with those pesky Frenchmen attacked settlers
Now, there's been some revisionist history going on for the last thirty or forty (or fifty) years in America. Folks have tried to make us believe that all American Indians were kumbaya kinda guys. Truth is no where near that - especially in the east. During the 1754 conflict in the Shenandoah Valley, what the Indians did makes their link to human sacrifice in the not too distant past seem to be a fact. If there were Frenchmen with the Indian war parties, all adult European males were killed, but the Frenchmen drew the line there. They wouldn't abide the murder of women and children. However, if it was just Native Americans, there were no survivors. Adult captives were burned at the stake - for real, not Hollywood style - and toddlers were hung from tree limbs then shot full of arrows. Sounds like human sacrifice to me!
So, in 1755, George Washington proposed a fort be built at the north end of the Shenandoah at Winchester. England's North American commander agreed, and so the fort was given his name, Fort Loudon. It was constructed much like Fort William Henry in upstate New York (Ft. Henry, of "Last of the Mohicans" Leatherstocking Saga fame.) That's important only because I love the Leatherstocking Saga's.
And that's about all this website says about George's responsibility for causing the first global war. H-E-L-L-O!! It's un-American of you to just stop there!!
Fine. I'll keep researching on my own. Google a lil' of this and Google a lil' of that - and the long and the short of it is, yes, George was in charge of the Virginia militia during the first battle of the French and Indian War - which he won. And, yes, he lost a couple of the next engagements. But, if he was such a bad officer with a bad learning curve, why did the British keep raising his rank and putting him in charge?? Is there a bit more revisionist history going on here? And why would our Founding Fathers put him in charge of defeating the British in 1776? The totality of facts from a myriad of sources tells me George is exactly what I always thought he was: a man (not a god), and a pretty good man was he!
So, if I'm not totally believing that original website about George, why am I believing them when they say this: when George's men began construction on Fort Loudon in 1754, they almost immediately uncovered Native American skeletons - measuring 7 feet tall!! Most Indians were more in the 5 foot 5 range. George wrote about them to the powers that be back in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Where did these big guys come from? Don't know. But I will say that, over the years of my interest in history, I've heard many stories about unusually tall Native Americans - and red-headed Native Americans and Nordic-looking Native Americans. I think I'll just file this new information away in my lil' brain and maybe someday all the pieces will come together to create indisputable facts. Until then I will just keep on combing through history and lovin' every minute of it!
But apparently it is a valley that had to be tamed - and George Washington played a part in that taming. George grew into manhood moving through the western part of the colony of Virginia, first as a surveyor (You can go to one of our earlier posts on "The Natural Bridge" and see George's initials carved into the arch) and later as a part of His Majesty's Virginia Militia.
Now, here's something you won't hear elsewhere, and I credit it to this website from ancestry.com: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/the-fort-loudon-skeletons.htm if you want to check it out. According to ancestry.com, (and what reason would they have to not tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?) according to ancestry.com, in 1754, George set off the French and Indian (that's the French and Indians against the colonists) War and the Seven Years War in Europe. (Wait a minute. How could something George do in western colonial Virginia set off a war in Europe??) And it was due to "incompetent decisions" George made. Now, I heard that he had, like all of us, a learning curve that he had to overcome as a young military man, but to read that website it's like ol' George single-handedly caused the "first global war." This will take a LOT more research! Then it will all boil down to "believe it or not."
So, in 1754, the farms in western Virginia, the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes regions were pretty isolated. The Indians weren't blind, though. They could see more and more and more Europeans moving in and settling down, building homes and growing crops. So, their warriors began attacking those homes in the Shenandoah Valley. Well, the Indians along with those pesky Frenchmen attacked settlers
Now, there's been some revisionist history going on for the last thirty or forty (or fifty) years in America. Folks have tried to make us believe that all American Indians were kumbaya kinda guys. Truth is no where near that - especially in the east. During the 1754 conflict in the Shenandoah Valley, what the Indians did makes their link to human sacrifice in the not too distant past seem to be a fact. If there were Frenchmen with the Indian war parties, all adult European males were killed, but the Frenchmen drew the line there. They wouldn't abide the murder of women and children. However, if it was just Native Americans, there were no survivors. Adult captives were burned at the stake - for real, not Hollywood style - and toddlers were hung from tree limbs then shot full of arrows. Sounds like human sacrifice to me!
So, in 1755, George Washington proposed a fort be built at the north end of the Shenandoah at Winchester. England's North American commander agreed, and so the fort was given his name, Fort Loudon. It was constructed much like Fort William Henry in upstate New York (Ft. Henry, of "Last of the Mohicans" Leatherstocking Saga fame.) That's important only because I love the Leatherstocking Saga's.
And that's about all this website says about George's responsibility for causing the first global war. H-E-L-L-O!! It's un-American of you to just stop there!!
Fine. I'll keep researching on my own. Google a lil' of this and Google a lil' of that - and the long and the short of it is, yes, George was in charge of the Virginia militia during the first battle of the French and Indian War - which he won. And, yes, he lost a couple of the next engagements. But, if he was such a bad officer with a bad learning curve, why did the British keep raising his rank and putting him in charge?? Is there a bit more revisionist history going on here? And why would our Founding Fathers put him in charge of defeating the British in 1776? The totality of facts from a myriad of sources tells me George is exactly what I always thought he was: a man (not a god), and a pretty good man was he!
So, if I'm not totally believing that original website about George, why am I believing them when they say this: when George's men began construction on Fort Loudon in 1754, they almost immediately uncovered Native American skeletons - measuring 7 feet tall!! Most Indians were more in the 5 foot 5 range. George wrote about them to the powers that be back in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Where did these big guys come from? Don't know. But I will say that, over the years of my interest in history, I've heard many stories about unusually tall Native Americans - and red-headed Native Americans and Nordic-looking Native Americans. I think I'll just file this new information away in my lil' brain and maybe someday all the pieces will come together to create indisputable facts. Until then I will just keep on combing through history and lovin' every minute of it!
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Granpa? Again?
So Granpa decides he wants to run to town and find a carrying case for his new tablet. Cool. We dash between raindrops and hit a few stores. (He's a shopper you know.) Somehow we end up at an AT&T store.
There we find a very aggressive, but kind, sales person. Faster than our feeble minds can comprehend he sweetens the pot on upgrading not only Granpa's iPhone, but he also tells us to ship back the Lenovo and buy one of the tablets he's offering.
Ratchet down the sales talk, lil' feller. One thing at a time. Let's talk phones. The only reason I would encourage Granpa to give up his iPhone is if he ends up with a larger screen and better photos. Granpa does NOT do change well. And let's not forget that he just got his antique laptop upgraded to a fancy new tablet by his loverly sons...
"Okay," says Jake-the-salesman, (but he's visibly twitching. Just what I need - to be trapped between two twitchers, shopping. I hate shopping!) "A new iPhone isn't gonna get you much in the way of a larger screen or better photos," says he. "We can, however," says Jake-the-salesman, "upgrade you to a Samsung that I think you'll like."
Oooo. Changing to a Samsung will mean changing operating systems from Apple to Android. That means changing everything visible to Granpa's eye-brain. BUT WAIT ! Granpa's new Lenovo tablet has an Android operating system, so he's already got to do the change!
Now comes the big question. How much is this Samsung thingamajig gonna cost?
"Well, let's see," says he, "are you trading in the old iPhone?"
Granpa pulls back noticeably. "Wait a minute," Granpa says as he looks at me, "I have to give up my old phone???"
"Um, it's not gonna do you any good," says I, "when they pull the sim card and activate the number on a different device." Granpa begins to inch toward the door. "I've had that phone since our last contract in Virginia. What about the pictures on my phone?"
Jake-the-salesman frowns. "I can transfer your contacts, but not your photos - unless there's just a few." Well, is 427 considered a few? "Ah, no."
Granpa says, "Let's go."
I'm quick: "Okay. Good idea. Let's go home, download the photos to your new tablet, and then everything's good."
Granpa says, "Let's go."
I give Jake-the-salesperson an encouraging look, he gives me his business card, and off we go.
After we get home and get a hot lunch into Granpa, I pick up my purse and head for the car. He follows me out the door. Yes! We're makin' progress here!
Back to my original question: "How much is this gonna cost?"
Jake says, holding his breath, "With the trade in... (pregnant pause) (Granpa doesn't say anything and doesn't inch toward the door) "with the trade in we'll give you a $100 credit, and with a renewal of the contract, it will cost you $5.00."
We've had an AT&T contract for over twelve years, so there's no problem with extending the contract, and even Granpa can't argue with $5.00.
Granpa pulls out his old phone and (somewhat reluctantly) hands it over to Jake. The deal is done.
There we find a very aggressive, but kind, sales person. Faster than our feeble minds can comprehend he sweetens the pot on upgrading not only Granpa's iPhone, but he also tells us to ship back the Lenovo and buy one of the tablets he's offering.
Ratchet down the sales talk, lil' feller. One thing at a time. Let's talk phones. The only reason I would encourage Granpa to give up his iPhone is if he ends up with a larger screen and better photos. Granpa does NOT do change well. And let's not forget that he just got his antique laptop upgraded to a fancy new tablet by his loverly sons...
"Okay," says Jake-the-salesman, (but he's visibly twitching. Just what I need - to be trapped between two twitchers, shopping. I hate shopping!) "A new iPhone isn't gonna get you much in the way of a larger screen or better photos," says he. "We can, however," says Jake-the-salesman, "upgrade you to a Samsung that I think you'll like."
Oooo. Changing to a Samsung will mean changing operating systems from Apple to Android. That means changing everything visible to Granpa's eye-brain. BUT WAIT ! Granpa's new Lenovo tablet has an Android operating system, so he's already got to do the change!
Now comes the big question. How much is this Samsung thingamajig gonna cost?
"Well, let's see," says he, "are you trading in the old iPhone?"
Granpa pulls back noticeably. "Wait a minute," Granpa says as he looks at me, "I have to give up my old phone???"
"Um, it's not gonna do you any good," says I, "when they pull the sim card and activate the number on a different device." Granpa begins to inch toward the door. "I've had that phone since our last contract in Virginia. What about the pictures on my phone?"
Jake-the-salesman frowns. "I can transfer your contacts, but not your photos - unless there's just a few." Well, is 427 considered a few? "Ah, no."
Granpa says, "Let's go."
I'm quick: "Okay. Good idea. Let's go home, download the photos to your new tablet, and then everything's good."
Granpa says, "Let's go."
I give Jake-the-salesperson an encouraging look, he gives me his business card, and off we go.
After we get home and get a hot lunch into Granpa, I pick up my purse and head for the car. He follows me out the door. Yes! We're makin' progress here!
Back to my original question: "How much is this gonna cost?"
Jake says, holding his breath, "With the trade in... (pregnant pause) (Granpa doesn't say anything and doesn't inch toward the door) "with the trade in we'll give you a $100 credit, and with a renewal of the contract, it will cost you $5.00."
We've had an AT&T contract for over twelve years, so there's no problem with extending the contract, and even Granpa can't argue with $5.00.
Granpa pulls out his old phone and (somewhat reluctantly) hands it over to Jake. The deal is done.
* * * * * * * *
So we've been home several hours now. He's switching from the new tablet to the new phone and back to the tablet. Twice widowed, I am. Good thing I'm only jealous of two legged creatures and not multi-app'ed devices!
Friday, June 7, 2013
Granpa
Well, Granpa has a three day weekend starting. It's pouring down rain from the first named tropical storm of the 2013 hurricane season, and we've decided to just hang out in Danville instead of roaming the countryside. Could be a boring time.
But what's this! UPS delivered Granpa a package! Hmmm. What might be in there? It's not his birthday, it's not Christmas, it's not our wedding anniversary. Hmmm. Well, Father's Day is next weekend. Maybe this is an early gift...
Yuppers! That's what it is! Our sons got together and shipped him an Lenovo Tablet. I happened to mention to them that he sits every evening reading things on his tiny little iPhone, and I guess they decided to upgrade him.
Let's see. Tablet, charger, and, woohoo! a docking keyboard! Oh, I might have to steal this lil' feller!
First things first. He's got to figure out how to unlock it. LOL! I guess this weekend won't be so boring for him after all!
But what's this! UPS delivered Granpa a package! Hmmm. What might be in there? It's not his birthday, it's not Christmas, it's not our wedding anniversary. Hmmm. Well, Father's Day is next weekend. Maybe this is an early gift...
Yuppers! That's what it is! Our sons got together and shipped him an Lenovo Tablet. I happened to mention to them that he sits every evening reading things on his tiny little iPhone, and I guess they decided to upgrade him.
Let's see. Tablet, charger, and, woohoo! a docking keyboard! Oh, I might have to steal this lil' feller!
First things first. He's got to figure out how to unlock it. LOL! I guess this weekend won't be so boring for him after all!
* * * * * * *
Two hours have passed. I'm a tablet widow now...
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Benedict Arnold
Ol' Bennie, he seems like he was a disgruntled person all his life. If you ask me, that's a person who never learned to count his blessings. I don't care how crummy your life is, or how crummy people treat you day in and day out, if you will just allow God to show you HIS blessings, you won't end up being a grouch and a downer of a person. Let me rephrase that: if you will just allow yourself to SEE God's blessings... you won't end up being a grouch and a downer.
Start by listening to yourself - not any one else - just yourself. Are you mumbling about the rain? or are looking for a rainbow or pretty clouds or the flowers that bloom and plants that literally spring up because of the rain? If you're mumbling, then you have turned inward and "it's all about you." Das not good, my friend. Look outside of yourself at what God has given you, not what the sinful nature of man is doing to you.
Arnold's life started out pretty good. His parents were in good financial shape. Over the course of time you would be able to trace back to their lineage four future American presidents! That's pretty cool!
Arnold was born January 14, 1741, the second of six children. Unfortunately four died of yellow fever (malaria). That set his daddy to drinking, and by the time Arnold was 14 they were pretty much destitute. The alcoholism kept his dad from training Arnold for business, so his momma finally apprenticed him out to two of her cousins. They did good, he did good, and life began to look up again. Then the pesky British had to go pass the stupid Sugar and Stamp Acts...
Actually, Arnold's first brush with the military was during the French and Indian War in 1757, when he was sixteen. Fort William Henry in the Albany, New York area, had been taken by the French and Indians. The Indian atrocities after the capture were so horrendous that it caused Arnold's band of militia to hightail it home. He served for a grand total of thirteen days!
Then Arnold's momma died, so his daddy drank even more! He was arrested for public drunkenness, refused communion by their church, and died in 1761. Very shameful stuff back then (ought to be today, too!) Here's a clue to Arnold's future though: he was accused of desertion from his militia service, the documentation was pretty shaky, though, so the matter was just dropped.
During this time Arnold partnered with some friends, bought three ships, and established himself in the West Indies trade. He was very hard-working and became quite successful. While in the West Indies (he occasionally captained his own ship) Arnold had his first brush with the British. Seems that down in Honduras, there was an insult and a challenge to a duel and shots were fired. Arnold hit his mark, but it wasn't a kill shot. After Arnold's threat to kill with the second shot, the British sea captain apologized.
1764 and 1765, respectively, saw the British impose the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act. Both wreaked havoc on American merchant's business (i.e. Benedict Arnold's business!) Arnold joined the Sons of Liberty, defied those Acts and therefore became a smuggler. Even so, the financial legs were being kicked out from under him - just like when his daddy started drinking.
After the Boston Massacre in 1770, Arnold wrote from the West Indies that he was "very much shocked" and wondered "good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their liberties, or are they all turned philosophers, that they don't take immediate vengeance on such miscreants." You go, Bennie!!! Love it!!
Arnold's military career kind of went up and down like his life always had. He was at the top of his game, then had to fight for recognition, at the top of his game and then had to fight to clear his name of some carping nonsense fellow officers threw at him, at the top of his game and then had to go to Congress to fight over financial stuff. You know, if it hadn't happened so often I might be inclined to feel sorry for the guy - but the ups and downs were just so consistent...
Fighting the British, Arnold was actually wounded in the same left leg three different times, with the last wound resulting in a bad patch up that left the leg 2" shorter than the other. No recognition for his wounds (no Purple Heart back then) left him kinda chapped. He wrote his friend, George Washington, in 1779: Having become a cripple in the service of my country, I little expected to meet [such] ungrateful returns.
His first wife died, his second wife was a British sympathizer, and, well, every American knows the rest of the story. He was made commander of West Point, (WEST POINT!) and made plans to turn it over to the British. His plans were discovered when his British spy chief was intercepted and written communications between Andre and ol' Bennie were exposed. Arnold escaped to England where he died in 1801. (Good riddance to bad guys!)
Start by listening to yourself - not any one else - just yourself. Are you mumbling about the rain? or are looking for a rainbow or pretty clouds or the flowers that bloom and plants that literally spring up because of the rain? If you're mumbling, then you have turned inward and "it's all about you." Das not good, my friend. Look outside of yourself at what God has given you, not what the sinful nature of man is doing to you.
Arnold's life started out pretty good. His parents were in good financial shape. Over the course of time you would be able to trace back to their lineage four future American presidents! That's pretty cool!
Arnold was born January 14, 1741, the second of six children. Unfortunately four died of yellow fever (malaria). That set his daddy to drinking, and by the time Arnold was 14 they were pretty much destitute. The alcoholism kept his dad from training Arnold for business, so his momma finally apprenticed him out to two of her cousins. They did good, he did good, and life began to look up again. Then the pesky British had to go pass the stupid Sugar and Stamp Acts...
Actually, Arnold's first brush with the military was during the French and Indian War in 1757, when he was sixteen. Fort William Henry in the Albany, New York area, had been taken by the French and Indians. The Indian atrocities after the capture were so horrendous that it caused Arnold's band of militia to hightail it home. He served for a grand total of thirteen days!
Then Arnold's momma died, so his daddy drank even more! He was arrested for public drunkenness, refused communion by their church, and died in 1761. Very shameful stuff back then (ought to be today, too!) Here's a clue to Arnold's future though: he was accused of desertion from his militia service, the documentation was pretty shaky, though, so the matter was just dropped.
During this time Arnold partnered with some friends, bought three ships, and established himself in the West Indies trade. He was very hard-working and became quite successful. While in the West Indies (he occasionally captained his own ship) Arnold had his first brush with the British. Seems that down in Honduras, there was an insult and a challenge to a duel and shots were fired. Arnold hit his mark, but it wasn't a kill shot. After Arnold's threat to kill with the second shot, the British sea captain apologized.
1764 and 1765, respectively, saw the British impose the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act. Both wreaked havoc on American merchant's business (i.e. Benedict Arnold's business!) Arnold joined the Sons of Liberty, defied those Acts and therefore became a smuggler. Even so, the financial legs were being kicked out from under him - just like when his daddy started drinking.
After the Boston Massacre in 1770, Arnold wrote from the West Indies that he was "very much shocked" and wondered "good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their liberties, or are they all turned philosophers, that they don't take immediate vengeance on such miscreants." You go, Bennie!!! Love it!!
Arnold's military career kind of went up and down like his life always had. He was at the top of his game, then had to fight for recognition, at the top of his game and then had to fight to clear his name of some carping nonsense fellow officers threw at him, at the top of his game and then had to go to Congress to fight over financial stuff. You know, if it hadn't happened so often I might be inclined to feel sorry for the guy - but the ups and downs were just so consistent...
Fighting the British, Arnold was actually wounded in the same left leg three different times, with the last wound resulting in a bad patch up that left the leg 2" shorter than the other. No recognition for his wounds (no Purple Heart back then) left him kinda chapped. He wrote his friend, George Washington, in 1779: Having become a cripple in the service of my country, I little expected to meet [such] ungrateful returns.
His first wife died, his second wife was a British sympathizer, and, well, every American knows the rest of the story. He was made commander of West Point, (WEST POINT!) and made plans to turn it over to the British. His plans were discovered when his British spy chief was intercepted and written communications between Andre and ol' Bennie were exposed. Arnold escaped to England where he died in 1801. (Good riddance to bad guys!)
Sunday, June 2, 2013
The Gem Collection
At the same Smithsonian (there are a bunch of 'em) we find a collection of crystals and gems - including the infamous Hope Diamond.
I thought about telling everyone that Granpa bought some of these for me for an early 30th wedding anniversary, (He really WOULD like to) but he knows I'm not a fru-fru kinda girl. When we first got married he wanted to buy me jewelry and was frustrated when I kept saying I only need one watch, one set of earrings, and two finger rings - and with our wedding ring, I already had all I wanted.
On the other hand, green IS my favorite color...
Now what is this collection of rocks doing here? I see no crystals or gems...
(Gotta read the sign, Granma.) These guys fluoresce under a black light. Push the button and...
I thought about telling everyone that Granpa bought some of these for me for an early 30th wedding anniversary, (He really WOULD like to) but he knows I'm not a fru-fru kinda girl. When we first got married he wanted to buy me jewelry and was frustrated when I kept saying I only need one watch, one set of earrings, and two finger rings - and with our wedding ring, I already had all I wanted.
Now what is this collection of rocks doing here? I see no crystals or gems...
(Gotta read the sign, Granma.) These guys fluoresce under a black light. Push the button and...
How cool is that!
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Subscribing to our blog
Some of you might want to subscribe to our blog. IT'S FREE. You can do that by:
You can also make it an app on your smart phone. Pull the blog up in your browser, TheTravelersTwo.blogspot.com, then follow whatever your phone's operating system says to do to save it like an app.
Thanks!!
- going to the toolbar on the right side of the page (That black line. When you move your mouse there it will slide out.)
- At the very bottom of that toolbar there is an icon for broadcasting. Hover on it and Subscribe will appear.
- Click on it, then click on View RSS Feed
- Click on Subscribe Now
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You can also make it an app on your smart phone. Pull the blog up in your browser, TheTravelersTwo.blogspot.com, then follow whatever your phone's operating system says to do to save it like an app.
Thanks!!
Speaking of Bones
Have you ever watched the TV series "Bones" or any forensics-based show? Well, now there's a whole section of this Smithsonian that treats discoveries in the same fashion.
This whole section is discussing the "starving time" that the members of the Jamestown Colony suffered through during the winter of 1609-1610. There were 500 colonists going into that winter and only 60 survived. No wonder its referred to as "The Harsh Reality of History." Just as Angela does in "Bones," a facial reproduction has been done based on the skull bones discovered by archaeologists. Notice that a huge section of this skull is missing. The interior of the skull shows interesting tool marks...
The Virginia Company of London sent these guys over to America in 1607 to establish a foothold and find gold. Yup, it was good ol' capitalism at work. Check this out:
Whereas our loving and weldisposed subjects ... and divers others of our loving subjects, have been humble sutors unto us that wee woulde vouchsafe unto them our licence to make habitacion, plantacion and to deduce a colonie of sondrie of our people into that parte of America commonly called Virginia, and other parts and territories in America either appartaining unto us or which are not nowe actuallie possessed by anie Christian prince or people, scituate, lying and being all along the sea coastes between fower and thirtie degrees of northerly latitude from the equinoctiall line and five and fortie degrees of the same latitude and in the maine lande betweene the same fower and thirtie and five and fourtie degrees, and the ilandes thereunto adjacente or within one hundred miles of the coaste thereof;
And you thought lawyers were a modern headache! This is the Charter that sent the first successful colonists to America. It goes on to say that if they don't find a way for the Virginia Company of London to profit financially they would be cut off from all funding. Even to these dudes, struggling to keep body and soul together, money was the alpha and omega - or so they thought.
The men spent all their time searching for gold and no time planting a vegetable garden or doing much of anything that might help them through the winter. Finally, in 1608, ol' John Smith, a soldier, explorer, and adventurer, had had enough. (Seems he was the only common sense man in the group!) Smith took charge and began to require that each colonist (man, woman or child) spend at least four hours a day farming. "Work or starve," he said. Hmmm, where have I heard something similar before? Oh yeah, it was told to the Corps of Discovery back at Fort Mandan: "If we eat you eat; if we starve, you starve " said the Mandan to the Corps. Only 38 of Virginia's colonists from the original 144 survived that year.
In 1609, John Smith suffered a very severe gunpowder burn and was shipped back to England. Then a re-supply ship (and by that I don't just mean material goods. They had to keep re-supplying people because so many were dying...) a re-supply ship sunk off the coast of Bermuda. That knocked their hat in the creek for sure (as a friend of ours in Texas would say!)
It was a harsh winter, and instead of relying on themselves, the colonists had relied on that ship to supply them. The price they paid was even greater than death, because the forensics show that they resorted to cannibalism to survive. Two colonists snuck into the community storehouse. Their punishment was to be tied to posts and left to publicly starve to death. Finally, with nothing left in the storehouse for anyone, one guy even ate his own wife! It is suspected that those who survived that winter did so off the bodies of others who had died. I suppose the concept of "body and soul" kicked in here. In their minds, once the soul left the body at death, what was left behind was no longer sacred? But if one starved to death, what would be left to eat? Eww, too gruesome for me! I'm movin' on...
However they accomplished it, some DID survive that winter (and wrote diaries throughout that winter which are still in print today!) Re-supply ships arrived with food and new colonists in 1610, and year after year more colonists came. Even though tobacco was introduced as a cash crop, financially Jamestown failed and the investors lost almost a quarter of a million pounds (English money.) If you ask me, the colonists paid a higher price: five out of every six died. The Virginia Company of London was declared bankrupt by the king in 1624, the colony became property of the Crown, and was therefore the first in America ruled by the Crown.
Here's a really good link if you want lots more detail:
This whole section is discussing the "starving time" that the members of the Jamestown Colony suffered through during the winter of 1609-1610. There were 500 colonists going into that winter and only 60 survived. No wonder its referred to as "The Harsh Reality of History." Just as Angela does in "Bones," a facial reproduction has been done based on the skull bones discovered by archaeologists. Notice that a huge section of this skull is missing. The interior of the skull shows interesting tool marks...
The Virginia Company of London sent these guys over to America in 1607 to establish a foothold and find gold. Yup, it was good ol' capitalism at work. Check this out:
Whereas our loving and weldisposed subjects ... and divers others of our loving subjects, have been humble sutors unto us that wee woulde vouchsafe unto them our licence to make habitacion, plantacion and to deduce a colonie of sondrie of our people into that parte of America commonly called Virginia, and other parts and territories in America either appartaining unto us or which are not nowe actuallie possessed by anie Christian prince or people, scituate, lying and being all along the sea coastes between fower and thirtie degrees of northerly latitude from the equinoctiall line and five and fortie degrees of the same latitude and in the maine lande betweene the same fower and thirtie and five and fourtie degrees, and the ilandes thereunto adjacente or within one hundred miles of the coaste thereof;
And you thought lawyers were a modern headache! This is the Charter that sent the first successful colonists to America. It goes on to say that if they don't find a way for the Virginia Company of London to profit financially they would be cut off from all funding. Even to these dudes, struggling to keep body and soul together, money was the alpha and omega - or so they thought.
The men spent all their time searching for gold and no time planting a vegetable garden or doing much of anything that might help them through the winter. Finally, in 1608, ol' John Smith, a soldier, explorer, and adventurer, had had enough. (Seems he was the only common sense man in the group!) Smith took charge and began to require that each colonist (man, woman or child) spend at least four hours a day farming. "Work or starve," he said. Hmmm, where have I heard something similar before? Oh yeah, it was told to the Corps of Discovery back at Fort Mandan: "If we eat you eat; if we starve, you starve " said the Mandan to the Corps. Only 38 of Virginia's colonists from the original 144 survived that year.
In 1609, John Smith suffered a very severe gunpowder burn and was shipped back to England. Then a re-supply ship (and by that I don't just mean material goods. They had to keep re-supplying people because so many were dying...) a re-supply ship sunk off the coast of Bermuda. That knocked their hat in the creek for sure (as a friend of ours in Texas would say!)
It was a harsh winter, and instead of relying on themselves, the colonists had relied on that ship to supply them. The price they paid was even greater than death, because the forensics show that they resorted to cannibalism to survive. Two colonists snuck into the community storehouse. Their punishment was to be tied to posts and left to publicly starve to death. Finally, with nothing left in the storehouse for anyone, one guy even ate his own wife! It is suspected that those who survived that winter did so off the bodies of others who had died. I suppose the concept of "body and soul" kicked in here. In their minds, once the soul left the body at death, what was left behind was no longer sacred? But if one starved to death, what would be left to eat? Eww, too gruesome for me! I'm movin' on...
However they accomplished it, some DID survive that winter (and wrote diaries throughout that winter which are still in print today!) Re-supply ships arrived with food and new colonists in 1610, and year after year more colonists came. Even though tobacco was introduced as a cash crop, financially Jamestown failed and the investors lost almost a quarter of a million pounds (English money.) If you ask me, the colonists paid a higher price: five out of every six died. The Virginia Company of London was declared bankrupt by the king in 1624, the colony became property of the Crown, and was therefore the first in America ruled by the Crown.
Here's a really good link if you want lots more detail:
Friday, May 31, 2013
Bones and Mummies
Everyone loves bones, especially dinosaur bones.
Big bones...
And little bones!
Standard mummified remains, and non-standard.
Surely you know that the ancient Egyptians removed the brains with tweezers shoved up the nostrils before mummifying those kings and queens... Hmmm. I can think of a few folks I wouldn't mind mummifying! (Zing!)
This leathery lookin' dude is a big-horned bison. The interpretive information plaque says it's extinct. (Duh!) I think what it meant to say is that that particular species is extinct. Because it was found near Fairbanks, Alaska the horn sheaths and hooves are still intact. The freezing temperatures are what made that possible.
The lower part of that display are the remains of the rear lower leg and foot of the second most abundant critter, la horse! This represents the last of the true wild horses (not counting related asses and zebras.) What we think of as "wild horses" are really descended from stock that somehow found its way from human owners and reverted to a wild state.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
"Our Beginnings" in D.C.
I thought this was a pretty cute picture of Benjamin Franklin wavin' at us... The flags are at half staff because it's Memorial Day. This is outside of the old Post Office building. Benji is here because he created the postal service.
From here we walked down to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center. That would be North American history, not Central American history, so I'm not sure why they have this guy sitting by the front door:
This would be a replica of Colossal Head No. 4 (of 17). The original was uncovered by a Smithsonian archaeologist in 1946. He's kinda cute, too. (The head, not the archaeologist :)
Inside we find a really cool lookin' giant, polished piece of rock that is as tall as I am!
The red striations indicate periods of high oxygen concentration in the atmosphere; the gray show low oxygen. It's really pretty.
A bit farther on I find this interesting little tidbit on an interpretive plaque: "It is unlikely that living things could spontaneously arise on earth today. Anything resembling the primitive forerunners of life would be quickly gobbled up by ever-present microbes in the environment. Primeval conditions must have been more favorable for life-forming processes." Huh? Say again? Why, that's the closest statement I have ever heard "science" say that lends credence to the Creation! How could primeval conditions be "more favorable." Somehow I had the idea the "primeval" was all about everything gobbling up everything else voraciously. Primeval was all ABOUT microbes. If you believe evolutionists, all life on earth began as microbes - so there must have been zillions of gazillions of microbes all gobbling on each other.
It goes on to say: "What were these conditions? Scientists' ideas about them have also evolved. Early notions of a young earth with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and ocean basins filled with bubbling 'organic soup' now seem questionable." WOWSER! "Experiments have shown that amino acids and other organic compounds form most readily in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, but the light gases that would have made up such an atmosphere probably escaped into space early in the earth's history. And while organic compounds may have accumulated in the primordial oceans, they probably existed in such dilute concentrations that life-forming reactions would have occurred slowly, if at all." DOUBLE WOWSER!
Then they go into suppositions and may be's and probably's. Well, guess what. My "suppose" that God created all life on earth carries more weight than their "may be." But their own first two paragraphs take away 99% of a persons belief in their tired ol' concepts.
A warm little pond? or the Garden of Eden and a manger? "They" keep changing their story; the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and never, ever changes.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Our Blog Audience
I'm always amazed when I stop and check out who has been reading our blog! It's 10:30 in the morning, and so far today we've had readers drop in from good ol' America, Colombia, Brazil, Latvia, Russia, Croatia, England, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Poland. That's just stunning! There have been over 45,000 page views so far
All I can say is that I really do hope folks are enjoying it and sharing it with others. They can "Google+" it, or copy the URL and share it. If you're one of the lucky few who have it emailed to you, it's really simple to forward that on. If you're using the mobile version the blog can be turned into an app so that all you have to do is tap the app and you get the latest post - that's pretty convenient.
I just don't know what to think about all these folks in different countries reading the blog. It's such an enormous variety of places all across the globe...! All I can think of is to say thank you to each and every one of you. Oh, and ask that you forgive my occasional spelling and grammar mistakes. I get so caught up in the story that my education gets left behind sometimes. Maybe you can make a game of how many mistakes I make every day - or maybe not. I could get really depressed if it was too many!
Read on, oh world, read on. I'm having a wonderful time sharing our discoveries, and thank you for joining us!
All I can say is that I really do hope folks are enjoying it and sharing it with others. They can "Google+" it, or copy the URL and share it. If you're one of the lucky few who have it emailed to you, it's really simple to forward that on. If you're using the mobile version the blog can be turned into an app so that all you have to do is tap the app and you get the latest post - that's pretty convenient.
I just don't know what to think about all these folks in different countries reading the blog. It's such an enormous variety of places all across the globe...! All I can think of is to say thank you to each and every one of you. Oh, and ask that you forgive my occasional spelling and grammar mistakes. I get so caught up in the story that my education gets left behind sometimes. Maybe you can make a game of how many mistakes I make every day - or maybe not. I could get really depressed if it was too many!
Read on, oh world, read on. I'm having a wonderful time sharing our discoveries, and thank you for joining us!
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Traveling On The Metro to D.C.
What a simple idea! Stay outside of D.C. and take the Metro in to the Smithsonian. Rooms are less expensive, and we won't have to worry about parking. That'll work; and it did - but not without its complications!
We found a really nice Sheraton in Ruston, Virginia for next to nothing that was very near a Metro station. In hindsight, it was probably "next to nothing" because the Metro stations closest to it had been shut down for renovations.
Then we had a terrible time finding the Metro. Once there is when we discovered that it was shut down, but, not to worry, they had set up free shuttle bus rides to the nearest open station. Now we have to remember that we left the car at West Falls Church, got bussed to Ballston, caught the Orange line into D.C. and got off at Federal Triangle. (Whew! For a couple of kids from East Texas that never take mass transit, that's a lot to remember! Think of that the next time you lose your car at the local mall.)
We check the fares at Ballston and purchase tickets from the machine for Federal Triangle. The platform isn't too crowded, the ceilings are super high (I guess to keep claustrophobics from panicking), and the train is on time.
Too funny! There's a guy on the train asking us directions! We happened to have printed out a map of the Metro lines and were able to help him understand the system. Too funny!
We hop off at Federal and ... the exit booth won't let us out. Everyone clears the area pretty quickly, and there's no one to ask for help! It's just us in this whole enormous echoing place. Bummer. We go over to the fare machines and try to figure things out. Ah, seems they tack on an extra dollar on the weekends. (Take THAT Mr. and Mrs. Tourist!)
A station master appears. (Maybe they have security cameras stashed somewhere and they were watching us?) We explain our problem and get all straightened out. (He must get really tired of country bumpkin tourists like us, but then again, if it weren't for us dummies he wouldn't have a job maybe.)
Up the escalators and out into the sunshine! Wow, what a beautiful, beautiful day!
We found a really nice Sheraton in Ruston, Virginia for next to nothing that was very near a Metro station. In hindsight, it was probably "next to nothing" because the Metro stations closest to it had been shut down for renovations.
Then we had a terrible time finding the Metro. Once there is when we discovered that it was shut down, but, not to worry, they had set up free shuttle bus rides to the nearest open station. Now we have to remember that we left the car at West Falls Church, got bussed to Ballston, caught the Orange line into D.C. and got off at Federal Triangle. (Whew! For a couple of kids from East Texas that never take mass transit, that's a lot to remember! Think of that the next time you lose your car at the local mall.)
We check the fares at Ballston and purchase tickets from the machine for Federal Triangle. The platform isn't too crowded, the ceilings are super high (I guess to keep claustrophobics from panicking), and the train is on time.
Too funny! There's a guy on the train asking us directions! We happened to have printed out a map of the Metro lines and were able to help him understand the system. Too funny!
We hop off at Federal and ... the exit booth won't let us out. Everyone clears the area pretty quickly, and there's no one to ask for help! It's just us in this whole enormous echoing place. Bummer. We go over to the fare machines and try to figure things out. Ah, seems they tack on an extra dollar on the weekends. (Take THAT Mr. and Mrs. Tourist!)
A station master appears. (Maybe they have security cameras stashed somewhere and they were watching us?) We explain our problem and get all straightened out. (He must get really tired of country bumpkin tourists like us, but then again, if it weren't for us dummies he wouldn't have a job maybe.)
Up the escalators and out into the sunshine! Wow, what a beautiful, beautiful day!
And so we begin our day in D.C.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
America IS great!
that set up the Underground Railroad. That "railroad" was a series of safe houses with secret places to hide blacks who were trying to escape slavery. If they could get out of the south and into the north, they just might find freedom from slavery - but they would still have to rely on their own two hands to build a life for themselves in the north. That they knew they could do, if they just had a chance. It was white people that gave them that chance. If you want to heal this land, lady, tell THAT story.
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