The Murphy Family Adventure driving across United States.
As we continue our adventure across America, I will document each days statistics and events. Some days will be quite boring with nothing but driving. Other days will be exciting with pictures and videos and lots of excitement.
Let the adventure begin!
Click on a picture or a title to see pictures from the day. The Archive page has a link to all of the pages of the blog.
We would like to thank all of or friends and family for their advice, help and support on this wonderful trip.
First and foremost thank you to PGP Corp for allowing Duane to Telecommute Across America for the last six weeks!
We would like to thank ...
And to all the friends and family who sent GREAT suggestions for places to visit on our tour.
Today is the last day of the trip. We made a mad dash home. It's a long drive so we have no stops planned aside from gas and lunch.
We stopped for gas in Lovelock, NV. We looked around and found a nice Lion's Club Park near the community center where we had lunch.
After lunch it was back on the road and on to California. And we knew when we hit California. Welcome to the wonderful California freeways. Ouch.
We hit a little bit of traffic in Roseville. (Almost stopped at Earle's for bit. :-) We got through Sacramento and home by about 5:30pm. Whew! We made it.
We were greated by our friends and neighbors who have been watching the house for us.
Now that we're home I thought I would share some fun statistics from the trip.
We traveled through 24 states and 1 District:
California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado
for a traveling distance of 7789 miles and a total driving distance of 8897 miles.
We set up the trailer 20 times.
We stopped for gas 32 times.
We did laundry 8 times.
We repaired the van once, repaired the trailer once, but never broke down on the side of the road.
We are all very happy to be home and loved the entire trip.
Please visit our sponsors page to see the people that helped us on this vacation.
And send us your ideas for our next trip. Where should we go?
Today was a very long driving day. Our target is a campground outside of Elko, NV, over 400 miles.
We left Manila, UT and Flaming Gorge early after a quick breakfast. We headed back into Wyoming then west and eventually south back into Utah.
Several years ago, Carla discovered Froddy's Vienna Bistro in Salt Lake City. During the Stampin' Up! Convention this last weekend, Carla and her friends had a wonderful dinner at the Vienna Bistro. She wanted to share her experience with us, so we stopped in Salt Lake City for lunch at the Vienna Bistro.
To the say the food is wonderful is an understatement. It was some of the best German/Austrian food I have ever had. The food was great and the deserts even better.
We left Salt Lake City and headed west. We made a quick stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats rest stop. We continued west across Nevada. We decided that Nevada comes in third for "nothingness"; Kansas, Wyoming, and Nevada are the top three states for highways of nothing.
Once we got to Elko we decided that the campground was just too far off the highway. A quick Google search and a look along the highway and we ended up at the Iron Horse RV Park.
It was early enough that the kids caught a quick swim while I finished some work and got dinner ready. We got some rain during the night, but we were prepared for it this time.
The kids are all rooting for us to drive all the way home tomorrow.
8:30 travel time for 414 miles.
Today we saw the sites around Flaming Gorge
Flaming Gorge and Flaming Gorge Reservoir lie along the Green River between Wyoming and Utah. The reservoir was created by the Flaming Gorge Dam for water conservation. Flaming Gorge was named by William H. Ashley when he traveled down the Green River on an early expedition.
We started the day with a big breakfast. We cleaned up and headed into Flaming Gorge. We stopped at several overlooks along the way. We eventually reached the Red River Visitor Center.
The area around the visitor center has some spectacular views of the Gorge and the reservoir below. The ranger at the visitor center gave us some tips on what we should see during our visit.
We went down the road further across the Cart Creek Bridge and to the Flaming Gorge Dam. We went on a free tour of the dam. The tour was a little uncomfortable because it was starting to rain and much of the tour is outside. Luckily it was still a little warm, so it was tolerable.
After the tour we headed back up the road. At Flaming Gorge Resort we had a nice lunch.
Back on the road, we found the road to Dowd Mountain. After a 4 mile drive down a dirt road, we were greeted with a spectacularly wide view of the Gorge. It was worth the drive.
Next we drove through the Sheep Creek Canyon Geological area. Near the bottom of the area you get a wonderful cross section of the geological changes that the area has been through.
We returned to the campsite to enjoy a nice crock pot meal all ready to go. Some neighbors pulled up in the campsite next to us late in the day, so we shared our left over crock pot meal with them. They were grateful as the power in the park had just gone out.
Tomorrow we start the last leg of our adventure. We decided to try and make it home in two days instead of three. If we did a three day journey we would have to stay in Reno. Unfortunately, it's Hot August Nights and camp sites are hard to come by.
We're going to try and get an early start for a long drive tomorrow all the way through Utah and into Nevada.
Today we drove from Laramie, WY to Manila, UT. This was one of those uneventful days.
We left the KOA in Laramie, WY after having a small breakfast.
The most interesting event of the day was stopping at a rest stop for lunch. We stopped for gas in Green River, WY then turned south into Utah.
We decided to drive down the western side of Flaming Gorge rather than the eastern side. It seemed like it should be the most scenic and it was certainly the most timely.
We arrived in the evening at the KOA in Manila, UT.
Tomorrow we will see Flaming Gorge.
6:45 travel time for 300 miles.
Today we get back on the road and leave Grandma's house in Aurora, CO and drive to Laramie, WY. We'll be passing through Rocky Mountain National Park on the way.
Grandma joined us for this leg of the trip. She'll come with us to California and spend a few days visiting family there.
On the way out of Colorado, we traveled through Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove through part of the park into to Estes Park, then farther up into the park proper. We had a picnic in the park at the Endovalley picnic area.
After lunch we headed back to Estes Park and on our way to Wyoming.
It was a long drive through Wyoming. There is just lots of undeveloped area.
Our goal was a state campground outside of Laramie, WY. When we finally got near the campground, we found that the last 5 miles was a washboard dirt road. We didn't think driving on that road was going to be a good idea, so we opted for something else in Laramie.
We found the KOA in Laramie and decided to camp there. After setting up camp, Carla went to the store for a few more supplies while I did some work and the girls enjoyed the rec room.
With the bugs biting, we decided to eat dinner in the rec room, then clean up and get some sleep. We have more driving tomorrow through Wyoming and into UT at Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.
8:30 travel time for 294 miles.
Today we visited Four Mile House, visited with my sister's family some more while getting ready to go tomorrow.
It was a packed house last night with Erin and Jay also spending the night. The younger girls had a little slumber party in the front room while the rest of us found beds to sleep in.
After a big breakfast and a little packing, we took a trip to Four Mile House.
Four Mile House is a Denver Area Historic Landmark. It is recognized as Four Mile House because it is four miles from the center of Denver. As we learned this day, the real reason is that the location of Denver City Hall was also the location of the stage coach stop. Four Mile House was so named because it was a stage coach stop four miles from the end.
Four Mile House also lies on the Cherokee Trail. The Cherokee Trail was a trial that went from Fort Bridger, WY down to Denver, CO.
We took a tour of the Four Mile House, which was owned by several people and walked the grounds around the house. We found a wagon ride and took a nice horse drawn tour of the grounds.
After Four Mile House we returned to Grandma's house for some lunch. The rest of the day was spent visiting and getting ready to get back on the road. We said goodbye to Erin, Jay, and Victoria as they returned to Colorado Springs.
Later that evening, I went out to the airport to pick up Carla. She was returning from the Stampin' Up! Convention in Salt Lake City.
Tomorrow we get back on the road and head home. We'll go through Rocky Mountain National Forest and on into Wyoming.
Erin and Jay arrived after breakfast. We spent some time catching up and visiting. We were invited to go swimming at the home where Manny works while they are out of town for the day.
After some lunch, we headed over to the house. We all had a great time in the pool for several hours.
Later we came back to Mom's house and had a barbeque.
The kids couldn't get enough Nintendo DS, three of them networked together playing games.
The heat kept us outside visiting late into the night.
Tomorrow we'll find something to go see and Erin, Jay, and Victoria will be going home. Later in tomorrow night I'll get Carla from the airport.
While I worked and Carla is at convention, the kids spent the day seeing Denver with Grandma and their cousin Victoria. So for this day, Samantha is doing the writing.
We drove into downtown Denver and after finding parking walked over to Civic Center Park to see the capital.
After wandering around Civic Canter Park for a while, we hopped back in the car and drove over to the Convention Center so we could see "The Big Blue Bear."
By then it was time for Victoria to go to her Improv class, so we dropped her off and went grocery shopping Later we went back to watch Victoria's performance for the last day of her Improv class.
(Back to Duane)
Denver has been in a heat wave; 19 days with temperatures over 90. This seemed great to us being in the humidity. There is very low humidity in Denver. But the heat, over 100, gets tough after a while. The girls enjoyed running through the sprinklers to cool off.
Later on we took a walk to the park in the green belt.
The girls are having a great time visiting with their grandmother and their cousin.
Tomorrow Victoria's parents, Jay and Erin are coming for the weekend. Erin is my sister. They live in Colorado Springs.
Today we drive from Cedar Ridge State Park in Kansas to my Mom's house in Aurora, CO.
We awoke to a nice dry and warm day. Finally. We packed up the trailer and headed to the highway to the next town for breakfast.
Back on the highway, we kept an eye out for anything interesting. To keep it simple, there was nothing. We decided that Kansas has more nothing than Wyoming. Nothing but fields and fields of corn and empty plains.
We decided to stop in Flagler, CO because it was two hours from Aurora. We were happy to be greeted by a nice little park right off the freeway. Some picnic tables, a nice little playground, and jets. Flagler has two jets in the park.
From Flagler it was a completely uneventful drive to Aurora, CO.
Mom and Manny (her husband) were very happy to see us. They had just arrived home for the day. A little while later, Mom left to pick up Victoria, the girls cousin and my niece. Victoria has been staying with Mom for the week during her summer vacation.
We'll be visiting with Mom for the next few days while Carla is at the Stampin' Up! Convention in Salt Lake City.
6:30 travel time for 329 miles.
This morning we dropped Mom off at the airport and drove part of the way through Kansas.
It rained all night long. The rain eventually broke and we were able to pack up the tent without it being too wet.
We arrived early at the airport for Carla's flight. Goodbye's for everyone, and Carla was off to the Stampin' Up! Convention in Salt Lake City.
And off we were to Kansas. We did some research to see if there was anything for us to see along the way. Our search didn't turn up anything we found interesting. We hoped to find something along the way while we drove along the highway.
So we drove, and ... we drove, and ... we drove.
We started seeing signs for the Oz Museum. Well it was something so we decided to stop. It was a fun little museum. A huge collection of Wizard of Oz memorabilia. Anything and everything having to do with the Wizard of Oz is in the museum.
Next door is Toto's Tacoz and Toto's Patio. We couldn't resist. We had a pretty good California Mex lunch.
Back to the highway and driving.
We didn't find anything else that was interesting along the highway.
We found the Cedar Bluff Reservoir out in the middle of no where. I was hoping to find at least a small store to get a few supplies. But there was nothing. 15 miles off the highway was the reservoir and the campground.
8:15 travel time for 380 miles.
Today we drove across Missouri from St. Louis to Kansas City.
Before leaving St. Louis we had to wait for the UPS delivery. UPS delivered Sam's new insulin pump to the RV Park. She switched everything over and we were ready to go.
This was a simple driving day. We made one short stop for lunch while Dad had a phone conference for work.
We arrived at the Watkins Wollen Mill State Park in the early evening. We did a quick load of laundry, had some dinner as it started raining. And boy did it rain. All night long! Toss in a little bit of lightening just for good measure.
Tomorrow we are taking Mom to the airport and we are on our own for the next few days as we drive through Kansas and into Colorado.
6:30 travel time for 261 miles.
We spent the day touring St. Louis. We returned to the Gateway Arch to see the IMAX movie and then visited Forest Park. But first a little detour.
Sam had been noticing that her insulin pump was not behaving. The buttons were "freaking out." We decided the pump needed to be replaced .Too dangerous not to have the pump. We contacted MiniMed and they sent a pump by UPS for the next day. Meanwhile we needed a back up.
Sam brought her InDuo as a backup for her pump. Except that the battery in the pen of the InDuo was no longer working and could not deliver insulin. We could not figure out how to change the battery or even where it was. Maybe it's meant to be disposable. So now what? We decided we would visit a Walgreens to figure out what to do.
Meanwhile, we returned to the Gateway Arch and the IMAX movie "Lewis and Clark Great Journey West". The National Geographic movie is very well done. It is a 45 minute story of the complete journey of Lewis and Clark.
After the movie we walked the museum. The museum has lots of information and displays about the history of the west. We spent a couple of hours walking through the museum and listening to a ranger presentation. Our new favorite word is "Serendipity."
Back to Sam's situation. The pump seems to be cooperating, but we really need a backup plan. We found a Walgreens near Forest Park. Did you know that in some states you don't need a prescription for syringes? Well Missouri is one of those states. We bought a few syringes and we had our backup plan in place.
Everyone was hungry by now so we found an Applebee's across the street from Walgreens and had lunch.
Forest Park was just around the corner. We found the Visitor's Center and got our bearings. Across the way was a museum with several displays. We spent some time in the museum then decided to catch the shuttle bus and go to the St. Louis Zoo.
The St. Louis Zoo is a good size zoo with many different sections to walk through. We only missed one section of the zoo before we had to leave before the zoo closed. We took a lot of pictures at the zoo so we made a separate photo album for the zoo (and the entire day).
Before going back to the trailer we had to take a few minutes and drive by Murphy Lake.
Today we drove from Blytheville, Arkansas to St. Louis, Missouri.
We had a nice breakfast in the lobby of the hotel. Clean up our rooms and packed everything back into the van.
We made it to St. Louis by mid afternoon. We had debated whether to stay at an RV park in St. Louis 5 minutes from the arch or at a State Park 50 miles away. The girls hesitated when they saw the parking lot RV park, but then they saw the pool. We made some quick calculations. The cost of gas makes the extra expense of the RV park well worth it and that includes free showers and a laundry.
The nice lady who checked us into the park had lots of information about what we could see. She recommended that we go see the arch tonight both to avoid the crowds as well as see the arch for sunset.
We still had some time so the kids and Mom spent some time in pool while Dad finished some more work (did you forget that I'm working? I haven't!).
We had some dinner and headed off to the arch. I always just associated the arch with St. Louis. We were excited to find out that it is called the Gateway Arch and is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The memorial celebrates Jefferson's active part in the expansion of the United States, with the Louisiana Purchase and the travels of Lewis and Clark.
There is a tram inside the arch that goes to the top. We get tickets to go to the top before sunset and tickets for an IMAX movie about Lewis and Clark for tomorrow.
The tram ride was interesting. The tram cars are very small; I barely fit into them. The cars travel up 630 feet to the top of the arch. There are small viewing windows where you can see Illinois across the Mississippi River and all of St. Louis. We catch a bit of the sunset and the lighting of St. Louis.
We went down the other side of the arch. It's late now so it's time to go back to the trailer.
Tomorrow we'll see more of St. Louis including the IMAX Lewis and Clark Movie and Forest Park.
4:25 travel time for 222 miles.
The goal for today is to cross off Tennessee and Arkansas from our list of states that we have visited. We will travel to Nashville, Tenneesse to visit the Bicentennial Mall, then on to Blytheville, Arkansas just across the Missouri border.
We packed up after a wet night (again) and headed to Nashville!
On the way we were surprised to see the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. We had to stop. We spent an hour or so walking through the museum and taking way too many pictures. It was an interesting tour seeing how the Corvette has changed over the years. Mackensie especially liked choosing her favorite model.
We left Bowling Green and headed to Nashville. We arrived at the Bicentennial Mall and found a farmers market across the street. We found some fruit at the farmers market and went over the Bicentennial Mall. The Bicentennial Mall is a wall that is several blocks long that tells the history of Tennessee from prehistoric time to modern time, including significant historical points like becoming a state, the civil war, and three Governors becoming president.
We had some lunch at the food court at the farmers market and headed off to Arkansas.
I must say that Tennessee has some of the nicest, most well kept highways we've been on during this trip.
Getting to Arkansas is little complicated by the need to cross the Mississippi River. We crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri and then went back into Arkansas. We only crossed a few miles into Arkansas into Blytheville and found a hotel. That's right this time we are taking a break from the trailer and spending one night in a hotel.
The kids love the idea of a hotel; television, a pool, and breakfast in the lobby. It's nice rest Carla and I as well.
Now we can add Tennessee and Arkansas to our list of states.
Tomorrow we head to St Louis, Missouri and the St. Louis Arch.
8:30 travel time for 328 miles.
Today was spent touring Mammoth Caves. We reviewed the tours and information the night before. We decided on the New Entrance Tour, the Historic Tour, and a free ranger walk called Ridge to River.
I got up early and went to the Visitor's Center to get tickets for our tours. I was there early enough that we had our pick of tours. We had the 11:30 New Entrance Tour, 2:30 Historic Tour and the Ridge to River walk was at 4:45. A full day of tours.
After breakfast we headed to our first tour. While we were waiting for tour Sam noticed another pumper. We rode the bus for 10 minutes to the New Entrance starting point. The New Entrance was new as of the 1920s. It's the oldest of the new entrances. The new entrance tour goes down a lot of stairs and opens into several large rooms; rooms larger than I've seen on other cave tours. Mammoth Cave is a dry cave. There is not much moisture in the cave due to the sandstone cap over the ridge. We'll learn more about that on the Ridge to River walk.
The end of the New Entrance tour is near the edge of the cave so there are some cave formations in a room together, including a formation called "Frozen Niagara."
After the New Entrance we went back to camp for a quick lunch. Then back to Visitor's Center for the Historic Tour.
The Historic Tour entrance is near the Visitor's Center. You can feel the cold air as you get closer to the entrance. As we started on the Historic Tour there was a bit of communication between the rangers. One ranger at the front and one at the back. The ranger at the back was escorting someone out of the cave and had appointed someone else to be the caboose.
It turns out, that another diabetic was feeling low as the tour began and felt that he could not continue. Sam was standing near them and asked if he wanted some lifesavers. He took a few, but felt that he should not continue. The ranger appointed Sam as the caboose and escorted him out of the cave. Sam probably saved his life or at least a lot of embarrassing commotion. The ranger later caught up and rejoined the tour.
The Historic Tour was amazing. I thought the rooms in the New Entrance Tour were large. The path ways on the Historic Tour are gigantic tunnels 50-60 feet high and at least that wide, that go on for miles. The rooms are larger than most buildings.
There are many historic artifacts on the Historic Tour. The cave was a salt peter mine during the early wars and much of that evidence is left in the cave.
Eventually we get to a spot where the paths get much smaller. We travelled down some crevasses and eventually to Fat Man's Misery and Tall Man's Agony. Near the end of these paths is the highlight of the tour, Mammoth Dome. Mammoth Dome is 150 foot tall dome. We walked up a stair case to the top and out of the cave.
Aftter the Historic Tour we headed back to camp to quickly pick up water bottles and get a quick snack, then back to the Visitor's Center for the Ridge to River walk.
One of the rangers that was on the Historic Tour gave the Ridge to River walk. He explained how Mammoth Cave came to be. There are several factors that made it possible: sandstone cap, limestone beneath, underground rivers, and lots of time. The rivers carve out the limestone beneath the sandstone. The giant corridors are the result of the same affect as a river carving out a valley. The river moves slowly and eats away at the limestone. Other areas that are smaller were completely filled with water while eating away the limestone.
After the Ridge to River walk we headed back to camp for some dinner. After dinner we went to the camp fire for a short talk on cave creatures called "Big, Small, and Really Small". It was a fascinating talk about the creatures that live in the cave and how they have adapted.
Finally, it was time for bed.
Tomorrow we leave Mammoth Cave and Kentucky and head to Arkansas.
Today drove from Grayson Lake, Kentucky to Mammoth Caves National Park, Kentucky. On the we we visited Lincoln's Boyhood Home, the Lincoln Museum, and Lincoln's Birthplace.
We had a little rain at Grayson Lake the night before. But the morning was warm and bright. We hung things out to dry as much as we could while we packed up.
We left Grayson Lake and headed to our first stop, Lincoln's Boyhood home. The Boyhood home is a small cabin with a single ranger that directs you to Lincoln's Birthplace Memorial and the Lincoln Museum in Hodgenville.
Hodgenville is very proud that Lincoln came from Kentucky. Everything in Hodgenville bears Lincoln's name. The Lincoln Museum is a nice small local Museum. It has displays of scene's from various parts of Lincoln's history from his birthplace up to Ford's Theatre.
From Hodgenville, it's a quick drive up the road to Lincoln's Birthplace Memorial. A large memorial building has been constructed with the symbolic birthplace cabin inside the memorial.
It's quite late and we are all starving for lunch. We pull up a nice patch of grass and have some lunch before heading off to Mammoth Caves.
After lunch, we drive some more to Mammoth Caves National Park. It's late again and the ranger isn't around so we find a nice spot near the bathrooms and setup camp. No electricity for two nights, so I fired up the generator to get everything charged while we had some dinner.
Tomorrow we visit Mammoth Caves.
9 hours travel time for 248 miles.
Today started out as a simple and easy driving day. We packed up after a long night of rain in Greenbrier State Forest in West Virginia and headed to Grayson, Kentucky.
When we got to Grayson, KY we pulled into a local grocery store for some supplies. When we came back out, Carla noticed that the propane tank and battery case were pushing into the box of the trailer. We checked underneath and found that a frame member for the tongue of the trailer had broken. Carla commented that she thinks it has been like that for a while. The break had rust on it, likely from driving in the rain.
Murphy's Law with a Pedron twist plays its hand again.
We needed to find someone that could weld the frame. We went into a local AutoZone and asked if they knew anyone that could help us out. One of the guys suggested Hall Brothers Truck Repair.
I called the number for Hall Brothers, talked for a moment with the wife who gave me his cell number. I called the cell and told Tim Hall the situation. He said he was over at the KMart around the corner working on a big rig. Come on over and he could take a look at it.
We drove over to the KMart and found Tim. He introduced ourselves and he took a look at the trailer. He said he could fix it, but he had to finish working on the rig and that would take an hour or so. No problem!
While we waited for Tim the girls headed in and did some shopping at KMart. Time finished with the rig. He asked us to follow him out to his place where his welder was. A few minutes later we were at his shop.
He dragged out a jack and his partner Chris pulled out the MIG welder. He tacked the broken frame back together and then cut out steel plate to weld over it to hold it in place. Chris dawned his leather welding covers and crawled under the trailer to do the welding. A little spray paint to protect the frame and it was done.
While Chris was welding Tim showed us a motor home that he built out of an old car hauler big rig. He had a shop build the shell including the pop out, but he did all the inside work with the help of a cabinet maker. Beautiful rig!
We were on our way a few miles down the rode to Grayson Lake State Park. Oh yeah, he didn't charge us anything for the repair. Would not take our money!
So if you're ever in Grayson, KY and need some work done, look up Hall Brothers Truck Repair and give them some of your business!
Music of the day: J Geils Band, Moulin Rouge
Books completed: Mackensie finished Artemis Fowl, Josie finished Eclipse
9:30 travel time for 248 miles (including trailer repair).
Today we leave Williamsburg, VA and drive to West Virginia. We stopped along the way at Monticello.
Monticello is the home of Thomas Jefferson. He built Monticello when he was in his mid 20's and lived their until his death.
Our tour is about an hour after we arrive, so we take the time to have some lunch in the picnic area. After lunch, we ride the shuttle from the parking area to the top of the mountain.
The tour goes through all of the downstairs of the house. The upstairs is largely offices, so it's not really interesting (or restored). They have restored the house to near how Jefferson would have had the house. There is many famous works of art. Monticello itself is a work of art as Jefferson blended French ideas with his own needs of practicality. For example, his bed is in an alcove, but open on both sides with access to his bedroom and office.
After the tour is complete, the girls enjoyed trying their hand at quill pen writign. Then we walked underneath the house where all the work of the day was done, the ice house, the stables, the kitchen, the smoke house; all of these everyday areas where built underneath the house. This kept the view of the mountain pristine.
From Monticello we are back on the road to West Virginia. Driving through the mountains into West Virginia is beautiful. We stopped a few times to at some overlooks.
It's late fairly late when we arrived at Greenbrier State Forest. As we finish our dinner the weather is beginning to threaten. But Mackensie is determined to have some-mores. Before the rain starts in earnest, we all manage to get at least one some-more.
While we were by the fire, the lightening was lighting up the sky. Soon after, the rain started in earnest. It rained most of the night.
Tomorrow we are on our way to Kentucky.
Music of the day: Sam's Country Genre, Panic at the Disco, Cute is What We Aim For, Eagles, ELO
9 hours travel time for 237 miles
We spent today in Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg is a community that has been restored to the era before the signing of the declaration of independence. 70% of the buildings in the community are original.
We start by paying for our passes so that we can go into most of the buildings. We walked to the orientation area and start with an orientation walk along the lawn in front of the Govenor's Palace. The tour gave us some idea of what we should go see.
Next we went to the Geddy house. Geddy was a silversmith. Most all of the buildings in Williamsburg demonstrate some kind of trade. These tradesman are quite skilled and sell their services to the local gentry (the upper class).
Across the lawn from the Geddy house is the Wythe house. This is the home where Thomas Jefferson studied law. We didn't manage to tour this house.
From the Geddy House we toured a few more building including the Bindery. At this era of time, the printer and the binder seldom do work together. Most printing is for newspapers or pamphlets that don't require binding. Binding is very expensive so few people can afford to buy books. The bindery makes money by selling blank books to merchants for their record keeping.
Our timing is good as we were the last party to sign up for lunch at the Kings Arm Tavern. The food was very good and our waiter was wonderful. After lunch, he asked the kids in the room questions about American history of this period, For getting correct answers, the kids received Kings Arm Tavern pins.
After lunch we headed to the Capital building. This was a fascinating tour. A lot of our American history and event that led to American independence took place in this building. Thomas Jefferson was a Burgess (elected representative) for Virginia and would work with other Burgess to pass laws that triggered the start of the Revolutionary War. Three presidents were Burgesses for Virginia. The president of the first two Continental Congresses was from Virginia and probably would have been the president for the rest had he not died in 1775. I found the tour to be most educational and enlightening with respect to the history of the United States.
As we walked down the street from the Capital Building we visited several more merchant buildings, including another silversmith and a millenary.
We closed the day by visiting a few gift shops.
Williamsburg was a wonderful historical experience.
Tomorrow we will be leaving Virginia and heading to West Virginia.
