Williamsburg & Jamestowne

Hailey gets her "colonial on"!
Williamsburg and Jamestown will be our last "official" stop on our great adventure.  From here we go on back to Panama City to retrieve our household goods and move to the farm we have recently purchased.  We can hardly believe we've been gone for a year!

The UAV parked on Navy Weapons Station Yorktown, Cheatham Annex.  You can read more about this place here:  Cheatham_Annex

Our second tire problem of the trip!  The tire on the opposite side of the motor home that went flat in Roswell, NM was the culprit this time!  These tires ain't cheap!  

I had the honor of having dinner with a retired comrade of mine, Colonel Mark "Oscar" Maier.  We go way back to the days of Captain and Major.  A true friend and patriot!  

The gals in front of Colonial Williamsburg Royal Governor's house.  The Governor's Palace was the home of five Royal Lt. Governors, two Royal Governors, and the first two Governor's of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.  An act by Virginia's General Assembly in 1706 authorized the construction of a residence in Williamsburg for the Governor.  The Palace, completed in 1722, was destroyed by a fire in 1781, while it was being used as a hospital for Americans wounded at the battle of Yorktown.  The Palace was reconstructed on its original foundations and is furnished to represent the home of the last British Royal Governor of Virginia, Hohn Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore and his family. You can read all about it here: Governor's Palace

Hailey takes in the sights and sounds of the Governor's kitchen.  Here they make and display foods in the traditional fashion that would have been served in the Governor's house. Read about food here: Colonial Foodways

George Washington was a regular in Williamsburg, where he was a member of the House of Burgesses.  And lo and behold who do we run into on the streets of Williamsburg?  Colonel George Washington himself....Huzzah!  You can read about our First President and his Williamsburg connection here: George Washington

Okay, I have to admit I had no idea what a Millinery was!  Well, it turns out that it is right up Hailey's alley.  It's akin to a tailor's shop and dress maker.  You can read about it more here: Millinery

Outside the courthouse, Hailey serves out her sentence!

Stacey poses in front a wall of British Brown Bess flintlock muskets, which was the M-16 of it's day.  This picture was taken in the reconstructed town "Magazine". It was built in 1715 and was colonial Virginia's storehouse for guns, ammunition and military supplies.  On the night of April 20-21, 1775 British Governor Dunmore removed gunpowder belonging to the Colony, which touched off the Revolution in Virginia before news of the Battle of Lexington reached Williamsburg.  You can read more about it here: The Magazine

Hailey checks out the local silversmith shop.  You can read more about it here: Silversmith

Heidi in front of the town coffee house with the Colonial Virginia Capitol building in the background.  You can read about the Capitol here: Colonial Virginia Capitol 
Below you can watch a night Fife & Drum demonstration along with the lighting of torches and lamps in Williamsburg.  Very cool.  You can read more about the Fife and Drum here: Fife & Drum

The Capitol illuminated from the torches the Fife and Drum Corps had lit earlier.

On May 14th, 1607, a short distance from where this picture was taken, a group of 104 English colonists disembarked from three small sailing ships to establish the first permanent English settlement in North America.  This settlement, called Jamestown, is where the United States of America really began.  King James I granted a charter in April 1606 to the Virginia Company for exploration, trade, and settlement in Virginia, an area of North America that today stretches from Maine to North Carolina.  Headquarters in London, the Virginia Co. consisted of gentlemen, nobles and merchants who hoped the colony would provide financial gain for them as well as for England.  The  company planned, funded, and recruited for the colonizing effort.  Substantial information on North America had been amassed in planning the venture, yet much remained unknown.  Knowledge of Canada, Florida, New England and the Carolinas was available from earlier French, Spanish and English explorations.  But little was known about the target area for settlement - the Chesapeake Bay.  The initial settlement was by necessity, exploratory. The founding of Jamestown sparked a series of cultural encounters that helped shape our nation and the world. 

Hailey stands next to across erected on the original Jamestown location.  The inscription reads:

To the glory of God and in grateful memory of those early settlers, the founders of this Nation, who died at Jamestown during the first perilous years of the colony.

Their bodies lie along the ridge beyond this cross, in the earliest known burial ground of the English in America.

Hailey holds hands with the statue of Pocahontas, the favorite daughter of Powhatan, Chief of the Powhatan Paramount tribe.   She was born around 1595, about 15 miles from Jamestown.  In 1608, she made frequent and welcome visits to Jamestown, often bringing gifts of food from her father.
Capt. Jon Smith believed she saved his life twice during the colony's first years.  In April 1613, Capt. Argall kidnapped her and brought her to Jamestown.  While a hostage, she received lessons in Christianity, converted, and was baptized.  Her marriage to John Rolfe in April 1614 helped establish peaceful relations between Powhatan and the colonists.  In 1616, she visited England with Rolfe and their infant son and was presented to the Royal Court.  She died on March 21, 1617 and was buried in St George's Church in Gravesend,England. 

We learned that glass making is the oldest trade craft in America, making it's start here in Jamestown. 

The girls take in a glass blowing demonstration next to the original glass house site.  We learned that glass is 60 percent sand; 15 percent soda ash; 15 percent pot ash; and 10 percent lime. 

We had seen demonstrations of flintlock muskets, but this was the first time we saw a demonstration fire of a matchlock musket.  You can read about the matchlock musket here: Matchlock

We check out what the well equipped Jamestown colonist might have in the armory. 

Hailey checks out leather working. 

And she tries out her hand at fetching water! 

Hailey shows off the bounty of the colonial garden!

We take a tour of the reconstructed Susan Constant.  She was the flagship and largest of the three ships that brought the first permanent English settlers to America in 1607.  While anchored in the River Thames near Limehouse, it was involved in a minor collision with another vessel, which led to a case in the High Court of Admiralty.  The resulting court records were used to assist in determining the size of this re-created ship.  The original was probably built in 1605 and almost certainly built on the River Thames near London.  Soon after the Jamestown colony was planted, the Susan Constant returned to England, continuing its career as an ordinary trading vessel. 

Heidi, our traveling Christian Apologist, debates Truth with a crew member on board the Susan Constant.  Well, done Heidi!

Hailey strikes the salty sailor pose with one of the Susan Constant crew members!  Ahoy, their Hailey!

Wow!  Check out our map!  We can't believe it!  By the time we get back to Panama City we will have visited 35 states and logged almost 13,000 miles...just in the motorhome....not including mileage on our towed vehicle!  We are so grateful for the blessing of the opportunity to do this as a family.  We are now ready to plant ourselves on our "new to us" 30 acre farm!  I may start a blog about that, I'm not sure yet.  Thanks for taking this "virtual" journey with us.  We really wish we could convey the vastness of this great country to you and the awesome diversity of it's people and topography.  I have been to many parts of the world...many not so nice....and I am here to tell you....America is the most incredible place on Earth.  Get out and see the back roads for yourself!  But never forget we are not meant solely for this place or this life.  God made us for eternal life and he made it simple for us all...accept His Son Jesus Christ and his sacrifice so that you may be in communion with the perfect God...the creator of Heaven and Earth.  I wish that each of you would earnestly seek Him and accept this unconditional gift.  Don't get hung up on all of us Christian's failings...for we are human too.  Seek Jesus for He will never fail you or forsake you...forever.  God Bless!