Breakfast at the Lake Izac Tavern

We didn't do much Monday except to drive around the resort and check out the different areas. We forgot to take our camera with us on our drive around the resort. The rest of the time we just relaxed and rested. I needed to work on our Fredericksburg photos and upload them to our photo album and catch up the blog, but I was lazy and didn't do it.

Tuesday morning we drove over to the Lodge and had breakfast at Lake Izac Tavern. Mike had The Manor House Breakfast with four buttermilk pancakes, sausage, breakfast potatoes and a mini muffin. I had The Shenandoah Breakfast with two scrambled eggs, bacon, breakfast potatoes, buttermilk biscuits covered with sausage gravy and a mini muffin. They didn't skimp on the portions and we were stuffed by the time we finished. Our bill including coffee came to $24.61 not including the tip.

We spent the rest of Tuesday at the RV and I went through on all of the photos that we took sightseeing in Fredericksburg and added them to our photo albums and updated our blog about our sightseeing in Fredericksburg.

Thunderstorms have been forecast for tonight and we have heard thunder and had some rain so far, but I think the worst of the weather is going around us.

Fort A P Hill to Shenandoah Crossing Resort

We got up at our usual time this morning, and after coffee and breakfast we started breaking camp. Since we only have 70 miles to drive today, we weren't in any big rush to leave this mornining. We left Champs Camp at 10:45 and headed south on US-301 to Bowling Green and then south on SR-207 to Ladysmith Road west to I-95 North.

We exited I-95 at Exit 118 and drove west on SR-606/208 and crossed over Lake Anna south of Lake Anna State Park.

From Fort A P Hill to Gordonsville

We drove through the town of Mineral that got it's name from the mining industry there. At one time there were 15 gold mines within a few miles of town.

We passed by this old Baptist Church that is now the Mineral Historical Foundation.

From Fort A P Hill to Gordonsville

In downtown Mineral we saw these 2 girls and their horses taking a break in the shade from the mid-day heat.

From Fort A P Hill to Gordonsville

We then drove through the small town of Louisa

From Fort A P Hill to Gordonsville

and took US-33 west to Forest Hill Road and drove south to Shenandoah Crossing Resort.
We stopped at the gate and was greeted by Christine who had our information packet waiting for us. We are using our Coast to Coast membership to stay here. Christine showed

Stonewall Jackson's Shrine and Fredericksburg Battlefield

After lunch we headed up to Fredericksburg to do some sightseeing. On the way we remembered to get a photo of this turtle crossing sign on Fort A P Hill. We've seen different types of crossing warnings, but this is the first one for turtles.

From Fredericksburg, VA

Before going up to Fredericksburg we had to stop at Safford RV to buy a couple of fluorescent bulbs and ended buying a few other items. On the way to Safford RV we saw a sign for Stonewall Jackson's Shrine and decided to stop there first.

From Fredericksburg, VA

On May 2, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville Stonewall Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own men and doctors amputated Jackson's left arm. Jackson was moved by ambulance to Guinea Station, a 27-mile trip, to evacuate him to Richmond. The rail lines had been cut

It's been hot here

We've spent the last few days here at the campground.  Wednesday wasn't so hot, just up to 87° for the high. Thursday was MUCH hotter - 97° with a heat index of 109°. Today our high was 95° - still hot, but we didn't have the 100+ heat index. It has been so hot that we haven't felt like getting out to do any sightseeing.

I've spent the last couple of days typing up the handwritten genealogical notes I've taken at the different libraries and evaluating and organizing them.

We drove into Bowling Green this evening to have dinner at Pizza Hut. It's been quite a while since we've eaten at a Pizza Hut and we weren't disappointed. We ordered a large Supreme Pan Pizza and the crust was so good, we could have eaten just the crust.

We got back to the campground just before it started to rain. Thunderstorms were forecast, but we only ended up having a light rain.

Tomorrow is our last day here, and we're going up to Fredericksburg to do some sightseeing.

Fletcher moved up to Washington D.C. this week. He had helped a friend move up there the first week of July and spent a week there. Fletcher really liked the area and decided to move up there. He's already submitted his resume to some doctor's offices in D.C. We'll be in Front Royal, VA next month and Fletcher says it's only about 70 miles to D.C. from there, so we're planning to make at least a day trip over to see him.

Shopping Trip to Fredericksburg

This morning I looked up a post office in Gordonsville, VA on the internet and Mike called them to confirm that they accept General Delivery mail. Then he called our mail forwarding service, American Home Base, and told them to send our mail to Gordonsville.

This afternoon after lunch we drove the 21 miles up to Fredericksburg to go to Costco and then to Walmart Supercenter for groceries we hadn't been able to get at the Food Lion in Colonial Beach. We also needed coffee for our Keurig coffee maker and we got that at Costco. Mike also saw that Costco had a Little Giant ladder reduced by $40 and since he had been wanting one, we got it.

It had been cloudy this afternoon and looked like it would rain any time soon and it started raining just as we were leaving Walmart Supercenter. We got back to the campground at 4:00 and it wasn't too much later before we had a pretty good rain and a little wind.

Fortunately the rain didn't last long and Mike was able to grill our steaks for dinner.

After dinner it was back to labeling photos and uploading them to our web albums and publishing our blog. I am so glad to finally have the blog and photo albums up-to-date and I updated our travel map with our current location.

Now that I'm caught up on the blog, I now can get back to working on my genealogy research. From what I found (or didn't find) in Northumberland and Westmoreland Counties on the Neales, it seems that they left that area in the mid-1700's. Now all I have to do, is find out where they were before they ended up in Clark County, Kentucky!

Champ's Camp RV Park

This morning after breakfast we drove over to the Outdoor Recreation office to register for the campground and pay for our week's stay here. The campground here gives discounts for the Senior Pass (used to be called Golden Age Pass), so we're paying $13 a night instead of $21. We also received the pass code for the RV Center and found out that they have a change machine there, so I can get quarters for the laundry. Since the machine only takes $1 and $5, we changed a $10 bill for 2 fives.

After paying for our campsite, we drove back to the campground and saw this deer family along the side of the road.

From Colonial Beach to Fort A P Hill

As soon as we got back to the RV, I gathered up our laundry (5 loads) and went to the RV Center.

From Colonial Beach to Fort A P Hill

There are 3 front load washers and 4 dryers at the laundry and they each cost $1.00. I had enough quarters for 3 washer loads and 1 dryer load, so I tried

Colonial Beach to Fort A P Hill

We got up at our usual time this morning and after breakfast started breaking camp. By the time we had broken camp and hitched up the car, it was a few minutes before 11:00. We left Harbor View RV Park and headed west on SR-3 to US-301.

From Colonial Beach to Fort A P Hill

We drove south on US-301 and crossed the Rappahannock River just north of Port Royal.

From Colonial Beach to Fort A P Hill

We arrived at the Main Gate into Fort A P Hill at 11:36 and after showing our military ID's to the gate guard, we drove on out to Champ's Camp RV Park. We drove a total of 30 miles today from Colonial Beach to the FamCamp.

From Colonial Beach to Fort A P Hill

We parked the RV in the campground and got out to walk around to look at the vacant campsite. We chose site #25 with 50 amp service. We unhitched

Westmoreland County Museum and James Monroe's Birthplace

Today was our last day at Colonial Beach and we still had a couple of places to visit before we leave. We left the RV this morning a little before 10:00 and drove the 14 miles down to Montross to go to the Westmoreland County Museum and Visitor Center.

From Westmoreland Co, VA Museums

Before going into the museum, we stopped to look at the Presidents' Garden next to the museum. The Presidents' Garden was established in 1941 and contains marble busts of James Monroe, George Washington and James Madison who were born in Westmoreland County. The marble busts were carved by Attillio Picciarilli, the same sculptor who carved the Lincoln Memorial.

From Westmoreland Co, VA Museums

We then walked up the steps and entered the museum. We were greeted by

Stratford Hall, birthplace of Robert E. Lee

Our next stop after leaving George Washington's Birthplace was 10 miles further down SR-3 to Stratford Hall where Robert E. Lee was born. We stopped at the gate house and paid $18 for 2 senior tickets to tour the house.

Since it was now almost 1:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch yet, we drove out to the Dining Room for lunch and got a glimpse of Stratford Hall from the road.

From Stratford Hall

From Stratford Hall

There are several cabins and 2 guest houses located near the Dining Room provide on-site lodging. The guest houses and cabins were built in the 1930s for the personal use of Stratford Hall’s Board of Directors during its semi-annual meetings.

From Stratford Hall

There was only 1 other couple in the dining room when we got there, so we had our choice of tables. After looking over the menu we settled on the

George Washington's Birthplace

We spent yesterday here at the campground and I worked on labeling our photos and updating our web albums and blog. Our Verizon 3G service is still slow and it takes a long time to get anything done. Hopefully at our next campground we'll have a stronger signal.

We left the campground this morning a little after 10:00 and drove the 7 miles down to George Washington's Birthplace National Monument.

From George Washington's Birthplace

This 50-foot tall Memorial Obelisk is our first sight as we approached the entrance to the National Monument. The Memorial Obelisk is carved from Vermont granite and is a one-tenth replica of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. 

From George Washington's Birthplace

We parked the car and walked over to the Visitor Center. We were just in time

Genealogy Research in Northumberland County

We left the campground this morning around 10:00 and drove 43 miles to Heathsville in Northumberland County to go to the Northumberland County Historical Society.

We passed by signs for George Washington’s Birthplace National Monument and Stratford Hall, the birthplace of Robert E. Lee – two places we plan to visit.

From Heathsville, VA

We arrived in Heathsville about 11:15 and located the Northumberland Historical Society. Since it was nearly lunchtime, we decided to have lunch first and we chose The County Seat restaurant that is behind the Northumberland County Courthouse. This courthouse was built in 1851 and is the third one in this location.

We stopped to take photos of the courthouse and the Confederate Monument.

From Heathsville, VA

We found a shady place to park the car and we walked over to

Campsite Photos

We realized that we hadn’t taken any photos of our campsite here at Harbor View, so Mike took some this evening.

From Colonial Beach

From Colonial Beach

I spent the better part of today at the activity room/laundry here at the campground uploading photos to our web albums and updating our blog. The Verizon internet signal at our campsite is really low (sometimes we lose the signal altogether) and to upload photos to our web album takes a long time - remember the "speed" of dial-up?

I did go back to the RV for lunch and a little break before going back up to the office building. I managed to get our blog and photos updated to through Sunday when we arrived here.

Fortunately I have Windows Live Writer installed on my laptop and I can write the narrative for our blog and save it until I can upload it later to our blog and then publish it. I also label our photos so they are ready to upload to our web albums and then I can insert some of them in our blog once I can get on-line.

Tomorrow we’re driving down to Heathsville in Northumberland County to the historical society there to research the Neales who lived there during the late 1600’s and early 1700’s.

Sightseeing around Colonial Beach

This morning I gathered up our laundry and drove up to the laundromat that is behind the campground office. There are 3 washers and 3 dryers there and they cost $2 a load. I had 5 loads of laundry today, so I brought my laptop with me since I was going to be there awhile.

The campground does have internet service through Tengo Internet and it costs $16.95 a week. I tried my Verizon phone and the signal was stronger there at the office than at our campsite. I used the folding table in the laundry for my desk and updated our location map to Colonial Beach. But I'm still a couple of days behind in my postings for the blog and our photo albums.

By the time the laundry was done, it was time to fix lunch. After lunch we drove north to the post office in Colonial Beach which is about 10 miles from the campground. We got to the post office at 1:45 and it was closed for lunch from 1:00 – 2:00. So we drove around looking at some of the homes in town and taking photos of some of them until it was 2:00.

From Colonial Beach

After buying our postcard stamps and mailing our postcards at the post office, we drove east towards the Potomac River. We passed by

Traveling from Richmond to Colonial Beach

We got up this morning at our regular time at 8:00 and after coffee and breakfast, began to break camp. We stopped at the dump station and emptied our holding tanks and hitched up the car. We left the campground a little before 11:00 and drove east to I-95 and then north on I-95 through Richmond.

We passed by the Phillip Morris USA

From Richmond to Colonial Beach

and the Virginia Holocaust Museum.

From Richmond to Colonial Beach

At I-95 exit 104 we exited onto SR-207 east and we were glad to be off of I-95 since the last 12 miles or so on I-95 had been very rough and bumpy. We continued on SR-207 until it connected with US-301 to Bowling Green, VA.

After passing through Bowling Green, we entered Fort A. P. Hill Military Reservation. We detoured off US-301 to go through the Fort A. P. Hill Main Gate to drive out to Champs Camp RV Park to look at it. We will be spending a week there after we leave Colonial Beach.

From Richmond to Colonial Beach

After driving through the campground, we headed back towards the Main Gate and found a

Museum of the Confederacy and Poe Museum

We left the campground this morning a little before 10:30 and drove up to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum. We parked the car in the small parking lot next to the museum.The Poe Museum is housed in the oldest house still standing in Richmond that was built in 1737. Edgar Allan Poe never owned any property and hadn't lived in this house.

From Poe Museum & Sightseeing in Richmond

We paid $5 each for our senior tickets and was given an information sheet about the museum for our self-guided tour. The museum contains personal belongings of Poe, letters, and manuscripts and other items about his life.

From Poe Museum & Sightseeing in Richmond

After leaving the Poe Museum we drove over to St. John's Episcopal Church that was the original location of the Second Virginia Convention of March 1775. Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington were among the 100 colonial leaders who met here. Patrick Henry's famous "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech was delivered on 23 March 1775 inside the church and the American Revolution started a month later at Lexington and Concord.

From Poe Museum & Sightseeing in Richmond

During the summer a re-enactment of Patrick Henry's speech is given at the church on Sundays, but we were traveling last Sunday and will be leaving here tomorrow morning. We didn't spend much time looking around the church

Virginia Historical Society and Library of Virginia

We spent Wednesday and Thursday here at the campground. We had taken so many photos Tuesday at the Virginia Aviation Museum and sightseeing around Richmond, that it took me until Wednesday morning to get the photos labeled and uploaded to our Picasa Web Albums. Then I was able to finish our blog post for Tuesday and publish it. I spent the rest of the time working on our Neale genealogy in preparation for our visit today to the Library of Virginia.

We left the campground this morning at 10:30 and drove up to the Virginia Historical Society's Museum. We found a parking place in back of the Historical Society and walked around to the front entrance.

From VA Historical Soc Museum & Richmond

We stopped to look at The War Horse sculpture that is a memorial to the 1½ million Confederate and Union Army horses and mules who died or were wounded in the Civil War.

From VA Historical Soc Museum & Richmond

We were greeted by one of the volunteers and she directed us to the room where the 100 year old Military Memorial Murals are being restored. Most of the room was roped off and there were 3 people up on scaffolds cleaning the murals and they were using Q-Tips to

Sightseeing around Richmond, VA

We left the campground this morning around 9:30 and drove north to visit the Virginia Aviation Museum at the Richmond International Airport.

From Virginia Aviation Museum

We paid for our senior tickets ($5.50 each) and started browsing around the museum. Our first stop was to view the WWII Dioramas and they were impressive. A lot of work had gone into making the diorama look realistic - like the "smoke" coming from this plane.

From Virginia Aviation Museum

Even though this is not the largest aviation museum we've been too, we were impressed with the planes on display here. As we walked around the museum,

Photos around base

Mike called the MWR office this morning and got directions to their office so we could pay for our week's stay here. The majority of the buildings on base are warehouses and military equipment overhaul shops. The MWR office is housed in one of the warehouse buildings along with the Fitness Center and Cafe.

After paying $140 for our week's stay at the campground, we talked with the MWR staff for a while about the facilities here and asked about the food at the Cafe. We were told we could use the Fitness Center and can use the showers there. So even though there aren't any showers at the campground, making a short drive to the Fitness Center isn't too bad.
After leaving the MWR office we drove around a bit and took photos of the air craft on display near the Main Gate

From Defense Supply Center Richmond

From Defense Supply Center Richmond

and drove by the Bellwood Club which is used for special events.

From Defense Supply Center Richmond

When the Army bought the Bellwood property in 1941 the sale included the elk herd here. We drove by the enclosure that is near the Bellwood Club, but didn't see any elk. According 

Virginia Beach to Richmond

We got up this morning at 7:00 and after a quick cup of coffee and breakfast, started to break camp. We left Ocean Pines RV Park at 9:30 and the temp was 89° with a heat index around 101°. We drove south on Harpers Road which is 2 lanes with a deep ditch close to the road (no shoulder).

From Drive to Richmond

We drove west to I-64 and then took US-460 towards Suffolk and then north on US-460. We passed through several small farming towns ( Zuni and Ivor were 2 of them) and peanut fields. We saw a historic marker for the first peanut crop grown in America near Waverly - I didn't see it in time to take a photo.

From Drive to Richmond

Just south of Petersburg we connected with I-95 north and stayed on it until we got to the Chippenham Parkway and took it west to the Strathmore Road exit. We drove south down to the north gate for Defense Supply Center and arrived just after 12:00. The guard checked

Flame of Hope Memorial

There were still a couple of places we needed to visit and take photos of while we're here at NAS Oceana. This morning we drove off base to visit the Flame of Hope Memorial on Oceana Blvd.

From NAS Oceana

The Flame of Hope Memorial is dedicated to the memory of Prisoners of War, Missing in Action and those killed in the service of their country.

From NAS Oceana

The Flame of Hope was dedicated in 1972. The flame was extinguished in 1973 and replaced with a bronze "flame", but in 1984 the flame was reignited.

From NAS Oceana

Near the entrance to the Flame of Hope Memorial Park is a historic marker

Aviation Historic Park

This morning I gathered up our laundry and Mike drove me up to the campground laundry. While I was doing laundry, Mike drove down to the Military Aviation Museum. When we had visited the museum last month, Mike had wanted to buy a Spitfire spinner lawn ornament

From Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach

that we saw by the museum's entrance but the gift shop was out of them. Mike called the gift shop this morning and they had gotten in more spinners, so he drove down to purchase one. Mike called me when he was leaving the museum and said that some of the museum's planes were being flown - too bad he didn't have the camera!

I took my laptop to the laundromat and worked on my genealogy while doing our laundry. The laundry is located in the same building as the campground office, so it is air conditioned. The washers and dryers cost $.75 each and work well.

Mike stopped at the gas station at the BX on his way back from the museum and got gas in the Vue ($3.189 a gal).

After lunch we drove on base to visit the Aviation Historic Park and look at

Hot, Hot & Gonna Get Hotter

It's been hot here (& everywhere else on the East Coast) the last few days and we've just stayed inside and enjoyed the air conditioning. Monday wasn't too bad with a high of 89°, but Tuesday's temp was 93° with a heat index of 98°.

Wednesday, July 4th, was a repeat of Tuesday's temps. We could hear the July 4th fireworks, but we were too far away to see anything. We spent our time working on our travel plans for the rest of July and into August and made campground reservations.

This afternoon I drove up to the Virginia Beach Central Library and to research Mike's Ashby ancestors who had lived in Princess Anne County during the 1700's. I did find some information on them, but it was basically the same information I already had.

Today is the hottest we've had so far - our high was 99° with a heat index of 111°.

Tomorrow we're going to go on base to the Aviation Historic Park where several Navy aircraft are on display. 

Fletcher's Visit

Friday afternoon we went to the Lynnhaven Mall to see the movie Prometheus in 3D at the IMAX theater. We went to the 12:25 showing and there were only 7 other people in the theater with us. We'd seen the previews for the movie and it looked like it would be really good and we weren't disappointed.

After the movie we walked around the mall a little bit and stopped at the Sleep Number Bed store and tried out a couple of their beds. We have a Sleep Number bed in the motor home and one day we'll be buying a house and plan on getting a Sleep Number bed for the house. We both liked the bed with the memory foam on top of the Sleep Number bed.

Saturday morning we stopped at the Post Office and picked up our mail at General Delivery. Then we went to Sam's Club and bought a foam mattress topper for our Sleep Number bed. We also went to Walmart Supercenter and Bed Bath & Beyond before going home.

Fletcher's helping a friend move from Ft. Lauderdale up to Washington D.C. and he called us on Thursday to say that they would be coming through Virginia Beach. They had planned