Appomattox & the Museum of the Confederacy

By the time we left Appomattox Court House National Historical Park it was 12:40 and we decided to eat lunch before visiting the Appomattox Museum of the Confederacy. We drove down to Wendy's and had our usual Wendy's lunch - Baconator meal. We took the time to write out the postcards we had bought at Appomattox Court House.

We then drove back to the Museum of the Confederacy. When we were in Richmond we visited the Museum of the Confederacy there and the White House of the Confederacy. The Museum of the Confederacy here at Appomattox just opened in March of this year.

From Museum of the Confederacy & Appomattox

We entered the museum and with our discount for retired military paid $8 for each ticket. We saw the uniform and sword that General Lee wore when he met with General Grant to discuss the terms of surrender.

From Museum of the Confederacy & Appomattox

From Museum of the Confederacy & Appomattox

We saw items belonging to the soldiers who were at

Appomattox Court House

This morning we drove 25 miles up to Appomattox Court House. We had visited Appomattox Court House about 20 years when we rode up here on the Harley. We arrived at the entrance to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park at 10:45.

From Appomattox Court House

Our first stop was at the site of General Grant's Headquarters that was on this little rise.

From Appomattox Court House

A little farther on we saw the Confederate Cemetery where 18 Confederate soldiers are buried who died in the battle here on April 8 and April 9, 1865. Many years later the remains of a Union soldier were discovered and he is buried in the Confederate Cemetery with an American flag by his gravestone (American flag isn't visible in our photo).

From Appomattox Court House

We drove on to the Appomattox Court House, parked our car and then

A Quiet Labor Day Weekend

We had more RVs arrive here at the campground yesterday. Mike drove up to the dumpsters by Loop A yesterday afternoon and said it was about 40% occupied. We're in Loop B and it's about 90% occupied.

The water pressure here is about 35 psi and we use our onboard water when we take a shower or when I wash dishes so we have decent water pressure. Matter of fact, we've had low water pressure at most of the campgrounds we've stayed at here in Virginia.

Yesterday afternoon around 4:00 we started experiencing low voltage. Our Energy Management system would cut off the power to the RV so our electrical systems wouldn't be damaged by the low voltage. This lasted for about 3 hours and then by 8:00 the voltage was back up and we didn't have any more problems during the night.

We spent Saturday and today here at the RV just relaxing. We did drive into Rustburg this afternoon to do some shopping at the Food Lion there and to mail the postcards we bought at Patrick Henry's House. We took Tinker with us to Rustburg and he and Mike stayed out in the car while I went shopping.

When we left Rustburg and were driving back east to the campground, we saw a large dark cloud in the direction of the campground. It started sprinkling just as we parked the car at our campsite. We had just unloaded the groceries and Mike had walked Tinker when it really started to rain.

We had a good rain this afternoon and it washed the road dust off of the car. Our campsite is on the corner of 2 roads in the campground, so the car gets a lot of dust from the golf cart and vehicle traffic.

By 4:00 the rain was over and the sun was out. We didn't have any problems tonight with low voltage like we did yesterday. Several RVs left our loop today so that may have helped with the electricity usage.

It started raining while I was writing this, but it isn't as heavy a rain as we had this afternoon. It'll still wash some of the dust off of the car and motor home.

We're planning on driving over to Appomattox Court House tomorrow. We visited there about 20 years ago and we're looking forward to seeing it again.

Patrick Henry's Home, Red Hill & Lunch in Brookneal

This morning we drove 19 miles south through the town of Brookneal to go to Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial. We drove east on Patrick Henry Road and saw a sign directing us onto Red Hill Road.

From Red Hill & Patrick Henry

A little further on we saw another sign for Red Hill

From Red Hill & Patrick Henry

and kept driving on the narrow 2-lane Red Hill Road.

From Red Hill & Patrick Henry

We passed by the Patrick Henry Boys & Girls Homes.

From Red Hill & Patrick Henry

We arrived at Red Hill at 11:00 and parked the car. We saw signs for the Quarter Place Trailhead and walked down it to the reconstructed log cabin.

From Red Hill & Patrick Henry

The Quarter Place Trail continues on further to some cabin foundations, a tobacco curing barn and an African-American cemetery. It was already getting hot and we just went as far as the log cabin and then walked over to

Doing Laundry in Rustburg & Satellite TV, Finally

This morning after breakfast I gathered up our laundry and Mike put it in the car for me. The Goose Point Park Corps of Engineers campground where we were before coming to Lynchburg Preserve didn't have a laundromat, so now I have several loads of laundry to do.

When we were driving around here at Lynchburg Preserve trying to decide on a campsite, we stopped by the laundry here to see what was available. There are 2 washers ($1.50 a load) and 3 dryers, except 1 of the dryers was out of order. There are over 200 campsites here and that just doesn't seem like an adequate laundry.

Yesterday when we drove through Rustburg I saw a laundromat by the Post Office, but we didn't stop to check it out. So my decision this morning was whether to spend HOURS at the campground laundry or go into Rustburg and get it all done at once. Well, Rustburg won out and I drove the 6 miles into town.

There was no one at the Rustburg laundry when I got there. I unloaded my laundry and ended up using 3 regular washers ($2.50 a load) and 1 triple load washer ($4.25 a load). There was a change machine in the laundry and I was able to get more quarters to use in the dryers. I got 8 minutes for each quarter in the dryers and they only took $1 to dry each load - even our heavy bath towels. It ended up costing me more to do laundry in town, but I got it done in a third of the time it would have taken at the campground laundry.

Mike and I had swapped cell phones before I left, so he could use mine to wifi while I was gone. Wouldn't you know it - the local Dish Network technician called Mike's cell while I was at the laundry. I gave him my cell phone number and he called Mike. Anyway, he told Mike what to do and said that our receiver is working (we thought maybe the receiver had gone bad).

This afternoon after it had cooled down a little, Mike put the Dish 500 antenna back out and we were finally able to get a strong enough signal that we now have satellite TV.

Shopping in Lynchburg

We've been spending so much time trying to get satellite TV reception that we hadn't taken a photo of our campsite. Mike took one this evening and I don't want to forget to put it in, so here it is.

From Lynchburg Preserve

This morning I located a local Dish Network provider (Satellite Headquarters in Lynchburg)and Mike called hoping to talk with a technician about our problems tuning in a signal. We've used the satellite signal meter we bought at Camping World and are picking up a good sat signal, but can't tune it in on the receiver. Anyway the technician was out of the office and the lady in the office said she would give him our name and number and he would call us when he got back in to the office.

Later this morning we drove the 15 miles up to Lynchburg to do some

Goose Point Park to Lynchburg Preserve

We got up this morning around 8:00 and after breakfast began breaking camp. It didn't take quite as long since we didn't drive down to the dump station to dump our holding tanks. We stopped just outside of the exit gate to hitch up the car. I handed in our campground pass to the ranger on duty at the gate and he told me that they only had 3 tent sites that hadn't been reserved for the Labor Day weekend.

We left Goose Point Park just before 11:00 and headed south on Goose Point Road.

From Goose Point Park to Gladys, VA

We stopped to take a photo of the sign for Goose Point Park since it was too dark when we arrived to get a photo of it then.

From Goose Point Park to Gladys, VA

We then drove east on SR-57 and drove through the town of Bassett where