Today we got to slow down just a bit, but Marilyn is keeping us hopping. While they went to church, Joe and I did a couple of errands -- haircut for me, shopping for new camera bag at Target and Walmart. We got home in time to watch most of the Cardinal's excellent football win, so that was a little rest, but then it was time to go off to the church picnic. That was fun -- they roasted a pig, so there was barbeque pig and chicken, hot dogs, sauerkraut, baked beans, potato salad, etc., and a whole wall of desserts. Sarah and Jimmy were there with their family, so we got to watch the little girls run around, they are so funny. And we finished the evening watching a little more football.
I finally remembered to take some pictures of our camping location here at the Stuckey's. We've made a couple of suggestions for improvements -- like leveling out the driveway, but otherwise this is a first-class place to stay. We are treated like royalty, and we are having such a good time Joe is thinking about building a permanent camping spot here. It's like a first class bed and breakfast -- we bring our own bed, but Marilyn feeds us breakfast (and dinner). And we get to see deer in the backyard about every day.
Monday was a trip to Appomattox, the historical location of General Lee's surrender to end the Civil War on April 9, 1865, just 6 days before Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 15, 1865. It was raining when we woke up and we tried to wait that out, but finally gave up and just headed over. I took advantage of their hospitality and began doing our laundry, so I got that all caught up today.
Appomattox is about 30 miles away and we hoped the rain would stop by the time we got there, and it did slow down to a sprinkle while we were there, but got heavy again on the way home. They desperately need the rain, so we didn't complain too much. Although I am now getting a cold, but I think that started a couple days earlier.
So we arrived at the Appomattox Court House and toured it, then went over on the porch of the Clover Hill Tavern and listened to a Living History guide tell what it was like after the war. He was very dramatic, very good, and it was good to be reminded of this historical time. He was in period costume, as were two soldiers who came up on the porch after the "tour" was over.
They had a copy of the Terms of Surrender as an exhibit, and set up in one of the rooms were printing presses to print off the paroles for all of the Confederate soldiers.
Although we began our tour at the Courthouse, the actual signing event took place at the McLean House.
Our tour of this House included an outside "warming kitchen" (no picture) and some slave quarters.
The village here had a population of about 150 people at that time. When all the soldiers converged on this area in those battles, the population numbered about 100,000.
We grabbed some lunch/dinner in town before heading back to the Stuckeys. It rained all the way home. Marilyn had been making some phone calls to the "cousins" so I had more Family Tree work to do on the computer. We've put in a lot of hours on this effort in the last week, but we still have a few blanks to fill in. But it's sort of a passion for both of us, so it was time well spent. Then we watched Monday Night Football until we couldn't stay awake any longer (Marilyn and Julie watched Dancing with the Stars). Another full day, and now I have a cold so I'm a bit under the weather. We plan to leave tomorrow, but we've had such a good time here that it is hard to pull out. However, Mike McRae calls about every day wanting to know if we've left yet (we are heading to his house next), so I guess it's time to get back on the road.
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