I just checked in with the mechanic and learned that one of the parts needed for the axle repair is discontinued, so they need to create a custom part (hence the cost of the repair). But they ‘should’ be done by tomorrow evening. He was busy with a state trooper, so I didn’t push the issue, but when I get home in a couple of hours (I’m at a Starbucks), I am going to grill him.
So now, best case scenario has me pulling out Wednesday morning for a cannonball run to Montreal. So unhappy.
I just got in from a visit with my friend. She has been sooooo ill this week. 🙁 But today she felt up to a short visit (and, most importantly, she was no longer contagious!). I treated her to a late lunch/early dinner at Cracker Barrel. We wound up having very little time together on this visit, but I’m grateful that we had some time. I am planning to spend the American Thanksgiving with her and her family. If those plans fall through, then we’ll know for sure we’re cursed.
My last Amazon package arrived yesterday, so I was able to pick that up. She also gave me fun present that is going into Miranda’s cab: bacon-scented air freshener. Isn’t she hilarious? There is a bit of an inside joke to that, with my being a new convert to bacon and her being a lifelong fan of the stuff.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow with the rig repairs. I’m going to pack the rig tonight since I’m sure Miranda will be ready for a road test by tomorrow afternoon (well, a captain can hope). I’m staying home in the morning until the mechanic comes so I can get a status update and ask that the tire pressure be checked.
Once Miranda comes back from the mechanic’s road test, I’d like to take her out myself and get fuel. The nearby dump station is closed, so heading that way is out of the question. I also need to look for propane, but I think that is going to happen en route.
If I can be underway first thing Tuesday, then my ETA in Quebec is noonish Thursday. I’ve got the route planned out and have done all of it before except the bit between Albany and the border. So I know that the first bit will be a little challenging while I get out of the Richmond/DC corridor, but once I get to I-81 (from route 17 at Fredericksburg to I-66 to I-81), it’ll be smooth sailing.
As the morning marched I, I could see that I was going to waste the day moping. I decided that I was in Petersburg and surely there had to be a Civil War battlefield or monument or something where I could go spend a few hours. I went on Trip Advisor to look up the area attractions and the first thing that came up made me giddy. In less than 20 minutes, I was on my way to the Pamplin Historical Park and The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier, site of the last big battle of the American Civil War, The Breakthrough.
This major battle of April 2nd, 1865, isn’t well known, but it was the death knell for the Confederate Army. The war ended just a week later with the surrender of Confederate soldiers, including General Lee.
The words to describe this incredible facility almost escape me. There is the museum, but also a plantation, a second museum about the Breakthrough battle, and finally there is a walk through the battlefield. I arrived at noon and the park closes at 5:00. I was the last guest off the property and got back so close to 5:00 that they were literally about to send a search party for me. And after five whole hours there, I didn’t see and do everything!
Regular admission to the facility is $12. This includes an audio tour of the entire facility. This gadget is what made the visit so memorable and ensured I spent as much time there as I did. Photography is only allowed outside, not in the two museums.
The first thing to do is tour The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier. You are asked to pick a soldier out of a group and the tour will be personalized with his perspective. I was amused that my randomly selected ‘comrade’, Sergeant Peter Welsh, was originally from Canada! His letters were read by an interpreter, adding a personal touch to the exhibits.
This museum was really, really well done, with lots of artifacts and the audio track being a combination of narration and reading of period documents. One exhibit had three men playing poker and the audio track was of their conversation, a clever way to show the drudgery of daily life in camp.
My favourite exhibit in this museum was one that is optional because it is so intense. You are sent into a battlefield. I shut my eyes for most of it and was completely transported. The ground shakes and bursts of air brush by you, simulating a volley of bullets. By the end of it, I actually ducked and cowered when a shell went off right beside me!
After this museum, I headed outside to tour the Tudor Plantation, a fairly typical tobacco plantation that was occupied by the army. You can tour the house itself, restored to period looks, the kitchen, the tobacco barn, the kitchen garden, and the slave quarters. The slave quarters have a really good movie showing the perspective of six (fictional) people from the 1850s who share their ideas about slavery.
By the time I was doing with the plantation, I had already been on site for three hours! I ate my picnic lunch (bring food!) then continued to the Battlefield Center. On the way there, you can see a reproduction of the trenches used to fight in the area, the sight of which will remind you of World War One.
There are just a couple of exhibits at the Battlefield Center as well as a few movies. It was 3:30 by the time I was done with the exhibits and I had to make the choice between watching a movie or walking through the battlefield. I decided that I wanted to spend some time outdoors.
Before getting to the battlefield, you have to cross a military winter camp. I was disappointed that I’d missed the period reinactors, but they finish for the day around 3:00.
I decided to do the big loop through the battlefield, including the detour to see the Hart farm and the site of a modern camp where people can go recreate the days of the Civil War. But I was too short on time to do the Heartland Trail.
It was amazing to see the Civil War-era ‘works’, the dirt berms built as fortifications. I found it very difficult to believe that at that time, there was nothing in the area but barren ground and mud. While the area is filled with trees today, there was no place to hide except behind the berms during the Civil War.
I had an amazing day at Pamplin Historical Park and am almost grateful that the circumstances have been such lately to have brought me to this memorable facility. I would have really missed out on something special had I been on schedule today.
The pictures below have more information.
map of this impressive facility (it’s HUGE)
walking out of the first museum towards the plantation
that’s the tobacco barn, where the tobacco leaves were cured over a fire
first glimpse of Tudor house
the tobacco barn
the tobacco barn
Tudor house, a fairly typical plantation house
lambs
inside the laundry/kitchen building; house slaves slept upstairs
the stairs from hell
the kitchen (in an outbuilding to keep heat and odors out of the main house)
family cemetery
the laundry/kitchen outbuilding
Tudor house (home of the Boisseau family, pronounced not Bwa-so but Bo-saw)
Tudor house
the outbuildings
work shed
the parlour as it might have looked under army occupation
a box that once held breakfast cocoa
interesting wallpaper
I liked the wallpaper in this less formal parlour/dining room
staircase to the second level
Love this bed, but imagine the dust!
dressing table
closeup of 19th century toothbrush
the trim was a bright aqua colour
a bedroom imagined as an officer’s quarters
a bedroom imagined as an officer’s quarters
the children’s bedroom as barracks
the children’s bedroom as barracks
the kitchen garden
herbs
onions
I was leaving this area when the audio invited me to in and see what was growing. Here, it’s radishes and onions.
cayenne peppers!
these cabbage are coming up nicely
the watermelons are starting
a ball and chain serve as a reminder to keep the gate shut
the lambs liked the shade provided by the fense
heading to the slave quarters
approximate walking times to the various areas (very generous; I must be a fast walker)
the field slave quarters weren’t as luxurious as those of the house slaves
approaching the slave quarters
an interesting lock; if you try to open the door, the chain goes through the whole until it gets blocked by the padlock
this rooster was very chatty
entrance to the museum about slavery
the movied showed the perspective of a wealthy slave owner, an abolitionist minister, a freed slave, a slave cook, a farmer, and yeoman (all but the rich lady felt slavery was wrong, but the white except for the minister felt that blacks are inferior and should be segregated)
inside slave quarters
inside slave quarters
children slept up in the rafters
slaves ate what their masters provided and what they could forage
field slaves had one set of clothes for the year while house slaves had new clothes more often
day pass for a slave to serve at a wedding
the end of the American Civil War started here
the end of the American Civil War started here
walking towards the Battlefield Center
trench
the Battlefield Center was built to look like the pointy wooden structures (not the fence in the foreground) called ‘abatis’, the Civil War equivalent of barbed wire
canon
looking towards the winter camp
the Battlefield Center
walking towards the winter camp
winter camp quarters were given funny names
map of the Breakthrough Trail
the site of the battle is now a National Historic Landmark
these berms were built by Civil War soldiers
these berms were built by Civil War soldiers
map of the trail including the optional detour to the Hart farm
these berms were built by Civil War soldiers
the Hart farm
site of a camp where recreationists can live the days of the Civil War
the Hart farm (the area around it was occupied by soldiers, but not the house itself, inhabited by a widow who hid in the cellar when there was shelling)
the Hart house is a gothic cottage complete with gingerbread
it’s really rather lovely!
description of the army camp set up in the Hart orchard
another view of the modern camp for recreationists
canon
starting on the main loop path
this small ravine was the setting for the events that gave the Union the edge it needed to win the war
part of the strategy involved the building of a dam; you can see a break in it here
the battle came to a head here
the neat little audio gadget; when you got to a placard with a number on it, you could enter the number and get a few minutes of audio about the area
looking up a berm at a canon (really)
can you see the canon now?
many minutes later, I’m up the berm by the canon
the Breakthrough Battle was fought on April 2nd, 1865 (entrance to the Battlefield Center)
I took these shots of the motorhome axle repair when I got in last night:
I’m having a sloooooooooow morning. It’s 10. I was awake around 7 and spent a full two hours cuddling with Bitha and Nee in bed. I don’t know what I’d do if I did have them with me at times like these. They can really sense my mood and go into protective mode.
I’m still irked that the motorhome isn’t level, but I was able to make breakfast, so I feel better knowing that I can cook. Sitting at the desk isn’t really an option, but I’m comfortable propped up on the bed in the back. I have a couple of projects that I can do on the computer without having my full office set up, so I may just do that today unless I suddenly get an urge to go do something. Right now, I’m very content being at home in my jammies, drinking the best cup of coffee I’ve had in a week (better than Starbucks!), listening to Neeboo purr.
I found a dump station about 14 miles south of here, so I will be going out this weekend to scout it. If it’s open, it’ll be the perfect place to take Miranda for a test drive. I’ll be really glad to get some water in the onboard tank since I ran out the day after the accident.
I can’t believe it’s May 12th. At this time today, I was supposed to be in Maryland or even Delaware, heading north.
I got home at 8 and Miranda was still on a tilt. 🙁 The way everything was left gives me the impression that they might do some work on her tomorrow after all. The welder did come. I took a picture, but I forgot to grab the camera and getting to it right now feels like too much work. The thought of going to a hotel this weekend is depressing beyond measure.
Open letter to the moron who rear ended me:
I AM ANGRY AT YOU MR. BEAN FROM OHIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It wasn’t enough that you destroyed my car and damaged my motorhome. No, your recklessness has forced me out of my home. I’m not being compensated for the fact that I haven’t been able to cook at home in days or that my home is in shambles and barely usable because of the car stuff being stored in it. I’m so tired of having that bicycle in my living room! I have to move it to access the inverter then move it again to access the loft and then move it again to get to the stove… I’m also not being compensated for the lack of sleep and the stress you put me through.
There was no reason for this to happen. You made a CHOICE to tailgate me and so you CHOSE to turn someone’s life to chaos. I hope that your insurance premiums go through the roof!!!!!