9/3/15 - Blackstone, VA

We moved today to a site a little southwest of Richmond.  We are at a campground within Fort Pickett.  This was an Army base until 1995 and is now a Virginia  Army National Guard Reservation.  We have full hookups for $11.00 per night.  We went to Walmart today after setting up and then did absolutely nothing.

9/4/15 - Blackstone, VA

After breakfast this morning we drove into Richmond.  We went on a tour of the White House of the Confederacy where Jefferson Davis and his family lived during the Civil War.  No pictures were allowed inside the house.  Then we went to the Museum of the Confederacy next door.  We walked over to the Virginia State Capitol.  The building dates back to the 1790s and the design was conceived by Thomas Jefferson.  It was recently renovated and expanded and they did a beautiful job.  There is a famous life size statue of George Washington in the rotunda.  The state government of Virginia is the oldest legislative body in the western hemisphere -- it dates back to 1619.  

After touring the capitol we went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  They had one of the Faberge Easter eggs made for Czar Nicholas of Russia.  Next door to it was the Confederate Memorial Chapel -- it had some pretty stained glass windows.  Then we drove to Hollywood Cemetery.  We had 20 minutes to find three graves in this large cemetery before it closed and we managed to do it without a map of the graves.  The first stop was at Jefferson Davis’ grave and then we stopped at James Monroe's and John Tyler’s graves.  Near the cemetery was Triple Crossing Brewery so we went there and had a beer.  On the way back to the Casita there was Extra Billy’s BBQ and Brewery, so we stopped there and had a beer also.  We got back to camp at 10 pm and I fixed a quick supper.  We finally went to bed around midnight.

 

9/5/15 - Blackstone, VA

We didn’t do much of anything again today.  We drove around part of the base property to look at buildings and equipment and then we went to town.  Jim needed a hair cut really bad.  The barber shop he wanted to go to was closed so he went to the only other one in town.  This was a salon with a lady barber.  She cut his hair really good but he paid over twice the amount he pays for a haircut in Houston…it cost $13.00.  Then we walked around Main Street and I got a new battery put in my watch.  I have been wearing a purple plastic water resistant watch I got from Walmart.  We walked through an antique store and went to a hardware store and a Family Dollar.  We got gas and went to Goodwill.  I bought a Halloween costume for $6.00.  We tried to see the historic Schwartz Tavern that should have been open according to the sign out front but it wasn’t.  We went back to the Casita, sat outside and played Phase 10, and had a beer. Then later we went to eat Mexican food for supper.  At night Jim watched UT lose their football game with Notre Dame 3-38.

9/6/15 - Blackstone, VA

We drove to Booker T. Washington National Historic Site today.   This is where Booker T. was born and freed.  He was a slave on a small tobacco plantation. There is a reconstruction of the home he lived in with his mother.  She was the cook for her owners. After emancipation he went on to educate himself and he became the first leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.  He was also an author, orator, and adviser to presidents on African American affairs.  After leaving here we stopped by Apocalypse Brewing for a beer.  Then we went on to Appomattox Court House National Historic Park.  This is where Lee surrendered to Grant, bringing an end to the Civil War.  We watched a film and went in several of the old buildings there.  One of them was the McLean House where Lee surrendered to Grant.  The Visitor Center museum had many artifacts, including the desk on which the surrender was signed.

9/7/15 - Beaver, WV

Today we went to West Virginia. On the Way we stopped at Devil’s Backbone Outpost Brewing in Lexington, Virginia.  We needed to spend the night in the Casita in West Virginia and we will have slept in 49 states in it.  We set up camp at Little Beaver State Park.

9/8/15 - Beaver, WV

This morning I called my doctor to set up an appointment when we return home.  Jim also needed to have him renew some medications.  Then we drove to Sandstone Visitor Center for New River National River, Gauley River National Recreation Area, and Bluestone National Scenic River.  After watching a movie we drove to Sandstone Falls and Brook Falls overlooks.  Near here was a statue of John Henry, the legendary "steel driving man" of folk song fame.  It was next to the Great Bend Tunnel of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.  Steel driving was driving steel bits into rock with a sledge hammer to make holes for dynamite when constructing tunnels.  John Henry supposedly won a race against a steam hammer, only to die afterward when his heart gave out due to stress.   

Then we drove to Grandview Overlook to see the New River Gorge.  Jim had to go to Walmart to pick up his medicine.  When we got back to camp we washed a couple of loads of clothes.  The man in the trailer next to us came over with his dog.  As we were talking a baby squirrel came up and jumped on the dog.  The dog was scared to death.  The crazy little squirrel stayed around camp for quite a while.  He climbed on us and everything around.  I took him back to the woods a few times and he always returned.  Finally I took him far enough away that he didn’t come back.

 

9/9/15 - Chuckey, TN

The squirrel came back again this morning.  We got things together and then drove to Greeneville, Tennessee to Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.  Andrew Johnson became president after Lincoln was assassinated.  He was unpopular with congress and was impeached by the House of Representatives and was almost impeached by the Senate.  Greeneville was his home and is the town he returned to after his presidency.  There is a replica of the house he was born in, the original building where he had a tailor shop, the house where he lived while he was a tailor, and the house he owned during and after his presidency.  We had a private tour of the latter house and then we drove to the nearby cemetery and saw his grave.  We found a Passport America RV park nearby and drove there.  Just before we got to the park it started raining hard.  We waited inside the Casita until the rain let up some before we could connect to the campground's hookups.