Carl's Blog

As I start the blog post its June 17th a little before 3:45 PM EST. I’m in my room enjoying the A/C and getting ready to watch the England vs Croatia.

Let me get my fit check out of the way. This time it is at the first site of the day, Yorktown Battlefield.

The Yorktown battle ground / fort is part of the National Park system so if you have your Annual Park pass you are good, if not there are QR codes in the parking lot so you can purchase your access. Inside the main building you will find staff that can help you purchase a pass and give you the run down of the site. There is a nice museum with a movie and a ranger talk. In the museum you will walking exhibits that explain the reasons leading up to the War for Independence and the roll the Battle of Yorktown played.

The main focus of the museum is on the Revolutionary War; however, there are some exhibits about the Civil War, because Yorktown did play a part in that war.

I tried to get a picture of the actual tent used by George Washington for the battle but the lighting is very dim and the glass is too reflective. You can clearly see holes in the material and rust stains from when it was stored. I found it fascinating that something that ephemeral is still around 250+ years later.

There is a picture of George Washington that seems to be full size so I had to get a picture standing next to it.

Across the room is a to scale partial replica of a British warship that you can enter and walk through. Be ready to duck down, unless you are short. Inside you will find some cannons that were salvaged from the waters off the coast and replica hammocks. Walking through you get a good idea of the cramped life of a British Navy sailor.

This cannon is said to be from the battle because one of the French Generals at the fight recognized it years later from the damage it took from a hit by a cannon ball.

Outside of the museum the fort is currently not accessible because they are working the it. To be honest it is mostly just dirt embankments since most of the walls were built out of wood. You can download an audio tour and follow the map to drive to the various locations of the battle. I started to do this, but it was a bit too much to drive, spot the markers and locate the parking locations to walk up to basically a plaque that talks about the location. If I had a navigator I would have followed it better, but some of the tour is on regular the regular highway that goes through the battlefield. The only monument I took time to visit was the monolith erected to memorialize the victory.

Now you could stay parked in the parking lot at the National Park museum and use the free trolly that will take you to the waterfront in Yorktown.

Or you could do like I did and drive to Yorktown and make use of the various parking lots.

Parking near the water front was hard to find because there are beaches along the walkway and the weather today was very nice so the beaches were very popular.

I opted to park near the historical main street of Yorktown and walk down to the waterfront.

Now, I realize I’m writing my story out of order, because I went to the Yorktown Museum after leaving the Yorktown Battlefield but does it really matter for my blog. I choose to say no, so you will have to live with my choice.

Now at the Yorktown Museum, you will have another opportunity to walk through the lead up to the battle of Yorktown from the Revolutionary War to the surrender of the British forces. One thing I found unique for the museum is the stories from people who remembered the events years later. The curators of the museum are really trying to connect the history to real living people, well at the time. The Revolutionary war was 250 years ago and only vampires and zombies would still be alive.

One other thing I wanted to mention that was true for the Yorktown and Jamestown museum was the interactive exhibits. Some were tactile requiring you to slide open a panel to reveal the answer, while some were digital allowing you to interact with the history. A good museum should have you walking away learning something and I found these activities to be useful.

I frequently had to wait for some kids to finish with the activities before I could try them out myself.

Outside of the museum they have a living history exhibits of a Revolutionary War camp and a Revolutionary time farm.

It’s now past lunch, well in the timeline of the blog, so I headed back towards Williamsburg because I couldn’t get to the Pub on the waterfront I wanted to try. That annoying 2 hour parking or you will be towed really ruined my vibe. Next time I’m here hopefully there won’t be road construction.

Oh, here is the perfect time to really annoy my readers and jump back to the waterfront. I didn’t think the pictures were uploaded but they did so I have to tell you about this book store.

So this book store is full of old things, what I noticed were the first editions of the complete collection of Tolkien. If I had money to waste I would have bought them. To be honest if I had that type of money to waste, I would have already acquired first editions.

Ok, back to my stomach…

So if you noticed the title to the driving video, Sammy Haggard’s song – “You Can’t Drive 55” was playing on the car radio. You can’t hear it because I dubbed it with copyright free music.

So by now you are wondering were did you go to fill the hole that was in your rumbling tummy…

Behind the building with the restaurant’s sign is there actual smoke house. They have a “viewing area” but I the inside is very dark and trying to take a picture through a screened window into a dark room just didn’t work.

The taste was very different than what I’m enjoy in Texas. The BBQ sauce was very heavy with cinnamon. I personally prefer spicy, but it was still good. The fact the place was packed clearly says that flavor works for the local community.

I’m enjoying limiting how much I do each day. In the past (last year) I would have done both Jamestown and Yorktown in one day. While yes, it is do able, I would have been miserable at one of the sites and having to sit frequently. I’m going to need to remember this going forward for all my future adventures. I’m still walking 10K steps each day, but not the previous adventures of 20k each day.

Tomorrow, its all about Williamsburg.