Started out the day with another trip to see Colonial Williamsburg since our $50 passes we bought the first day there are good through the end of the year. We initially went to the Governor’s Palace which is substantially more elegant than all the other buildings in town. It was only about 95 degrees and the humidity was only 92% so after visiting the palace we were able to find a great 17th century tavern, Chowning’s, that served very good flights of ale. After a bit of ale, we wandered around a bit more before chickening out due to tough environmental conditions. Williamsburg is pretty neat to see if you have any interest in history.
We then took another trip into the Jamestown area, including another pass down the 8 mile loop drive, before we headed across the free ferry operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation. It leaves the north side of the James River near Jamestown and drops you off on the south side of the river at a spot called Scotland.
We meandered around the south side of the river going first to Nathaniel Bacon’s Castle in a town called, surprisingly, Bacon’s Castle. The castle, formerly occupied by the arsonist Bacon, is an impressive brick, multi-story building with a number of outbuildings for farming stuff. From Bacon’s Castle we headed to a place called Chippoke Plantation which was not named for the tenants who went by the name of Powell or something. This plantation of some 1400 acres has operated continuously for some 400 years. The house is another large brick residence with abundant outbuildings, one of which housed some beautiful carriages. This was probably a very nice place to live but when we were there, we encountered some of the most aggressive biting flies we can remember. No amount of arm waving, spastic flailing or whirling could drive off these dedicated pests so after about 10 or 15 minutes we retreated to the nice air-conditioned refuge of Charlotte’s cab.
We gladly withdrew from this fly-infested hell and drove back to Scotland, crossed back to the north side of the river and headed home to drink some Guinness.