Caramba! Another travel day as we left TT Williamsburg and headed for Colonial Beach TT in, amazingly, Colonial Beach, VA. Just like our first travel day in Virginia, this second day again reminded us that the roads in Virginia are either paved by the blind or the citizens of this great state have learned to accept substandard paving. We initially got on the road by traveling NW on I-64, transitioned to I-295 which joined up with northbound I-95 north of Richmond. Virtually all of these nice Federal highways are pockmarked with corduroy pavement, lumpy bridge approaches and assorted other pavement nightmares that makes one wonder if he were traveling on a primary highway or driving a Matchbox toy car around on the Elephant Man’s potholed head. I feared for my dental work.
Finally we escaped the interstate highway and drove east across the northern neck of VA to Colonial Beach TT which is a spacious campground. It is very quiet, the Potomac is only about 200 yards away and the surrounding countryside is very scenic with loads of birds and animals. It also has no wi-fi and poor phone reception with our crummy Sprint provider. We can do w/o phone and wi-fi for a few days.
5/15/15 Today was Peggy’s day at the helm of Charlotte the Pickup so she elected to go to Stafford Hall, the birthplace of Robert E. Lee, famous Confederate General and genuinely sharp strategist. As we have found at numerous places we have visited on our journeys, claims made can sometimes be carefully crafted to make stupid tourists, like us, to think more of a place than it warrants. In this case, General Lee was indeed born here but moved away when he was four years old, substantially before he became famous for creating strategies geared to rubbing out thousands of Union soldiers who were commanded by lesser officers. The estate, mostly occupied by other, not-so-famous Lees, is very nice but they will not allow paying guests to take pictures inside the plantation house. The outside or more photographic parts of the house are quite nice but this is no Biltmore Estate. The walls of the house are 2 foot thick brick construction which may be a reason the building is still standing.
There is a gravel road through the estate which leads to a gorgeous overlook of the Potomac River and Maryland across the river in addition to a grist mill powered by a big water wheel. The road to the mill is a bit steep but was no problem for Charlotte.
Altogether, I really admired the plantation grounds but was underwhelmed by the house. From Stafford Hall we went just a couple miles to where George Washington was born. Same story as Stafford Hall – George may have popped out here but ultimately set up his estate at Mount Vernon, a good distance north up by Washington, D.C. Maybe we will get a look at that place when we go towards Washington.