Monday, June 6, 2011

SO TIRED!

It's important to to note that I am absolutely exhausted right now, but I want to do this while I have internet for the night since I don't know how tomorrow is going to go. But the exhaustion is a disclaimer for whatever is typed wrong or said wrong or is just generally wrong.

I woke up early this morning so that I could get to Pamplin Historical Park--which appears to be something like colonial Williamsburg but for the Civil War, not really sure though--right when it opened at 9. Off I went! I got there a little after 9 only to find the gates closed. Because it's closed on Sundays. Well, great! I had even checked the hours the night before but I lose track of days so it didn't click that I would be going on a Sunday. So that was a nice 40 minute drive in the opposite direction I needed to go.

Off I went to Appomattox!

That went a little bit better. Except for when the park ranger told me to turn right into the parking lot and I immediately turned left because I don't do the whole right-left thing well. So she watched me do a u-turn and get back into the parking lot.

 McLean house where Lee surrendered to Grant. Fun fact: McLean lived in Manassas during first Manassas and decided to move away so he could escape the war.
 This is a reproduction of the table Lee sat at during the negotiation of surrender. The real one is in Chicago? Or something.
 This was Grant's table. The real one is in another museum, too. There were original pieces, though. I asked. Unfortunately they had little to do with the event except as spectators, so I'm not posting the pictures I excitedly took of the rest of the furniture.
 This was nearby, and letters have been taken off and they said "to 118,000 men under Grant," I think.
 In the Confederate cemetery. They found a Union solider nearby when they were gathering the Confederates and they buried him in the same cemetery, right next to everyone else. There were 18 or 19 buried here, most unknown.

After Appomattox it was time to go to Lexington to see where Lee and Stonewall were buried. Lee is buried in Lee Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University. There was no photography allowed in the chapel or in the museum so you will be without those images. But it was a really pretty chapel, painted all white with black accents. At the back was the Lee memorial, which is him carved in marble, lying down. In the basement of the chapel is where he is actually buried, in the wall with his family and descendants. Also in the basement is his office, which has been virtually untouched since he died. It's exactly as he left it. With some papers having been taken out in order to be preserved. Then, in the center of the museum, there is a marble slab that marks the spot he was originally buried in the floor of the chapel. Except then, the basement of the chapel was a library.

The museum talked about Lee as president of the university and his relation to George Washington. Lee's biggest rule at the university was that every student be a gentleman. How perfectly southern!

Outside of the chapel, Lee's horse, Traveller, is buried. Traveller died after Lee and attended the procession at the funeral.
 People leave coins for Traveller. I left the change in my purse after I took this picture.
 The outside of Lee Chapel.
This is where Stonewall Jackson and family are buried. He was originally buried in another part of this cemetery but was moved when the built this memorial. It must suck to be famous because your remains move around like whoa.

The last photo was taken at about 4:45 and I decided I would make the 5 hour drive to Knoxville and save a night of hotel spending. Full tank of gas and off I went!

An hour into the drive and I got caught in traffic. In the mountains. You know those signs that say "Traffic Advisory When Flashing, Tune to AM station"? Well, that had been flashing, but they flash a lot and there's rarely anything spectacular about it. But when it got to the point where I turned off my car because we weren't moving, I wanted to know. But! My radio wasn't working. Every once in awhile the display will go nuts and then the buttons won't do anything, so I couldn't change the station. I tried downloading a radio app for my phone, but that didn't work.

I got out of my car, saw a cat in the car in front of me, got back in my car and then the radio was working! Sort of. I still couldn't see what station I was on but it was letting me change stations so I found it. It just said there was an accident up ahead and both lanes were closed. Hooray! Everyone was out of their cars and walking around and after an hour traffic started flowing again. No sign of an accident anywhere when I drove by. I believe I was lied to.

Then 4 hours of driving left.

Exhausting.

Most driving in a single day I've done so far.

Any other stories?

Oh, I drove through mountains again today, windy, twisty, roller-coaster roads and I really thought my poor little car was just going to give up and leave me stuck. We made it through, though! So proud. The mountains here are different but so so pretty.

Alrighty! Super tired! Off to sleep. Have to wake up early enough to eat continental breakfast. Might go back to sleep after until checkout. Errggh I have no idea where to stay until I get a place or decide if I like it here. I certainly can't afford motels much longer.

2 comments:

  1. Do you know why they leave coins for Traveller? Very curious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Didn't say. Just one of those things people started doing, I guess.

    ReplyDelete