Amazing Maze at Williamsburg

The Fifes and Drums and Fife

Some more from the Williamsburg trip . . .

A few Daufuskie Island pictures

Thanks to DooDah for these pictures from the Daufuskie trip . . .

Daufuskie Island

In mid-August we (my cousins, my aunt, my grandmother, two uncles, their dogs. and I) went to Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. First we went to Hilton Head and at four o'clock took the ferry to Daufuskie Island. No visitors are allowed to have cars on the island. On the ferry I could walk around on the deck because this was a large ferry. Some of us went on a golf cart to the house and some took the trolley. The trolley was quicker than the golf cart.

The first three days I went to the beach and built a sand fort and a sand castle with my grandmother. Then I went to the pool and took swimming lessons from Clynton. The first day of swimming lessons I got used to putting my head under water. Eventually I worked up to swimming under water for a few feet. Then one of my uncles found a shark's tooth. I competed against Rachel and Harvey to see who would be the most improved swimmer and win the shark's tooth. First I walked over to the five-feet with Avi. We both got in and held onto the ladder. Then we held our noses and climbed down using the ladder and sat on the bottom. Then we let go of the ladder and rose to the top. That guaranteed the shark's tooth.

When Victor and I went to the beach for an adventure, we had one. We found a dead horseshoe crab. Walked a little further and saw a hermit crab, an alligator in the ocean and lots of fiddler crabs. Then Victor broke his flip-flop. It was an exciting week.

Home for the Mansfields and Dudeboy for a week.

57th . . . Mane and pa

All I can say is . . . Mane must be some kind of a saint.

Roadtrip '09 Part 6

*This is the last post for our summer road trip. Check back next week to find out about Dudeboy's trip to the beach with the Mansfield clan.

Day 7-18-09

We saw the lighthouse at Bodie Island. Because they are restoring the lighthouse, we couldn't go up in it, but we could go in the base and look up. We drove to Asheville that night.

Day 8: 7-19-09

We went to King's Mountain Battlefield. I did the activities to become a junior ranger there. A leading British commander named Patrick Ferguson was killed there by seven or nine shots fired almost at the same time from American rifles. He fell out of his saddle, but one foot caught in his stirrup so his men had to cut him free.

At Cowpens, General Morgan, the American commander, thought up an idea. First he had his untrained militia fire two rounds and retreat. Then he had cavalry and continental regulars surround the British. Then the militia reformed and closed in on the open side. After that, the British commander Banastre Tarleton barely escaped. He had been the commander of the British at Waxhaws where the Americans tried to surrender but were massacred instead. So at Cowpens the Americans shouted, "Remember Waxhaws!" Cowpens was an important victory for the Americans and helped force the British to Yorktown.

Bodie Lighthouse


Spot where British Major Patrick Ferguson met "The Over Mountain Men."


I, Dudeboy, do swear that I will well and faithfully serve in the office of Jr. Ranger.


Banastre "Bloody Ban" Tarleton gettin' his comeuppance.


Decisive victory.

Roadtrip '09 Part 5

Day 6: 7-17-09

We went to the beach and I built sand castles. Then we went to Roanoke, the first English colony: it failed. At Roanoke we went to see the Elizabeth II, a reconstructed 16th-century merchant ship. I got to go all over most of the ship.

That afternoon we went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kill Devil Hills. There we saw the distance markers of their first powered flights in 1903. The famous picture of the first flight was taken by a rescue team worker who had never taken a picture before, but it was a great picture.

Earthworks at Fort Raleigh.


Monument for Fort Raleigh and Virginia Dare.


The Elizabeth II.


Land ho!


We have lift off.


The fourth and final flight at 852 feet.


The third (and mostly unknown) Wright Brother hitching a ride.

Roadtrip '09 Part 4

Day 5: 7-16-09

Thursday morning we did a final tour of Williamsburg. We went to the wig shop and saw one interesting thing: a wig with feathers on top that water would tumble off of.

We drove to the Mariner's Museum in Newport News. We saw a light from a lighthouse. We saw the gun turret of the Monitor and other pieces that were being restored. I got to touch one piece of the Monitor that had been specially treated so people could touch it. Then we drove to Nags Head. It's called Nags Head because the people who lived there tied lights to their horses heads and put them on the beach. The ships would think they were other ships anchored in the harbor and run aground. The the people of Nags Head would plunder the ships.

Wigging out . . .


Photo op . . . the Monitor's propeller.


The restoration of the Monitor's turret.


The Sea Foam Motel.

Roadtrip '09 Part 3

Day 4: 7-15-09

At Yorktown, where the British got defeated by the Americans and French, it pretty much ended the war. Cornwallis went out on the peninsula thinking the British fleet would pick him up. But the French fleet from the Bahamas, commanded by De Grasse, sailed up the coast and the British, who were plundering an island, didn't know the French had gone. So they sailed up the coast to the Chesapeake but the French fleet wasn't there. They went to New York, but the French fleet still wasn't there. They were joined by Admiral Graves who was stubborn. They sailed down the coast but the French fleet had taken the Chesapeake while the British navy was in New York. The greatest sea battle in American history didn't have one American in it. The French kept control of the Chesapeake and so the seige of Yorktown began.

That night we played putt-putt back in Williamsburg.

Kodak movement . . . Dudeboy sitting on the officers crapper on a ship.


Merkin and Dudeboy participating in the artillery demonstration.


Redoubt 10. It was captured by Alexander Hamilton (effectively ending the siege of Yorktown). Hamilton's men took Redoubt 10 in 10 minutes and he is on the $10 bill.


The lane where the British surrendered to the Colonists and French soldiers. Dudeboy represents the Yanks and Dr. J represents the French.

Roadtrip '09 Part 2

July 14, 2009--Day 3:

We went all over Williamsburg. We saw the stocks, the whipping post and pillories at the courthouse. Across the street from the courthouse was the magazine with antique guns and supplies for the Virginia militia. We attended a performance by Thomas Jefferson. I got to shake his hand. I marched beside the parade of fifes and drums. That night we went on a ghost tour. The first story was the best. The second I didn't like: it scared me. The third was my least favorite.

Fife and Fife and Drum Corps


Jefferson and Dudeboy


I need to build one of these in the backyard

Roadtrip '09 Part 1

July 12, 2009--Day 1:

First we went to Appomattox, Virginia and saw where Lee surrendered to Grant. At Appomattox we saw the reconstructed McLean house and courthouse. At the Clover Hill Tavern they had some printing presses they used to make parole passes for the confederate soldiers.

In Richmond, Virginia I went to the Poe Museum. It is housed in the oldest building in Richmond and has a reconstruction of one of Poe's rooms. In one building there was a piece of paper Poe had written on in his teeny-tiny handwriting. Before we left Richmond we saw the White House of the Confederacy. We didn't get to go inside because it was closed. We drove to Colonial Williamsburg that night.

The McLean House


Dudeboy printing up parole passes


Somber men


White House of the Confederacy

July 13, 2009--Day 2:

The next day we went to Jamestown, the first English settlement that succeeded. Somebody dressed as Gabriel Archer ( a settler at Jamestown) told about his hard times. At Jamestown there are man wells which are full of archaeological treasures because when the wells dried out they used them as garbage pits. That night we ate supper at Chowning's Tavern back in Williamsburg. There we were entertained by a magician and a musician.

Archer's Hope


Some of the treasures found in the well the day we visited


Professor McGonagall doing some magic

Roadtrip '09

Dudeboy will be posting entries throughout the next several days about our vacation/history blitz. Just so you can make some sense of it all, here is our trip itinerary:

• Day 1: Drove to Lynchburg, Va. (We got to see a giant "LU" carved into a hillside by Falwell and his minions).
• Day 2: Appomattox Court House NHP, Poe Museum and the White House of the Confederacy.
• Day 3: Historic Jamestowne NHP and Colonial Williamsburg
• Day 4: Colonial Williamsburg
• Day 5: Yorktown NHP and Colonial Williamsburg
• Day 6: Mariners' Museum and the USS Monitor Center, and Nags Head
• Day 7: Fort Raleigh NHS, Roanoke Island Festival Park, and Wright Brothers NM
• Day 8: Cape Hatteras NS and the Bodie Island Lighthouse, and then drove to Winston-Salem, NC to visit with Regis and his family.
• Day 9: Toured the area with Regis and then drove to Zed's (some of which was by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway).
• Day 10: Kings Mountain NMP and Cowpens NB
• Day 11: Drove to Whippoorwill Hill in Wartburg, Tn.
• Day 12: Drove home by way of Mane and Pa's

Finally, I am lifting the permissions on who can view the blog, because so many of you have had problems with the passwords and such. However, I will enable the comment moderation. Which means I'll have to o.k. all comments before they get published. Remember, this is Dudeboy's blog. This is a trial run with open access to the blog, meaning we might go back to the old way of passwords and membership.