Blowing The Dust Off III

Sunday July 8, Part 2

The girls went off on a little shopping and visiting leaving us boys to our own devices. Carl and Nathan went fishing and I worked on the blog and downloaded pictures. I was going to upload some but the size is quite large and I don't have any utilities to do a global resize on the laptop so I just gave up.

I took Logan for a couple of walks but mostly just hung out in the A/C.

When they returned we took Carl and Kate and gave them some kayak time.

Kate and Carl

This was Kate's first time paddling.

As we were getting to take the kayaks out Susie arrived with Jessica and Nate, so we Susie and Carl some time to paddle.

Back at camp Carl fixed dinner, Frogmore Stew , we supplied corn, broccoli salad and for desert cooked a peach cobbler in the dutch oven and had that with ice cream.

While the stew was stewing we went and talked to some folks in a motorcoach that had a license plate of "six mpg". We had thought that the tag looked familiar and sure enough they were the folks we met on our first camping trip to Lake Anna State Park a year ago almost to the day. We had a nice visit with them before we were called to dinner.

Blowing The Dust Off III

Sunday July 8 Part 1

After breakfast and a visit with the Ryals' we were off for more paddling but this time we put in at the trailer boat launch. Se saw a lot of Osprey and no jellyfish. The shore line is quite shallow, knee depth, but we enjoyed our 2 hour paddle. We did beach the kayaks on a sandy beach and walk in the water some. We also explored Deep Creek, which is just off the launch area, also.

We returned to the campground and the girls headed out for visiting and some shopping.

Blowing The Dust Off II

Saturday July 7

This is the big one, 070707, what did I win?

After breakfast we set out on the day's adventure to see the Steamboat Era Museum in Irvington Virginia. The Farmers Market and Crafts seemed to fill the town. We were about to leave when we found parking nearby the activities and museum. We took a tour of the museum and were struck by the importance of this area during the Civil War. We hear so much about the great land battles that the small town skirmishes and coastal battles get lost. The Chesapeake played an important role during the war because who controlled the water highway controlled the war. Also we noticed that on one of the TV monitors was a presentation on the Ticonderoga. As we talked to some of the staff we learned that the person who was responsible for the restoration of the Ti had been to this museum to review the possible restoration of the pilot house of the Chesapeake steamboat.

We then hit the farmers market and after looking at all the crafts and ignoring the political stands we bought some corn and old time squash. Next adventure Reedsville Fisherman's Museum.

On our drive to Reedsville the hungries hit. Where to eat? We wanted seafood..... There's a resteraunt, look at all the cars, must be good, lets turn around and eat there. Good choice. They had large crab cake sandwich's that were excellent and as a bonus it is a non-smoking restaurant. So if you are down this way eat at Newsomes in Burgess.

As we were entering Reedsville we noticed a sign for parade line up. Oh is this the town that is having their 4th celebration on the 7th. A drive through town soon confirmed that small town America was doing their thing. We drove to the end of town, which is right on the bay, made a U'ie and headed back looking for the Fisherman's Museum. We found it but decided to leave it for another time since the parking was full and people were lining the street for the parade. We returned to the state park with a short grocery stop on the way.

When we arrived back at the campground we found the Ryals waiting to get into their site. We talked with them for a while and had Jean join us while they set up camp. Suzette gave Susie the shirts we had bought for them in Vermont. We were invited to picnic with them and family friends while waiting for the Blowing Off the Dust concert. We had a good picnic dinner and made new friends.

There was quite a large crowd for the concert which was quite good. After the show we returned to the campground where the performers had a jam session with any of the campers who came to pick. That was a good evening campfire.

One of the backwater areas

Suzette paddles on

On Osprey keeps watch

Pilothouse of the Steamer Chesapeake

The crowd gathers for the concert

Blowing The Dust Off

Friday July 6

The weather report is for HOT so we decided to extend our time away from the ranch by a couple of days at a park that has a pool. So we canceled an appointment and spent another 45 minutes on the phone with the state parks reservation folks trying to extend a day at Belle Isle State Park and making a reservation for 2 nights at Westmoreland State Park. Westmoreland has a pool. You just gotta love the new software the state has for making reservations, buggy. We could do the reservations on-line but there is no way to pay the pet fee or take the discount for having a lifetime pass. Such is life.

After we arrived at the nearly full park campground we drove around to check out the car top boat launch, the picnic area where the concert, "Blowing the dust off", would be held. Looked at the new visitors center that is to open later this year and checked out the boat launch area for trailered boats.

After returning to the camper and resting a while we cooked supper and then headed for the car-top launch area to around Mulberry Creek for a couple of hours. We met up with an organized canoe trip that the park had and tagged along with them. We did paddle out of the creek and onto the Rappahonnock River before we turned to paddle back to the launch area. We saw a few Osprey's and jelly fish.

There was a welcome campfire that we attended that presented some information on the Civil War and had some relice's to pass around. This was followed by some-more's. You know those marshmellow, chocolate and graham cracker goodies.

It was a nice evening with most of the sites occupied and a couple in a site near us picking on guitar and bass.

Sunset at the car top boat launch

Exploring the area between the mainland and Belle Island