March 19th

I started the day with sunrise on the Blue Ridge mountains and ended with a lighted bridge over the York River in Yorktown. In between was history and recreations of the Battle of Yorktown and the settling of Jamestown.

The American history museum at Yorktown had a fascinating exhibit of eyewitness of the Revolutionary War period who lived long enough into the 1840’s to be photographed. The Jamestown Settlement museum emphasized the meeting of three groups – the English settlers, the Powhatan tribe already living there and the African slaves brought there to grow tobacco. There were also three outside exhibits – a reconstruction of the Jamestown Fort, a sample Powhatan village and replicas of the three ships that carried the original settlers. Historic Jamestowne is the actual site of the town, with lots of archeological work. Finally, a little hiking on the Yorktown battlefield, where the war that had started in Boston ended.

The songs of the day are “Yorktown” (as in … the Battle of – 1781) from “Hamilton” and “Colors of the Wind”, from Elizabeth Warren’s least favorite film “Pocahontas”.

Tomorrow I pick up Rachel at Raleigh-Durham and we’ll drive to Charleston!