First, while I had hoped to blog about the trip each night before going to bed, it ended up not being feasible. Besides having very limited access to free internet, the schedule we kept during the trip was crazy. Up and going each morning by 6-6:30AM – back to the hotel by 9-10:00PM. Rinse, repeat, each day.
Day 1 (June 23, 2010) was no different. It started with a 6:00AM flight from Seattle WA to Richmond VA. In order to catch a flight at this insane hour (and allow time to get ~50 people checked in and through security), we had to all meet at Monroe Middle School at 2:30AM for the airport bus. One would think that a good plan would be to get some early sleep the night before, and I would agree with you, but unfortunately last minute packing and such prevented this from happening – at least for me. Milee was sound asleep by 10PM. Come 2:00AM I was a bit wiped, having only dozed for about an hour.
Up and going, we arrived at the school and proceeded to get situated with everyone else on the bus. As we left the school it was immediately obvious the bus driver contracted for this job was unfamiliar with the area. He was relying on a GPS to guide him to the airport, and the route it initially selected to get out of Monroe was quite interesting for a bus to maneuver. Despite the extra travel, we still arrived on schedule and began the process of getting everyone checked-in and through security.
Soon everyone was boarding a Boeing 757 destined for Atlanta Georgia. From Atlanta we had an hour layover and then finished our travel to Richmond. While in Atlanta, Milee and I enjoyed a mondo size cookie.
Overall the flights were very smooth except for the final approach into Atlanta. That was pretty turbulent and Milee loved it. She said it reminded her of one of the rides at Lagoon. The only real negative I had about the flight to Atlanta was our seating location. We sat in the second to last row of the plane, and this happens to be very close to the bathrooms. When we first boarded the plane the smell was horrible. Shortly after take-off it seemed to fade (or we may have gotten used to it). Once we landed however the stench returned, only far worse and it was torture waiting for everyone to exit the plane ahead of us.
Thankfully the flight to Richmond was smell free and smooth. We arrived on schedule at basically 5:00PM local time. While heading to baggage claim I groaned when I saw this sign:
And I groaned even more when we walked out of the air-conditioned airport into what I can only describe as a perpetual sauna. The humidity was murder and you could literally see the moisture in the air. In Seattle I'm used to the constant "drizzle" of moisture we often get - where it isn't raining but you still get wet when you walk around outside. Well this was the exact same thing but HOT. Thank heavens the bus was air-conditioned.
Leaving the airport we headed to the Jamestown/Williamsburg area for dinner. By 6:30PM we arrived at the College of William & Mary for our scheduled dinner, but due to a miscommunication our bus driver initially dropped us off at the wrong building. While trying to sort out our proper destination, everyone decided to take a walk around the campus.
Again I was miserable. Dry heat I can handle. I spent many years in the desert climate of Utah and getting "baked" I can manage. Being "steam broiled" is entirely different. I spent less than an hour outside and I felt soaked. Little did I know that it was going to get far worse the next day.
Dinner turned out to be pretty lack luster. We essentially received an all-you-can-eat buffet from the campus cafeteria. It was ok, but not much better than you expect from a school cafeteria.
Certainly fell way short of a Golden Corral or Hometown Buffet, but the discovery of the soft serve ice cream machine certainly helped redeem it some - the kids drained it in no time flat.
After dinner we again loaded the bus and had one more stop to make before checking into our hotel for the night.
This last stop was a visit to a local "Story Teller" by the name of Sheila Arnold. She portrayed the character of Ol’ Bess, an 18th-century tavern slave owned my a Mr. Southall - the owner of the local Raleigh Tavern. Her performance was incredible. Funny and educational – we all loved it.
I only wish I had recorded even more to share, but this funny video was all I captured. I don’t believe she ever went out of character the entire evening. At one point she sat down and began telling a story about the day her daughter was auctioned off and sold, and her emotion and heartache was so real you believed she had actually experienced it! It was gut wrenching to hear her recount the experience and helplessness she and her husband felt knowing they would likely never see their child again!
It was truly an incredible performance from an extremely talented actress and historian, and great end to a very long first day!
To be continued - Day 2: Old Jamestown & Colonial Williamsburg