I woke up early and went inside the house to finish our laundry. A lot of the kids/cousins were up playing video games, our kids soon joined inside the house. Curtis got caught up on some work from their deck. It really was a beautiful area.
We then loaded up into one of the cars and headed over to Duck Donuts with the cousins. Kenny has a knack for finding unique and yummy food. Last night he was telling us about this doughnut place. I thought "yea they're donuts, I'm sure they're good, but how can they be that much different" Once again Kenny delivered on finding another food treasure. They make the donuts right in front of you, so they are extremely fresh and warm when they come out. They were just cooked enough and they were almost gooey on the inside, but not and the warm donuts truly melted in your mouth. It was a yummy treat. It was also a beautiful view of the water. We walked around a bit with the kids and took more pictures. It was a great way to start the day.
We were getting close to the end of the trip and time was getting more sensitive. We needed to get on our way. We headed out to see the Wright Brothers National Monument. In the visitor center there was a replica of their original plane. Not sure what happened to the true original. There was a Park Ranger giving a speech about how five years after their first flight they had truly perfect flying and figured out how to turn without a disaster. They went over to Europe and showed off their skills. Flight took off from there.
We went out to the area where they made their first four flights. They were not very far or very long, 59 seconds was the last and longest. I just thought it was amazing that they had the guts and innovation to do it. I felt it was very inspiring, especially how far we have come. One of the park rangers said that one of the Wright Brothers was alive when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier only about 44 years after their first flight and space travel came soon after that. Truly amazing how far we had come. There must have been a small airport right next to their monument because you could see small planes landing and taking off about 50 yards from their first flights. It was a bit surreal seeing it all come together in that spot.
I had always assumed the Wright brothers were from that area and that is why the first flight took place there. It was actually very strategic. They were from Ohio, but they had studied the area and decided the winds and climate of that area were ideal for flight. So they moved down there and set up a camp and worked there for a few months in preparing for their flight.
After the Wright Brothers we headed North to Colonial Williamsburg, VA. I had been there as a kid, but I would liked to have seen it again as an adult. This is a preserved city where the English originally settled. It's kind of a living museum where the employees dress up and act like Colonial times. We got their late in the day so It wasn't worth paying the full price ticket to see everything, but they did let us go inside and walk around. There was some guy on a horse, who someone said was "The General". We asked him where there was a restaurant and he acted like we were speaking a foreign language "restaurant???" we told him we wanted food then he said there was a "tavern" up the way. It was kind of fun. We found the tavern and ate colonial food, which was a bit different but a good experience. Our waitress asked us where we were from, when we said Arizona, she acted like it was another country and it must have taken us a long time to get there. Then she brought herself to the current year and started to us about our RV trip. People are very curious and amazed at our adventure.
There was some guy entertaining the diners with his flute music. I only had a $20 and some change, so I had gave the change to Derek and had him put it in his metal cup, tied onto his waiste. When he finished his song he gave the change back and said his cup was for drinking, but later on someone gave him some bills and he took them. I don't know if he was offended by the change, or if coins didn't exist back then so he had to go along with it. It was kind of a fun experience. Curtis and I would have liked to have seen more of Williams burg, but with the kids- what we did was plenty so I was actually glad we didn't buy the full price tickets. It was late in the day and very hot in Williamsburg. I don't know how those employees walk around in those colonial clothes especially when it really heats up in the summer. I hope they get paid well.
It was late and our next stop was going to be Thomas Jeffersons, Monticello. There were not many RV places between Williamsburg and Charlottesville, VA. We drove about an hour to Richmond, VA. I was hoping to see a lot of historical places there, but somehow we were mostly on the rough side of town, and couldn't see much of history. We found a Cracker Barrell restaurant (which we found out RV's are welcome to park there) and parked for the night. The worst part about not being in an RV park, is you can't plug into electricity. Which normally isn't a big deal for one night. That night happened to be very warm and humid. We opened all the windows and hoped for a breeze. We didn't want to use electronics because we knew the charges were limited with out being able to plug in to electricity that night. We sat around and I read the boys a book I picked up at Williamsburg called "The School of Manners or Rules for Childrens Behaviour" It was written in old English and they used f's for s's in many of the words. It took be a bit to understand how to read it. The kids were not amused with their manners, and thought it was ridiculous. Like kids were supposed to bow to adults. Some of the manners I thought would be nice if kids still did today.
The RV got unbearably hot and stuffy. Curtis had a great idea to head over to the McDonalds next door and have an ice cream. We walked over and it felt soo good to get in the Air Conditioning and cool off while we sat and read jokes off of my phone. We actually had a good time sitting there and telling jokes. Although I was a little un easy feeling we were not in the best area. After about an hour we headed back to the RV. It had cooled off to a nice temperature and it wasn't bad sleeping there. We opened the windows and the breeze was nice.
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