Jan. 16 (Picture Lake Campground) We ended up spending 3 more days at Picture Lake, in part to enjoy the kayaking (at least while the weather remained warm) and attractions, and in part to have the TV available for the UConn women’s volleyball game, which gave them their record-breaking 91st consecutive win.
Downtown Petersburg is far from beautiful, but it is thriving with lots of restaurants and shopping. It has an excellent historic walking tour. The building below is the remnant of one of the oldest colonial era warehouses.
Although Petersburg suffered extremely heavy bombardment during the Civil War, during which many buildings were damaged, what really shaped its appearance were devastating fires – before and after the war, which destroyed most of downtown. Most of the historic buildings are industrial-looking brick boxes. I was reminded of the brick buildings in Toronto, legislated after most of its downtown was destroyed by fires.
I guess because the buildings, although brick boxes, are historic, Petersburg has decided to have its murals on the sidewalks rather than on the side of buildings as has become popular elsewhere. You can see the effect in the photo of Chuck above.
Unfortunately, the Black History Museum on Pocahontas Island which we planned to see was closed. Instead, we decided to visit the Keystone Truck and Tractor Museum. Although neither of us is a truck or tractor afficionado, it was fascinating to see these old machines, particularly the early tractors from about 1917 which were built to use what had been the horse-drawn farm equipment. The scale of the trucks was impressive – we are talking about huge tractor trailers, not just 4x4s.
On the quirky side, the museum also had a number of other displays – old soda bottles, Coca Cola paraphenalia, old
washing machines, garden tools,
logging equipment, and the chainsaw tree.
And while I am sure we are all familiar with the Oscar-Meyer Weinermobile, who knewthat there was a Thermosmobile?
For some reason we got a late start the following day, which we regretted as we did not get to spend quite enough time at the Museum of the Civil War Soldier.
This private museum has a number of interesting exhibits about the daily life of soldiers during the war, as well as the remains of a plantation that was occupied by the Confederates during the months of the battle for Petersburgh. It has an excellent audio program which covers e.g. food, medical care, supplies, tents, etc, as well as letters from the soldiers. An expert told us about muskets during the war, and how the inexperience of the soldiers, the peculiarities of the weapon and the smoke from the gunpowder rendered the weapons effective (for the most part) at only a couple of hundred yards, rather than the 700 yards which can be attained by a sharp-shooter under ideal conditions.
The plantation house, which is small, was furnished as it might have looked during the occupation by the army. The tobacco barns and some of the slave quarters are still available for viewing.
The dreaded RV event occurred – our grey water tank filled to the top and we had to do something to empty it. It turns out that the campground has a pump truck (called the honey wagon) that comes around to empty filled sewer tanks. Unfortunately, when we got home, we found that the driver had not shown up. Fortunately we had prepared for this eventuality by stopping at Walmart (a traffic nightmare, even in our car with no RV) and getting another hose that connects to our regular sewer hose making it long enough to reach the drain after some heroic efforts by Chuck. (Although we feel it is prudent for both of us to know how to look after everything, Naomi is not jumping up and down demanding her turn at emptying the sewage tanks.)