On the Road Again: Family in Virginia

We finally hit the road again, June 16. Our first stop was in the Richmond, VA area to visit Tom and his family. Above see a picture of Madeline and me and our three grown children: Debra, Tom, and Diana (aka DD). It is always a special time when you can have a family get-together -- and this indeed, was a special time. Tom and Beth and their two kids were hosts. Diana drove up from Louisville, and Debra flew in from Boulder, CO. We had a wonderful weekend sight-seeing in the Richmond area --- more about that later, barbecuing, and playing games.

One day we went into Richmond, and visited the James River District. There is a canal along the James River, which at one time ran all the way to Lynchburg, a small city nested in the Blue Ridge Mountains. At one time there was a plan (instituted by George Washington) to run a canal all the way to the Mississippi River, but it never got further than Lynchburg.Once, there were a series of locks circumventing the extensive rapids at Richmond, which unfortunately were destroyed by the Highway 95 Bridge over the James River. Even so up the canal remains, up as far as that first lock, and our family took a sight seeing cruise down the old canal in a modern canal boat.

Following that we went to a City Park in Richmond, which was formerly the estate of the James Dooley family. Dooley was a self-made millionaire, who built railroads after the Civil War and built a Victorian House on his estate. He gave the home the name Maymount. This wonderful home has been preserved --- with almost all the original furniture and is a prime example of luxurious living in the late 1800's and is termed a "Gilded Age Estate". It was an interesting tour with a well informed an engaging guide. The house is furnished with fussy Victorian furniture -- lots of scrolls and curly-ques -- well-gilded, I might add. There was a room where Mrs Dooley received visitors for tea. I was surprised to learn that visitors were not expected to stay much longer than 20 minutes. We were told these visit were way for Mrs Dooley to keep abreast with her neighbors since at that time there were no telephones or texting. The house was one of the first to have electricity from a facility not -too far away.

Following that visit, we went to Maymont Nature Center, where Kathleen is working as an intern this summer. Kathleen gave us a very nice behind-the scenes tour.

We had a wonderful time visiting Tom and Beth and their family. Tom loves to play games (also Debbie and I) so we spent a lot of time playing games the next few days.