Welcome back (if you’ve been on our Blogspot before). Or, welcome (if you’ve not been here before).
As the title of this entry states, it is our fourth month in Virginia Beach. Though we haven’t seen all there is to see within a 75-mile radius, the rain has slowed us down a good bit. July was a very wet month for the area and the wettest in weather history. August it, typically, the wettest month in the year for Virginia Beach.
For July 4 the KOA had an Independence Day parade. Shown here
on a rental unit is one of our co-workers. Brianna is from Texas
and her husband was stationed here for a while. Sadly, they
have moved on and left the campground. This photo just
shows a bit of Brianna’s joyful spirit.
Having displayed one photo (above), we’ll show some others so you can get a look around the KOA where we’re working as “Work Kampers” (a KOA term) for the summer.
This is the official image of the campground map for 2018. We are parked
In the Extended Stay area of the campground (#521 on the lower left) which
is separated from the itinerant portion of the park (the rest of the campground).
It is a long walk from our motorhome to the store we work out of (upper right).
New to the KOA here in Virginia Beach is something called a “pocket park”
where there are several game areas. The photo shows the permanent ping-pong
table (the table surface is manufactured granite and quite heavy).
There is also bocce ball, gaga ball, horseshoes, bolo toss, chess, and
other game areas. In the background you see the blow-up slide.
The inflatable slide is quite popular here. During the summer it is open
for one hour, three times a day. Around here it has the nickname of
“Wedgie” for which the managers have created a photo contest.
Nearly every KOA now has cabins available. There are the basic
Kamping Kabins (as shown here) and Deluxe Cabins which
offer self-contained bathrooms and kitchenettes. Most of
the basic cabins here in Virginia Beach have been located in
a wooded area. Each has air conditioning (not all Kamping Kabins
in other campgrounds have air conditioners or concrete patios).
When it rains, it pours -- and can get muddy. Shown above is a tent
that survived a storm but not the deluge of water.
As mentioned in a previous blog, this is the largest campground in which we have worked. More than one-half of the summer staff is made up of local employees though there are twelve of us who are working campers. Martha works in the store handling registrations and sales of store merchandise. Byron works outside escorting guests to their sites, cleaning the sites before arrivals or after departures, and delivering firewood or ice when requested. At present, our plan is to leave here in the middle of September and work our way back to home base in the Louisville area after a couple of weeks “on the road”.
Now, for the things we’ve managed to see when it hasn’t been raining.
Our first trip was to the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown. This museum is owned by the same organization that operates Jamestown Settlement. (We’ve learned that most attractions in the area are commercial establishments and not operated by the National Park Service or state government). The building, in which most of the displays reside, is only a few years old just as was the case at Jamestown Settlement. This time, we knew to go through the display gallery in chronological order. We did it backward at Jamestown.
The focal center of the American Revolution Museum is impressive and
rather new. The building is based on the architecture of the period with
Large display halls on either side of the main entrance.
Shown here is a display of uniforms of officers and small weapons
used during the period. The displays are well and offer several
viewing angles.
Of course, a modern museum will have some type of media display. Shown
here is the small theater that covers the Seige of Yorktown by the British.
The British attacked from ships on Chesapeake Bay while the
soldiers of the revolution fired on them from canons placed
above the hilly coastline.
Many of the displays also feature art and artifacts as well
as other material related to the Revolutionary War period.
For the outside display, the museum has recreated an encampment and
small village typical of the time.
This is what a the mess area and the food would have looked like
during the Revolutionary War. Anyone for KP duty?
No visit to a museum about the Revolution would be complete
without some type of tribute to George Washington. Shown here is
a marble statue displayed under a small rotunda in a separate room
paying tribute to Washington.
The Hampton History Museum and the Carousel was the next afternoon adventure. It wasn’t particularly thrilling. It was just included in our multi-venue ticket we had purchased in June. To get our money’s worth, we returned for these.
The Hampton History Museum is, after all, about the history of Hampton which includes the city’s early inhabitance by the Kecoughtan tribe and contributions of African-American residents. Ten permanent galleries span Hampton’s settlement to the city’s role as the founding site for the U.S. space program (NASA at Langley Field). The galleries show a narrative beginning with the Virginia Colony and continue through phases of Coastal Virginia life which includes Blackbeard the Pirate. The burning of Hampton during the Civil War as well as the Contraband decision (the first step toward freedom for millions of African-Americans) is also depicted. The museum shares space with a gift shop and the Hampton Visitor Center.
An original fire apparatus is on display in the Hampton History Museum.
Across the street is the carousel that his housed in its own pavilion.
The band organ for the carousel isn’t played regularly
but appropriate carousel music is.
Selfie on a Carousel — how is that for a title?
Hampton’s Carousel is a whirling tribute to the skill of its creators. It still has its original mirrors and oil paintings, as well as 48 intricately decorated horses. Hampton’s restored 1920 merry-go-round is an interesting attraction for the city’s downtown waterfront. One of only 70 antique carousels still in the United States, the Hampton Carousel is a rare and beautiful example of American folk art. The horses and chariots were originally painted by German, Italian and Russian immigrant artisans.
Our final trip of the month was to the fantastic Mariners’ Museum in Newport News. It is about a seventy-five-minute drive from the KOA in Virginia Beach. So, once again, we headed out on I-64 through the tunnel-bridge one gets used to traveling in the Hampton Roads area (the designation for the body of water connected to Chesapeake Bay).
A visit here is one of the “must see” attractions for the area. The mission statement is: “The Mariners’ Museum and Park connects people to the world’s waters, because through the waters—through our shared maritime heritage—we are connected to one another.” The museum carries out that mission quite well.
The meticulously carved Eagle figurehead from the USS Lancaster
is situated inside the main entryway of the Museum. It has been restored to its
original glittering finish with a wingspan of eighteen feet and weight of 3,200 pounds.
When the US Navy was rebuilding the frigate in 1880 (adding steam),
they commissioned the object paying the artist $2.32 a day
to carve the enormous Eagle.
The museum was originally founded in 1930 by the son of a railroad and shipbuilding magnate, Archer Huntington, and another gentleman who was head of Newport News Shipbuilding at the time. They provided the basis on which a great museum has been made. Now in a relatively new home within a city park, the museum provides a comprehensive glimpse at how the people who made up sea travel and shipping provided us with a great foundation.
The 17,500 square foot facility houses a collection that features nearly 150 boats from 42 countries and is one of the few internationally focused collections in the world. A primary feature of the museum is The USS Monitor Center.
A view inside the building where small boats from 42 countries are displayed.
Just inside the entrance to the museum, one sees the large wall with
a scale drawing of the plans for the USS Monitor, one of the
ironclad ships that were instrumental in making a fundamental
change to how future navies would do battle.
One might wonder why all the emphasis on the USS Monitor and not an equal emphasis on the former USS Merrimack (renamed and refurbished as the CSS Virginia when under Confederate command). There is likely one, big reason. Though both ships later sank after their initial confrontation, it was the Monitor that was discovered and raised on August 5, 2002, nearly 140 years after the sinking of the historic, Civil War ironclad. In fact, Monitor’s turret was raised 240 feet from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and taken to the museum where it has been engaged in a desalination process that will take many years.
As can be easily seen in this photograph, the crew’s quarters, engine room, and
store for the artillery were below the deck which rode just a couple of feet
above the water line. The only thing sticking above the water line of any
significance was the turret which housed only two guns mounted
on a rotating base. The base, however, was constantly turning
to make the taking of aim very difficult. Still, the ironclad was
able to inflict as much damage as it escaped or repelled.
This is a full-scale representation of the condition of the turret when
first discovered earlier in this century. The rusting caused by the
ocean's water and other debris has had an effect on the iron.
The replica, above, is shown at full scale. The two, XI-inch Dahlgrens
(canons) were constantly in rotation. One of the crew members noted
that, when under attack, it became difficult to tell when a canon
was actually pointed in the correct direction since it was always
moving (in relation to the ship) with smoke in the turret
becoming so heavy and thick. “Which way is starboard?” It became
difficult to define so firing on the CSS Virginia was more of
a calculated guess than anything based on dead reckoning.
Also on display is a full-sized mockup of the forward one-half of
the CSS Virginia. In the foreground is a scale model of the ironclad
ship. Layers of iron were placed above a base of thick lumber with
the lumber serving as a cushion. The raised hull of the sunken frigate,
USS Merrimack, was used as the basis for the Virginia.
Though the iron superstructure helped in deflecting cannonballs or other projectiles, the ship was still hard to maneuver compared to the smaller Monitor. Virginia was also designed for standard naval battle which called for pulling parallel to an opposing ship and firing until a boarding party could take the enemy ship and carry on with hand-to-hand combat.
The Battle of Hampton Roads, however, was not a typical battle between opposing ships. The design of the Monitor enabled it to fire from nearly any position and not just from the side. Not only did the canons spin on an axis, but they could be raised or lowered. Compare this design to the guns of the Virginia (which had more than the Monitor) and one begins to see how “less is more” really did apply in this situation.
Since photography was still in its early stages of development, only
paintings could be made to capture how the battle may have looked.
Interestingly, each ship pulled away from the other which brought
about the end of the battle in which neither side had really defeated
the other. The decisive thing was naval warfare would now be fought
from ironclad ships with large guns mounted on rotating turrets.
Though this entry in our blog has been lengthy, we do hope you found it interesting and educational in some way. For sure, we have witnessed a fascinating view of the history of both Colonial America and Civil War America. The good thing to know is that it is still the United States of America and that we get to explore some of it each summer.
