By Marty
Note: This is a "blast from the past" post as we work our way backwards to catch you up on our previous destinations.
The second stop on our tour of the south was a short visit to Williamsburg, VA. The drive from the Charlottesville KOA was only 123 miles, which gave us time for a short detour to visit Shirley Plantation and upper Shirley Vineyards along the James River.
Shirley Plantation is Virginia's first plantation, founded in 1613. Remarkably it is also the oldest family-owned business in North America, dating to 1638 when Edward Hill began farming in Charles City along the James River.
The present manor house, known as "The Great House", is largely in its original state and currently occupied by the 11th and 12th generations of the the Hill Carter family.
We took a guided tour of the ground floor only. The family lives on the upper two floors. No photos were permitted. The history of the property was quite fascinating.
If you want to know more about Shirley Plantation visit their website: Shirley Plantation - history
From the Shirley Plantation gardens
Shirley Plantation is still a working cotton farm
Adjacent to Shirley Plantation is Upper Shirley Vineyards
The Beast, nestled among the vines...
We don't often make stops on travel days largely because of the challenge of finding a suitable place to park the Beast while towing Little Red. We need a 60' long spot that we can pull into and then pull forward when we leave. If you try to back up a motorhome with the tow car attached bad things will happen. But that's a story for another post ...
In doing my travel day reconnaissance I determined that there was ample room at the vineyard for us to park.
The vineyard had live music and a large grassy area along the river where visitors could spread out.
I took this photo surreptitiously to capture the couple behind Janell. Janell is just a prop. They are painting the James River in water colors.
The James River view from the vineyard lawn
Virginia has one of the best and longest multi use trails in the country. The Virginia Capital Trail stretches 51.7 miles from Richmond to Jamestown.
From our Williamsburg KOA we loaded up the bikes and drove to Jamestown for a 20 mile pedal on the Capital Trail (10 miles out and 10 miles back).
How not to take a selfie....
How to take a selfie...
It was a gloomy but enjoyable day and ride. We did have to be mindful of occasional sections of wet leaves on the trail so that we didn't go slip slidin' away (in the immortal words of Paul Simon.)
After the bike ride we drove to Yorktown to revisit the end point of my 2019 cross country bike trip.
Should you be interested:
Cross country bike ride journal - final day ending in Yorktown
In 2019 Janell, my sister Mary, and her husband Rick met me at the finish line of my cross country bike ride. On that visit we didn't have time to tour the Yorktown battlefield, the site of the surrender of the British to General George Washington, effectively ending the American Revolution.
On our current visit Janell and I did a driving tour of the battlefield sites. Except for the Yorktown Victory Monument photo above I don't seem to have any photos from the Yorktown Battlefield, which is part of Colonial National Historic Park. Like I said, it was a gloomy day.There is so much history to see in this area, including Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown Settlement. We visited both of those sites at the end of my bike ride which is why we only allocated three nights in the area this time.
The Coleman Memorial Bridge crossing the York River at Yorktown
“just a prop”….? Think you might want to rephrase that next time😂🤣😘
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