A gorgeous day in Myrtle Beach

What a gorgeous day in Myrtle Beach, we went out for a drive and then came back and sat in the sun both at our campsite and then down on the beach.

Veronica, Poppa found you some new shells from this wonderful beach.



And Matt, look at the one Poppa wished he would have caught.




And Curtis, look who I found playing in the water, he would run out then come out, roll in the sand and then run back.

It was a wonderful day.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

This morning we moved on down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Ron told me on the way down that since we left Cranbrook May 31, we have put on over 17000 miles on the coach and truck combined(and the truck does not gather miles when being towed), no wonder I get tired.

Our campground here is so beautiful, and right on the Atlantic Ocean, just do not ask the price and it was only half of that of Washington DC and Boston. Going to have to ask for handouts when we get this journey over with, but what the heck.

Here is what our view looks like out the front window, there are 895 campsites in the park.

The swimming area is beautiful, they also have a large indoor pool.

Definetly meant for families, look at the arcade, it could make some poor parents even poorer.

Down on the bech you get a good view of the city, we will go for a drive tomorrow.

Phoned my parents (Elaine) this afternoon, they are doing well, Mom had her second eye surgery and things are going well, she is without glasses for 6 weeks so will be spending lots of time at home.

Raleigh

We started out the day by going to the North Carolina State Capital building in Raleigh, it was built between 1833 and 1840 and they have left it pretty much in its original form, was an interesting building.

Here is the old library in the capital building very quaint.

After the capital building we visited the History Museum and it was very good, and from there we just went shopping, waiting for the hockey game in the evening.

The hockey game was very good, considering the Hurricane beat the Ottawa Senators 7 to 1, the fellow singing the Canadian anthem did not know the words and sang it in tune with the US anthem, it was on the news later about his big blunder. Eric Staal got a hat trick so that was exciting as all the hats flew onto the ice. Fun night all the same.

The Pickard Family

Today was gorgeous so we headed out on a drive to find more family roots.

My(Elaine) grandmothers maiden name ( my dad's mom) was Pickard and they came originally from North Carolina. Story is that he stole away on a ship out of Germany and once they landed he was sold to a plantation owner for his fare, John Pickard, the stowaway ended up marrying the plantation owners daughter and the start of a large ancestorial tree.

I had been told by some family members here in North Carolina approx. where to look for the original homestead and graveyard so off we went.

However there are oh so many roads here in the back country and we ended up first of all in Cane Creek and Snow Camp(only a mile apart), which happens to be where the original John Pickards grandson, our great great grandfather James Pickard was born.

It was a very historical area and this church sits on the original land that the first meeting(Quakers) was.

After a good look around we headed out once again to find the graveyard etc. it is about 15 t0 20 miles from Cane Creek to our destination.

I was amazed I found it in the woods, once we arrived the owner of the land now, came out and greeted us and took us into the graveyard. It is known as the Minnis/Pickard graveyard and was quite big for back then about a half an acre.

There were a few headstone markers, here is one of John Pickard probably James brother, most of the headstones were weathered down rocks as you will see below.



If you look hard you can see a few headstones.

Most of them unfortunately look like this below.


This is what the graveyard looked like from the road, and across the road looked just the same, those North Carolina relatives say that the land across the road from the graveyard is the original family homestead.

Our afternoon was great, I got a book, put on my shorts and sat out on my sun chair for a lazy afternoon, glory be.....

North Carolina

We have made our way to North Carolina and are parked for a week about 30 miles south of Raleigh. The accent of the locals has drastically changed and the park is full of deer hunters, doesn't seem like there is any vacant land for them to hunt.

Today we went to Fayeteville which is about 45 minutes away and we came across some cotton fields, I did not realize they grew so far north. Must learn more about the farming of the cotton, some fields are done and dried and others are so plump full.



I picked some today and it feels just like a cotton swab but it has some seeds in it so I am saving it to see what would happen if I plant them back home.


The weather is chilly at night but gorgeous during the day into the 70's. Tomorrow we are going to go up by Burlington as my dad's family (the Pickards) came from here and I have an address of an old buriel ground.

Last day in Virginia

Sorry, pictures today are not the best, very dirty lens makes for fuzzy pictures.

We had a few things to finish doing to day to say we did the area justice so off we went to Historic Jamestown. The day was beautiful, the sky so bright blue.

This is actually the second church that was built at the Jamestown settlement, but they (the diggers) think they found the first one this summer so excavation was in process.

After leaving the townsite we went over to the glassmakers shop of 1608 and saw how they were making glass back then, very interesting,he was actually making a vase.

After lunch we went back to Colonial Williamsburg as the farm was open and we had missed the museum. Here is some cotton growing on the farm.



This fellow was making shingles.

And this one plowing up the field.

Alongs comes a carriage ride.

So tomorrow it is North Carolina, Ron is already looking at Carolina Hurricanes vs the Ottowa Senators.

Colonial Williamsburg

Today was our day for Colonial Williamsburg, it was perhaps a little overpriced but we ended up enjoying the day even though at first we were skeptical.

They start with a rather long but good movie about becoming a patriot, of course we are still talking the Revolutionary War. Then they shuttle you across a couple streets to the actual old Williamsburg which is very well preserved or recreated.

Our first stop was behind the Governors Palace to hear Patrick Henry talk (or rant) about becoming an independant country, he was one of the instigators of the revolution.

The back yard was lovely, we then toured the Palace during the period of Governor Dunmores time approx 1774.

Down the street we came to the court house and went inside for a few trials, one case against a man for not attending church, oh how times have changed.

At the end of the street is the Old Capital building when it was located in Williamsburg, the capital today is in Richmond.

The tour inside was a little long winded but the fellow sure knew his law.


The magazine was very well stocked with one whole side containing original rifles and pistols, Ron really liked it in there.

Just about to give up for the day and we came across a fellow making bricks, he was very interesting and gave us a good lesson on brickmaking.

They give the usual buggy rides.

At the end of the day they do a little reenactment on the start of the Revolution so we hung around for this, it was actually done very good.

Here they are on the balcony, reading the Declaration of Independance.

A very good day, weather was about 17 so just nice for touring around.