The Tide is out

7th August 2013

A very interesting day.

This morning we drove from Norfolk to Richmond to visit the Tredegar Ironworks. This was the main producer of armaments for the Confederate Army during the civil war. And now it houses a very informative Civil War Museum. Given that the Gray family hail from Tredegar in South Wales it was a must see.

I had wondered what connection (if any) there was with the real Tredegar and the guide informed me that the original owner of the ironworks had recruited a number of men from Tredegar and named the works after their home town. They had in fact heard of the real Tredegar and produced a couple of books about the town (including one with the town clock on the front) to prove it. That said Tredegar Virginia is pronounced “Tread dig gar” as opposed to “Tread Dee Gar” as it is supposed to be pronounced.

We then headed back towards Norfolk to visit the Jamestown settlement. We were really impressed with the museum and living history exhibits (replicas of the original boats, a reconstruction of the fort and village and the Native American village).

The settlement includes a replica of the church and guess who couldn’t resist the pulpit?

When we were there it was time for a demonstration of the firing of muskets and artillery. Loads of loud bangs!

We barely scratched the surface so will go back tomorrow when we are due to visit Williamsburg as well. We were really impressed with Jamestown.

Heading back to Norfolk we hit serious traffic and spent about 2 hours in a traffic jam. This meant we were late getting to the Norfolk Tides baseball game we had tickets for. In fact it didn’t matter as it was a very boring game. We left at the end of the 7th inning with the score 0 – 0. (I think we’ve been spoilt by watching major league baseball in the past.) The Tides were playing a team from Gwinnett. Where? (In Georgia apparently.)

Now, something that has been bothering us for a while came to a head today. The signposting of roads in the USA. Quite frankly it is woeful. Often there is no prior warning that a junction is coming up ad this seems especially true of Interstate junctions. And major attractions (such as the Tredegar Ironworks Civil War Museum) aren’t clearly signposted. We’ve noticed this in the past but maybe now the attitude is people have Sat Navs so don’t need signs. Well we haven’t got a Sat Nav here so would like some decent signposts please. Rant over.