Chippokes Plantation State Park - Surry, VA

We have finally embarked on our RV adventure -- it seems like it was a long time coming.  Bought the R-pod in January and never took it anywhere until the day we left on this trip.  Not too smart but the weather and our schedules just didn't cooperate with the concept of a "shakedown cruise".  So we are spending our first three nights out in Chippokes Plantation State Park in Virginia -- a very beautiful spot  --and are learning the systems.

.  The weather has been great - mostly warm and sunny, with a few brief showers thrown in.  We set up camp on Tuesday afternoon and put up the "R-dome" - a screened in room that doubles our living space -- very much needed as Poppy takes up most of the floor space inside!

I made pasta puttanesca for dinner on Tuesday night.  Thought that was a good choice since it only takes two pots and is quick and easy (it's named after the Italian word for prostitute, "puttan", because they could make it quickly between clients).  Here is my total cooking space:

On Wednesday we took the free ferry (only about 5 miles from the campground) across the James River to Jamestown.  We took Poppy with us and did a walking tour of the site of the oldest continuous British settlement in North America.  The tower of this church was built in 1690 but the rest of the building is a re-creation.  The tarp is covering an archaeological dig.

After seeing what we could see of Jamestown with a large dog in tow (i.e. couldn't go inside the museums), we drove up the Colonial Parkway to Yorktown and did a driving tour of the battlefield there.  Once again, a fascinating look at history.  We had gone from where the British began their colonization of America to where it ended, 174 years later.  The driving tour had a CD you put in your car radio which narrated what had happened at each of the stops on the tour. Bob is inspecting a mortar located behind the siege line where the colonial troops surrounded the British.

Today we explored the Chippokes Plantation State campground where we are staying.  They had a great Farm and Forestry Museum with lots of old tools, carriages, etc -- just Bob's kind of place.  We started talking to one of the Rangers and found out he is a blacksmith so he and Bob had a great talk about forges, anvils and other blacksmithing tools.  

Tomorrow we leave for a long weekend at Camp Thomas -- Justin and Terri's house.  It's Memorial Day Staycation for the family.  

This is my first real blog post and I promise that future ones will be shorter.  I'm just trying to learn how it all works.  I am definitely open to suggestions from you experienced bloggers out there (Chris Siegel).