Back he said, soon

I took a couple of days with Georgiann to explore some of Virginia's Northern Neck last week. We based ourselves in the Rappahannock River town of Tappahannock and toured Stratford Hall in Warsaw, VA on Thursday. Stratford Hall is the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. His final home and resting place is Arlington, of course. The Lee family built and lived in Stratford Hall for several generations. Begun in the late 1730s by Colonel Thomas Lee the home was several years in construction. It is of Georgian architecture, built in a three story H. Thomas Lee and his wife Hannah Harrison Ludwell had 8 children, two of which, Richard Henry Lee (Light Horse Harry Lee) and Francis Lightfoot Lee were signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Light Horse Harry Lee lost his first wife, who was also his cousin, Matilda, to malaria and later married one Ann Hill Carter. Their union produced Robert Edward among other children. Light Horse Harry Lee and his wife Ann left Stratford Hall in the winter of 1810-1811 due to mounting debt. The house fell into the care of one of Harry and Matilda's sons, Major Henry Lee IV, also known as Black Horse Harry. He in turn sold the plantation due to mounting debt and it passed through several families for about a century before a group of women determined to buy, restore and preserve the plantation under the name of Robert E. Lee Memorial Association.

Now you know more about a place you had never heard of than you ever wanted to know, right?

On Thursday evening we had dinner at the famous Lowery's Seafood Restaurant. Very good. Excellent seafood. Definitely you should go if you find yourself anywhere east of the Mississippi River.

On Friday we traveled over close to Reedville, the last village on the road at the Potomac River, to the dock at Buzzard's Point. There we hitched a ride on the Chesapeake Breeze for an hour and half cruise out in the Chesapeake Bay to a little island named Tangier. You can look it up. A neat trip and a neat place to visit. We watched a large pod of Bottlenose Dolphins play around the boat for a little while and saw a Tall Ship of unknown anchorage.

We got back to Buzzard Point about 4 pm and hurried back home, about 3 ½ hours so we could regroup and go to Winchester, KY on Saturday morning to visit G’s parents.

I will talk about that next, right now I need to quit for the evening. I spent most of the day cutting a trench in my front yard to bury PVC conduit to run electric out to a three light post light I am putting up at the end of the driveway. I got the conduit in the ground with a 3/8 nylon braided rope as a wire pull and covered back up, but at a body cost higher than I was hoping. Getting old ain’t for the fainthearted. Speaking of which, 60 comes my way next Wednesday.

Seven more and I will have fulfilled my biblical expectations, 17 more years and I will reach the age both my parents checked out. I trust they know where they are. I haven’t heard from them since they left.

I do want to speak about two things I experienced in KY on my next blog. Tomorrow maybe? Maybe not. Soon. As in “When will then be now?” said Helmet. Sandurz replies “Soon.”

If that exchange totally escapes you, it is from a somewhat irreverent movie of a few years ago.