Reunited

August 28, 2006







The official transfer of custody of our dog, India took place in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Kathy’s father did us the huge favor by driving her from Massachusetts to Virginia to hand her over thus saving us from about 20 additional hours of driving.

Before the hand over, we drove to Fredericksburg from Winston Salem, stopping a couple of times along the way. Our first stop was at the Petersburg National Battlefield in Petersburg, Virginia. This site of a nine month siege in 1864 near the end of the Civil War as Union General Ulysses S. Grant was able to basically starve out the final days of the Confederacy under Robert E. Lee leading to the eventual surrender at nearby Appomattox Courthouse.

The battlefield had a couple of interesting features including the largest cannon used in the war, “The Dominator” and the site of one of the most interesting events of the war when Union soldiers tunneled under Confederate positions and placed explosives there creating a huge crater which you may have seen depicted in the book and film, “Cold Mountain.”

The Crater

The Dominator

We next drove into downtown Richmond, just in time to attend the Shokoe Beer Festival. This small but fun beer festival featured all of the local breweries and then some pouring their best microbrews. We sampled many tasty brews including to our surprise, Dale’s Pale Ale, from Oskar Blues in Lyons, Colorado, which we had been drinking there only days previously, though we prefer their Old Chub brew and we actually have a case in the car. We had dinner in Richmond, where we received a call from Jimmy that he was in Fredericksburg, about 50 miles north. So we drove up there for the big reunion.

Beer Fest

India was thrilled to see us and squealed with delight upon seeing us. She looked fine, had much longer hippie dog hair but was otherwise was in great shape. It was nice to see Jim as well and we spent the evening and the next morning’s breakfast with him before we each departed heading north and south respectively.

Our journey took us into South Carolina, where we spent the night in Charleston last night, watching the path of Hurricane Ernesto closely. The Hurricane path seems to be right through the Florida Keys and certainly will affect us as we head south. We are keeping a close eye on it. What a welcome home!