Virginia Civil War bike tour in October
Back on the East Coast, my uncle, Louis Oberdorfer, his daughter Kathryn and her husband Joel and I set off for a week’s tour of Civil War sites in Virginia accompanied by 4 fancy bikes, a bike guide named Mike and his sagwagon helper, a history teacher named Bob
We had fresh air, exercise, learned a lot of history, and ate lovely meals. We stayed in some of the most wonderful bed and breakfast inns. The first night was at the Littlepage Inn, once a plantation with 200 slaves.
We enjoyed gourmet meals and the wonderful antiques which were actually made on the property.
This is us at one of the information boards at Chancellorsville
We also visited John Marshall’s home. He was the first supreme court justice of America.
Marshall House
This is the fabulous Civil War Museum which makes the war come horribly alive.
In Richmond, we stayed along the wide boulevard with a grand monument at each crossing. This is Jefferson Davis, the president of the south.
We found this enormous stick figure at the edge of town
Finally we stayed in Charlottesville where Thomas Jefferson built his home, Monticello and the University of Virginia. We stayed at a lovely combination B&B and vineyard called High Meadows.
I had the most outrageous bedroom with a round bed!
One of the things which struck me the most about touring these sites is that there are no blacks around. This was the center of slavery and seeing how different people lived is very sobering. The Civil War was a particularly brutal one – lasting years and killing over 600,000 men. 2/3 died from disease. It all seems so senseless now. The sites have been beautiful kept and are well marked with informative boards or information centers.