Today was spent in getting ready to take off for Denver in the morning. First on the list was to go pick up new documentation for my camping site here in the park campground. I already had another reservation set to start today so it was no problem to pick up the site placard and the one for the truck windshield. Also talked to a couple of people in the office there and told them I would be away for a week and asked them to keep an eye on the trailer as well as getting a phone number I can call if I need to stay longer than I have planned for so far.

    Laundry was next as I was going to need some of the shirts and pants in the wash. The park here has a nice little laundry building with a couple of machines in it so it was no real problem to go down and spend an hour or so while a couple of loads were washed and dried.

    Once laundry was done it was on to packing for the next week. Only one small carry on bag as I'll be somewhere I can do laundry if I need to. Still, there is always the question of what to take to Colorado in early April. It can either be close to 80 one day and a 2-day blizzard the next. I packed conservatively and figure I can borrow hats, gloves and heavier coats as needed.

   The final thing for the day was picking up the inside of the trailer and then spending a couple hours outside trying to track down the leak in the roof that has plagued me for the last 3 years. It's not like the roof is all torn up, so there aren't that many places where it could leak. In fact a good 98% of the roof looks just fine, and the rest of it has been gone over so many times with roofing mastic and bitchathane tape that it seems improbable that it could leak anywhere either. However; today I noticed two places around the TV antennae, the one I don't ever use, that might be leaking. One was where the 'boot' over the cable through the roof  had pulled away a little bit, so it has now been 'siliconed', as well as were the top metal plate with the hinge meets the metal anchor plate on the roof. It has also been daubed with more silicone. The one other place it might leak could be where the roof material meets the front edge of the trailer. There is a metal trim piece there that could leak even though I have caulked all of the screw heads and along each side of the trim several times. Still.... I just put a 6" piece of self sealing roofing bitchathane tape over the whole thing. A couple of nice warm days and it should melt it right into the roofing materials and never come off. So I'm crossing my fingers once again.... but I'm still rigging up my interior umbrella over the bed while I'm gone.... just in case!

    My plane is at 6:55 am tomorrow so I'll be up early for sure. Emma says it is nearly an hour to the airport from here and then some time trying to figure out where to park. With luck I'll be in Denver by tomorrow afternoon sometime even though they didn't give me much time between planes in Dallas where I change. I'm anxious to get there and see how my mom is doing. My last report wasn't that favorable I'm afraid. Will keep my fingers crossed that this is just a bump in the road, but am steeling myself in case it isn't.

    In the meantime; here are a few pictures from my tour of the Historical Park of Henricus.

Henricus Historical Park near Richmond Virginia           Photo's 1-12 - April 2, 2013 

View from the front gate of Henricus Fort the 2nd European settlement in the 'New World'. Named after the son of King James I of England it was founded in 1611 when over 300 men and boys came up the James River nearly 80 miles from the first U.S. European settlement, Jamestown. Built on an ox-bow of the river they built the first palisade across the 'neck' of land while under attack from the native Powhatan tribe.

This would of been the main guard shed. Meant to house as many as 8-10 men it was built, (this is a re-creation, as are all of the buildings), of hand hewn wooden posts and beams with the posts set directly into the earth. The spaces between the posts was then filled in with 'wattle and daub', interwoven wood strips with an adobe like material applied to them. Add a thatched roof out of native reeds and you had a pretty cozy house. At least until the snow fell anyway.

I took this photo mostly because of the arrow quiver which I noticed was made out of native reeds set in a tube shape and bound with strips of leather. I thought it looked not only serviceable but rather elegant too.

The inside of the guard shack showing one of the bunks and the fireplace. Made out of wattle and daub also, it was interesting to note how wide and deep it was and how this size narrowed only a little bit as it rose above the floor. This had to be a real heat loser in the winter time, but maybe they were tougher back then. Note the cylindrical objects in the lower right.... these held individual charges for the men's muskets. Each would hold a bullet, cloth patch and enough powder for one charge.



A view of the other end of the cabin. With 8-10 men living here it often meant 'hot bunking', where the guys coming off duty would take the bed of the next guy going on duty. I guess it's one way to have a warm bed when you need it.  

A piece of metal in the shape of one of the soldiers armoured breast plates. It shows the effects of being shot at various distances with a standard 52 cal. round ball. In no case did the ball actually pass through, but it still would of hurt like crazy. Guess it's better than being dead.

A close up view of the thatching used on many of the roofs.

One last view of the guard building.

The blacksmith shop where all things metal were either created or repaired. Another neat old post and beam constructed building.



Very 'rough' carpentry in all of the buildings, but still good enough to do what they are meant to do and still stand up to the elements reasonably well. Here we see several different mortise and tenon joints and the wooden pegs that joined them together.

On the other side of the road is the carpentry shop where today the carpenter was building a foot operated treadle lathe. It always astounds me what you can build given a few basic tools, some wood and a lot of time.

A little patch of forget-me-nots.