Williamsburg at Christmas

A blog requires discipline to keep it current. We are not doing well. Once again we are trying to catch up. Please read the earlier post. The weekend continued on Saturday December 1 at the American Heritage Campground. The value of this campground was apparent throughout the weekend as we met in the recreation building: it was warm and more than adequate for our needs.

We enjoyed an excellent breakfast Saturday morning, and the business meeting that followed was informative. The Dogwood Chapter is in good shape and 2008 should be another fun year.

The ladies (Mem, Donna, Janice) again made a shopping trip, and the men (Larry, Chuck, Ralph) stayed in the park. This seemed to be to everyone's liking. Happy hour was at five and dinner at six, so the ladies returned early. Dinner was a feast with a banquet of homemade dishes and meats to tempt all appetites. A gift exchange followed dinner. Each couple (1 per rig) drew a number (1 -39) to establish the order for selecting either a wrapped gift (under the tree) or a gift that had been previously selected and unwrapped. This all made for great fun and entertainment. Mem and Larry drew number 1, and this entitled them to make the first and last gift selection.

The rally was over Sunday morning. We had breakfast at the rec hall and folks soon began heading home. The weather forecast was for rain and colder temperatures later in the day. By noon, those who were going had gone. We were staying and planning to spend the evening in downtown Williamsburg.

Around 3:30 pm we headed to town with six of us in Larry's Ford. We parked at the restaurant where we would have dinner and began walking through the streets of the downtown shopping area. It was beautiful! The decorations were traditional and the crowds were large. We met Chuck's sister and her husband and worked our way back to the restaurant just as a little rain began. Part of the Illumination celebration is fireworks. We were able to see some of them from our seats in the restaurant where we were warm, dry, and comfortable. The meal was delicious and the fellowship unsurpassed. There was talk of doing it again next year.

Monday morning was travel time and we were ready. There was much to do before the next get together at the ODC Christmas Party at Larry and Mem's on Saturday. All did not go smoothly on the trip home.

We left in front of Larry and Mem. They planned to follow us to I-95. We were about a mile from the campground when it happened: Janice was working the CB to talk to the other coach; Ralph was working the windshield washer switch and the wiper switch to clean up the windshield; neither noticed that we had passed the turn to I-64. What took longer to realize was that we were on a dead end road, and there was no place to turn around with a towed vehicle. We tried; we failed. We blocked a road for about 20 minutes while we unhooked the tow and backed everything around. What a mess! We are learning.

Janice drove the tow car and Ralph drove the coach the rest of the way home. We did stop at the Flying J in Carmel Church to put our first diesel fuel in the coach. This was more an economic experience than a fueling experience: $3.21.9 per gallon. We are learning.

Our next trip will be in January to NC en route to Florida. We are looking forward to that trip, but until then we will enjoy the season with family and friends here in Virginia.