12.08.2012 – 12.08.2012  34 °C

After a nice sleep in this morning we headed out for a day in Colonial Williamsburg. The thing that is pretty good about Colonial Williamsburg is that all of the staff dress up in period costume and the whole town is on tenterhooks about whether or not America is going to revolt against the English. At the time of the revolution Williamsburg was the capital of Virginia and Virginia was one of the main colonies pushing for independence so when you enter the town you are transported back to the month’s leading up to the Revolution (1775). Every day many re-enactments take place recounting real events that occurred in Williamsburg in the months before the revolution. Here you can hear Thomas Jefferson orate on the virtues of Independence, you can see English troops being over run, you can hear preachers talk about freedom of religion. It’s a pretty cool setup!

Sadly, we entered Colonial Williamsburg on a Sunday, and as you know, Sunday’s are the day or rest (particularly back in the day) so we missed out on a lot of the main re-enactment stuff. None of us were that disappointed because we’ve heard a fair bit about the Revolution in our travels and so missing out on some more demos wasn’t too big an issue for us.

We started at the Governor’s palace. The Governor of Virginia was one of the most powerful people in the colony (owing to the fact that Virginia is the oldest and most prosperous colony) and his palace would have rivalled many of the ‘palaces’ back in the old country. Today it is has been completely restored thanks to an inventory that was done near the time of the revolution listing out all furniture and chattels of the house.  The entry way is flanked by hundreds of muskets, swords and revolvers. I guess a show of strength was needed in those days to show who had the more weapons! I’ve got to say that one ransack of this house and the rebels would have had plenty of weapons to keep them going for a while!! The interior is largely made of wood so it has that old oak and chandelier look about it.. Nice!

From the Governor’s palace we wandered the length of the main street to look for a re-enactment. We had missed most of the re-enactments for the day and only caught the last one. This one was two preachers trying to enlist our support for the rebellion. Their main theme was that we would have the freedom to choose our religion under the rebellion (as opposed to under the British it was English Protestantism or nothing—Catholicism was actually outlawed and was a jailing offence!). I think by the end of the discussion most of the audience was quietly supporting the rebellion… you can’t talk too loudly though or you could get round up by the British troops!!!

On our walk back up main street we were keen to find ourselves something to eat. We finally found it half way up main street near the courthouse. D and I shared a quart of pulled pork and coleslaw on bread rolls… Well, today we found our 1 meal that feeds 3 (even though M didn’t eat our lunch).. we threw out heaps! A quart of Pulled Pork doesn’t sound like much but think of a takeaway Baskin’s ice cream container and that’s how much pork and coleslaw we had!!! You are probably wondering what Pulled Pork is… It’s a southern dish, it’s a piece of roasting pork that is smoked in a bbq contraption (not like our bbq’s) and is then “pulled” so that you end up with strings of pork that are then marinated in this smokey bbq sauce… It’s pretty tasty and really nice on a toasted bread roll.

We continued our wander around the town after lunch, first stopping to see wig making in progress. It reminds me of weaving a rug, only using human hair. Apparently the hair was purchased from women living in Europe or Asia who grew their hair for the express purpose of having it shaved for the wig makers! What a job!! From the wig maker we headed over to see the military encampment to talk to the sergeant. I was interested to hear in how the “average” man saw the revolution. By the sounds of it, like most wars, the average person saw no advantage in becoming a free nation. Really the changes that the King was making (new taxes etc) were only really impacting the wealthy. The only thing an average person got out of becoming an independent nation was the chance to vote (if he owned land!) and the right to freedom of religion (most didn’t care though).

Our last two stops were into see the Carpenter hard at work staining a chair (not super exciting) and down to the Brick maker. I hadn’t really ever thought about how bricks were made.. the process is fairly simple. Brick yards are built on land that is largely clay. The clay is then mixed (using someone’s feet) to a smooth consistency, sand is added and then the sand clay mixture is placed in a mould for drying. Once the brick is dry it is fired and then it’s ready for use! I felt sorry for the two ladies who were working in the brick yard—1 had the super tiring job of mixing the clay by stomping up and down in a clay pit (no need for a stair master work out after stomping clay all day) and the other had to mix the clay and sand and mould the bricks. Heavy hot work! Meanwhile the master brick maker (a man of course) just stood around and talked to us. Apparently he isn’t lazy, this is actually what he used to do—his whole job was to supervise the job and oversee the firing process (the most important step in the process)… Trust me, you would want to earn good wages to do the clay mixing job (or really want to get fit quick)!

Our day in Colonial Williamsburg ended with us going for a wander amongst the local markets and sitting down to a yummy ice cream. We headed back to the digs for a rest. Whilst resting D and I decided to head to Busch Gardens for the afternoon with a plan to test out some of the big rollercoasters! (M isn’t keen on roller coasters so we thought we’d get the biggun’s out of the way before we hit the park with M).

Busch Gardens is supposedly the most beautiful theme park in the world, which I think is maybe pushing it a bit, but it is set in a bushland setting with the obligatory manicured trees and lawns so I guess I shouldn’t be quite so harsh! It is set in Europe so each “land” is a country in Europe—actually it seems to be more Bavaria/ Austrian Tyrol than anywhere else but the theme does sort of work. Our first stop was to the biggest and baddest roller coaster I’ve ever seen let alone road! The coaster is a sit in style (thank heavens there was something to brace my feet on!) with about thirty people in each batch. You start off and head straight up about 10 stories where it promptly drops you vertically. Before the drop, the carriage hangs over the edge…. Awful! In fact, the ride was so bad that I had my eyes closed the entire time… I’ve never been on a roller coaster this bad before (and probably won’t venture onto one like this again!) When we get off my legs were shaking pretty badly and I was just thanking the all mighty that I didn’t die on the way down! I love roller coasters but not ones this big!!!! (Either I’m getting old or the roller coasters are getting way more extreme than they used to??)—I know Tania would have been proud of me for riding this bad boy!!!

No sooner had we gotten off this coaster and I stupidly suggested we tackle a “more tame” looking roller coaster the Alpine. More tame, my you know what! Holy Smokes!! I think it was potentially as bad as the big blue coaster. It is the style where you sit in and your legs dangle down with the track running over head. Holy Dooley.. Insane! There are more loops on this coaster than you can get your head around and of course it runs upside down. I had my eyes open whilst on this coaster so the whole time I was stressing that I was going to scrape my legs on the ground (even though your rational mind knows they can’t possible hit the ground—your instincts take over and just force your legs to avoid each sweep of the ground!).. By the time we got off, I had to call it quits on the coasters (I get motion sick pretty badly and was feeling average) and had to find somewhere quiet to sit and have some small sips of water!!

We hung around the park for another couple of hours just wandering the park working out what rides we would tackle the next day with M and watching the lights illuminate the park at night. Once I had counted out the coasters I enjoyed the rest of my evening but I think I’ve learnt a lesson… If it looks insanely high/ loopy I should just look but not enjoy!! (I think it’s a case of going into temporary retirement.. I know once I see the next coaster at the next park I’ll be straight back on it!)

Song of the Day– AC/DC, Highway to Hell