Last Days of the Gypsies

After the festivals in Urbanna and Charles City County, the gypsies had their final festival with the Godspeed visiting New Kent County for a couple of days. The first day was just for school kids and an event in the afternoon for seniors only. We had a ton of kids of various ages, and through a bit of disorganization, the day went well. The festival itself was a collection of people from all over the county with booths on crafts, archaeology, alpacas, taxidermy, agriculture, history, music, and even animal skinning (my favorite). I made friends with the little old man that was apparently an award-winning skinner and hide-tanner. His display was right next to our tent, so we were able to really enjoy the shock-value squeals of the kids next to us as Charles skinned a beaver and gave the feet and teeth to the kids. It was particularly fun since he also gave me a couple of tails and a foot to take back and use at Jamestown. (photos: Paddock Lane and the pop of marvelous foliage that we had all given up on this fall due to the drought and late season heat; the back of our house and some color; alpacas in New Kent County, including one that seems to be pretty hungry; me in an alpaca hat to go with my other cold weather gear; and me with some of the taxidermy temporarily stored in our tent.)





After work, we went back to Williamsburg where I quickly cleaned and got ready to head to Hampton. I’d been wanting to go to a monster truck rally for a while (since I’d never been to one before), and having seen the commercials on television, had gotten a group of people to go to the Monster Jam show that evening. Heather, after having recently moved to Connecticut, came out to play since she was in the area for the day. Everyone finally got to the Hampton Coliseum, none of us having ever been to a monster truck show. It was an interesting crowd that seemed to have its own kind of silly culture, but I loved it! It was an event that I enjoyed immensely, though I’m still not sure why. After Monster Jam, we all headed to a pub in downtown Hampton to hang out and apparently have a table hockey tournament until it was time for us all to go home (since most of us had to work the next day, anyway…). (photos: Grave Digger and another truck crushing some cars; Scott, Lindsay, and David at the rally -- David being particularly excited, of course; some of the motocross at Monster Jam, really one of the coolest parts of the entire experience; and fans cheering like they mean it for Grave Digger, the superstar of monster trucks. Videos on my YouTube page, linked on the right side of my blog.)




The second day was quite busy (and I a bit tired), though I was able to periodically check the UM-OSU football score throughout the day. The ship had to leave early since the President was coming to one of the plantations in the area in commemoration of the First Thanksgiving (in 1619 in Virginia, not the 1620 one in Massachusetts). After chatting all day long with visitors, the Honor Guard regrouped to have one last beverage and one last group dinner at the local (and delicious!) Italian restaurant on site. (photos: Me waiting for the festival to open, resting but not sleeping; the Godspeed at her docking with the cypress trees and their foliage in the background; Charles' skinned beaver; and Jack and my scarf unwinding after festival clean-up at the end of the day.)




The following few days were busy in the run-up to Thanksgiving. My dad came down to visit and spend the holiday with me, arriving that Wednesday night. I had to work on Thanksgiving as part of the big program Foods and Feasts (all of our interpretive sites cook… a lot…), so my dad followed his inspiration to drive to Virginia Beach before coming to explore Jamestown that afternoon. After work, we cleaned up before heading to the Whitehall Restaurant in Williamsburg for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner (though I’d already had one official dinner at work, along with all of the other food I’d been eating all day). (photos: Thanksgiving dinner number #1, courtesy of the Jamestown Settlement café; Kris at one of the cookfires in the Indian Village; Don mixing instead of cooking (something about fire on a wooden pier and ships); me really excited about roast duck and scalded oysters; and Terry explaining to Dawn and some visitors about something delicious he cooked.)





(photos: Me examining my turtle soup with some visitors; Mary with the head of the hog butchered in the Fort that morning; and Thanksgiving dinner #2 that evening.)



The next day the Honor Guard had to march in a parade in Reston, VA (just outside of DC), so we were up early to drive north. My dad had agreed to come with us and, along with a couple of local volunteers, swell our meager ranks for the parade. My dad hadn’t ever done costumed/interpretive work and found the costuming interesting, to say the least. I had a hard time keeping myself from giggling (as, apparently, did my grandma when she saw the photos of my dad in costume). After the parade, we drove back to Williamsburg after food and beverage stops in Richmond and went to bed early. (photos: Mike training Dad before the parade; the Honor Guard in the parade with me as ensign; and look at me wave.)



I was sick on Saturday and spent most of the day in bed until meeting my dad later in the afternoon for a bit of shopping in Merchant’s Square. That evening, he wanted to hang out with my friends and the Honor Guard at the pub. We got a fair amount of people to come hang out, though the evening continued quite late and was indeed fun. Sunday morning was spent taking my dad to the airport before coming back to Williamsburg to relax and recover from the holiday weekend.