Thursday, July 22, 2021

Eastward, Ho! Days 45 through 47: Arrival in Williamsburg, Touring Jamestown Settlement, Kitty Hawk Flight

Tuesday, July 20

We arrived at the home of our friends, Jane and Larry H. in Williamsburg, VA. in the early afternoon.  This is the end of the eastward motion for this RV trip.

Martha and I were looking forward to checking out their new home in the Ford Colony development.

Meet Boomer, the 3 year old Labrador Retriever:


Tuesday's dinner was a demonstration of the marvelous use of Sous Vide which Larry and Jane used to re-heat brisket meat that had been prepared for the 4th of July and vacuum packed afterwards:


It was delicious!

Wednesday, July 21

We went to tour the Jamestown Settlement's displays and museum.  Nice facilities but was good to finally get back to the air-conditioned Gallery Building after viewing the ships:








Inside the Jamestown fortification, I took this picture of the King's Crest inside the church building. 


Forming a triangular shape, each end of the triangle featured cannon armaments for defense:


The other structures were your standard storage, blacksmith, habitation huts, made of local materials.  We moved on back towards the Gallery's offerings.  Note: I failed to see the signs prohibiting photography inside the gallery building; so the following pics are what I got before a docent told me that I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures.




Here's Larry and Martha at the ship sculpture outside the museum gallery:


Thursday, July 22

While Martha and Jane took care of some shopping, Larry helped me change the oil in the VRRV prior to then taking me flying in his 1967 Beechcraft Bonanza V35A!  We flew, fittingly so of course, to nearby Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to the birthplace of powered flight!

KFFA aka First Flight Airport near the Wright Monument

Larry, prior to signing in as having flown in....

Managed by the National Park Service, the monument is quite impressive and visible from quite a distance in the air.  It was a short walk from the airport to the monument:


As we walked to the monument a Waco biplane few overhead close enough for me to capture this picture:



Sculpture of the "First Flight" moment visible from the monument




A replica of the rail on which the Wright Brother's aircraft slid for takeoff

Rock boulders were used to mark the distances achieved by each of
the four flights.  See above diorama.


Larry in front of the replica of the Wright Brother's plane.

Returning to Larry's plane, we flew back to Williamsburg with no issues and it was such smooth flying conditions that I didn't even get nauseous or a headache!  I'm sure Larry's flying skills were also involved of course!  Since we were flying under VFR: Visual Flight Rules, he was able to do a flyover of the ships at Jamestown Settlement:


Back on the ground, Larry had his plane refueled and parked it back in the hangar:


Here's a short video showing us landing first at Kitty Hawk's First Flight Airport and then on returning, landing at the Williamsburg-Jamestown Airport:



6 comments:

CCjon said...

Love that video of you guys flying. What treat for you. Larry is a very smooth pilot and proud aircraft owner.

So does the dog get to fly too?

RichardM said...

Nice V tailed Bonanza. I've been told that those are more challenging to fly as there isn't a separate rudder. So, are you trading the Samurai in on a real exploration vehicle (that flies)? That whole area has a lot of interesting places to visit. I like the overhead view of the ships. And not a single sunset in sight...

redlegsrides said...

RichardM, Larry says it isn't a challenge to fly. I'm keeping the Sammy for now.

redlegsrides said...

CCJon the dog, Booer, hasn't flown yet.

Blaze Our Way said...

Now those are just the coolest, funnest days!! Though I would prefer the flying and Kittyhawk. I've never been then, and the monument looks great!

redlegsrides said...

Thanks for the comments Lori...this area is quite the spot for history, scenery and our hosts the best.