Amelia Courthouse with a little Blue Grass for good measure.

Amelia Family Campground is located about an hour from Richmond VA and 45 min. from Appomattox,which is why we chose it. Also nearby is Petersburg which is home to "the Crater". More on that later.

The campground is in the middle of nowhere. It has about 40 acres with a pond with full hookup sites, water and electric sites and rustic sites. One thing they also have that we have never seen before, is a stage and dance floor. Why, you may ask? Well, it is home to the Amelia Courthouse Blue Grass Festival, the 35th anniversary. They have 2 festivals a year and during that time the place is packed. Anyway, we arrived on May 10th with plans on staying through the 17th. (leaving in the middle of the festival).

First things first, we went to the end of the Civil War in Appomattox, Virginia. This is where Lee surrendered to Grant. Here is an interesting factoid, a lot of the town is still there. The house where the actual surrender took place was taken apart by a private company with plans to ship it to Washington where it would be rebuilt. Well the company could not get the financing to complete the project so there it sat. A pile of lumber and doors and trim etc., for years, until the National Park system bought the land and put it back together again. So it is the original house, but it isn't. Here are some of the pictures we took.

The house where Grant and Lee met. 

Yep, that's the place alright.

The actual Appomattox Courthouse

The Bar and boarding house

Surrender Road. This is the road the Confederates walked down to surrender their arms. 

I love the detail work they do. Even on the modern structures. 

Very moving

The next day we went to Richmond. The National Battlefield parks are interesting when it includes a major city. As you drive around you see a monument here and there, but it's hard to get a feel for what it was like back then. The museums have old photos and stories from people who lived through the siege,weapons are all over also, mainly cannon. What has survived, to a point, are the earthen works surrounding the city that both Confederate and Union troops used during the siege. Even with those saved everything around them is different. I don't think they had condo's just the other side of the tree line back then. So you really have to use your imagination. Here are a few pictures. 

 The Virginia capital in the distance

 A few pictures of the earthen works outside the city. 

 I love the architecture in the old cities

 Just one of the hundreds of monuments

 A new one on me. I thought I knew all the different weapons used back then. Nope. 

 Lincoln came to visit right after Richmond fell. 

 The Tredegar Iron works where weapons were made for the Confederacy. 

 Foot bridge out to Belle Isle suspended below the highway crossing the James River.

The River

After a day off we went to Petersburg, home of the Battle of the Crater. The short story version is the Union troops dug a tunnel under the confederate lines. Packed it with explosives. Blew it up and then charged. The explosion was enormous throwing bodies and cannon everywhere. In the confusion the Union troops charged into the crater. The Confederates sent in the reserves and it was a shooting gallery on the Union troops in the bottom of the crater. One of the bloodiest battles of the war. 

This was included in the siege of Richmond. That's how far the Union lines stretched. They had some excellent examples of what the siege works looked like as well at the Dictator. A really big mortar (cannon) that the Union used to bombard the city. Enjoy.

 Not everything on a battlefield is ugly. A bloom from the tulip poplar.

 The Crater

 The only National Cemetery where the markers are laid down. Someone thought it would be easier to take care of that way.  They have plans to change it as the wear on the markers has been severe. 

 The Dictator

 Some friends we made living under the Dictator.

 The following are some of the best reconstructions of a siege fort we have seen.

The tunnel entrance to the crater. 

Next came the Bluegrass festival. 3 days and nights of non stop Bluegrass and old time country music. Throughout the park during the day, groups gathered outside their RV's and played and sang. There were always 3 to 4 groups going at any given time. 

 It really does exist. 

 The park beginning to fill up. For every green area in these two photos just put an RV. Thats how crowded it was. 

 Yep.  They had a dance floor

 Tye dyed everything.  I love the union suit.

Yep

The Pros on stage. 

It's getting there

This is a Cadillac Hearse custom made into a camper by Jayco. 

 I tried to download video's but it just isn't working. I have a ton from the festival. Both the amateurs and the pros. If you're interested let me know and I'll email them to you.

By the way, we decided to stay for the whole festival and another week after that. The nice thing about fulltiming is that you're not on a schedule. We can stay as long as we want, we aren't on vacation. That's how we were in the beginning' rushing to see everything as quickly as possible. Now our motto is,"We have to be somewhere, so why not here." It's working nicely.

One of the bonuses of staying longer is we met two really nice people, Mary and Glenn. Notice he spells it the same way I do. Very rare that spelling. They are from Loomis, CA. and two of the nicest people we have met on the road. They aren't full time, but they do spend a lot of time on the road. We spent a couple of days with them and took a day trip to Ft. Lee; Home of the Quartermaster Corps and the Quartermaster Museum, (4th largest army museum in the country), and the WAC Women in the Service Museum. Both were very cool. An army runs on it's stomach and it's the Quartermaster Corps that provides the food, gas, laundry, and even includes burials. They were instrumental in the planning of D-Day and all of the latest campaigns we have been in. Here are some pictures of both museums.

One of Patton's many Jeeps. The display talks about how if he had the fuel he could of taken Berlin. What he didn't know at the time was Eisenhower cut off his fuel to slow him down. He was moving too fast. 

 One of the Presidential horse drawn cassons. 

 An example of the many supplies provided to the troops in combat. 

 One of my favorite displays. Every flag from the beginning displayed in order and what states were added for the additional stars.

 Another unique display was of weapons that were tried but failed for one reason or another. 

 Pallas Athene the symbol of the WAC's 

 Some of the many posters from the 40's and 50's

Next onto Manassas/ Bull Run. See you down the road.