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Sun and Rain at Yorktown Battlefield, part 2
by Caroline Miniscule
My mother and I returned to Yorktown Battlefield on Sunday for the final day of the 225th Anniversary of the Victory at Yorktown. We intended to visit the Tall Ships at Riverwalk Landing (in Yorktown) and then return to the battlefield in time to see the 1:30 pm Surrender re-enactment. Whether or not we succeeded in this simple plan will be revealed below.
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Saturday had been the perfect day...it had started out cool but soon warmed up and the sun shone brightly. Sunday was quite the opposite...rain just had to step in and ruin the ride.
It wasn't so bad at first. My mother and I got to the battlefield parking lot at about 10:30 am, and by the time we got up to the Visitors Center where we were to wait for the trolley/bus that would take us to the Riverwalk Landing, it was 10.45 am. The bus arrived about 11 am. (Times will turn out to be important, as I'll explain later on.)
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A military unit formed ranks and marched past us to the beat of a drum, on their way...somewhere. Around 10:30 am, Sunday morning.
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To be fair, the posted schedule for the bus/trolleys did not say at what times they would be running that day. There was no "special schedule" for these four days posted at all.
The schedules that were posted were for their normal days - when the buses and trolleys did the "Historic Triangle" route between Yorktown and Williamsburg - and they ran every thirty minutes. But I just assumed that because of the trebling of visitors on these four days, the schedule of the bus/trolleys would increase, to accomodate these visitors, and that buses to Williamsburg would be factored into the equation.
Tip #2
Never assume anything. Always verify. And never assume that the first official person you ask will have the right answers. Always ask two or three, and if each of them gives you the same answer, chances are it will be the correct one. |
Watermens' Museum, Yorktown. Where the bus dropped us off.
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So, we got on board the bus, and true to at least one of my precepts, I asked the driver if he was going to Riverwalk Landing. He said he was. After everyone had boarded and we'd waited an additional five minutes in case anyone else showed up, we were on our way.
It was not a five minute drive into Yorktown. First we sat at the juncture of our road and Ballard for a long five minutes or more, as the traffic director at this crossroads didn't seem too inclined to let the cars waiting at the four corners go in short bursts, but rather kept each one waiting for five minutes. [Why there were so many cars when I assume the roads had been sealed off as before, I do not know.] Then, the bus bypassed Yorktown to go to the Victory Center,
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where it dropped off and picked up people. Well, that was fair enough. Anyway, finally we were dropped off at the Watermens Museum at Yorktown, with the Riverwalk Landing in front of us. We'd spend an hour there, I decided, then get back to the battlefield by 1 pm, in time to walk the fifteen minutes to Surrender Field.
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I'd been in Yorktown before, although unfortunately not before Isabel, a category 5 hurricane which struck on September 12, 2003 and flooded much of Yorktown's coastline (among many othe areas of Virginia, of course). I say unfortunately because I'd really like to have known what it looked like at that time. Today, Riverwalk Landing - with its buildings and shops (such as the Stars and Stripes Store), is brand new. The Watermen's Museum survived the 'cane, (although I have a picture somewhere of it sitting like an island surrounded by water in the days after the hurricane struck.)
In a field beside the Watermens' Museum had been set up a portable funfair for young kids, with a few 'blow up' places into which kids could get inside and jump around to their heart's content, a climbing wall (beside a tent for the U.S. Army), and clowns who did face painting and tied balloons.
My mother and I walked past the Museum (we'd been in it before) and past all the shops. We saw a brand new statue and spent some time trying to figure out which was Washington and which was DeGrasse. (The plaque didn't say.) There probably were clues in their uniforms...but I'm a buff of the Civil War, not the Revolutionary War, and I couldn't deduce anything. It was impossible to tell from their faces, as some weird 'artistry' had been put to use there.
We continued on. A few yards further on we came across an Information Tent; I asked, and learned that the man on the left was Washington.
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Statue of George Washington (left) and Admiral DeGrasse. |
Tall ships were suppossed to be docked at Riverwalk Landing...I had hoped to see literally a forest of masts pointing towards the skies, but of course that was not the case. There were only four ships, to begin with, and since they were moored they could not have their sails up, of course.
An "illiterate sailor" explaining the tools he used to navigate on the high seas |
Entry to the Godspeed and the Virginia were free, but you still had to get tickets because the tours were staggered to make sure the boats weren't overloaded. Visitors would be greeted at the top of the pier by someone in costume who would talk about life aboard the boats, then brought down to the ships themselves and handed off to the people on the ships who would give details about each particular ship.
I didn't take the time to go on board either ship. I've been on the Godspeed before, at Jamestown where it is normally moored. The Virginia is a pilot schooner circa 1917, and "sails the world as the Commonwealth tall ship Goodwill Ambassador promoting education, tourism, & economic development. Twelve professional crew sail Virginia hosting state agencies, private corporations, educational programming and attending maritime festivals."
The schooner Serenity was also moored, but the schooner Alliance was out in the water with all sails set.
Anyone who travels to Jamestown must go on board the Godspeed, which of course is a replica of one of the three ships that sailed across from England to Jamestown in 1609. You may be shocked to discover how tiny the ships were. They were tiny. Ti-nee.
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Left hand photo: The Godspeed on the left, the 1917 Virginia behind it.
No one was on the white sand of the Yorktown beach, of course, because it was rather cool, let alone threatening to rain. However, I mention it because it's a very pretty beach, and well worth visiting during the summer.
Several more 'temporary' buildings beckoned. The Jamestown Experience had been set up and we walked through this, and then two more buildings featuring exhibits of woodcarving, etc. However, we didn't give these the attention they deserved because it had started to rain and I also felt it was time to get back to the battlefield.
The Jamestown Experience, a mobile exhibit
| Yorktown was celebrating the 225th anniversary of the Victory of Yorktown. Jamestown is getting ready to celebrate the 400th anniversary of its founding. Most people think the Pilgrims founding Plymouth Colony [in what will become Massachusetts) was the first English settlement on this continent, but not so. Jamestown was founded in 1607 (and there had been 18 earlier, failed attempts).
The settlers sailed across the Atlantic from England to, eventually, Jamestown, aboard three ships, the 120 ton Susan Constant, and the 40 ton Godspeed and Discovery. The exact appearance of these ships isn't really known, however replicas have been built of each one, based on information about other ships built at about the same time in England.
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Each of these ships has actually more than one replica - the original replicas at Yorktown were, according to one historical interpreter on the dock today - brought over to England, where celebrations on the founding of Jamestown are also to take place. The new replicas have been brought down to their new home via a circuitous coastal route so that people can look at them, board them, and visit the Jamestown Experience traveling exhibit also. (You enter into a room fitted out like a ship below decks, this then expands into rooms with other exhibits - the native inhabitants, animals, the ships that brought the settlers there, etc.)
As we walked back to the Watermens' Museum, it was well-and-truly raining. I had brought only one large umbrella, which, when shared by two people, one of whom moves as slowly as a tortoise, did not work out too well.
Tip #2
The weather pronouncements of relatives and friends is almost as unreliable as that of trained meteorologists. If there's even a single cloud in the sky, carry an umbrella. Each member of your party should have their own umbrella, because trying to share one, even a big one, just does not work. |
Yorktown houses on the bluff above the coast.
We had plenty of time to admire them as we waited for our bus...or trolley...or some kind of transport. | We got back to the Watermens' Museum at 12:30, and I confidently expected to see a bus or trolley arrive at 12:45 to take us back to the Visitors' Centeer. That would take 15 minutes, I figured, to be generous, so we'd have about 20 minutes to walk to surrender field. Or maybe there'd be a shuttle.
The rain drizzled, then rained harder, then drizzled. Standing stationary, there's no problem in sharing an umbrella with an elderly relative, and I did so. I was dressed warmly and not too upset with the rain, though I imagined the poor re-enactors weren't too happy about getting their costumes soaking wet.
12:45 pm. No shuttle bus. No trolley. The line behind my mother and I continued to grow.
12:50 pm. No shuttle bus. No trolley. Grumblings could be heard up and down the ranks.
12:55 pm. No change in status. I was beginning to get really annoyed.
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1:00 pm. A lady, one of several Events people roaming about in little golf cart type contraptions, came up and told us she'd called and a trolley had just left the Victory Center and was heading our way.
1:05 pm. The trolley arrived. Behind it was another trolley. (These aren't real trolleys, running along tracks in the road or hooked to electricla lines overhead. They just look like trolleys.
We got back to the Visitors' Center at about 1:15 pm. On the way, several people were asking if there was a bus that could take them to Surrender Field, and of course...there wasn't. When we got to the Visitors building I walked in and asked one of the Park Rangers there, just to make sure, and she said the same thing.
If I'd been alone, I suppose I could have tried to jog the mile and a half to Surrender Field, but of course there was no way I could do that with my mother in tow. Also, the wind had picked up, the weather had cooled considerably, and it was raining - although not heavily - but mainly I was just in a bad mood over having had to wait over thirty minutes for a trolley when, on these four days at least, common sense would have suggested that things would have been set up for a quicker service.
If I'd traveled halfway across the country to see the ceremony I don't think I would have been too pleased at the outcome of the day, but, fortunately, I hadn't really had my heart set on seeing it, it just would have been nice.
So, my mother and I got back in our car, turned on the heat, and drove home.
I had learned several lessons, and intended to be much better prepared for future events when Jamestown 2007 started 'happening.'
Suggested links:
http://www.beginyouradventure.co.uk/: Jamestown 2007: The UK website.
www.jamestown2007.org Jamestown 2007: the USA web site.
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