Saturday, August 19, 2000

Today we dragged our damaged bodies out of bed, ate breakfast, loaded up the bicycle and rode from Williamsburg, VA to Newport News, VA via Yorktown, VA. We traveled a distance of 32 miles. The navigator got lost again today and it resulted in a couple of extra miles being traveled. The morning newspaper had an article and a picture of us on the bicycle. During the day, a few people in Yorktown and Newport News greeted us and asked if we were the couple in the newspaper article.

At Yorktown we visited a Victory Center run by the state of Virginia and the actual battlefield, which is administered by the National Park Service. The Victory Center gives an overall view of the events that occurred to produce the American and French victory. At the battlefield, they go into detail how the French Navy blockade of the Chesapeake Bay and the French defeat of the British Naval Fleet allowed for the victory. It also explained how a smaller French Naval Fleet brought the very large siege guns from Rhode Island to Virginia. These 40 French siege guns allowed the combined American and French forces to essentially eliminate the British bunkers. This smaller fleet also brought along Mortar’s, a type of cannon that throws a bomb (a hollow steel shell filled with power) high into the air, exploding just above the heads of the defenders. After the American and French forces were able to move the siege line within 400 yards of the British defenses, Cornwallis surrendered his forces.

We went into Yorktown for lunch. On the way back we passed the Yorktown Victory Monument. Just before we returned to the visitor center, in the woods along side the walkway, we saw a mother deer and two almost full-grown fawns. They did not run and I was able to get within 10 feet of the fawns to take their picture.

We left the battlefield and traveled to Newport News. The bicycle part of our trip is over. Tomorrow, we pickup a rental automobile and began our trip back to Washington State.