amkean pronunciation

The civil war sites in and around RIchmond were less crowded than the ones that were farther away from metropolitan areas. This seems to not make sense, but I think it's one of those things were if there's a tourist attraction in your own town, you know that you can visit it anytime you want, so you may never actually visit the place. The sites are really, really spread out as well.

I changed hotels in the trip south, and it was a bit of a downgrade. Still nowhere near "sketchy," but the Fredericksburg hotel was a really good deal. I really like hotels. I like being the boss of a place and feeling like it's a special night, and I can order out food and channel surf. One of my favorite hotel stays was when I got stranded by bad weather in White Plains, NY. I was forced to do nothing. Loved it. Watched "Joe Millionaire."

Upon first arriving in Richmond, I went to Cold Harbor battlefield. The earthworks there are awesome. As the ranger said, "we could use them today if we started fighting again, God forbid." The whole time I was there, I had Cold Harbor and the novel/movie Cold Mountain conflated in my mind. I've never read the book or seen the movie, but I was wondering how the book related to the battle and if it was worth reading from a historical standpoint. I took the absence of the book in the park bookstore to be a "no." However, because the two aren't related as far as I know, I have to withdraw that conclusion. In and around Cold Harbor are other battlefields from a different campaign, the Seven Days. Because I wasn't following that one, I didn't go to those sites. This caused me a little anxiety in that I was there, I didn't know when I would return, but I wasn't seeing these battlefields. I got over this by imagining that I could return someday.

I spent a few days in Richmond, and it was good planning to get Cold Harbor out of the way in that first evening as opposed to just going straight to the hotel.

Labels: travel