The Good That Comes From Getting Lost

The crew that I was meeting on Monday afternoon called me and said that they were near the plant and "...are we at the right one?" There are many plants along the James River as the water is very useful for many of the manufacturing processes. No they weren't at the right one, and I proceeded to give them the best directions as possible, which weren't good because I don't know the street names (even though I have spent at least 6 weeks at this place or more over the past 3 months). The street signs are minuscule and so I go by landmarks such as "turn at the Exxon gas station and a right at the big church and a left past the railroad tracks, etc."

Anyway, eventually they got there and we began work. But the interesting thing is that in the process of getting lost, they found the location where Pocahontas got married! They told me how to get lost and find the same place, which is what I did today after work. I went down the road until it looked like it was going to dead-end at a manufacturing plant, and the followed the narrow road through a gate and down into a hidden town that was obscure from view by the smokestacks, etc. It was a quiet town of about 6 houses and one church and the road ended at the river. On the side of the road was a stone monument that says this town (Bermuda Hundred) is the area where Pocahontas lived and married the Englishman John Rolfe.

What a find! I've come to the easy conclusion that everywhere you go along these major rivers along the east coast you are bound to stumble upon some piece of history. Battlefields from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars dot the area. Yesterday I drove down the road a ways to Petersburg (pretty famous) to see the town and well-known battlefield. It didn't feel to be very kept up and I wasn't convinced it was tip-top on being safe, which is a shame because I could have really spent some time there. I was going to go to the battlefield but it seemed to be a bit isolated and so I didn't want to go there alone. In the end I went into a few antiques stores and then came back to the hotel. I did buy a very cute old-fashioned balance used to measure food and things like that. I bought it to weigh out my fiber and dye powders so that I get consistent results when dyeing.