Main Page > 1993 Cape Fear: The Outer Banks Tour >
Waking up in Brian Heywood's Bedroom the boys felt the way a diaper feels after being on a baby all night, used, wiped, and feeling like crap. After having a uncomfortable breakfast with Heywood's septuagenarian parents, the boys headed into Norfolk for some electronics shopping. Bone recorded a set of selected "tunage" (AKA cassettes) for the trip, unfortunately the rental car did not have a cassette player. So Mike and Bone headed to the nearest homeboy shop in Norfolk for a Boom Box.
After buying a big, bad boom box the boys decided before heading down to the Outer Banks, to check out Virginia's famous Peninsula. The narrow strip of land the extends into the Atlantic Ocean, between the York River to the north, and the James River to the south is where the British began their permanent presence in America. From Jamestown where they first settled, to the place they ruled Virginia (Williamsburg, 2 Miles from Jamestown), and the place they were kicked out of America (Yorktown, 5 miles from Williamsburg), the Peninsula truly has an historic "triangle." The Peninsula is also a noted Civil War Battleground, where Robert E. Lee fairly kicked Cowardly McClellan's butt, from Williamsburg back to Norfolk. Hence to regain the honor of the North, Mike and Bone began the day long Peninsula Campaign.
Did John Smith Pocahontas ??
The boys were visiting Jamestown at the same time that the Disney Classic, Pocahontas was a big draw at the box office. In the movie John Smith came to a pristine, rural area covered with big mountains, waterfalls and dense forest. The area near Jamestown (in fact the entire historic triangle) is still very rural. however it is also very flat, swampy, with the "dense forest" being mostly swamp oaks.
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Jamming on Jamestown !!!
John Smith, looking for Pocahontas
The Pride of the British, and the Bane of the Indians, Pocahontas
Daddy's Girl ? Not!!! As Pocahontas's story goes, tensions between the British settlers and the local Indian Tribe grew to a boiling point, until she intervened on behalf of John Smith and the British with her father, Chief Powhatan. That part of the story is true, however the torrid affair with John Smith is all nonsense, and her close relationship with her father is very overblown. Pocahontas was one of 16 other children, having Pocahontas going to live with the British to Powhatan was simply one less mouth to feed.
Pocahontas did in fact marry a colonist by the name of John Rolfe (the idiot that started the growing of Tobacco in America) and moved to England, where she was received with much fanfare by the Queen and the Royal Court, then tragically died of a disease contracted while in London.
Interestingly enough there are still a significant number of Native Americans from Pocahontas's tribe that live in the Peninsula. In conversations about Pocahontas with the National Park Ranger, the Ranger commented that the lineal descendants of Pocahontas to this day consider her a traitor, and feel that she sold out the Native Americans to the British.
The Jamestown Church
Mike and Bone looking for BOTH John Smith, Pocahontas, and an most importantly: an icy cold beer !!!
The British only stayed in Jamestown for approximately 100 years. They found the area too low lying, prone to flooding, and lacking fresh water. Eventually the Colony moved its operations a few miles inland to Williamsburg. Therefore, many of the original structures were left to deteriorate, which happened quickly due to the low lying land and salt water environment.
An Archeological Dig in Jamestown, the uncovered foundation of one of the original houses
James Towne Cabin Foundations by the James River
While talking with the National Park Rangers in Jamestown, the boys learned that due to the volatility of the James River current, that much of the original settlement has eroded into the river, and that the river has moved as much as 100 yards in-land since 1607, when the British first landed.
Waltzin' around in Williamsburg
The second stop in the Peninsula Campaign was a stop in Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg was the Colonial Capital of Virginia during the Revolution and the scene of much of the heated revolutionary activity between the Royal Governor and the House of Burgess. After the revolution the Virginia Capital moved to a much more defensible position inland at Richmond. Much like Jamestown before it, Williamsburg slowly fell into disrepair.
It was not completely abandoned like Jamestown, due to the College of William and Mary and a few struggling businesses, but much of the historical buildings and homes slowly deteriorated.
Finally in the early 20th century a member of the Rockefeller family and a local historical visionary, purchased much of the town and turned it into a living museum restoring or rebuilding many of the historical buildings, such as the Raleigh Tavern and the Governors Mansion.
Jefferson was quoted as saying, "I'll drink to that !!!"
In the center of Colonial Williamsburg is the Raleigh Tavern, where after the Governor dissolved the House of Burgess, the members (including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and George Mason) went to declare their "Resolves of Independence." The Raleigh Tavern was the center of town and the colony, where the who's who of the time would visit and stay.
The Governor's Palace in Williamsburg
The Governors Palace had burned to the ground shortly after Thomas Jefferson left office during the Revolution. It has been rebuilt to reflect how it looked when Lord Dunmore, the last British Governor lived in the building. It is a magnificent edifice that served as an official residence, office, warehouse, and fortress for the royal governors.
Being Crabby at the Yorktown Pub
Before checking out the last site in the Historic Triangle the boys finally felt recovered enough from the night before for a fine homebrewed American Pale Ale, and the BEST soft-shelled blue crab sandwiches on the Eastern Seaboard at the Yorktown Pub, a quaint establishment on the shores of the York River. Once sated with sufficient crab and lager, the boys were ready to complete the Peninsula Campaign with the second American "assault" on Yorktown.
The Yorktown Victory Monument
Yorktown is where Washington surrounded the Cornwallis-led British with the help of French Fleet in the York River, and laid siege to the Town until Cornwallis's surrendered, effectively ending the Revolutionary War.
No doubts about the Redoubts
As you tour the Battlefield, you can still see where the defensive earthworks (redoubts) built by the British for defense, as the American and French troops slowly crept closer to the British encampments day-by-day.
Cowardly Cornwallis's Cavern Quarters
Near the very end of the battle, Cornwallis (and many of the towns people as well) hid from the American bombardments by hiding in the cliffs next to the river. Both the American and British Press took Cornwallis to task for hiding in the caves, and so did Mike and Bone.
Nudging towards Nags Head
With the Peninsula Campaign complete and the day waning, the boys headed south towards the Outer Banks. So off they went driving through Newport News, and down through Duck, North Carolina on towards the lovely Outer Banks community of Nags Head. Nags Head is a quaint beach town filled with Beach Homes on stilts (for hurricane seasons), beach bars, and bed & breakfast's.
Being the Labor Day Holiday Weekend, Mike and Bone had to scramble for accommodations, but were fortunately able to scam a beach front sleep cheap motel across the street from the Ocean. With a place to sleep the boys noticed that it was considerably warmer (in the 90's) in the Outer Banks than it was in Virginia.
Needing liquid refreshment the boys discovered that Nags Head is an extremely enlightened town with Drive-Thru Party stores. Visiting this fine establishment, the boys procured a Styrofoam cooler and a case of Mexico's finest Corona's re-establishing the ubiquitous "Hall of Shame."
Now fully prepared, the boys toured Nags Head in the waning hours of the day.
Getting Outta of line in the Outer Banks
As the evening progressed, Mike and Bone began to bar-hop to all the little beach bars, indulging in Corona's, and shots of Tequila. In short order, both Mike and Bone were in rare form, making new friends and running up a massive tab, which always, inevitably leads to massive headaches the next morning.
Around 1:30 AM the boys decided to make it an "early" night and rested their bleary eyes and heads after their second consecutive night of excess.