Yorktown 225

For anyone reading my posts about the siege of Yorktown, there is further information on the events that are scheduled at www.yorktown225.com.

September 30, 1781

Two hundred twenty-five years ago today, the British troops in Yorktown began falling back from their outer earthworks to more defensible positions nearer the town.

Two days prior, the armies of Washington and Rochambeau had begun moving forward from Williamsburg toward Yorktown, a distance of about 12 miles. Near the halfway point, the two armies divided, the Americans taking the right flank and the French, the left. Both armies took advantage of the heavy woods to conceal their movements.

The French encountered no resistance at all during their march until the British works were in sight; there were no scouting parties or outer picket lines in place.

Washington's forces encamped about 500 yards to the east. This placed them about 1 mile from the British defenses, and on flat ground between the two armies. Unfortunately, it was so flat that it was nearly suicidal to be spotted on the open ground, as the British cannon had a clear field of fire.

However, by now Cornwallis was aware that succor by sea was nearly impossible. He knew of the outcome of the
Battle of the Capes. On 16 September he had begun preparations for a defensive ring on the river side of the town, by scuttling several ships . The hope being to prevent an amphibious assault on the lower town.

(The photo here, from a June 1988 National Geographic article shows the excavation of one of those ships, directly off the end of the Yorktown pier. In the upper right is the restaurant mentioned in several of my posts about the town, including my very first.

By personnel knowledge, I'd have to say it would be damn near impossible to use scuttled ships to stop such an assault. Once you are about 100 yards off shore, the river channel drops off steeply to a depth of over 100 feet. At a range of 100 yards even musket fire would have a fair chance of being effective. Ship cannon fire would be devastating.)

State Fair

We went to the Virginia State Fair today. This was the first time we had been to a state fair since back in the 80's when we lived in Oklahoma City. It was pretty good, at least the exhibitions. We had a good time checking out the goats, cows, rabbits, and poultry.

It was pretty funny, when we encountered a girl in the poultry tent who was telling her sister "I'm in chicken heaven!" She obviously knew chickens, and kept trying to get her mom to buy her some more.


There were some other decent exhibits: quilts, artwork, produce, and the like. We were kind of surprised that there weren't many entries in the baking competition, and we didn't see any canned produce. I guess the many varieties of jam and jelly we make (sour cherry, peach, pear, apricot, ginger-rhubarb, and the rest) might all have been winners.

The vendors were the usual, selling new gutters, the world's finest cookware, and all of the rest.

The midway vendors had the amazing selection of All-American deep fried food. Pork chop on a stick. Spaghetti and meatballs on a stick. Deep fried Oreos. Funnel cakes. The amazingly honest "fried dough" vendor.

The Price of Oil - 9/27/06

Well, the price of gas here has dropped another 16 cents this week.

Damn! Karl Rove is an evil genius!

September 22, 1781

Washington and Rochambeau arrive in Williamsburg. Washington finds that almost all of his troops are now in camp, along with the first French division.

In the coming days Washington requests that Rochambeau send Duc de Lauzun and his 300 cavalry to Gloucester to support Brigadier General George Weedon and his 1500 militia. Lauzun also takes 800 marines with him. (Weedon's headquarters was about 4 miles from "The Point" at Seawell's Ordinary, which operates to this day.)

The Attention Span of Three-Year Olds

Honestly, I think the people in this state suffer from ADHD.

The state is now taking bids to build 55 miles of new Interstate-quality, limited-access highway through SE Virginia. This would take a lot of pressure off of Interstate 64, and might relieve the need (or some of it), for more crossings across the James River. The cost is estimated at a bit over $1 billion. Somehow, to them, this seems excessive.

What's got everybody upset is that given the bullheaded legislature here, it will have to be a toll road. Tolls will be somewhere in the $4-13 range.

How the traveling public would react to such rates is unclear, but the issue underscores the challenges facing the General Assembly when it reconvenes in Richmond next week for a special session on transportation.

The Republican-dominated House has rejected calls for higher gasoline or sales taxes, arguing instead that existing money and a heavy reliance on tolls are better financing options.

Tolls are not popular, however, and the issue could prove a tough sell with many commuters who applauded lawmakers when they removed tolls from Interstate 264 in Virginia Beach in 1995.

At the same time, no one seems to bat an eye at the idea of what is called "The Third Crossing". This involves improving existing highway, and adding new tunnels and bridges to make more traffic across the James River possible. Wherever possible it is designed so that things like Interstate interchanges are located directly above vast stretches of open water (careful pulling to the side for that flat!).

Why is it needed? Well, the area it serves runs directly through the Port of Virginia, where huge amounts of cargo containers arrive in the U.S. It also skirts Craney Island, which is a huge pile of dredge material that is also to be turned into a container ship port. It's all about economic development of cargo traffic; it has nothing to do with travel by the general public.

Again, this monster is going to have to be paid for with tolls from everyone, even though it's for the cargo carriers. Total inflated cost - $4.32 billion. Why was $1 billion for a brand new 55 mile highway unreasonable, but $4+ billion for 13 miles isn't?

I have an alternate plan. Everyone here knows that the reasons that traffic gets so screwed up is because the truckers try to pull silly things like taking a too tall truck through the existing tunnels. So, instead of building the Third Crossing, let's do this: ban these trucks from the existing tunnels, and tell the transit companies that if they want to get their containers to I-95, for the trip up and down the east coast, they'll have to take the new US 460 toll road. That pays for US 460, keeps a slew of people from getting killed in the tunnels, and eliminates the need for the Third Crossing.

The only people this should upset are those at Skanska, who were supposed to build the new tunnels. You remember Skanska! They're the folks that dig such a swell job on Boston's I-93 "Big Dig".

Road Construction

Our house backs onto businesses that, in turn, front onto US Hwy 17. For some time now they've been talking about making some improvements to US 17. I thought they were supposed to be starting about any time now. Apparently, this has been pushed out. Still, the guy that owns the tire store right behind us in whining:

Some business owners are not pleased. Michael Sawyer, owner of Good Tire and Wheel said he isn't against the construction plan, just the payment proposal he was given. Sawyer complained that he was offered only $8-9 per square foot for an easement and loss of three driveways.

"How can VDOT's appraisals be fair?" he asked. "It's kind of like asking lawyers to look out for lawyers. Someone else needs to police them. We need an unbiased third party to do appraisals."

Hey, if you don't like it, you can take it to court. They'll appoint a third party appraiser, for you.

The only business that will be eliminated is the first thing you see coming out of the toll booths - a tatoo parlor.

"I'm not going to cry over it," John Adams, a Board of Supervisors representative of Gloucester Point, said of the tattoo shop's demise at that location. Adams has said in the past that the shop's presence created a negative first impression of Gloucester.

Obviously Mr. Adams doesn't remember that however tacky a tatoo parlor may be there, we all thought it was a big improvement over the last tenant in that property - an adult bookstore.

The Cost of Ernesto

Good thing it wasn't actually a hurricane. Our costs so far are:
$120 to replace almost every surge protector in the house (they all fried when the power shorted),
$60 to fix my computer (fried power supply),
$400 to fix the stove and washing machine ( both had fried circuit boards),
$350 to remove every freakin' tree anywhere in the vicinity of the power lines, and
$700 to buy a generator (which we've used a total of about 10 hours so far).

That doesn't include gas for the generator, 3 weeks of doing laundry at the wash-o-mat, many meals eaten out since the stove has been only partially good, and so forth.

And there's still the small matter of a roof leak, which causes drips on the lower floor of the house (in my office), from around an upper story window dormer. The house was reroofed following Isabel, but I've already had the guy back once to fix another leak. (Crappy flashing job)

The price of (heating) oil - BUMPED 9/20/06

Back on 8/28 I made the entry below. The picture says it all about what my situation is now. The price of gas has dropped another 28 cents in the last 19 days. I stand to have guessed wrong to the tune of$330 (so far). -
We are far enough out on the edge of exurbia that there is no natural gas service. So, your choices in heating are electric (ouch!), propane, or heating oil. We use oil.

Each year our supplier allows you to lock in your purchases for the winter at a fixed price. The condition, though, is that you have to decide, in advance, how many gallons you want to buy at that price, and then you have to pay them in advance. It's all a crap shoot. So far, each year, I've won.

This year the price was $2.599 per gallon. I bought 750 gallons, the same as last year, figuring the price had to go up to $3 a gallon later on.

Today I bought gas at $2.589, the lowest price I've seen in many months. I'm starting to wonder "did I guess right, or do I lose this year?"

UPDATE (8/29) - Today gas was $2.519 in Yorktown.

UPDATE (9/1) - Bought gas, while driving to work in Hurricane Ernesto, for $2.439.

Filthy, filthy money....

My consulting customer has a policy about Internet abuse, but mostly it's because they don't want us cruising for porn. I hadn't realized that looking at stock quotes was the moral equivalent.

An arbitration panel today reinstated Cedarburg High School science teacher Robert Zellner, who was fired by the school district after it discovered he had viewed pornographic material on his school computer.

School Board President John Pendergast said the arbitrator determined that the firing was improper because the school district had only reprimanded another teacher who had viewed stock quotes from a school computer.

Companies are getting so strict! I guess I'd better lay off checking the status of my 401K from work.

And if you were right...

Some stories just boggle the mind. In Denver a guy got into a pushing match with some cops at a party. He went away, but got egged into going back to the party, this time with a gun.

Gomez-Garcia said he returned to shoot the two officers after he and friends were prevented from re-entering the party.
...

Garcia-Gomez contended that he never meant to kill the officers and believed they would be protected by bulletproof vests.

Bishop was wearing one. Young wasn’t.

Garcia-Gomez said be believed all police officers wore bulletproof vests because his father, a drug dealer in Los Angeles, previously worked as a policeman in Mexico and told him they were required.

"I never thought he was going to die," Gomez-Garcia said. "I went back to fire some shots at them, not to kill. When you get mad, you may do something you don’t mean to."

A charming individual, and family. Mr. Gomez-Garcia was convicted today of second degree murder, and faces up to 96 years in prison.

But, for a moment, let's accept his explanation and assume he really thought the officers would be unhurt by being shot in the back six times. Had he considered what a police officer's response to being shot in the back was likely to be? Was he expecting them to say "well, I guess we're even now, huh?" I rather expect that we would instead be hearing about the gross disproportion in the several shots they would have then fired into him.

In the meantime, I have no doubt what direction the defense lawyers will go at both sentencing and in their appeals.

Gomez-Garcia, who only attended a couple years of school and is nearly illiterate...

Poor Mexicans! They just don't know any better!

Tropical Storm Ernesto - Yorktown Video #3

Here is the final video from Yorktown. Not too bad, really. But they did have a lot of sand to rearrange.

Tropical Storm Ernesto - Yorktown Video #2

I promised you two more videos of what we saw in Yorktown in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Here is the first video.

The Road to Yorktown

A few other hardy souls seem to have the same interest in the Yorktown anniversary that I have. Good luck to them all.

ON ROUTE 7 IN MARYLAND -- When you're going 3 mph, you can smell the honeysuckle.

Not honeysuckle-scented air freshener or honeysuckle-scented candles. Real honeysuckle by the side of the country road.

That's one of the joys David Holloway, Mike Fitzgerald and Dave Fagerberg come across on their 685-mile march from Rhode Island to Yorktown. The three are retracing the steps of American and French soldiers who trapped British troops 225 years ago during the siege of Yorktown.

"Our favorite times are when we're out in the countryside by ourselves," Fitzgerald says. "When you come over I-95, the sound is just so loud. And the ground is shaking. You can feel yourself start to tense up."

Sometimes the three carry their flags next to four-lane bypasses, but most of the 40,000 steps they take in an average day are on two-lane roads that wind under old stone railroad trestles and past farmland that hasn't been turned into a subdivision.

Those Wacky British

The BBC is reporting that a blind driver in England has had his license suspended for three years for the egregious offense of driving 35mph in a built-up area. Uh... you couldn't think of anything else to cite him for?

A blind man convicted of dangerous driving, after police spotted his car on the wrong side of the road, has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Omed Aziz, 31, from Darlaston, West Midlands, who was being directed by an allegedly banned driver, was given 12 weeks in prison suspended for a year.

He has also been banned from driving for three years and ordered to take an extended driving test.

Magistrates heard he reached up to 35mph (56km/h) in a built-up area.

Tropical Storm Ernesto - Yorktown Video #1

Here is the first of three videos I will post of what we saw over in Yorktown, along the Riverwalk. This is where, as I've described before, we go to take the dogs for a walk.

This is all for tonight, though. I'll post the others later.

Tropical Storm Ernesto Video

I've finally gotten around to posting my video from our recent storm. This first clip is from just down our street, where it enters the county park and boat ramps at the base of the Coleman Bridge. Things were pretty flooded that day, but it was much worse three years ago during Isabel.

Happy Birthday Curry!

Today is Curry's 5th Birthday. We got Curry from Walter's Collies in Pennsylvania a few weeks after losing our old friend Pepper, back in 2001. Curry was great fun as a puppy, but got into the "terrible" stage at age one. Into everything, and Winnie lost a lot of shoes and glasses to his chewing. He turned right around when we brought home another puppy, Cinnamon, for him to raise. Last year he showed us it was no fluke, when he began climbing into the whelping pen to comfort the weaning puppies. What a sweetie!

Today, Curry and his family ("mate" Cinnamon, and sons Coriander and Sweet Woodruff) got treated to a walk over on the Yorktown Riverwalk, followed by a scrumptious kibble and hamburger supper. We'll be back in a few days to celebrate Cinaamon's 4th Birthday.

September 5, 1781 - Battle of the Capes

On this date the British squadron under Admiral Thomas Graves, sent to the relief of Lord Cornwallis, arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. They found that Admiral de Grasse had beat them there, and had positioned his twenty-four ships of the line, carrying 1700 cannon and cleared for action, across the mouth of the bay.

The battle lasted all day, and resulted in heavy English losses. The next two days were spent in repairs and maneuvering for both fleets. Finally, they re-engaged on September 8, but seeing the peril to his fleet, Admiral Graves ordered them to run before the wind. On the evening of the 9th, the British fleet had disappeared.

Admiral de Grasse ordered the fleet back into the Chesapeake, as they prepared to deliver artillery needed for the upcoming siege.

September 5, 1781 - Embarkation

On this date the American and French troops began embarkation for traveling down the Chesapeake Bay toward Yorktown from the Head of Elk. The French and American officers were traveling separately.

Given Washington's reserve they were amazed to come upon the General waving his hat and dancing up and down. When they approached they learned he had just received a dispatch announcing the Admiral de Grasse had arrived with the French fleet.

September 3, 1781 - Arrival in Philadelphia

On September 3, 1781 the first French brigades, heading south to Yorktown, passed through Philadelphia, parading through the streets and passed the assembled Congress.

Further Ernesto Update

We got power back at 10:30 Tuesday morning. So, our power was out for about 4 days. The repairman said he came by to try to fix it at 1am Sunday morning, but couldn't see the problem in the dark, which was a severed return ("neutral") line.

He claimed that they had reduced the level on the line to half normal, so motors and things should have been running real slow before the outage. That wasn't our experience. Based on how the ceiling fan and A/C motors sped up, things fried out, etc. I suspect the wiring in this old house managed to give us a full 220 volts before stuff started croaking.

The final toll was (at least what we've found so far) -

• Two fried out compact flourescent lights
• Five over-surged surge-protectors
• The controller board in the range, killing the oven and electronic controls
• The power supply in my computer (yes, this one which I just got repaired a couple hours ago.)

So, I've spent part of the evening backing up things like crazy. The thought of losing all of that genealogy...

Well, I want to get back to my story of the Siege of Yorktown ASAP, since yesterday was the anniversary of the Battle of the Capes. I just want to leave you with this photo, taken down at the end of our street about an hour after the height of the storm.

Post Ernesto Status

As of Tuesday morning here is our status:
- I’m at work. Winnie is at home with the dogs.
- It is raining like the dickens in Richmond. (We’ve had 9+ inches plus of rain in Gloucester since Friday.)
- Our power is still out, as it is with 7000 other people (20% of the population) in our county. Gloucester seems to have been the hardest hit from this storm. Most all other power surrounding Gloucester has been restored.
- We have a tree in the line from the power pole to our house. The wire is sagging and live. I sure hope this rain doesn’t cause the tree to come the rest of the way down. I think the return (ground) to the grid was severed by the tree, so we have a hot line and no return. Bulbs blew up when we tried turning on lights on Friday, so we’ve turned off all of the breakers in the house. (Need an electrician to check things?)
- We got a generator on Saturday, so we have power to run the refrigerator, a fan, the TV, and some lights a few hours a day. We also have the BBQ grill and Coleman camp stove we can use to cook (outside). Most businesses are fully operational, so we can go out to eat as needed.
- I now recall that I have things placed poorly if that power line comes down. The grill (propane) is near the electric meter, and the generator is chained to the backyard chain-link fence (under a bit of the line).
- We have a minor roof leak. We had the roof re-shingled and repaired following Isabel three years ago, but they did a dubious re-flashing job. I had the roofer out to seal one leak a year later, and now another spot nearby is dripping through.
- Our phone line was knocked down when a neighbor lost tree limbs across the line. The line is (was?) functional, but is lying on the (now very wet) grass.
- Our oil-fired boiler is shut down due to an electric-outage failsafe. We don’t know how to relight it, so we’ll be calling the fuel oil people once we get power back on. For now we shower using the “hokey-pokey” method (you put your right arm in, you take your right arm out…) because the water is cold!
- Unrelated – we have a minor water pipe leak going on in the basement from a corroded pipe joint.
- Tropical Depression #6 has just formed in the Atlantic and is currently headed directly at us with landfall expected on about the 15th. I sure hope it turns north!

Rules of the Road

...But before I leave for the night, a RANT.

What shallow end of the gene pool did everyone around here crawl out of? I learned from age 15 (a LONG time ago) that when the traffic lights are out, it becomes a 4-way stop. Around here it means "all traffic rules are suspended, and the guy driving the fastest has the right-of-way." I nearly got creamed several times, in a 2-hour marathon of detours trying to get home on Friday. Including once when I nearly got it from a VDOT truck. What part of 4-way stop do you not understand MORON!!

Hurricane Ernesto - #3

OK, so it was a tropical depression when it got to us. Still did plenty of damage. Lots of trees down, flooding, power out to 150,000. So, I'm at Starbucks toight.

Most severe for us a tree has fallen into our power line. Everyone aroound us has power, but when we try to turn things on, they fry. Set a surge protector on fire. Scares the hell out of us, so all breakers are turned off. I've called an electrician to check out the wiring in the house. Dominion says most everyone should be fixed by tomorrow night. I sure hope so. But I want it checked before I turn things back on.

Fortunately, we went out for breakfast on Saturday, and then "what the hell, let's go into Lowe's" just as a shipment of generators arrived. So for $700 I'm the proud owner of a big honkin' gasoline engine. We run it for an hour a couple times a day to power the refrigerator, and a fan.

Well, almost time to go back to a dark house.

Ernesto - #2

I'm headed for home early. A tree has fallen on our garage, and the house electrical system has taken some sort of hit. A power surge protector was smoking (which Winnie managed to unplug), part of the house electricity is out, and the breaker won't reset, etc. Our Internet may be down for some time, depending, so family may call if they want to.

Hurricane Ernesto

To all family members...so far so good. As of 8:45am, we have high winds (about 40mph) and heavy rain (2.5 in. since midnight). Driving to work I did see a lot of down branches, and a few fallen trees. No accidents along my path, but qute a few in west Richmond, I hear.

Storm surge was starting to bring water up out of the York River, and into normally grassy areas, and low tide was to be about 4 hrs after I saw this. Tides are running 4 ft above normal at the moment. I expect there will be some real flooding later this afternoon.

Currently I'm at the office, but I expect the Governor to give up and send us home at noon. Hey, it's Friday before a holiday, so attendance is down anyway. The storm track is supposed to pass between Richmond and Gloucester, so I'll see the worst of it, either during the storm or after it passes.

Maybe I'll get some storm video later and posted it to YouTube or something.