Day 22 – An Incredible Civil War Site & We Meet A Goal!

We got a little bit of a late start today….but rolled out of the RV park by 9:30am.  We were only a few miles away from Appomattox and got there a half an hour after it opened.

It was a beautiful morning for site seeing…a but chilly, but when we got to the site we went inside the Visitors Center to watch a short film about the event that occurred at Appomattox…..the surrender of the civil war.

Such A Small Room For An Enormous Event

In short order, we found ourselves in awe as we stood in the parlor of The McLean House in Appomattox Court House. It was in this small parlor that General Lee signed the surrender.

You might be wondering if the surrender was signed in a Courthouse….or in a regular house?

I learned that The Appomattox Court House is a village, and the surrender was signed in a house in that village. According to a docent, when you see “court house” (in two words) following the name of a town, it becomes part of the town name, as opposed to the word “courthouse”, which refers to a building.

But I digress……

The Appomattox National Park is not to be missed and I’m glad we didn’t!  The entire village has been restored  – taking you back to 1865 – the year General Lee and General Grant met in that parlor and changed history forever.

The other rooms of the house were also restored. Below is a picture of the dining room and one of the bedrooms.

One of the stories I heard today was that of the “silent witness”   This referred to a doll that belonged to Lulu McLean, the seven year old daughter of the homeowner, Wilmer McLean.

The doll had been left by the child on a couch in the parlor, and was there during the 90 minute surrender meeting between General Lee and General Grant.

After the meeting, the doll was gone. It was later learned that it had been taken by one of General Sheridan’s men as a souvenir of the meeting.

The doll stayed in the same family for 120 years, and was eventually returned to Appomattox.

Below is a picture of where the doll was during the meeting.

The road used by the troops to get to Appomattox Court House was called the Richmond-Lynchville Road, and it remains much the same today.  This is the same road where the Confederate troops layed down their arms after the surrender.

In addition to the historical significance of Appomattox, this National Park is also unique in that it allows dogs on the grounds.

We spent longer than we had planned to at Appomattox…..but there were so many original buildings and artifacts to see.  One of the original buildings is where the parole papers were printed to be given to the Confederate troops so that they could return home.  The printing presses are on view, as are some of the parole papers.

Before leaving, we decided to grab a quick lunch in the trailer.

I think we finally got on the road to Asheville, NC around 1:30pm.  We wanted to be able to have dinner at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Mill River (near Asheville) to see how it compared to the original restaurant in Chico.

As we drove further into North Carolina, we were treated to a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains….or are they the Smoky Mountains?  I’m not sure, but they are spectacular.

The ride to Asheville wasn’t bad, but trying to find an RV campground in Asheville proved to be a real challenge!  Seems there were all kinds of special events going on and there was “no room at the inn”.

We finally find a space in a KOA in the Black Mountain area, about 30 minutes east of Asheville.  We were hesitant to book it because some of the reviews were pretty bad, but we were desperate to find a place and get settled in before dark. We were still determined to meet our goal of getting to the Sierra Nevada Brewery.

We got to the KOA at 7:30…..not bad….we still had time to unload the trailer and make it to dinner before they closed at 9:00…  but things started to get a bit dicey.

The space we were given was a back up site, sandwiched tightly between another trailer and a big ole tree.  There were several cars parked on the road right in front of the area we needed in order to be able to maneuver our huge truck around to get the right angle to back up into our spot while trying not to hit the big ole tree!

After 10 or more minutes of Ken trying to jockey the truck in that small space, and Dick trying diligently to help Ken with directions as he turned this way and that….I finally had enough and yelled at one of the people whose car was right in our way to “PLEASE MOVE YOUR CAR”!   He did (he probably thought I was a crazy woman) and pretty soon Ken managed to get the trailer backed in, but the truck was at an odd angle because of that big ole tree.

There was no way to unhook the truck from the trailer at that angle, so we thought we would have to forget going to the brewery ….until I had a brilliant idea…..UBER!

We lucked out and got Roseann (aka Parnelli Jones) for our Uber driver.  She was at the campground quickly, and then the next thing we knew, we were flying down the freeway towards the brewery.

We got to Sierra Nevada around 8:15 and let me tell you…….the hassle to get there was totally worth it.  The driveway alone looked more like the entrance to the Biltmore Mansion than to a brewery/restaurant.

The place was still packed when we got there, so we felt no need to rush through dinner.  Our waitress, Melissa, was very friendly and made us Californians feel very welcome.  The menu is quite different than what we’re accustomed to (Pig cheeks with peaches for example) but everything we ordered was good (thank goodness they just quite serving the pig cheeks yesterday).

After dinner, the same Uber driver picked us up and brought us back to the KOA.

Shelby was so glad to see her daddy.

It’s been a long day……..but another great one.  Tomorrow we will be going to Tennessee….a state I’ve always wanted to see.