Sunday

Our blessings continue and we had a beautiful day. I started to wax poetic and say the dawn of a lovely day. But I was afraid one of you might hurt yourself laughing at the thought of me seeing the dawn!
We drove to Spotsylvania for church services. We passed the building once, but found it the second time around. It was a nice congregation. More than one person told us their crowd was down because the teens were at a Bible Bowl in West VA. They did very well too.
We then went to the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor's Center and National Cemetary. We walked along the sunken road the Confederates used as their trench. There is also a house still standing that survived the battle. In fact it was used as a store for many years - into the 1900's - after the war. The outside had been refurbished, but the interior walls still have the bullet damage. Hard to think those people did not ever change it.
We went across the street and had lunch at the Blue & Gray Cafe. The sign said they close at 2:00 and it was 5 minutes til. I said to Don, we better look for somewhere else. Since Don had already opened the door, the cashier heard me and told us we had plenty of time, come on in and eat. So we did. It is a small, family run place and the food was very good.
Now that our tummies were full, making our moods much nicer, we headed on to the Fredericksburg Battlefield.
The drive has a couple of places to pull over, but mostly markers on the road and scenes of the trenches. We did walk up to Lee's Command Post. Nice paved path, not too steep, more or less my speed. Further along, we spotted a pyramid of stones well off the road. Mmm, wonder what that is all about? Within moments we spotted the sign telling us. An interesting story. If you cannot read the picture of the sign that I posted, let me know and I will send you the text.
Close by is Spotsylvania Court House. That is the name of the town and the battle, not just a building. After passing the actual court house at least 2ce and driving about 5 miles in each direction away from it, we found Spotsylvania Courthouse. Well, they put trees in front of it and in front of the sign as well! Not our fault, right?
The battlefield was somewhat easier to find. Lots of open space there. Beautiful to look at today. But was a very bloody battle - in fact, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and The Wilderness constitute the bloodiest battles of the War. The last stop in Spostsylvania is the "bloody triangle". The field had woods that narrowed the field and in the "tip" of the triangle is where the most people were killed. I have posted a photo of a tree trunk, where a tree was presumably standing that makes the tip of the triangle.
While we were there, the ranger was giving a talk to a small group of people. So needless to say we listened in. There was a little boy about 13 months old just toddling around and enjoying the outdoors. His mom was watching, but not hovering. He started to walk thru the gate, so I gently turned him around and whispered that he didn't really want to go that way. He gave me the look that says, hmm, who are you? He walked about 2 steps and turned to look at me again. 2 more steps and he decided he better come back my way. My thoughts were, uh-ho he is going to want to go thru that gate again. Wrong! he came right up to me and held up his hands. I picked him up and he just snuggled. I do believe I melted completely. His mom had her eye on us and was smiling. I didn't hold him but a moment, but it was the highlight of hte day for me!
This is long enough so I will leave you with the warm fuzzy.
Love, Don & Pat