Cadillac Walk

There are only a few days until Christmas, and I know you're pressed for time. So, for those of you who took a moment to stop by Planet Bill, I've arranged a special Yuletide treat for you. You are invited to take a stroll along Monument Avenue to see the Christmas decorations on the mansions. I've done all the legwork for you, so you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the sights.

Sunday night Robespierre, Ember, Morris & I met at Robin Inn for dinner before we took a walking tour of Richmond's famous street of early 20th century mansions. It was really cold, so we fortified ourselves with Italian food. Our walk was long, considering the temperature; we went down the north side of the avenue from the 2400 block to Stuart Circle where the street begins, which is at the 1600 block. We returned up the south side of the avenue, and my ears were numb long before we got back to our cars. We had to watch our step, too, because patches of ice & snow still lingered.

Monument Avenue is a noted example of the City Beautiful movement, and it truly did look beautiful on Sunday night. A couple of tour buses glided by, but there weren't many others out on foot. There are two good reasons for taking a pedestrian tour. First & most important is that you miss most of the splendid architectural details unless you are walking. Secondly, an evening stroll allows you to peer inside these homes from the sidewalks to catch glimpses of the graciously proportioned rooms with their high ceilings and rich furnishings. These blocks suffered a decline with the mid-century flight to the suburbs. Many of the houses became multi-use buildings, with professional offices on the lower floors while the upper storeys were chopped into apartments. The nadir was probably in the 1960's, before the banner of historic preservation was raised. Now, most of these houses are once again single-family homes.

Sit back and enjoy your tour from the warmth of your home.



Ah, you've found the Christmas Cadillac!

Robespierre, Ember & Morris pose in front of Santa's big white Sedan de Ville.

Every year this car is stuffed full of toys & presents, and Santa sits behind the wheel.










RAWR!









I wish each of you an exceptionally nice Christmas this year!

Farewell, Fall! ...or Guerillas in the Mist

Winter doesn't care about our calendars. She has already flounced in and sat down, disdainfully waving off December 21 and declaring "I just happened to be in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd drop by." It's been quite brisk in the mornings when I leave the house, and the Farmers' Almanac is predicting "colder-than-normal temperatures" for my little God's half-acre.

It was 16º when I drove away from home this morning. The air felt cold & harsh; Sarah Palin weather.

I am grateful for a home with heat, a car with heated seats, and an indoor job. It's also a beautiful, clear-skyed sunny day, even if it is cold.

Before autumn gave way to winter, I was out early one morning when a lingering layer of fog gave an ethereal look to Richmond. I took a few pictures on Monument Avenue before heading to the office, and I'll share a couple of them here. The first is of the Matthew Fontaine Maury Monument, erected in 1929. This monument is unusual in that Maury is depicted seated, and is not the dominant feature. F. William Sievers, a Richmond sculptor, felt that a man's ideas are bigger than he is; a large globe behind Maury is surrounded by farmers & sailors in a storm. The globe itself is detailed with wind currents that were mapped by Maury, the Pathfinder of the Seas. These images are appropriate to Maury's analysis of weather systems to improve the lives of sailors & farmers. The base of the monument is surrounded by reverse intaglio images of fresh & saltwater fish. It is a lovely and atypical memorial sculpture along Richmond's famous avenue.

Of course, I also had to see how General Lee & Traveller were handling the fog. They were in the thick of it on their forty-foot granite pedestal. Traveller was the most famous of Lee's horses, and Lee remarked in Lexington, following the Civil War, that his horse was "presenting the appearance of a plucked chicken" because souvenir seekers yanked his tail nearly bald. Traveller walked in Lee's funeral procession with his saddle & bridle draped in black crepe, and died the following year from tetanus. The Lee Monument was unveiled in 1890, and stood alone in the middle of nowhere for eleven years until development of Monument Avenue caught up.

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Four years ago I would have been home drinking & feeling sorry for myself. Each year in sobriety has been better & better. I had a full day, and was tired by the time my head hit the pillow.

I was out of the house before the sun woke up, and went to my usual 6:45 meeting at Holy Comforter Episcopal. Then Robespierre & I met at Lakeside Presbyterian because we thought they'd be eating breakfast. When we walked in they were having a meeting, so we turned tail and met friends for breakfast at Aunt Sarah's (a pancake house, not a relative). After that, Sherry & I went back to Lakeside for a 10am meeting. From there, I dashed over to Ginter Park Baptist for a Thanksgiving dinner/midday meeting. Then I bought a plant for my friend Brenda, and went by her place for a visit. From there, to Robert's so I could meet his mother who was in town for Thanksgiving. I ended the day at my neighbor Karen's for our own Thanksgiving dinner, and she made enough food for an army. Just when I thought I would pop after dinner, she announced that she had made a sweet potato pie (her first), so what could I do?

I woke up in the night with a food hangover. I felt a bit miserable until I considered that it was a hangover borne of food & fellowship, not loneliness & alcohol. I met some new friends, and spent time with some dear old ones. All in all, a wonderful Thanksgiving that left me feeling very thankful, indeed.

Autumn Night at Ashland Presbyterian Church

Pass the Fancy Feast Casserole, Please!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing, fun, bountiful, serene, memorable, star-studded, exhilarating, calorie-laden, fulfilling, nap-inducing, splendidly Happy Thanksgiving featuring all of the food that you like.


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The Village of Dashed Dreams

Westover Church, circa 1730
I had a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and I hope you did, too. I had four days away from the office, and I threatened myself with public lashing every time I was tempted to go there "just to catch a few things up during the off-hours." A few of us had kicked around the idea of going to Hillsville for their annual Labor Day Flea Market & Gun Show, but our collective good sense prevailed. For one thing, it was a last minute idea (which would not have deterred us), but then Robespierre's knee "swole up" to the size of a grapefruit and we didn't have time to rent him a scooter.

Still, just think of the pictures I could have taken! The flea market, one of the largest east of the Mississippi, would have been a giant, outdoor People of Walmart photo extravaganza. Brenda even designed a Bingo card to take with me with items like Beanie Babies, Funnel Cakes, knives & ammo, boxes of 8-track tapes, and (my favorite) Sno-Cone machine surrounded by bees. Oh, well, perhaps next year.

Cemetery at Westover Church
Sheldon called me and asked if I would be interested in a Bill-style road trip on Sunday, which means there's a firm departure point, but everything else is up for grabs. Sheldon, Sadie & I headed east on Route 5, the Plantation Route, first making a stop at Country Style Donuts.

Route 5 parallels the north bank of the James River, passing by old plantations such as Shirley, Berkeley, Edgewood, Westover, Evelynton, Belle Air, Sherwood Forest, and Weyanoke. A rural oasis between Richmond and Williamsburg, this landscape was the first westward expansion of English-speaking America. The two-lane highway curves and winds through gently rolling countryside, alternating expanses of fields with stretches of trees that arch over the road. Our first stop was at Westover Church, which sits at the end of a dirt lane that crosses a field (currently soybeans).

There were several very friendly parishioners outside waiting for church to start, and they urged us to take a look inside. Westover Parish was established in 1613 on Westover Plantation, and our hosts told us that the church was moved to the current spot because the Byrd family grew tired of feeling obligated to feed churchgoers on their plantation by 1730.

Our next stop was River's Rest, a resort on the Chickahominy River that was hell to find. After a wrong turn, Sheldon & I got into a giggle fit. Sadie was bewildered by our silliness, but we can be like two 8-year-old boys when we're together. Once we extricated ourselves from the backwoods, we blundered our way to River's Rest, which turned out to be a well-maintained marina with a tidy motel, pool, and riverside restaurant.

River's Rest Marina on the Chickahominy River
We continued on to Jamestown, where we caught the ferry to the south bank of the James, disembarked at Scotland, and drove a few miles to Surry Courthouse.

Gulls at the Jamestown Ferry
After eating lunch and exploring the county seat, I asked Sheldon to drive a few miles east. I was curious to see if an old friend, an abandoned house in the country, was still standing up to the combined forces of gravity and invasive vines. The last time I saw it was in March of 2009, and it looked like this:

It's still there, and it looks about the same structurally. In the photo above, taken at the end of the winter season, the vines were hanging on but dormant. Here's how it looked this Labor Day weekend, after the vines flourished over the summer:

Incredible, isn't it? Here's a closer look...


I was a high school hooligan when I first found this house, and you can read about my criminal past by clicking here.

Sheldon & Sadie found a small family cemetery off to the side of the property, and I finally located the owner of the house, Ruth Dearth. My assumption that she had died and the house then abandoned was true. She lived a long life in this old homestead.

We traveled west on Route 10 to return home. This road is the southern counterpart to Route 5, but is not quite as pretty. Still, it's rural, so there are certain charms. One diversion was a side trip to Claremont.

Claremont is not on the way to anywhere. You need to make a determined effort to get there. It's not a town you're going to find by passing through, because it's at the end of the road, pal. If you don't find what you're looking for in Claremont, you've gotta backtrack to return to a highway that has lines painted on it. And your chances of finding something are slim, because there's only one old convenience store that still hangs an open sign on the door.

I kinda like Claremont.

Shopping district in downtown Claremont

...don't forget these stores!
Claremont is located on bluffs above the river. The James is wide and navigable here, and Claremont was a port town with a busy wharf during the late 1600's & 1700's. With our system of modern roadways, it's easy to forget that rivers were once the safest, most reliable means of transporting goods to colonial frontier settlements.

Two satellite dishes connect this house with the larger world
Claremont had high hopes of becoming a boom town in the 1880's when it became the eastern terminus of the Atlantic & Danville Railway. An old map shows hundreds of building lots planned for streets that do not exist today. At least two hotels were built. Unfortunately for Claremont, the rail line was narrow-gauge, which was discontinued in favor of standard-gauge. The A&D Railway elected to connect its lines to Portsmouth in the Tidewater region. Claremont's hopes of becoming a commercial center were dashed.

Claremont Public Library

Coming Soon!
This building was once the survey office, and faces a small traffic circle, not that there's much traffic to control these days. The hopeful Coming Soon! sign has been on this charming structure for at least two years. I hope something comes there soon. It's hard to visit Claremont without seeing its potential as a viable riverfront resort community. Just down from the bluffs, along the banks of the James, there is a string of nice, modern cottages and a boat landing. Perhaps one day Claremont's potential will be realized.

Another defunct commercial building, with a fenced junkyard in the back
If you go to Claremont, you'll see that some homes are occupied. Many, however, are not. We counted at least five old houses in a row that were abandoned & overgrown on our way into town. Today, Claremont sleeps, but I hope it still dreams.

A granite marker in the little circle in downtown Claremont

The One Hundred & Forty Five Year Boat Ride

Spring sprung. It happened fast here in Richmond. For awhile, it crouched like a wild-eyed cat wiggling its backside, positioning itself for the kill. When it pounced, it was quick. My sinuses were the first to alert me that we were under attack.

I endured four days of endless sneezing, but now I've adjusted. I learned years ago that if I take allergy medicine, then I'm stuck taking it. It's better for me to suffer a few days of hell and let my body regulate naturally. I was tempted, though, to stuff tissues up my nose at the office and just let them hang there, daring anyone to say anything. A runny nose is so aggravating.

In an effort to ignore my nose, I roamed around the Fan District taking some pictures. I'm only including a few. The photo at the top shows a camellia blossom. We had those around our house when I was growing up.

The tree immediately above is a saucer magnolia, and their blooms are really spectacular.

Below you'll see Robert E. Lee astride his mount in the center of Monument Avenue. In the distance is Stuart Court, where I lived in the early 80's.

Springtime means that Sadie pulls her plaid boating shoes from the back of her closet and starts humming sea shanties. A boat from her fleet is brought out of storage and delivered to her home, all spruced up and ready for cruising on the James River. The following pictures were taken on Easter Sunday. Sadie, Sheldon & I went down to Hopewell and back.

Appomattox Manor, shown below, sits on the promontory of City Point at Hopewell, and was the Union headquarters during Grant's siege of Petersburg. Here the waters are wide, and the house overlooks the confluence of the James & Appomattox Rivers. Toward the end of the Civil War, when the Union forces occupied this plantation, City Point was the busiest port in the world with an enormous U.S. supply depot for its troops.

Appomattox Plantation dates back to 1635, and the house itself was a century old when Grant used it as his headquarters. President Lincoln was visiting here when the Confederate government fled Richmond after setting it ablaze. On Easter Sunday, it was hard to imagine the calm waters bristling with schooners, packet ships, paddle wheelers, and supply barges.

One hundred & forty five years ago, after the fall of Richmond, Abraham Lincoln insisted upon being taken upriver to Richmond. Grant's staff pleaded against such a risky venture, but Lincoln would have none of it. Two days after the evacuation of the Confederate Capital, Lincoln and his son Tad were aboard the steamer River Queen heading up the same river that that Sadie had navigated. We had no need to worry about mine-laced waters, however, as Lincoln did.

About noon, the steamer encountered a line of Confederate obstructions in the river; sunken objects intended to keep Richmond safe from Union forces. Above this line, many mines remained in the water, but a side-wheel steamer, the Malvern, swept the waters. Also in attendance were a gunboat, and a transport ship holding a cavalry escort and the president's carriage & horses.

Pictured below, a modern-day dock worker sullenly prepares to pump gas into Sadie's boat. Oh, wait, that's Sheldon.

We gassed up, got ice cream, and I bought a t-shirt at Jordan Point Marina. Beyond Sheldon you can see the Benjamin Harrison Bridge, and there's a better picture of it below. The bridge replaced ferry service in 1966, and eleven years later an ocean-going tanker rammed the bridge.

The lift span had been raised for the ship, which meant that motorists were sitting on the bridge in their cars waiting for the vessel to pass. When it became clear that the ship was heading directly for them, people scrambled from their vehicles and ran pell-mell for their lives. Four cars tumbled into the water, but no one was hurt. It took twenty months to repair the bridge. Somehow, Sadie avoided ramming the bridge and inconveniencing commuters. Hats off to you, Captain Sadie!

Next we see a house on a bluff perched on the riverbank. Notice there are trees around the house. In general, there are trees lining the banks of the river. In fact, there are trees nearly everywhere you go in Virginia. One of my mother's cousins from Iowa, en route to our house on vacation, reportedly went temporarily mad in the car somewhere around Williamsburg after riding for miles surrounded by deep woods and screamed "WHAT IS BEHIND ALL THESE TREES???"

I can understand that. In Iowa, if you see trees in the distance, it means farm (a few trees) or town (many trees). Otherwise it's just fields. Ruth was simply thrown off-balance by so many things growing out of the ground that weren't crops.

Sheldon, on the other hand, grew up in Virginia. He's lived here all his life. As we passed by one of the few barren spots along the James, with probably an unsightly landfill over the rise of the bank, he commented on "how pretty that looks." What a weirdo. He & I have been riding in the car together, and he'll say "Boy, I like that house" and when I look, there's a home with not a tree in the yard and about two scraggly bushes huddled up to the house. I think he may have fallen on his head out of a tree when he was little. There's a resentment there somewhere.

On our way upriver, we passed this boat coming down; the Do Run Rum. What a splendid boat.

Going back to Lincoln's journey up this river in 1865, it was near this place that all of the vessels in his flotilla were unable to pass a second line of obstructions; the Confederates had sunk entire steamships to keep Richmond secure. Only a small span remained open. No doubt, the attending officers & crew were relieved.

Until Lincoln insisted upon being transferred to the admiral's barge, which was really just a big rowboat. A small steam tug, with thirty marines aboard to guard Lincoln, took the barge in tow. Lincoln was in high spirits, even as wrecked shipping and dead horses, the detritus of war, floated by.

There's Jimmy Dean the Sausage King's home below, rebuilt after a fire. No pigs visible in the yard.

As we got back to Sadie's place, we passed by the Boathouse Restaurant. In a river town, oddly, it's one of the only places you can dine right next to the James River. Apparently, is used to be a power plant.

On that long-ago journey to Richmond, the tugboat ran aground before reaching the city. Lincoln would continue without an escort. Four ships holding hundreds of sailors & soldiers had been reduced to an open rowboat. Twelve sailors guarded the President of the United States as he walked uphill to the White House of the Confederacy. He had made it safely to the capital of the enemy. Ten days later he would be shot in Washington, D.C. I reflected on the brash voyage of a complex and inspiring man as I looked out on the placid waters of the James River on Easter Sunday.

Here's Sadie's place, preparing to slide into downtown Richmond by the looks of this photograph.

And we end our boat ride with Fisherman Sheldon showing us how not to catch anything at all.

Of course, the next time he was out on the boat, he caught a very large shad. He says. I wasn't there to verify that tall tale. I have to rag on Sheldon a bit; he has a birthday this Friday, and he's younger than me, the bastard.

KLM: A+; Northwest/Delta: FAIL

Here's a report on my journey home from Amsterdam, and a few more miscellaneous photos from my trip. Before I relate the tale of the long road home, let's take a look at the doorway to the left. I took quite a few pictures of the entrances to buildings while I was in Amsterdam, but I'll just post this one. I loved the blue color, and the interestingly placed door knob. Sadie, who lived in Amsterdam for several months, told me that the notices next to the letterbox (hard to see in the photo) indicate whether the occupant will accept junk mail & advertisements or not. What a concept!

I went to the airport before dawn on my day of departure, only to learn that my name had inexplicably been wiped off the passenger manifest for my return flight home. KLM tried to get me on the early morning flight to Detroit, but it didn't pan out. However, a representative whisked me off to their offices, and I waited in comfort while they scrambled about making new travel arrangements. After a short time, I had a confirmed booking on a 10:30 flight. KLM also gave me vouchers for food & beverage while I waited in the terminal, a coupon for 2000 flyer miles, and a considerable wad of euros in cash.

When I boarded the plane, I was relieved to see that I was not seated in the middle of the middle. On a flight home from Spain one time I was seated in the very back row of the middle section, which meant that the seat reclined about one inch. I was between a rambunctious two year old boy and a very large man. That was a long flight.

This time I had an aisle seat, and - bonus! - was beside a handsome young man. He turned out to be an American who played on a professional Norwegian hockey team. He was very friendly & engaging without being annoyingly talkative when I was ready to nap. He was traveling home for the holidays.

When I arrived in Detroit, my plans went south, which meant that I did not. More about that after you browse my remaining photos from Amsterdam.

Taken from a street near Suzanne's apartment. The Amstel River is at the end of the block.

David & Suzanne chatting on the sidewalk when we first arrived.

My little suitcase in my corner of the apartment. It was nice not having a lot of extra baggage.

Suzanne & Brett moved into their new apartment just a couple weeks prior to my visit. It's been modernized recently, and is quite spacious by European standards. This is a view of the dining room, with its opening to the kitchen.

Many first floor flats have a small private garden area in the rear. The high back walls like these are a favorite haunt of neighborhood cats. Roaming kitties can get some fresh air while they taunt indoor pets.

When they first arrived in Amsterdam, David's cats, Brenda & JJ, stayed huddled in their litter box for safety. Here, they are finally venturing out of the box to more a comfortable place on David's bed.

Suzanne opens her shop for the day! I went to work with her my second day in Amsterdam.

The shop has a nice loft, and you can see Suzanne zipping about on the main sales floor in this photo.

Amsterdam Centraal railway station opened in 1889. Trains, trams, buses, taxis, and nearby ferries make this a main transportation hub in The Netherlands. The next shot shows the station's interior decorated for Christmas.



Suzanne & I welcomed a hearty snack after traipsing around the city on a snowy day.

All of the trams that I rode were new and sleek, except for this one charming older tram. It was clean & well maintained, just like the newer models.

This building near Vondelpark had incredibly gorgeous decorative tile. The photo does not do it justice.

The lobby restaurant of the Westin Hotel at Detroit's airport, my home away from home.

When I arrived in Detroit I learned that all flights to Dulles had been cancelled because of the huge winter storm. Let me tell you, Delta/Northwest has wretched customer service. Unlike my experience with KLM, I was instructed to run my ass from counter to counter, terminal to terminal, only to be told by indifferent employees that the earliest confirmed flight would get me to Dulles on late Monday night. It was early afternoon on Saturday, so I went immediately to the Westin Hotel attached to the airport to secure a room before every other delayed traveler had the same notion.

I'll not bore you with the endless lines I shuffled through trying to get an earlier flight over the next two days. I did get a seat on a flight that was four hours earlier than the 10 o'clock flight on Monday night, but here is where Delta's greed became truly apparent: I had to pay an additional $50 to change my flight. I was so desperate to get home that I handed my credit card to the clerk. I didn't raise a fuss, because she had put in a hell of a day. It wasn't her policy; she was following Delta's instructions. I knew better than to dream that Delta would cover my hotel expenses, but since it was mutually beneficial to get backlogged passengers through their system as quickly as possible, it would have made good business sense to waive the $50 fee. I will not travel willingly on Delta/Northwest again. I'd rather stay home. Air travel is hellish enough these days without an avaricious airline bending me over their ticket counter.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? Quite well, thank you! The difficulties getting home could not mar the wonderful time I had in Amsterdam with Suzanne. The euros that KLM generously offered me covered my hotel expenses, and all's well that ends well. I got to see a new city, and return to my own bed with a new sense of gratitude. There's no place like home.

The air traffic control tower at Detroit mocks me from my hotel window.