Reedville VA to Oakville VA June 13 Saturday

Family of Geese at Reedville VA

It was fairly quiet during the night with only a few loud people arriving in one of the cabins about midnight and the fishing boats leaving very early to fish or crab. Neither bothered us very much as we slept until after 8. We were able to get a weak internet signal so checked email and some blog activity while having coffee and breakfast. A highlight of the morning was a family of geese who made their way through our camp. Mama led the way with children next and dad bringing up the rear.


Reedville Fisherman's Museum

After breaking camp we headed back to Reedville to visit the Fisherman’s Museum. It was very nice with several restored boats, historical information about the area and the fishing/crabbing development on the Chesapeake. The place was run by mostly volunteers who were very knowledgeable about the area. They had lots of models of ships, lighthouses, and even a train set up with to scale replicas of 3 towns in the area. It was around noon when we left heading west up the “northern neck” toward Oakville and Westmoreland State Park.

We stopped in one small town under a huge tree and ate lunch. We continued on through very nice countryside. Farms with wheat and corn and the various seafood industries seemed the most prevalent businesses. There are many new homes in the area – from reading it appears these are retirees, summer and/or weekend homes. Some seem to be restored old mansions and others built from scratch. The real estate is not cheap from reading one of the sale papers.

We stopped at a small market and bought crab and fish to cook for supper. We also got some yellow squash at a roadside stand. Then we made our way to the George Washington Birthplace National Memorial.


Monument at Washington Birthplace National Monument


200 Year Old Hackberry Tree at Washington Birthplace



View towards Potomac from Washington Birthplace

It was very nice – a film again which was on the ancestry of George Washington. His grandfather had come in 1600’s from England and eventually purchased and farmed a large estate. His father as well as older brothers all had large estates in the area. The men were all successful farmers, and involved in government, military and community. The estate on which George Washington was born is on Pope Creek where it joins the Potomac. It is a beautiful site. The home had burned and one was built by the state of Virginia after much research as a memorial to the president. When the park was given to the National Park Service, they of course did more research and found the house had not been built on the correct spot! Thankfully someone had the sense not to tear down the beautiful house that had been built and just marked the foundation nearby for everyone to see. The view to the Potomac was beautiful. Also of interest was a 200+ year old Hackberry Tree that stood beside the home when Washington lived there! They had a working farm area but we skipped that as we were getting tired and left to find our campground.


Campsite at Westmoreland State Park, Oakville VA

Westmoreland State Park was about 5 miles back down the road from The National Park Site. We found they were expecting us this time – our campground is full! Good we had the reservation – of course it is the weekend. At our site the electricity was off for some reason but we could run our extension cord to the site behind us and all is well. Jane prepared a great supper of the crab, fish, and squash. Squash is great coated in seafood crumbs and fried lightly. The blue fish was good and so was the crab. Jane is finishing up this blog entry so we can post tomorrow. Ben is studying about the swords that he will see in Delaware at the Museum. Our special TV antenna gets several channels so we will see what we can find on one of them tonight.