It all fit! And we're off for Washington, D.C.!

My sandwich. Isn't she a beauty?

Good morning! It's almost 1 a.m. here. Good thing there's not much exciting news to tell of the day. The curriculum fair seemed slow at times, but I think we did OK with $1600 sales. Got to talk to many interesting people today, and tried to work on the HST article, but forgot my computer at the motel. But I did some preliminary scribbling on it, and actually put in 3 or 4 hours altogether around helping people.

Our delicious and nutritious breakfast.

Our booth.

George Washington made a special guest appearance

The trip in was much easier today, we actually came out within $4 on our accounting (pretty good for Joseph and me!), we didn't stop at Kline's today, and we walked around Old Town before taking the rental car back to Hertz. Manassas Municipal Airport is very hard to recognize as an airport! Then we had to wait for Haris Saaed, on his second day as a cab driver, to also find the airport, and then we helped him find our motel. It was a nice calm drive for a taxi!

Bookstore in Manassas. It was not as good as we hoped.

Everything actually fit into the extra spaces of the Doorposts return boxes and our two big suitcases and two carry-ons. We were wondering for awhile! We threw a few food items away after stuffing ourselves with chicken and potatoes and salad and broccoli and corn. Now we must go to bed. We have to be up and ready for the cab to pick us up at 8 tomorrow morning! We love you all! Next time you hear from us will probably be Monday night when we settle in Goshen, Indiana. Thanks for keeping us company with your comments!

Sunset over Manassas

Packing. I think it will all fit.

A's to Q's

Here are the answers to some of the "question-of-the-days" we have posted.

July 3rd. What is the first difference between Mennonite and Brethren? The style of baptism. Brethren dunk, Mennonites don't.

July 4th. What flavor of shake did I get? Strawberry. (Hannah guessed correctly)

July 5th. What does the term "blackbumper Mennonite" refer to? Mennonites that use cars, but paint the bumpers black to be more "modest."

July 6th. What does "WWBD" stand for? "What would Bubba do?"

July 7th.Where did Noah keep his bees? In his ark hives (archives, get it?) I found this on the shelves in the Eastern Mennonite University archives.

July 8th. How many kinds of meat did I eat at the insane buffet? Eight. Fried chicken, sweet-and-sour chicken, teriyaki chicken, honey chicken (on the salad), bacon (also on the salad), fried catfish, fried shrimp (LOTS of fried shrimp), and a steak. Yeah. I was full.

July 9th. How many times did we end up going to Kline's while we were in Harrisonburg? Six, plus we took some ice cream to our room on Saturday and ate it on Sunday. (Mrs. Payne guessed correctly)

Manassas Day 1

This morning was "breakfast" in a new motel. Joseph says the butter was good. So was the orange juice. But "continental breakfast" consisted of a microwave, toaster, english muffins and bread, packages of jam and cream cheese, and OJ and coffee. We decided this was a good morning to use the coupon for the free croissant sandwich that Joseph won at our stop at Burger King when we first got to Harrisonburg.

We walked through Old Town for a few minutes until the Visitor Center opened. We got maps for a walking tour and a driving tour in town. The center is in the old restored Manassas train station. That is where we will get on board the train into D.C. on Sunday morning. It's in the same spot the trains came and went from during the Civil War, bringing supplies and transporting soldiers.


The drive into the conference looked like it was going to be a breeze. Just get on the road that runs in front of our motel and keep going for 9 miles until you see Willard Dr. It was great until we got to Exit 43 which said that Exit 44, our exit was closed. They actually had very helpful bright orange detour signs that guided us, but it threw off all our directions once we reached Willard Dr. We didn't know where we were supposed to be on that road, and took several wrong turns before we finally found the center.

There was some confusion about our booth space, and we waited for 45 minutes or so to get the tablecloths/drapery and chairs that we had ordered. We couldn't set up the booth until the tablecloths were on the tables, so we stood around and walked around and stood around some more and bugged the organizers, and finally were able to start setting up about 2 minutes before we were supposed to be all done.

It's a big hall with lots of room and over 75 vendors -- everything from accordion lessons to culinary institutes, the state dept of education, colleges, and crafts along with the standard Abeka, BJU, Sonlight, etc. Nothing that really interested me very much, though.

It definitely has a different ambience and emphasis than the Washington and Oregon conferences. The classical education influence is heavy in the main speakers and workshops. Susan Wise Bauer and her mother are the main speakers -- biggie classical school promoters. Of the forty workshops available over the two days, not one focuses on character, discipleship, and family issues like courtship, family leadership, roles of women and men, like the fairs we're used to. All were dealing only with academics. Some people were definitely not interested in what we had to offer. One lady wanted help teaching her children about the Bible, since she had just become a Christian, but the Old Testament "bores her to tears." Another walked up and asked me what we had to offer. I explained and she responded with an "oh" without looking at me and walked away.

But then at least one lady walked up with her list obviously thought out and bought a whole pile of the small books -- DOD, AUL (which I think we somehow didn't charge her for -- Sorry, Daniel!), Family Circles, PC Memory, etc. And others obviously were familiar with us. It looks like we sold about $600 worth today.

We fluctuated between absolute boredom to panic with people waiting in line. Late afternoon was especially dull -- try some Tazo tea from the exhibitors' room, walk around, go to the bathroom, get another kind of tea and some Chex mix, try to snap out of a desperate yawning spell, go to the bathroom, etc. It was dangerous being so inactive after the hours and the pace we have been keeping.

Speaking of panicking, I finally got around to reading some emails that I had downloaded earlier and was astounded to find out that I have a Homeschooling Today article due on the day we come home. Kara Murphy refered to July 16 as the "drop dead" deadline. Drop dead is right. How did I ever get roped into writing these articles?! This is the one for Nov/Dec. Can I quit after this one?

We're praying some big books sell tomorrow. We need those empty boxes to send stuff home in. We want to get rid of some things so we don't have so much to drag around D.C. with us on Sunday. And I really don't think everything would fit in our suitcases anymore.

Finally set up for business!

Look what we found in Manassas! Kline's Freeze, just like Kline's Dairy Bar in Harrisonburg -- same ice cream, same picnic tables, same calories ... a little something to carry us over until I started making dinner at 10 p.m.

We headed out to the Manassas Battlefield and were delighted to find that we could go in, even though the visitor center closed at 5. It was perfect. The air was cool with a bit of breeze, the birds were singing, the deer were venturing out of the woods, and the sun was setting, as we walked the mile-long mowed path through the fields, enjoying the view and reading the signs about the battle. Joseph took some great pictures and we got some fresh air moving through us after sitting in an exhibit hall all day. I didn't think we'd get a chance to get to the battlefield, so it was a pleasant surprise and a pleasant evening.

The sunset reflected in the Henry House window

Rickett's Battery which the Confederates took.

Doesn't he look like the talking head in a documentary?

Watch out, Judith Henry. You should leave your house before the cannon start firing.

Nice shot, huh?

It was even prettier than this. A great memory to hang on to.

We'll see how much of a post we manage tomorrow night. We have to repack everything to fit into the DP boxes and our suitcases, toss any food we can't carry with us, pack our breakfast, lunch and dinner for D.C., return the car to Hertz, and get a cab back to our motel. Will everything fit or not? Stay tuned...

Today's question: From what nation was the sculptor who portrayed Stonewall Jackson as the big muscular guy on the big muscular horse?

Farewell to the Shenandoah Valley

Today was our last day in the valley. We've really enjoyed having so much time there. It started to feel like home! After packing things into the car, we drove to the Dayton Farmer's Market for some more lunch meat for sandwiches, and then we went to see Ft. Harrison (the home of Daniel Harrison), which we hadn't managed to do all week. When we got there, we realized that Ft. Harrison was where the guys had hung out with the 10th VA during Dayton Days when we were here last time -- stone house with white picket fence around it.

The Harrison House. Daniel played the fiddle in front of it for several hours in 1999 raising money to restore Gabriel Shank's flag.

We also realized a couple days ago that you marched between Bridgewater and Dayton on Route 42 that we have been driving back and forth on over the last week.

Then we went into EMU to say goodbye to Dr. Nafziger and headed out of town toward Cross Keys and Port Royal (by way of Kline's Dairy Bar), two battle areas that Gabriel Shank and the 10th VA had fought on. We were trying to use a driving tour route recommended in a book, but we ended up with several detours. We went to Cross Keys Vineyard at Dr. Nafziger's recommendation and had our first experience at official wine tasting.

CrossKeys Vineyard. It was big.

Not being too interested in drinking very much, I just paid for Joseph to try them, and I tried to get a picture of him looking so adult, but apparently I didn't push the button hard enough, because there was no picture in the camera. Alas...Fortunately the young lady helping us was very laid back, not at all stuffy or wine-snobby. She did rattle on about oaky tastes and so on, but she didn't snicker or anything when Joseph swallowed wrong on the first sip. We will see if we can get the two bottles home without them breaking.

The winery was probably bigger than all of Cross Keys. It had a very imposing Spanish-looking sort of building on a hill, surrounded by all the vineyards. Cross Keys was much harder to find. We missed it on the way down and ended up in Weyers Cave, going on to Grottoes where the Grand Caverns are. We thought it might be fun to see the caverns, but $18.50 each to see some holes in the ground was more than we wanted to spend. We looked at some rather worn looking displays, watched a squirrel and chipmunk, and left.

Bats. We didn't see any.

Port Royal was another step back in time. It mainly amounted to two streets that ran parallel with each, with some old houses on them. It was here that we saw the first goats we have seen on our trip! We have actually seen very little evidence of small hobby-farm livestock raising in Virginia -- no small areas with a handful of animals in them, hardly any chickens wandering about, very few sheep, no goats until today. We mostly see (and smell) dairy cows scattered between fields of silage corn.

Goats and an old log cabin in the background.

Somehow we managed to miss most of the historical markers for the Cross Keys and Port Royal battles, but it was fairly obvious in both places where the battles would have been fought. This farm land is so beautiful. It's hard to imaging battles in the middle of the fields, or the fields strewn with dead bodies, or the loss the farmers must have suffered. I tried to imagine what it must have been like to have dear ol' Sheridan coming through burning crops and barns and destroying the livestock.

Cross Keys and Port Republic. We didn't see much, but we were there.

We followed one silly rabbit trail from our guide book that led us to a fenced off bridge and the obstructed view of an octagonal barn, and another that led us to the back of a school bus service and parking area to see what was supposed to be the remains of some historic tavern. It looked like a worn-out barn to us, and we felt very silly sight-seeing in the middle of a bus lot.

The Cross Keys tavern, supposedly built in 1800. It kind of looked like it had been used for a barn since 1810...

It sprinkled here and there through the morning, and we started to wonder what Skyline Drive was going to be like. Dr. Nafziger had said that sometimes it gets pretty foggy on the ridge when it is raining. But we decided to go ahead and at least try one section of it. We're so glad we did. It was beautiful. I have always loved blue hills fading away, layer after layer, in the distance. We saw about 3 hours worth of one beautiful vista after another. The roads were lined with stone walls (like they have in portions of the Columbia Gorge) and there were lookouts all along the road. Sometimes the view was layer upon layer of blue hills (we counted at least 12 layers at one point) Other times it looked out over the tiny fields and villages below. One view showed the Shenandoah like a shiny mirror winding through the valley. We played bluegrass music and a cello CD of Joseph's and stopped for picture after picture.

The Blue Ridge Mountains

Wildflowers

Layers and layers of blue mountains.

We saw a little black bear skip across the road at one point and desperately tried to get his picture before he trundled into the brush. We also saw a deer, and tried not to swallow the little bugs that rushed to surround us when we got out of the car. The birds and the wild flowers were wonderful.

It was kind of a rude awakening to leave the peaceful valley and the quiet, secluded mountains to drive into Manassas, but we're here now. This motel room looks almost exactly like the one we left in Harrisonburg. The bedspreads and refrigerator are a different color, the bathroom is a bit bigger, but less light, and the dresser only has 2 drawers instead of 4.

Our new Super 8 room which is just like our old Ramada Inn room. (It is not that messy now. We were just starting to put things away...)

Otherwise, it's pretty much the same. We're actually sleepy and it's only 11:18! Tomorrow is the start of the homeschool conference. We'll sift through our 150 shots of the Blue Ridge Mountains, put up a few for you to see, and quit for now.

Our super-hardy bouquet

Question-of-the-day: How many times did we end up going to Kline's Ice-Cream Bar in the week we were in Harrisonburg?

Driving, Reading and Eating. And Eating. And Eating.

Today we finished with Joseph's research in this area. We've been gone a week already! Tomorrow we head out on Skyline Drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains. This morning was the first morning we ate breakfast without hearing about Michael Jackson over and over and over. Yay! After breakfast we followed a route described in our "Touring the Shenandoah Valley Backroads" book. We stopped at Silver Lake Mill on the way to Dayton.

Silver Lake Mill

It would have been fairly picturesque except for the "Private Property" signs that were all over, and the modern junk behind it.

Ducks and ducklets

We finished our research in the historical library, working on Funk stuff and also looking at information about Aldine and Anna Kieffer and their parents.

We met relative Lois Emswiler at the Rockingham Historical Society library

We then drove through Bridgewater, and along some backroads that went through the country. Mossy Creek Presbyterian Church and its surrounding cemetery were very beautiful, Mt. Solon was quaint (except for the drummer that was practicing upstairs in one of the old buildings as we drove by, Natural Chimneys were ho-hum,and Staunton was just as inviting as it was the other three times we've been there.

Mossy Creek Presbyterian Church-built 1768

Church yard at the Presbyterian Church


Mt. Solon. There was this dude banging away at the drums inside this little old store. Really loud.

Downtown Staunton

We finally got into a store that Joseph was very interested in, and then got to go inside the Trinity Episcopal Church that we had walked around on the 4th of July. We wanted to go inside to see the stained glass windows. Many of them were made by Louis Tiffany, and they were exquisiste. We had the sanctuary all to ourselves, with the lights turned off and the sunlight illuminating the windows and the wood floors and pipes of the organ.

The sanctuary of the Episcopal church. It could probably seat close to 1000 people.

One of the twelve Tiffany windows in the Staunton Trinity Episcopal Church

If we had known we would end up at an Episcopal church on Sunday morning, we probably would have made yet another trip to Staunton to attend this beautiful church.

Our next stop was at Bob and Lois Emswiler's house. What a pleasant visit we had with them.

The Emswilers' House in Dayton

We completely stuffed ourselves at the "Wood Grill" buffet. Benjamin, you would have flipped. All the steak, fried shrimp, ham, mashed potatoes you could eat. Besides all that there was two different salad bars of vegetables and fruits, one island with baked beans, cooked greens, macaroni and cheese, all kinds of potatoes, and chicken, livers, catfish, etc., and another with piles of steak, roast beef, ham, Chinese food, hamburgers, hot dogs, ribs, etc., and 2 more areas with much better-than-the-average-buffet-desserts. It was the best buffet I've ever been to.

Wood Grill. All-you-can-eat steak.

After we waddled out to the car, Bob and Lois took us on a tour of the Linville area where Bob and his father and his Aunt Maggie (who was my great-grandma) grew up. We saw the house they were all born in. Someone has built on and restored it since we were here last. We also saw the graves of Harrison and Fannie Emswiler (my great-great grandparents) and several other relatives on my great-grandma's side.

Great-great-great-grandfather (to Joseph) Harrison Emswiler's grave. He served in the 2nd Virginia during the war.

We went to a couple other cemeteries, saw the grave of Marie, the second wife of Ralph Geil (my great-grandpa) and a couple other cemeteries, and went inside the Methodist church that Harrison (my great-great grandfather) helped start.

Plaque in front of the church Harrison Emswiler helped found in 1889

Linville Methodist Church which was founded in part by Harrison Emswiler. Bob was baptized here.

We went back to their house and talked about genealogy stuff for quite awhile, and then drove home without stopping at Kline's Dairy Bar!

The Emswilers' basement

Our last night to sit in the warm evening air eating ice cream, but we were just too full still! We'll have to get some on the way out of town tomorrow...


Question-of-the-day: How many kinds of meat did Joseph eat at the buffet tonight?

Libraries and Graveyards

Today was a research day! After eating our breakfast to the constant Michael Jackson chatter on the TV, we escaped to the quiet sanctuary of the EMU Historical Library. What fun! A nice, history-loving gentleman named Harold was happy to take us downstairs to the archives to view some treasures. Joseph played the flute that belonged to Timothy Funk, one of Joseph Funk's sons.

Timothy Funk's flute and the original "Musical Millions" on the shelf

We saw and held some of Aldine Kieffer's "Musical Millions." We looked through a 16th century German printing of "Martyr's Mirror," held the first edition of "Harmonia Sacra" and the 1860 edition that Gabriel would have been helping print.

16th century edition of "Martyr's Mirror"

1866 edition of "Harmonia Sacra"

We held and read one of Joseph Funk's letters (incredible handwriting!)

One of Joseph Funk's letters to his daughter, Mary

We also saw several other books of Aldine's, and a chair that Joseph Funk had added a writing table onto, kind of like some of the school desks that have the writing section on the side. Maybe he wrote all those letters sitting in that chair!

Joseph Funk's chair

Then we got to business on research, working our way through many files and books. They have photocopies of every edition of "Musical Millions," pages and pages crammed with tiny little printing, and full of information about Funk's teaching methods and articles about congregational singing, music history, etc. We made almost 300 copies just today! One short autobiography of Aldine's will shed some interesting light on life in Singer's Glen, life during the Civil War, and life after it.

Aldine's bold signature

I copied stuff for so long that my left arm started complaining!

Sorting through files and taking notes

Looking at the real books!

1860 edition of "Harmonia Sacra." All the first editions only had three parts.

1860 edition. Gabriel Shank probably helped print or bind this very book.

We thought we were going to go back to the Rockingham Historical Center today, too, but we ended up using the whole day at EMU, except for a brief break during lunch. Joseph went out to lunch with Ken Nafziger, and I went into town to the Farmer's Market (I bought a little miniature bouquet for our room (reminded me of your cute little bouquets of past market seasons, Bethany) and the Virginia Quilt Museum. At first I was worried when I started through the museum, I didn't know the ugliness of modern art had infiltrated into the quilting world. The quilts seemed even more ridiculous when I finally found the Civil War era quilts. They were unbelievable -- intricate applique, tiny tiny stitches, quilting in rows 1/8 inch apart. The entire quilts were almost solid stitching. I wish I could have taken pictures. Interesting stories accompanied many of the quilts, and I wanted so bad to remember them, but this old, sleep-deprived brain has already forgotten them. The museum is in the former house of one of Gabriel's military captains, Warren. And one of the quilts was made for one of the guys in the 10th VA by his grandmother. He died in the war, and the quilt has been passed down through the generations since.

We spent our evening back at Singers Glen, this time in the cemetery on the hill behind the village.

Joseph Funk's tombstone. Notice the harp on top.

We took our dinner and ate there after wandering through the gravestones and admiring the view. I think just about everybody in Singers Glen would have been able to see us up there. It looks like almost every house has windows that face toward the cemetery.

Funk's stone is on the right. Singer's Glen is in the background.

Trying to write poetry like Aldine. jk

We thought we were doing to draw and paint, but by the time we were done walking and eating and just staring, the light started to dim and we decided to just stare some more and take pictures to draw from at home.

This would have produced another dramatic poem from Aldine.

The drive home was beautiful, and we kept up our nightly Kline's Dairy Bar tradition, this time with sundaes!

Yum

Tomorrow we head back to Dayton and will spend late afternoon and evening with the Emswilers. We're hoping our research work will go fast enough for us to squeeze in a quick trip to some caverns south of Dayton that Stonewall Jackson actually had his men camp in during the war.

Here's a question for you: Where did Noah keep his bees?

The answer to the difference between Brethren and Mennonites: One baptizes face forward, the other tipping you back in the water. (We can't remember which one is which. I think the Brethren (Dunkers) might be the face-firsters.