Milepost 3,947 (Appomattox)

Our Civil War tour is kind of like a movie in which the scenes are filmed out-of-sequence.  Even though we have several more battlefields to visit, today we saw the site where the war ended on April 9, 1865.  Of course, that's Appomattox Court House.  And that's where I learned something new today. 

Being the Civil War buff that she is, Steph knew better, but I always thought Lee surrendered in a courthouse building.  Not so.  It was actually in a private home, the McLean House.  The reason for my confusion is that the village was named Appomattox Court House.  Since this was the county seat, there is also an actual courthouse, but nothing historically significant happened there.  It's now the Visitor's Center.  The actual McLean House is long gone.  The photo above is a replica built in the 1940's on the foundation of the original building.

Yesterday, we had a very scenic drive through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and on the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to Asheville, NC.  It was a spectacular drive.  While the park is probably better known and has more visitors, I thought the drive on the parkway was more scenic.

The Appalachian Trail goes right through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  We actually walked a part -- a very SMALL part -- of the 2,175-mile trail, which is shown on the bottom photo.

Tomorrow, we're driving first to Charlottesville to see Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.  From there, we drive to Newport News.  We're going to stay there for five days and take short day trips to the many attractions in that area of Virginia (Williamsburg, Yorktown, etc.)

Roger