Virginia

Thur. We drove uptown so we could use the internet and the phone. It was nice having a day that we did not do much.
Fri. Another leisure day.  We did some cleaning  inside the rig and get some reading done.  We were going to have a cup of tea this afternoon and the coffee pot did not work.  So back up town to get a new coffee pot for tomorrow.  While there we got caught up on the phone messages and text.

 Sat. It rained all night but we still went to the Sutton Dam.  They had a 5k run and tours of the dam.  We elected to go on the tour.  We went from around 500 feet above the river to 100 feet below the river.  We had a picnic there(picture below of dam) then went to the bulk food where we can get internet, coffee, and ice cream.  We are trying to see where we are going to head to on Monday. We still do not know. After we got home we ate and played a game(boy did I get the right cards).

Sun. After a pretty sunrise(picture below) we went to church then to the grocery for graham crackers and marshmallows (bet you can't guess what we are having at the camp fire tonight). We went back to bulk food(the Amish) had a hot pepper turkey sandwich, some of their baked beans and coffee. They also gave us the best choc. mint candy.  When we got home we got the rig ready for our trip Monday to Virginia. It rained and got everything wet and I could not get the fire started.
Mon. We left for Virginia when we stopped at the welcome center. The info. Lady told us about the D-Day Memorial.  It was on the way in Bedford Virginia.  We stopped and we are glad that we did.  The picture below showes the entrance with Overlord on the National D-Day Memorial. Operation Overload was a high-risk undertaking that changed the war. Picture bottom left side is the American and right side  other countries that  some 4,500 allied serviceman lost there lives on Dec.6 1944.  Their names are all listed on these plaques.

 Top left is Eisenhower, the middle picture is the ceiling of the rotunda and shows the plan for D-Day. Top right is a close up of Eisenhower. It was taken from a picture when he was talking to some of the troops. He asked someone where he was from and what he liked to do. He told him  that he liked to fish. That's when Eisenhower  was telling him he liked to fly fish(that story was told when one of the men in the picture was on tour and told our guide about it). The bottom picture is the emblem all the men were given for Operation Overload the blue is for victory the flaming sword, the rainbow represents all the colors of the countries.

The memorial had many symbols but what stood out the most was VALOR, FIDELITY, and SARCIFICE. Top left man in water VALOR, two on land FIDELITY, and the one on the ground SARCIFICE.  Top right shows a boat that the men landed on the beach the brown things in the water were to tear up boats that came ashore at high tide. They had water spaying at different spots.  The noise when it sprayed sounded like bullets being shot. Bottom showed a wall they would have to climb over 100 feet tall. It to has the VALOR, FIDELITY AND SARCIFICE.  The bottom right shows what a shallow grave would look like.  The one dog tag was put in his mouth and the other on his rifle which had his bandit stuck in the sand with his helmet on top.

Left picture is called "The Bedford Boys". It is to give honor for the men that fought in this area of the country.  More lives were lost here on D-Day than any where else in the nation.  This is why the memorial is placed in Bedford.  The U.S. Government said they could have a memorial but they were not going to pay for it so the folks got funds and made the memorial. The middle picture, a man dragging a fellow solider. It is a statue honoring all the wives who lost their husbands.  The top right picture  you will notice the gold wedding band.  That was donated from a wife who lost her husband and asked if they could put it in a sculpture.  The bottom right is a statue from WW1 that was shot at and took his face apart.  They did not want to fix it so it is that way today.  Since it is where the D-Day invasion was and the damage was done than they left it.  The folks doing the memorial wanted it and got a sculpture person to do it.

 Tues. We got up did our bible study, went on a walk, and we talked to our neighbors. After lunch we drove to  Natural Bridge Va. There we went to the Natural Bridge(two pictures on left) it is 215 feet high, 40 feet thick, 100 feet wide and has a 90 foot span between the walls.  "Natural Bridge " (the Bridge not made by hands, that spans a river, carries a highway, and makes two mountains one) def by Henry Clay , American Statesman, 1777-1852.  In early American history the Natural Bridge ranked with Niagara Falls in the top of the country's natural wonders. The picture on right is a water fall about one mile up stream from the bridge.

The Monacan Indian village. Indians that lived there before white men.

After our visit to Natural Bridge went to Pink Cadillac for dinner. They have a ice cream shop next door(middle picture on right).  They had one room done with nothing but Elvis(bottom pictures). We had there famous Elvis Burger.  

Picture below is a light show they had staring at 9:30.  They had christian music and songs and read about the creation of the world from Genesis. It was very well done and worth waiting for.