Monday morning we started the journey to what would be our travel hub for the next 10 days. But with one stop in between.
Very good friends of mine live in Wilmington, Delaware and that was on the way for us with only a small detour. Google maps took us through the lovely countryside around Philadelphia to make it a very nice tour to Wilmington.
I have known Larry and Louise for thirty years. When my passion for the civil war really started and I became interested in general Longstreet, I joined the Longstreet society. At the time they were looking for someone in the Netherlands who could try to find out in local archives if they could link were the general's dutch ancestors had come from. Mind you this was in the time that the internet had not been around long and was not the powerful search engine it is now. I asked where I could get some more information and they put me in touch with Larry in Louise.As it happens they would be visiting the Netherlands shortly so the first time we actually met up in my home town of Gouda. It clicked and since then I have always included them in my visits to the US. The most memorable being the unveiling of the general's statue. As it had been ten years this time I was very glad to see them.
After a nice visit we set out for West Virginia. Our route would take us past Baltimore and was long and boring. We will usually pick the more scenic route but on this day it was just getting to the destination as quickly as we could.
We around five in the afternoon and soon the owners of the airbnb came to meet us. The house is called stone house mansion and we were in for a surprise. We had rented the basement which was an apartment with two bedrooms. The owner also showed us the groundfloor which were communal spaces for the people on the upper floors who could only rent one room. It was like living in a museum! The house was built in 1757 and it was furnished with a lot of period furniture. If you are ever in the neigbhourhood do book it.
Comments