So, this is my second, more travel-memoir style post on our adventures in Newport News. I think it's safe to say that Erin and I got a very entertaining introduction to southern culture.
We arrived in Newport News in the evening only to discover that our hotel, the always popular for the budget conscience Super 8, was on the wrong side of the tracks. Literally. There were train tracks, and as far as we could tell, we were on the wrong side of them. The woman who handled our check-in at said Super 8, provided our first encounter with the supremely friendly Newport Newsians. She wanted to know all about why we were visiting Newport News, while at the same time telling us that the motel was unusually full thanks to a weekend jazz festival, and trying to ply us with brochures to area attractions such as Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg, which we had no way to get to given our car-less situation. After insisting (at least three times) that yes, we would for sure call her if there was anything we needed once we got to the room, Erin and I settled in for our first night on the road.
The next morning, we arose bright eyed, bushy tailed, and more than ready to take on the Newport News public transportation system and the Mariners' Museum archives. A rather uneventful bus ride landed us at the front of Christopher Newport University, a lovely campus with a spectacular library where the Mariners' Museum archive is housed. Upon arriving at the campus, Erin and I asked one of the people working on the summer landscaping if she could point us in the direction of the library. The woman did us one better and got her companion to drive us right to the library in his golf cart. This ride, while welcome, was slightly uncomfortable as all three of us were squished into the front seat due to the plants that were occupying the back area of the vehicle.
Once we were deposited at the library, Erin and I were able to quickly make our way to the archive, where we met Mr. Bill Edwards-Bodmer, the library researcher. Mr. Bodmer turned out to be a lovely person and a great help to our project. He provided us with a list of all of the library's piratical materials and was more than happy to let us look at anything we wanted to. He even gamely put up with our very un-library appropriate excitement over the many editions of Exquemelin's Buccaneers of America and constant habit of reading especially good bits of what every document we happened to be working on out loud.
The seven hours we spent in the Mariners' Museum archive that day passed by in the blink of an eye and Thursday evening found Erin and I wandering the grounds of the Mariners' Museum itself. During our exploration, we stumbled upon a lake where we were presented with the opportunity to set sail in a pirate paddle boat for $5 per half hour. Given the subject of our research, how could we refuse? Erin and I quickly boarded our craft after the wonderful paddle-boat people snapped a photo which can be seen here. Our trip took us past charming bridges, mysterious coves, and a really oddly shaped tree. We briefly entertained the idea of trying to take the other paddle boat on the lake as a prize, but lack of speed and any real navigational talent persuaded us not to proceed in this endeavor.
Paddle boating is hard work, and after this adventure Erin and I decided that it was time to hunt down some victuals. The first restaurant we came across was the Warwick Restaurant, a local diner which provided us with a truly unique and entertaining dining experience. The meal began with a perusal of our menus where it was stated that with our entree we would have our choice of two vegetables. The veggie choices were as follows: mashed potatoes, french fries, potato salad, cole slaw, apple sauce, pickled beets, baked potatoes, and "vegetable of the day", which turned out to be collared greens. The experience only got better from there. Our waitress was a fabulous woman who took our order in an exceptionally friendly manner, and then proceeded to ask if we had hear about the death of Michael Jackson. Since Erin and I had been holed up in the library all day, this was news to us, and we had a nice bonding moment as the three of us commiserated over the loss of the controversial legend. Our waitress then proceeded to personally break the sad news to every other individual table in the diner, and soon a restaurant wide discussion of Michael Jackson ensued. After learning some valuable lessons about life, death, and the importance of cable television from the locals, Erin and I called it a night and headed back to the Super 8.
Once we reached the hotel, we quickly realized that our room keys had been demagnetized and I headed downstairs to get them fixed. Our friend from the night before was once again manning the desk and was more than happy to help me. She was thrilled that Erin and I seemed to be enjoying our stay in Newport News. The highlight of our conversation came right as I was about to head upstairs when she called after me with the words, "Child, do you know that Michael Jackson passed?". And on that rather odd note, our first and only full day in Newport News ended.
The next morning passed much in the same fashion as the first, with a bus ride and hours spent buried in the Mariners' Museum archive feverishly trying to work our way through all of the great pirate resources available to us before our inevitable trip back to DC. Erin and I quitted the library, in sort of a dazed state of pirate overload later in the afternoon. We made it safely to the Amtrak station where we boarded our train back to the big city and proceeded to spend our journey refusing to read, or even look at anything with the word "pirate" in it.
So ends our great adventure in Newport News. Stay tuned for the next installment of our travels, detailing what is sure to be a thrilling expedition to Boston and Mystic Seaport!
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