The Chickahominy

 We sadly didn't take any interesting pictures along the Chickahominy but perhaps someone else will send us ones that they took.  The river takes lots of twists and turns and most of it is a nature preserve, so no homes along the way.  We did, however, spot at least two bald eagles.

The Chiclahominy River is named for a tribe of Indians from this area.  The name means ground corn from which, I'm guessing, we get the term hominy grits.  John Smith sailed up the Chicahominy in search of corn for the settlers at Jamestown.  He stopped several times to trade with the Indians but it is said that he didn't always make a trade as he didn't want to appear needy.  If you are familiar with the Jamestown Settlement story, they were indeed very very needy.  I'm not sure his logic fooled the Indians who I'm sure could very easily know that the Jamestown Settlement was in dire straits.

C-Brats preparing to raft up

C-Brats rafted and eating once again:

We had a bit of a bet going today.  Yesterday several of us had spotted a derelect sailboat sunken in a swampy part of the river (its anyone's guess how it even got there).  We swore we could see the mast and the spreaders.  David, though, swore he had checked it out and that it definitely was a telephone pole.  Today he was on a mission to prove to us  wrong and bet us each a nickel.  At dinner, David paid up his 20 cents. Here's a picture of our nickel, appropriately with Thomas Jefferson's picture on it.