Nomad Life - Day 37

This morning, I slept in as late as I can remember on my Nomad Life trip: 0700!  The bed in Mollie's guest room was quite comfortable and it was nice not to have to be somewhere or do something important.  I had time to read one of my books that was due back to the library the next day and catch up on some Duolingo drills.  Mollie was already awake when I came out of my room and offered to make me an omelet from some eggs that her (and Alex's) chickens had laid.  This turned out to be quite tasty and I very much enjoyed her food presentation (Mollie is an artist in the kitchen sometimes).  I'd hoped Alex might join us for a day of fun/excursions but he told us he had homework for his adult education classes.  After getting ready (0945), Mollie and I departed for our first stop of the day: to get Mollie a stamp from the Petersburg National Battlefield (finally, after almost 10 years).  I drove Mollie's car (she wanted it that way) and we made pretty good time (via I-95 and I-295) as we drove south from Fredericksburg.  Mollie was navigating and I didn't think much of the routing until we basically bypassed the city of Petersburg altogether and drove into the nearby town of Hopewell.  Prior to this trip, I'd tried to remember when I'd previously been at this park and finally realized my last trip was in early 1992!  For this reason, I was confused when we drove into the National Park parking lot at City Point (1100).  Until today, I had no idea there was a separate unit of Petersburg Battlefield there so Mollie's chosen Google Maps route turned out to be a special bonus.  The park seemed to only be open seasonally so there as no guarantee that the facilities were actually open - fortunately, we got lucky and were able to tour the historic house and grounds.  The rangers were very nice and, after we watched a 15 minute video about the busy sea port that U. S. Grant used as a staging point for his siege of Petersburg, they let Mollie use the special stamp for her NPS Passport Book.  Mollie was very proud because this was her second to last park without a stamp - the last one is Wolf Trap - and I'd finally delivered on several promises I made about it.  Before departing the area, we walked around and found (with Mollie's iNaturalist app) a yellow buckeye tree (with walnut fruit), ID'd birds on the Appomattox River and James River, visited some old outbuildings (including Grant's cabin) and explored the nearby railroad yards that still in business and not (yet) part of the National Park.  Returning to our car (1200), we drove to a nearby BBQ restaurant called "Saucy's" that Mollie found online and it turned out to be a wonderful blend of originality and nostalgic comfort food.  Our lunch consisted of a sort of sampler platter and it took the two of us (working very hard) a lot of time to finish the food.  I tried a local beer and found that it actually came from a small brewery in Harrisonburg (I texted Brenna that I wanted to add it to our itinerary for my next visit with her).  When we were finished (1300), we started heading north towards our next planned stop: Lake Anna.  First, though, we got gas at a BP in Chester (1310) and then made our way back to I-295.  As we were driving north, I saw a sign for a place called "Historic Shirley".  I managed to convince Mollie that we should get off the highway and look into what it was - this, fortunately, wasn't too difficult and we used VA-5 to drive towards the unknown attraction.  Along our route, we passed a pretty bike trail that we later learned was the Virginia Capital Trail.  There were lots of bikers using it and we noted it for a later excursion of our own.  When we arrived at the entrance to Historic Shirley, we found out that it was an old plantation with colonial style buildings and working farm.  Unfortunately for us, it was open only seasonally and by invitation only - we weren't lucky on either count and had to settle for the winery (Upper Shirley Vineyards) that was located nearby.  However, Mollie scoped it out and figured out that it was very high end and full of rude people.  She vetoed the stop and I wasn't going to argue...  Backtracking on VA-5, we managed to find a parking lot for the Virginia Capital Trail when we checked out the Turkey Creek Conservation Area.  From there, we walked back towards Charles County Courthouse (miles and miles away) and tried to get our step count for the day.  The weather was still pretty nice but wet weather was threatening so we didn't stay out on the trail very long.  Once our walk was complete (1445), we returned to I-295 and headed towards Mollie's apartment again.  We had to brave several heavy showers while driving and it took us an hour to reach Fredericksburg.  As a result of our detour and the bad weather, we gave up on going to Lake Anna (saving it for the next day) and finished our excursion by 1545.  I spent some time relaxing and reading but then decided to try to go to Mass at a nearby Catholic Church.  Between 1730 and 1815, I attended the Vigil service at St. Matthew's (in Spotsylvania Courthouse) and then made my way back to Mollie's.  By then, she had finished making her famous chili and I sat down with her, Alex and Maple to enjoy some.  When we were done, I asked if we could take Maple for a walk and Mollie agreed - she even went with me.  During this stroll around her apartment complex, we finished our 10K step count and had fun with the dog.  By the time we got back to Mollie's unit (2000), all of us were very tired and I spent the rest of the evening blogging and catching up on more reading.  Bed time was at 2300 and I had no trouble getting to sleep.  What a day!