So there was Portia perched on the back of the couch keeping a close watch over her new Jeep Cherokee Laredo...yep she's claimed it. Anyway, I had decided that today I would take Portia for a drive in search of the historical site where the character I play at work took his militia during the occupation of Benedict Arnold. It was only supposed to be six or seven miles just outside of the city so I loaded Portia up and away we went.
Portia is a big fan of the new ride...as am I, it definitely has made life easier without a doubt. As you can tell by the photo she is pretty eager to go anywhere in the new rig...doesn't matter much to her where we go just as long as she gets to go!So away we went in search of Six Mile Ordinary...the site of a popular 18th Century tavern run by Isham Allen. In April of 1781, Benedict Arnold and his redcoats finally arrived in this portion of Virginia and came to occupy Williamsburg. The British occupation forced the American General Thomas Nelson's men to flee Williamsburg in the dark of night...these men were led by James City County Delegate and retired Army Colonel, James Innes to this location on 21 April 1781. This tavern would be the Americans base of operations for the course of the next seven days while Arnold and his men occupied the town.
It was my mission to find the the historical marker that marks this location so I could see for myself where it was and know how far exactly it is from Williamsburg. After some brief research on where to locate this marker Portia and I set out to complete our mission. We drove for sometime and while we saw plenty of historical markers none where the one I was in search of...I knew I needed to turn around and head back but I decided to keep driving as I had not been outside of Williamsburg much...we drove on to West Point, VA where I decided to turn around...this was quite an exeperience as this little town reminded me of a combination of little towns back home...with its docks, papermill plants, and lumber yards. After a quick drive back across the York River the hunt was on again for Six Mile Ordinary...
It took some doing but sure enough we were able to find the marker it was just located on the side of the highway in the parking lot of a shopping mall. I parked in the lot and jumped out to read the sign, snap a photo, and look around. After finishing up I turned to go back to the car and as soon as I did I noticed a very familiar sign upon the shopping mall...PENDLETON...I could not be more serious.
Here I was on an adventure to see a place where my character had served during the Revolution and my journey to find his past had lead me to a place of my own past.Now I know to some of you that may sound stupid...but not to me. To me it was something pretty significant. Prior to today I had no idea there was a Pendleton store anywhere around here...let alone in Williamsburg itself!
Excited I went inside just to look around. I talked with the sales lady and let her know I was a graduate of Pendleton High School and had spent most of my growing up years there. She was surprised to have someone from Pendleton come into the store...and I swear I am not making this up...while we were talking the phone rang and she answered it: "Thank you for calling Pendleton. This is Virginia. How may I help you?" Well naturally I did a double take to look at her name tag and sure enough her name really was Virginia!
The store was one of the larger stores in the shopping mall. And they had all that you might expect in a Pendleton store...the blankets, clothes, etc, etc,. The best part for me were all the framed pictures of the Woolen Mills, Pendleton, and the Round-Up from the early part of the 20th Century. I tried to convince the sales lady to let me purchase a couple of the posters as they were duplicates to the ones hanging on the womens side of the store...but no dice. "We don't sell those, the company sends them to us to decorate the store...they don't let us sell them." So the best I could do was take a quick snapshot on my cell phone.In my book I would mark today's adventure as an amazing success...I found a piece of Innes history in the parking lot of a Pendleton store...if that isn't an amazing connection I have no idea what is!!
