Richmond, VA: May 26th-27th, 2013 - A Much Better Time in Virginia

After the lukewarm trip to Virginia in the fall, I had immediately turned around and booked a trip to Richmond, the capital, to try to make up for it with what I hoped would be something better.  The weather disagreed with my plans on that particular weekend, and I just had never gotten around to rescheduling.

In late May, the last weekend before I ended my employment in Greenville, I decided I needed to get around to it at last.  I booked a relatively cheap hotel on the outskirts of town and hit the road.  After doing the four hour Charlotte-to-Greenville route many times over the years, the not-quite-three hours to Richmond barely registered.

Lots of pictures forthcoming:

I really like those last two.

These were all taken in and around the capitol area, a park with statues and old buildings where the state government used to meet.  I could have dedicated a whole day to just that area, I expect, if I had been there while museums were open and tours were being given.

Some shots of the city:

 A statue that I think was dedicated to the abolition of slavery:

This is apparently City Hall:

I'm basing that assumption on the words "City Hall" inscribed on it.

A church:

A really fancy modern-looking office building:

I think if I worked there I'd never complain about work again.

I had ambled south toward what I though would be one last quick section of the city, as I had been wandering for about 2 hours at that point and was quite tired, but there was far more to see than I could have expected once I reached the river.

Richmond sits on the James River, famous for the shmrmrhr battle that happened during the Revolutionary War.  Or something.  I'm basing that off of evidence such as this:

Which I imagine wasn't a cinco de mayo parade or anything.

The river looks like this:

And it's got a bridge that doesn't quite span it:

If I remember correctly from the placards and podiums filled with history around the site, the bridge was kerploded to keep the such-and-such soldiers from making it across.

Maybe next time I should take a picture of the paragraphs of written history so these posts aren't quite so impressively uninformative.

Further down the river, there was this tunnel filled with art:

Which was neat, if a little...unexplained.

There was this pipe:

That you could walk across:

That eventually just...gave up on handrails:

There were a few people fishing off of it, and there was barely enough room to get by one another.  I walked the entire length of it until it became submerged and impassible without getting your shoes wet, then walked back.  There wasn't really anything to explain it.  It was just...the pipe.

I returned to my hotel after a solid three-hour-plus walk, went to sleep, left the next morning.  This trip to Virginia was everything that the first one was not.  It was warm, it was a fantastic place, it was interesting, I had more than enough to do.  Richmond was by far my favorite trip that I took while working in Greenville.  I actually researched the company whose office building I showed up above, in hopes that they might have an opening.  I pictured myself living and working there, visiting Greenville friends every so often, living comfortably and happily.  I'm sure the fantasy would have soon faded, and it wouldn't have been magical forever.  But a man can dream.

That Friday I worked my final day, then went home to Charlotte.  And so began summer.