Monday, April 6, 2009

The Past Meets The Present


I found wonderful long arm quilting machine from a lady in Virginia. This will help me on my Quilts Of Valor and also launch a business in the future. I will be able to long arm quilts for other people. When I told chas where it was——he thought it was near the farm where his Dad and wife lived years ago. chas lived there for awhile and was anxious to see if he could find it.
We were traveling along and he thought he spotted it but it was bigger and had a parking lot. Once we pulled into the lot he realized it WAS the house with a couple of additions on it. A pub had been added onto it so we decided to go in. He got talking to the bar maid and the house belonged to her family.


A long conversation ensued about who they bought it from and confusion resulted. His Dad’s wife had remarried so she had a different last name. But it was all cleared up and made perfect sense. She offered us a tour of the house part including the upstairs living quarters. We saw chas’s old bedroom which was now used for storage.

We also met a neighbor who knows the ex wife and told him she lived nearby. This was like watching a reunion show that got stranger by the minute. You just cannot make this stuff up.


We toured the beautiful property and returned for one more drink before heading home. Maybe we will book a room there someday and stay where he lived as a young military man.

I read the website and now KNOW why chas is such a history buff about the beginnings of our country. He LIVED on property owned by George Washington. I am guessing a whispering voice from the past talked to him at night and said “Do not let them forget”.
Here is the information about the property.

For the previous 25 years, the property was operated as the 1763 Inn and provided area residents and out-of-town guests with excellent food and hospitality.
The original section of the inn dates to the year 1763 and has remarkable historical roots.
In 1775, Lord Fairfax deeded the land over to George Washington for survey work and the deed hangs prominently in that portion of the building.


At one point, Union forces stored horses behind the Blackthorne Inn until Confederate troops drove them off the property. Somehow, throughout its current growth, the Blackthorne Inn remains a quiet and peaceful place. However, folklore holds that on a clear moonlit night, one can sometimes hear horses’ hooves and see the ghosts of Mosby’s Raiders galloping across the Blue Ridge.

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