Stop in Florence SC to visit my friend from high school Lynn.  Prime Parking spot.

Tucson makes a new friend, Sophie

 

And he loves Annie!

While here I go take the drug  test for starting work at Amazon in Campbellsville KY on November 3rd.    I head out to KY and get less than 2 hours from Florence when I get a call from Amazon saying I can't start because they don't have my test results.  It's Friday and I call the lab, but they are aready closed so I have to wait till monday.   Instead of turning back to Florence I stay at Lee State Park for a couple of nights.   Monday I call Lab and discover that they issued the same ID number to me and another person and my results were sent in under their name to another company.  They tell me that I don't need to come back for another test that they'll call the Lab and have my results sent to Amazon.  I tell them to do it ASAP as I've already lost a week of work.

I call Amazon Wednesday afternoon to check that they got it.  I am told I was listed as a no-show and cannot work there this season.  Great!  That's approximately $6,000 I won't have to get me through the winter.   So I turn around and head back to Myrtle Beach to pound the pavement.  

I finally land a job at A.C. Moore for the Holiday Season.

After stopping to visit friends in Carolina Beach, NC.  

We catch the Ferry from Fort Fisher to Southport, NC.

Next stop is Richmond, VA  a great town with lots to see and do.

Found a parking spot!

 

 I had asked someone at the Dog Park what I should see in Richmond that I could bring Tucson with me.  She said Head on down to Belle Isle and the James River for a walk. 

 

Tucson's not so sure about the bridge

Some of the most dramatic events in Richmond’s history occurred during three days in April 1865 when the city fell to the Union Army after four years of civil war. As the Union Army marched down Broad Street, Confederates evacuated while enslaved Richmonders gained their freedom.
These events are memorialized on a bridge overlooking the James River. Quotes, images and views of the remains of Civil War-era bridges bring back the extraordinary events of the war’s end.

 

The world's smallest dog park

Belle Island lies within the James River, and is owned by the city and serves as a city park. It is accessible to pedestrians and bicycle via a suspension footbridge that runs under the Robert E. Lee Bridge from the north shore of the James

The island served as a prison for Union soldiers during the Civil War. Between 1862 and 1865, the island was home to about 30,000 POW's and as many as 1,000 died, though accounts vary with the South claiming the death rate was low, while the North claimed it was very high.

 

There is a hiking trail that runs the circumference of the Island

 

Lots of interesting things to explore

The remains of the old Tredegar Iron works are still there

People kayaking in the James.  The yellow one is a paddle board I was amazed that anyone was even trying that in the rapids.  She did great until she didn't!

Time to move on down the road!

I was going to do Mt.Vernon but when I got there I realized I had done that a few years before so we headed to Monticello instead.  A beautiful and magnificent place!  Entry included a tour of the house.

Once I finished the inside tour I went back to the RV and picked up Tucson so he could explore the grounds with me.  First he met Thomas Jefferson.

He was excited to hike the trail back  to Monticello

He reflected on the House and Gardens

 Still excavating and making new repairs and additions