I spent my second weekend at Bear Creek Lake State Park – this time to participate in a Saturday morning conference in Lynchburg. About an hour from Cumberland County, it’s a nice drive to Lynchburg and, following the conference, I took the opportunity to drop by the Appomattox Court House NHS and bag another stamp.

On the way home, I took a slight detour through Petersburg and stopped at a few of the National Battlefield sites. Although I grew in the area, it’s been almost 40 years since I’ve visited some of these locations and it was nice to see them with a slightly new perspective. I’m not a huge fan of Civil War history but I’ve always felt that if you can put aside any attachment to one side or the other, you can’t help but be moved by the general atrocity of war–at least that’s what I always come away with.

Unfortunately, the driving tour through the main Petersburg Battlefield was closed due to some serious tree damage from a major storm that came through during the previous weekend. Nevertheless, I still managed to pick up three more stamps.