Because of the really goofy banker’s hours that US Army museums keep I couldn’t squeeze Fort Monroe in on either of my two days in the area thus far. And I damned certainly wasn’t leaving without seeing the place. Monday morning it is, then.
And well worth the effort it was, too. Not only do you get to drive onto the Fort Monroe installation – still an active military base after all these years – but you get to drive over the moat and through the sally-port of the old stone fort from the third system of coastal fortifications. When you roll up to the Casemate Museum you’re greeted with a sign indicating that Robert E. Lee lived in the house on the left when he was in the US Army and that Jefferson Davis was imprisoned in the casemate ahead after he was ignominiously captured after the Civil War. Glee!
Well, that was fun. Now for a pleasant two hour drive through blinding rainstorms to meet the assembled Hagartys on the North Carolina beaches.