It Runs in the Genes

We made it!!! It's been a whirlwind of events within the last day. The flight from SLC to Charlotte was a rough flight. It was completely packed. Becca froze the whole 3.5 hours so didn't really get much sleep and I couldn't find a comfortable position for my head so I slept maybe 20 minutes on the flight. 3.5 hours seemed like eternity. We connected in Charlotte, NC and waited a while for the crew to show up which made us late to leave. We thought it was an hour flight but it turned out to be only about 40 minutes, which was a pleasant surprise. Becca was out before the flight attendant even finished the safety demonstration. Lucky girl.

We got into Richmond, exhausted and not able to process information of any kind. This didn't make getting our rental an easy task. But our rental car is super nice! It's a Ford Focus (hatchback) and is pretty new...pictures to come of it tomorrow.

Our hotel (Becca says it's a hotel with a lower case "h". Yeah, it's not nearly as good as the pictures made it seem.) is about 15 minutes from the airport. It was nice seeing all the trees and greenery on the way here. We were hoping that the front desk would let us check in early, as check in wasn't until 3pm. We knew we wouldn't get much done throughout the day if we didn't have a nap first. The front desk lady was kind enough to let us check in early, but had difficulty giving us the papers to sign, as she appeared to be withdrawing from her crack. Yep, it's a hotel with a lower case "h". But the beds are amazing and that is all we care about. :)

We took about an hour nap and then decided to head to the Library of Virginia. A trip to McDonalds was in order first since we hadn't eaten since the evening before. As we waited in line, we were greeted by an old white man with approximately three and a half teeth we asked us if we were girlfriends. Yes, you read that right. We quickly said no, that we were cousins, and then stared at each other in confusion after he walked away. On his way back from getting a refill, Senor Toothless stopped and said, "Is that just what you tell people?" To which we replied, "No, we're really cousins." Thank goodness he went back to his table and left us alone. Instead of inducing an anxiety attack in both of us due to the dining room being packed, we decided to eat in the car.

We arrived at the Library of Virginia around 1pm. We walked around aimlessly until we (meaning Becca) worked up the nerve to ask someone for help. Don't judge, the Library is huge and was very intimidating. We found a super helpful librarian that taught us how to research their catalog. About 20 minutes into our research, a library worker came in and announced that they had a plumbing emergency and had to evacuate the building quickly. They did not expound on what that meant, only that we needed to leave. Becca said she thought "plumbing emergency" meant a bomb was going to go off...I just shook my head at her. We were not surprised by this turn of events, as searching for the Holdaway's has proven to be a difficult task. Something like this always happens whenever doing research on this line. So, it seems these sort of events run in the genes! :)
We decided to use what was left of the afternoon and visit the Virginia Historical Society, another place on our list to visit. Our plight continued here, as their computer catalog wasn't working. Surprise, surprise. We were blessed with another helpful librarian that taught us how to use the old school card catalog system. Becca pointed out that we were doing what our mom's used to have to do. We didn't find much but we picked up a few leads to pursue. We'll let you know if they pan out, as we have to wait to go back to the Library of Virginia to follow through on the lead. Let's hope their "plumbing" emergency gets fixed quick!

We are exhausted and apologize for not uploading any videos. Tomorrow we plan to explore Culpeper County to see if we can find some of the land where the Holdaway's lived, as well as explore some cemeteries. It wouldn't be a true family history trip without going to cemeteries! :)

See everyone tomorrow, we are going to crash for the night! Rebephanie out! :)   

Becca couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to take a picture after our flight to Charlotte lol 

Getting ready to go into the Library of Virginia

 

(The pictures pretty well explain themselves. We were too tired today to get many pictures but we will do better tomorrow!)