November 21, 2009. I headed west, and met *chibijaime in Point Pleasant, WV. From there, we went over to Gallipolis, OH, to see the replicas of the Nina and the Pinta.

Yes, as in 'Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in fourteen-hundred and ninety-two'. A phrase that the school tour group that arrived there just as we did had never heard before. Sad commentary on that, as I recall that before going on a class field trip, we spent time in class a day or so before the trip learning about whatever it was we were going to see.

Beautiful ships. Tiny ships.

Nina, which is built to scale, has a deck length of 65' and is 18' in the beam with a 7' draft.

Pinta, which was built larger than actual size to accommodate on-board tours and chartered events, has a deck length of 85', a beam of 23' and still manages to draw only 7 1/2'.

Consider setting out into the ocean (Here Be Dragons, remember?) or if you didn't run into monsters, you might just fall off the edge of the world. Even if you survive all of that, you might die of starvation, scurvy or pirate attack. And you're doing it in a ship that is shorter than a football field. Pure courage.

If you get the chance to see these ships, it's well worth your time.

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Another sort of courage was found in the Battle of Point Pleasant. Was this the last act of Lord Dunmore's War, or the first battle of the American Revolution? I'm not going to go into it here, but I'll toss on a few links to give you a place to start if you want to learn more.

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The last is the direct link for the park itself, where we met Ranger Doug Wiant as he was leaving work for the day. Despite that, he spent at least an hour talking with us about the park and the history. Everyone should love their work as much as he does. About the only reason we finally said our good-byes was that it was actually getting -dark- and was getting rather chilly. Definitely look him up if you go to the park.

All in all, a fantastic day. No problems on the drive over or back, you couldn't ask for better weather... clear, a few clouds and high 50s - low 60s weather (West Virginia in the middle of November for cryin' out loud!) Best part was getting to do all this with Chibi ^==^ though we both wished that others could have come along as well.