Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!

Last weekend we drove a short ways down into Virginia to see - you guessed it - more battlefields! Fredericksburg sits at about the half-way point between Richmond and Washington, so it was the site of numerous conflicts during the Civil War. Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and a couple of other smaller battles took place within about a twenty mile radius, so it was easy to see several sites in one day.


We stopped in the town first and saw what remained of the battlefield. Unlike Gettysburg, which has been mostly preserved, this one was mostly covered up by houses built after the war. What was left was Marye’s Heights, where the Confederates controlled the high ground that won the battle, and the Sunken Road, where they lined up and massacred the Union soldiers that tried to cross the open field. Eight thousand died in the field in a few hours time, and only a few got within thirty yards of making it to the wall. So in other words, it was not a good day to be fighting for the North. It’s hard to imagine it now, because when you walk along the wall all you see are trees and houses, rather than an open field, but it was definitely worth checking out.

The Sunken Road.

Paul wishing he was a cavalry officer!

Even Thomas the Train came along... actually, he comes with us to most places.

There was less to see at Chancellorsville, but it was the site where General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was fatally wounded by his own men firing through the trees in the dark. They had all the spots marked out. He was shot here, his horse ran here, they pulled him off here, he fell on his broken arm here, and then they took him to a house over there, where they cut his arm off a few days before he died of pneumonia. Sounds like an otherwise lousy way to go. I remember writing a book report on Stonewall Jackson in fifth grade, so it was pretty cool to me. They made it clear that he was as important to the South as General Lee was, and may have made better decisions in Gettysburg where Lee ultimately lost the war. So it’s interesting to think what may have happened had he not been killed here. Cool stuff, well… for me anyway.

Another Day at the Marina

I’m a couple of posts behind (because I have sooo much to do), so I just wanted to put up a few pics from last week. Continuing our exploration of the surrounding areas, we stopped by this state park just down the road to see what might be going on. Not a lot. Basically it was a marina and not really much of a park. It would have been really cool had we had a boat, or jet skis, or one of those hover craft things I saw on TV the other night that goes on water and on land! But we don’t have any of those things. We don’t even have a kayak. Not that I would want a kayak, because I’d probably drown. And if you drown on the river because you’re an inexperienced kayaker, then there’s probably no one to sue. So we didn’t get in the water. But we did walk around a bit and take some photos. Just like these:


I think it started to rain a little bit about this time. We tried to walk around to check out the "cool" people's boats, but they locked us out.


Paul found this stage and he decided to display one of his modern performance art pieces. Truly magnificent.

Then he crossed the bridge over the troubled water. Actually it was pretty calm and full of large lilly pads, and one lonely turtle. No gators though.

Not really sure what's going on here.

Oh man, if we only had a kayak... or a 60 foot yacht, that could work.

Well, someday maybe we'll have a boat to take to the marina. Maybe even one that hovers over the land as seen on TV! Yeah, probably not.

Lifestyles of the Poor and the Useless

When you’re unemployed and mostly useless, like us, you have to find something to do to entertain yourself. You can only watch so much Sponge Bob, go to Home Depot so many times, and search the classifieds for jobs that don’t exist so often, before you have to do something else to occupy your time. Thankfully, there are a few new places to check out. So yesterday we went to Fort Washington on the Potomac River, a fort originally constructed prior to the War of 1812 to defend the capital from possible British invasion. It worked fantastically! The British landed a little farther south and just marched around the fort right into the city where they set everything on fire. Good job, Fort Washington. Anyway, it was pretty much like every other fort that we saw down south: brick walls, big canons, and humidity. Being an early American soldier would have been fun.

Are you being serious? It's hot, and I had just about fallen asleep in the car.

Wow, Dad. This fort looks exactly like the last one.

Right where she belongs. Behind bars.

Look, I brought a wheel!

Strolling along the brick walls!

Yeah, yeah...

Wait... what?

Quick! Hide behind the wall where she won't see you!

And that's it. As far as forts go, it wasn't exactly the most interesting. Nothing really exciting ever happened, but that's probably how you'd prefer it if you were ever stationed there anyway. And for us, now it's back to uselessness.

Quick! Get the hose!

Give a two year old a garden hose with spray nozzle and turn him loose. Sounds like a great idea, right? Right. I’m sitting here making this post and suffering through a cold, probably because I was running around in the back yard dodging a stream of water the other night… which I apparently didn’t do so well at. But, Paul had fun. A little too much fun.

I'ma getchoo, Daddy! Let go of my hose!!



Distract him camera lady, while I use my Chuck Norris stealth skills to sneak up behind and take him out!



Aaaah!! He's on to you!! Get out of there! Get down!!



Ah ha! But it is dad who came out the victor! Well, kind of. We were both pretty soaked.

Next time, I'll hide behind the glass like mom. But now I have to go blow my nose again. Stupid cold.

Now... Officially... the Maryland Sellers

Our three member family may always be the Florida Sellers… but we spent some time in Utah, and in Montana, and now we’ve dropped anchor, at least for a little while, in Maryland. I never in my life would have imagined myself living here. I can see wanting to live in Montana, or Florida, or places like New York or Hawaii… but Maryland seems to be one of those states you kind of forget about when you think about the states. Do people walk into travel agencies and say, “Hey, what kind of deal can I get on a trip to Maryland??” Not that people even walk into travel agencies anymore, but I think people probably plan trips to DC. But we’re not in DC… we’re in Maryland. It’s like Delaware… or Arkansas, or New Mexico. I can’t even name a city in New Mexico. Santa Fe?? Whatever. So we’ve been here now for a little over a week, and I’m already scanning Google Maps for all of the cool places we can go! You see, Maryland actually has a lot going on, and it’s much different than I imagined.

Just today we went for a hike through the woods to a beach on the Chesapeake Bay. In Florida we went to all kinds of obscure parks and sites that I found on the map. And now we have a whole new state of random places to see! Seriously, I’m excited. And the great thing about Maryland when compared to Montana and Florida, is it’s incredibly small in land mass! Which means we can go somewhere, without driving all… day… long… like we had to in Florida. Every city in Florida was at least two hours apart, and the drive to the keys was killer. Here we can get to the beach in 45 minutes like we did today, or to downtown DC in just a little longer than that. And there are Civil War sites… everywhere! Just down the road from the house is Dr. Mudd’s farm. Yeah, that’s right… Dr. Mudd. Don’t know who he is? Well, that’s not surprising. But for a little history lesson, he was the guy who fixed John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg after he blasted Lincoln and jumped from the stage in the Ford Theater (which is up in DC and on my list). I wanted to stop, but it was $5 per person, and I don’t have a job. And plus, it’s not even the site they killed Booth, that’s somewhere down in Virginia (I’d pay $5 for that… well, if I had a job… and $5, I would). So Becky is in for a real treat! She saw every fort in Florida… and there are like ten times the number of historic sites in this state!! So look forward to plenty of blog posts in the future about places you never knew you never knew.

Anyway, these photos are from Calvert Cliffs State Park on the bay. We took a little drive, and walked much farther into the woods than I anticipated, but all was good, and Paul made it back to the beach after a few months absence.


Bouncing on the log when he's supposed to be holding still for the picture! Come on, Paul... just for two seconds.


This looks familiar... but not exactly the same as Florida beaches... but what do you do?

Me and Paulie drove this playground tractor and tilled up some major land. Of course, he has to be the center of the picture... always pushing me out.

Great day, sunshine, water, boats, sand, all in all, pretty good. But stay tuned, because there is much more to come.

The Rest of the Journey

If I never have to drive across the country again… I’ll be sad. Ok, not really. It was a very, very long drive from Missoula to Waldorf. Not quite as far as it was to Jacksonville the last time, but still, a lot of time in the car. But Paul handled it like a champ. Becky, on the other hand, was a little tired of the whole car thing on the final day. I already posted a few pictures from when we stopped in Missouri, but here are a few more from along the way.


There's really not a lot of exciting places in South Dakota. Ok, there aren't any at all. But after driving hours and hours to get across that barren, desolate state, we stopped at the Corn Palace.

They redecorate it every year with new corn murals, and it was actually pretty cool. Plus it was free, which is normally an easy way to get me to stop.

Cousin Mason would have been in heaven with all this corn! We had popcorn, and it was quite awesome, if I say so myself.

After Missouri we all made the drive to Ohio, the land of Paul's ancestors (at least the Sellers family anyway). Here we had to see the Heart of Ohio, that is, Centerburg... the geographical center of the state. I lived here until I was three years older than Paul is now (so, five). But my mother and father decided to take us out west and raise us in that hardware store I mentioned a few posts ago... and so I remember very little of this place.

A few memories were brought to light during the visit, and they made it seem a lot bigger than it is today. We stopped at the old house, and took this photo opportunity by the brand new town sign. It was great to see it, if only for a couple of hours. Hopefully, since Ohio is not too far from us now, we'll get to make it back and spend a few days or something. The craziest thing was to think about what life may have been had we never moved. I'm sure the Miller kids will wonder the same thing if they ever make it back to visit Montana. And Paul? Will he ever go back to Jacksonville? Who knows? Hopefully we'll at least get back to visit... maybe go to the beach. Anyway, it was a good trip, and great to see a few things and a few people along the way. But next time... we're flying.

The Photo School Work

So after years of talking, and nagging about it, Becky finally made it to the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. And now it’s all over, and she successfully made it through! So here are just a few photos that she took along the way! Overall there is something like 3,000 or so that she took over the course of a couple months, so these really are… just a few.

The first set was taken for her final project. The theme was to capture images that displayed sound, so that when you see the photo, you hear it as well. So here you go:

This next set is just a few that I liked.

So there you go, and there you have it. She made it. Now there can be no excuse for her not to take more and more photos… right, Rebecca?