Virginia - Wendy!

We moved on to our next spot - Williamsburg - where we had a lot to see!  We decided to take a few hours off and settle into our new place.

The next day we had a big event planned.  If you've followed my family history blog, you know that right before we left I was admitted into the Daughters of the American Revolution due to the service of my 5x great grandfather, Ashbel Waller, during the American Revolution.  You can read how this happened HERE and HERE.  

I "met" Wendy about 10-12 years ago when we both started our family history blogs at about the same time.  As we worked on our research we shared stories, laughed, cried, and became friends.  And then she helped me with my admittance into DAR and since then, I have called her my "DAR Angel", a name she so deserves.  Not only did she help me with my admittance, but because I didn't have a "home" I joined her chapter, Fort Nelson, Virginia.  So not only are we DAR sisters now, we belong to the same chapter.

But we had never met in person and since I lived in Washington and she lives in Virginia, it didn't seem likely that it would happen.  But once this adventure became a reality, I put "meeting Wendy" on my bucket list.  And today was the day for that to happen.

We decided we would meet about halfway between Williamsburg and her home and at the appointed time, we met here.

I thought "dead-rise" (although Siri called it dee-drise) was a strange name for a restaurant but it turns out it has a meaning in boating.  From Tom George Boat Yachting:

"The deadrise of a boat is the angle measurement between the boat bottom and a horizontal plane on either side of the center keel.  The deadrise of a flat bottom boat is much lower (or zero) compared to a vessel with a deep-V hull.  You'll often hear deeper, or sharper V-shaped hulls referred to as having a lot of deadrise."

Does that clear things up?  Yeah, it didn't for me, either.

And then, there she was!  I felt like we'd known each other forever.  Thankfully, she remembered to actually get a picture or two - one on her phone, one on mine.

I can't believe we sat there for nearly 3 hours and it wasn't until we suspected that the wait staff were anxious for us to leave that we got up from the table.

During our visit, Wendy was able to answer a question for us.  We'd seen these contraptions at the freeway entrances as we traveled along Interstate 64 and wondered what they were.

Wendy explained that they were to control traffic on/off the freeway during hurricane evacuation.  Hurricane?  I looked it up and learned that 71 gates were installed in 2006 and cost $2.5 million (thanks for your help, Wendy and Barry).  During a hurricane evacuation, the eastbound lanes of I-64 would be reversed and become westbound lanes so thousands of residents would be able to evacuate the area.  The gates would provide barriers so motorists wouldn't accidentally get into eastbound lanes while traffic is moving westbound.  Sure isn't something I've ever thought about while living my entire life on the west coast.

After we left I told Ron that I was sorry we hadn't taken any pictures including him and Barry.  His reply "it was all about the two of you, not us".

Thanks for meeting us and for such a delicious lunch, Wendy and Barry!