Clark Hall is the local historian for matters about the War Between the States, much of which happened right here in Culpeper. He has documented the astonishing amount of violence that happened in the tranquil rolling hills around Refuge Farm. I am traveling today and am going to borrow his words about the place I […]

It was too soon to start drinking for Cinco de Mayo, the day I celebrate my Mexican Heritage, so instead I had a couple entertaining hours at The International Spy Museum yesterday- it was a spur of the moment thing. The day was lovely, really no-kidding in the mid-eighties, low humidity, blue skies and a […]

When people come to visit the Farm, they often comment on the modern earth-sheltered structure that looms above the lane at the north end of Mt. Pony. It is the David C. Packard Center for Media Preservation, which I think I have talked about before. They show restored Hollywood films there every week in a […]

(The first race takes the jump in front of the Big Ten Tent at University Row. Photo Socotra) I was sitting next to K2 on the bus going out to Great Meadow for the Virginia Gold Cup. He has just returned from five weeks in Ukraine on behalf of the US Government, and he took […]

I am writing this on the 40th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, one of the nadirs of a really bad decade that hadn’t even seen Jimmy Carter elected President yet. I have to get along to the Gold Cup festival today at Great Meadow, so I am writing ahead a bit. We were talking […]

(Motor Vessel M/V Mayaguez at anchor after being seized in May, 1975, by the Khmer Rouge maritime forces. Photo USAF). I was going to wrap up a brief commemoration of the end of the conflict that defined the mid-point of the American Century with an account of the Speech the Congressman made me give to […]

30 April 2015 is the day the city fell, and the Republic of South Vietnam was absorbed into the body of the invaders to the North. The Treaty was broken brazenly and North Vietnamese regulars supported by armor rolled toward the coast from the central highlands, cut the Republic in half, and then wheeled and […]

Dutch photographer Hubert van Es caught this image of the last helicopter to leave Saigon before the city fell. He stayed, and observed the transition. The helicopter could not accommodate all those that wished to depart, and van Es reported the ones who were left behind waited for hours, hoping for another to arrive and take […]

Over the weekend, I was preoccupied with the tire and the journey from Kilmarnock to Culpeper, and disappointed that the correct size tires- 235/50R19- were not in stock at the retail outlets in our hardy hamlet. That resulted in the decision-making tree that suggested the tires might have the 72 miles left on them if […]

I had a couple cups of coffee with my gracious hostess as my host slumbered. We looked out at the currents in the estuary- fish, she said- and watched the ravens swoop at the little birds that were hitting the feeder. A desultory chill rain was coming down, and I was itching to get rolling […]