Quick Intro of Mt Vernon .40

Thanks to all for the warm welcome.

I look forward to meeting everyone soon.

I'm writing from my hotel room in Pittsburgh where an engineering consulting project has kept me busy almost every work-week since early February.

While I've been home most weekends, I can count on one hand the M-F weeks I've actually been in VA since this job started. :?

I completely understand what everybody means about the "west" ... when driving up here I intentionally avoid almost all of the People's Republic of Maryland except for that pesky 1.6 mile stretch of 522 near Hancock.

Yesterday -- after a brief stop @ VA Arms to pick upsome cartridges-- my route to "The Burgh" took me along I-66 and I-81 to Winchester and then up 522 thru Berkeley Springs. (I usually just take 7 from Leesburg to Winchester)

Absolutely beautiful!

I'm descended from a family of pioneers. My grandmother literally lived in a sod dugouton the prairieof Indian Territory (I've got the pic); and I have the shotgun shereceived as apresent when graduating from Oklahoma A&M ! (Stillwater)

So I understand, respect,and envy the culture that you folks are fortunate enough to still enjoy "out there."

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Mt Vernon .40 wrote:

Thanks to all for the warm welcome.

I look forward to meeting everyone soon.

I'm writing from my hotel room in Pittsburgh where an engineering consulting project has kept me busy almost every work-week since early February.

While I've been home most weekends, I can count on one hand the M-F weeks I've actually been in VA since this job started. :?

I completely understand what everybody means about the "west" ... when driving up here I intentionally avoid almost all of the People's Republic of Maryland except for that pesky 1.6 mile stretch of 522 near Hancock.

Yesterday -- after a brief stop @ VA Arms to pick upsome cartridges-- my route to "The Burgh" took me along I-66 and I-81 to Winchester and then up 522 thru Berkeley Springs. (I usually just take 7 from Leesburg to Winchester)

Absolutely beautiful!

I'm descended from a family of pioneers. My grandmother literally lived in a sod dugouton the prairieof Indian Territory (I've got the pic); and I have the shotgun shereceived as apresent when graduating from Oklahoma A&M ! (Stillwater)

So I understand, respect,and envy the culture that you folks are fortunate enough to still enjoy "out there."

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

That's really interesting. Great that you have that kind of lineage and a picture to boot!

My wife's great grandmother (mother's side), who died in 1968, traveled from Illinois (I'm pretty sure that's the state) to California in 1883 in a wagon train (she was born in 1872). They were attacked three times by Indians along the way and several of the men were killed. I asked my wife if the wagon train assembled into a circle like you used to see in movies and she said yes, her "Gammy" did tell her that. They settled in a small farming area outside of Sanger, CA.

And her father's side of the family has been in Virginia since 1636, mostly around the Chancellorsville/Locust Grove/Mine Run/Mineral area. We know what a few of the farm houses were used for during the War for Southern Independence and we know the name of one of the family members who fought in the American Revolution. Also, I have found what I believe to be four family members who were either associated with or actually rode with Col. John Singleton Mosby during the War.

My dad's side goes back a ways in the Virginia tidewater area and my mom's side comes from Alexandria.

It is all very fascinating.

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