Wednesday 08 April

A welcome sleep-in kicked off the day, followed by a exit interview with Ernie Bentley. The team attended their final Rotary lunch meeting with the Rotary Club of Woodstock, and were delighted to have their old friends Bill & Earline Orndorff of Salem surprise them to say a final farewell (although the team is enthusiastically penciling in dates for the Orndorff's visit early next year).



After brief vocational visits, the team members met for a reception with the Woodstock Rotarians. We are sad that our trip is coming to an end but we look forward to an enjoyable last day in Washington!

Tuesday 07 April

The team met early in the morning at 05h45 to be greeted by a cheerful Cindy Soltis armed with coffee and breakfast goodie bags. We then departed for Washington DC in the company of Ellen Nash and Doug Harpine. After 92 minutes, or so, we arrived at the Vienna/Fairfax Metro to ride into DC. We had fun being crammed together on a crowded morning rush-hour train. We disembarked in Washington city-centre and had our first sight of the famed Capitol building.

We were taken on a guided tour of the Capitol and the Library of Congress with an interlude for lunch inside the Capitol (where Norah had the best Wrap of her life). After the Library of Congress tour the team split up and went to see places of interest.



The team reunited for dinner at The Old Ebbitt Grill, the oldest Saloon in Washington and 5th busiest restaurant in the entire USA. Amazingly delicious food was served and the Blondies were particularly dense and decadent. Whilst the team discussed their day they discovered that they had all done and seen the same things (and that they had ignored each other, or at least Norah and Anna had ignored the boys!)



Some of the places seen included Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, World War 2 Memorial, a host of other memorials and of course one cannot go to Washington DC without seeing the eponymous White House and famed Cherry blossoms.

Monday 06 April

After a relaxing weekend, the team reassembled in Woodstock to be collected by the President of the Luray Rotary Club. We had a fascinating drive from Woodstock to Luray which included a meander on some side-roads hunting for the Bear and Raccoon (or at least a Bison) that Trevor was hoping to see.

The team then split up for Vocational day. Trevor and Grant spent the day at Luray Elementary school being quizzed on South Africa by intelligent Grade 7's. Norah-Ann visited the Page Memorial Hospital to see their food preparation and to talk with a Nutritionist! Annelize joined the Racey Engineers to talk about building projects in the area. PJ had lunch with the Luray Board of Supervisors and discussed law and governance with them.



After a fascinating few hours the team met up for a presentation and dinner with the Luray Rotary Club at The Vault (an old bank that has been converted into a meeting venue and bar). Our last presentation of our Exchange. A bittersweet moment as we are glad that the presentations are over but we have enjoyed interacting with the clubs and Rotarians.

Saturday 04 - Sunday 05 April

The team enjoyed a leisurely morning with their respective hosts before assembling outside the YMCA in Staunton for more wrenching goodbyes as we bade farewell to our Area 4 friends.

On the trip towards Woodstock we stopped off in Newmarket for lunch with some of the local Rotarians there. We then split up to go different ways with our new hosts from Area 2. The rest of Saturday was spent getting to know our hosts and the new area.

Sunday was a welcomed rest day and most of the hosts and GSE members used the opportunity to tour the countryside, and enjoy the scenic beauty of the area, all except Grant who used the opportunity to get some ploughing done!

Sunday did have a serious aspect for a few hours as the team delivered its penultimate presentation to the Woodstock Rotary Club who were joined by some visiting Rotarians from nearby clubs.

A busy week in Luray and Woodstock lies ahead, with a long-awaited highlight being the trips into Washington DC on Tuesday and Thursday, which the team are most excited about and grateful for!

Friday 03 April

Monticello, that we visited today, is a World Heritage Site, and the former home of Thomas Jefferson. It is indeed a beautiful place, the buildings dripping with interesting history, and the gardens a kaleidoscope of flowers, especially tulips. It is incredible to see how many people visit Monticello every day! Thomas Jefferson is known to have been a wise man, who surrounded himself with books and who loved his garden.

We had lunch, after our tour, at Michie Tavern, and have all agreed that we are getting far too comfortable with the large portions, which we complained so vociferously about when we first arrived five weeks ago.

The University of Virginia, envisioned and established by Jefferson, was our next stop, and we joined the Historic tour of the buildings and grounds. Having seen many fine academic institutions over the last few weeks, we were struck by the beauty of UVA.

We always knew that today was going to be a busy one, and by the time we met at Stonewall Jackson Hotel for drinks, we were starting to show signs of fatigue. Dragging heels were left at the door of the American Shakespeare Theater, however, as no-one could resist the contageous enthusiam of the members of the cast of "A Comedy of Errors". The Theatre is a wonderous "replica" of those in the days of old, the stage thrust forward so that the cast are amongst the audience. This troupe capitalise on the fact, and effortlessly include the audience in the chaos and confusion of Shakespeare's masterpiece. Sides sore with laughter, we retired for the evening, each knowing that we had not wasted a moment of the day.

Thursday 02 April

Specialty Blades was a question mark for most of us on our itinerary, until we got there. We found our tour of this facility, which focuses on the production of blades for medical use, fascinating. The success to this company, in our opinion, lies in the vision of its leadership, and the dedication of its staff. It is impossible to say, after a visit, that this company "just makes blades". A large team of engineers constantly works to ensure that their product, if you'll excuse the pun, remains on the cutting edge of technology. The staff are all obviously proud of their work and one leaves with a sense that this environment, where the professional integrity of staff at every level is valued, is the recipe for success.

At 10:00, the team were taken to the birthplace of President Woodrow Wilson, and also to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, both interesting tributes to a well respected national leader.

Although the morning was a good one, the afternoon's experience at the American Museum of Frontier Culture overshadowed all else. This "living" exhibit allows the visitor to explore life as it was for the people who would become the first settlers of America. In order to do this, the Museum literally bought and brought homesteads from Ireland, England and Germany.

Each brick and beam was numbered, the whole structure was disassembled, shipped to Virginia and then painstakingly re-assembled. To further create the sense of what life was like in these communities, a permanent staff "live" the life of these people, and later pioneers, by re-enacting cooking, weaving, farming, log cabin building, blacksmithing and so on, all day long. The team agreed that it is surely a sin to live anywhere in Virginia and not visit this amazing exhibit.

To top off a great day, the five of us took a little time-out from Rotary Group Study Exchange and ate together at the Depot Grill in Downtown Staunton. The opportunity to sit and chat amongst ourselves for a change, and laugh and reflect, was relished almost as much as the super food we enjoyed.

Fun at the Frontier Culture Museum:

Wednesday 01 April

One can never fully appreciate the work done at the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Centre or the extent of its facilities unless you visit it! The center's aim is to provide vocational retraining and skills for people who have been physically traumatized and disabled in someway or another. Students need to qualify and show potential for rehabilitation, and the center pushes students to take responsibility for their own skill acquisition. It is a 'tough love' environment where students are prepared to enter the workplace as competitors. The centre caters for over 4000 students a year and has more than 300 fulltime employees ranging from Occupational therapists and audiologists to carpentry lecturers and rehabilitation Engineers. They have accommodation facilities for about 350 students at any given time.

We ate at Basic City Luncheonette; a typical greasy spoon for the working class. Henry Ford famously said that one could purchase a Model T in any color as long as it was black. At Basic City you can order a variety of food but it will all be brown. Tasty but brown!

Only because we had some time, Jeff Ward, our host for the day, took us to Gassman Automobile Services, a company which restores classic cars. Some of the cars can spend as long as two years in his workshop before being completely restored. The owner obviously loves what he does and pays attention to every detail. This was every little boys (and girls) dream carshop!

The Virginia Wildlife Centre was the team's final stop of the day's tour before our presentation to Area 4 in the evening. The centre relies on members of the public to bring in injured indigenous animals. The team had hoped to see a few large mammals, a brown bear maybe. This was not to be but we were fortunate to see both a Bald Eagle (America's National Bird, which almost took second place to the wild turkey, if you can believe that) and a Golden Eagle.

The presentation was to our biggest audience, outside of district conference. Some say that it was the fantastic Barrenridge Wine Estate that attracted over 160 people, others suggested that it was the spirit of co-operation between the 5 clubs that had worked so closely together to organize the Homestead Weekend. However, we are convinced that our reputation precedes us! We thoroughly enjoyed presenting to our most responsive crowd thus far.

A major honor was the attendance of Staunton Mayor Lacey King who presented each team member with the key to the city - we will test them all tomorrow evening when we have a team night out!