Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
three o'clock in the afternoon, two hours after I had set off for Critz, I blundered back onto
Highway 58. I was 150 feet further down the road than I had been when I left it. Sourly I
pulledbackontothehighwayanddroveformanylonghoursinsilence.Itwastoolatetogo
to the Booker T. Washington National Monument or to Monticello, even assuming I could
summon the intelligence to find them. The day had been a complete washout. I had had no
lunch, no life-giving infusions of coffee. It had been a day without pleasure or reward. I
got a room in a motel in Fredericksburg, ate at a pancake house of ineffable crappiness and
retired to my room in a dim frame of mind.
In the morning I drove to Colonial Williamsburg, a restored historic village near the coast.
It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the East and even though it was early on
a Tuesday morning in October when I arrived, the parking lots were already filling up. I
parked and joined a stream of people following the signs to the visitors' center. Inside it
was cool and dark. Near the door was a scale model of the village in a glass case. Oddly,
therewasnoyou-are-herearrowtohelpyougetoriented.Indeed,thevisitors'centerwasn't
even shown. There was no way of telling where the village was in relation to where you
were now. That seemed strange to me and I became suspicious. I stood back and watched
the crowds. Gradually it became clear to me that the whole thing was a masterpiece of
crowd management. Everything was contrived to leave you with the impression that the
only way into Williamsburg was to buy a ticket, pass through a door ominously marked
PROCESSING and then climb aboard a shuttle bus which would whisk you off to the his-
toric site, presumably some distance away. Unless, like me, you pulled out of the river of
people, you found yourself standing at the ticket counter making an instant decision on
which of three kinds of tickets to buy-a Patriot's Pass for $24.50, a Royal Governor's Pass
for$20oraBasic Admission Ticket for$15.50,each allowing entrance toadifferent num-
ber of restored buildings. Most visitors found themselves parted from a lot of money and
standing in the line to the processing doorway before they knew what had hit them.
I hate the way these places let you get all the way there before disclosing just how steep
and confiscatory the admission price is. They should be required to put up roadside signs
saying,
THREE MILES TO COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG. GET YOUR CHECKBOOKS
READY!orONEMILETOCOLONIALWILLIAMSBURG.ITSPRETTYGOOD,BUT
REAL EXPENSIVE. I felt that irritation, bordering on wild hate, that I generally experi-
ence when money is being tugged out of me through my nostrils. I mean honestly, $24.50
just to walk around a restored village for a couple of hours. I gave silent thanks that I had
ditched the wife and kids at Manchester Airport. A day out here with the family could cost
Search WWH ::




Custom Search