Greetings from the Tenth Annual Surveyors Rendezvous in Northern Neck, Virginia! As always, we are having a great time! The weather has cooperated and the crowd is nearly 140 this year. Because the subject of this Rendezvous is George Washington, we are learning all sorts of fascinating things about our country’s first president. On Thursday, we visited Mount Vernon, and even though I’ve lived in Maryland for 20 years, this was my first visit. I went, expecting yet another old building, but was blown away by the new exhibit about Washington and his life. I can’t imagine how many millions have been spent on the exhibit, and it is the equivalent of any Smithsonian exhibit I’ve seen.
You might recall Bart Crattie’s excellent article in our January/February issue (Compleatly Surveying: text only HERE, 3Mb PDF complete with pictures HERE). The cover of the magazine and some of the pictures in the article are from the new exhibit. I have uploaded this Rendezvous’ images HERE
We’ve had an excellent program with many learned speakers. We’ve learned that Washington’s father died when he was 11, and that he was unable to obtain the English education that his half-brother Laurence received. Even so, we’ve seen examples not only of the math he learned, but his excellent penmanship as well. Our impressions of Washington have been formed by his later life, but he had to bring himself up by own bootstraps. It didn’t hurt that he married well, but he was truly a self-made man. Of course, much of the program has delved into his surveying career, but the final speaker reminded us that men of Washington’s honesty, integrity and character are still needed in our country today, and given our current circumstance with terrorism and a divided country, perhaps more so.
Bart has agreed to write another article about this year’s Rendezvous so stay tuned for that.
Images from past Rendezvous’ are located on flickr HERE for the St. Joseph Rendevous in 2004 and HERE for the Winston-Salem Rendezvous last year.
My write-up of the Winston-Salem Rendezvous in 2006 is HERE
My write-up of the Rendezvous in Spokane in 2005 is HERE. Be sure to download the PDF for this one. It’s got great images!
Ann Besch’ article about the Rendezvous in St. Joseph, Missouri in 2004 is HERE. Be sure to download the PDF for this one. It’s got great images!