Day 40: Fairfax, VA

Just after we had crossed into Virginia, I was contacted by a fifth cousin in regard to an AncestryDNA match for our shared ancestor, Simon Williams (the main subject of my Williams book, found in the links at the bottom of this blog).  In corresponding with her, she told me that her uncle (and my 4th cousin, once removed) was the family historian in her branch of the Williams family.  Having a passion for genealogy, I wanted to contact him.  Fortunately, he had published some of his findings and his e-mail address from that citation was still active.  So we've been corresponding over the past week or so as we've pedaled our way northward.  His name is Spencer Williams, and he and his daughter Laurie invited us to camp at their house on Friday.

When we arrived at Laurie's house, we were warmly greeted by Spencer, his wife Brownie and his granddaughter Erica.  Spencer had all of his genealogy material laid out on the dining room table, including a number of photos that dated between the Civil War and World War I.  He also had his favorite collection of "Spuds McKenzie" photos.  Spuds was the spokesdog for Bud Light in the 1970s, and he inevitably would always be surrounded by beautiful women in those ads.  For Spencer (who assumed Spuds' role), that included his wife, daughters, granddaughters and the occasional aunt or niece!  We chatted for a few hours, until Laurie returned home from work.

Laurie probably qualifies as my favorite distant cousin.  Despite having worked all day and having to deal with Friday rush hour traffic, she greeted us warmly and immediately asked whether we would like to do any laundry while we were there.  We had only one load to do, but were grateful that her offer allowed us to put off the inevitable trip to the laundromat just a bit longer.

Spencer offered to take us all out to dinner, so with a quick review of the options it was decided that we would go to The Esposito's, a nearby local Italian restaurant, where we were met by Laurie's sister Katie (hopefully I'm getting everyone's name spelled correctly).  It was a great choice; the food was great and the noise level was far less than the majority of chain restaurants, making it possible to maintain a conversation among the seven of us.

Steve, Laurie, Spencer, Katie, Brownie, Erica & Alea.

The conversations continue when we returned home for the night, until everyone was yawning, despite the help of some espresso coffee.  It was one of the most enjoyable evenings of our travels.

Our campsite for the night: Laurie's driveway.

We concur with Spencer's niece that he is a one of the world's "grand old gentlemen!"  He has an awesome family, all of whom immediately put us at ease with them.