One Year Blogiversary

Welcome to my second year of blogging.

I first started out at Blog City, where I wrote 209 entries, collected 373 comments, and got 29871 hits between 7/1/03 and 6/30/04.

My first post was generically entitled "Welcome":

I'm a late-comer to the blogosphere, especially considering I've been online longer than almost everyone I know. A few months ago at the start of Gulf War II, I read an article about "war blogs." One of the blogs was LT Smash. I checked it out and was hooked. From him I found Kevin at chinpokomon.com. One day Kevin posted a link to Frank J. at imao.us. These three blogs are the ones I read religiously every day...the ones that started it all. Since stumbling upon Frank J.'s site, I have been toying with the idea of starting my own blog. The only thing that kept holding me back was this question: What the heck would I write about every day? I have no real solid answer to that yet, but take my hand and we'll find out together...

My first "real" post was entitled "Birth of a Nation":

The Declaration of Independence was drafted 227 years ago in a bold act of treason against an oppressive British monarch. To learn more about the history of the Declaration, visit Independence Road Trip.

In the past 227 years, hundreds of thousands of Americans have died for their country. They have died in the sands of Iraq, the jungles of Vietnam, the beaches of Normandy, and the forests of Virginia.

If you ever have the chance to visit Virginia, I highly recommend it. You can see Jamestown, Williamsburg, and countless other historical sites. I was lucky enough to spend some time in Yorktown a few years ago...it is an experience I will never forget.

For those of you who do not know, Yorktown was a huge victory for the Americans against the British during the Revolutionary War. In October, 1781 General Washington requested the Admiral of the French fleet to aid the Americans. The French prevented the British fleet from coming to the aid of the British troops and helped bombard the British in Yorktown. The British surrendered and this victory was soon followed by British evacuation of Charleston and Savannah.

Soon after, peace talks began. The Treaty of Paris officially ended the Revolutionary War on September 3, 1783.

You can drive and walk through the battlegrounds in Yorktown today. You can see where General Washington camped and made tactical decisions. You can sit in trenches where Americans fought for our independence. If you go when no one else is around, you can reflect in complete silence on this hallowed ground...and feel humbled. And proud.

Within walking distance of the visitor's center, you can enter the home of Thomas Nelson. Nelson is one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and his grave is also nearby. Pay your respects to him and to the heroes who took up arms so that you could be free.

Of course, you don't have to go to Virginia to do that.

After posting this, I went on vacation. This started a long and glorious trend of blog-hiatuses for me.

One that will continue today, as I am going camping for the weekend. See you next week!

(But I did pre-post a couple things and Pete will be blogging, so feel free to check back often.)

Posted by Jennifer at July 1, 2004 05:00 AM