We started the day in Staunton, Virginia. After church we headed down the road to our eventual destination of Kingsport, Tennessee. Along the way we made a couple stops. The first was in Raphine, Virginia. It was the site of the McCormick farm, as in Cyrus. This is where he produced the first reaping machine in 1831. I find it amazing that a machine of this complexity can be produced with a primitive blacksmith forge. The gears were probably ordered from a foundry since there appeared to be no casting equipment. Anyway, the reaper significantly reduced the manpower needed to harvest grain. Only two men were required to operate the machine. One to drive the horse and one to sweep the cut grain off the deck. Eventually old Cyrus moved his manufacturing to Chicago to get closer to resources and manpower.

Our second stop was at Natural Bridge. This is a natural bridge formation which is quite rare. We have been to the Natural Bridges Monument in Utah where there are three of them. It is a very big natural structure (see today's photo.) The most interesting thing about it was that Thomas Jefferson once owned it. He bought it from King George for the princely sum of 20 schillings. It was eventually sold off when Jefferson died to pay his enormous debts.