Yesterday was our final day of this second CAA/CWF International Carriage Symposium. There were three fascinating lectures in the morning, and then a free afternoon before the evening’s banquet.

One of the lectures dealt with freight and stage wagons in southern California. The photos were amazing, and the descriptions of the ventures, including one hair-raising account of a galloping, sliding run up one side of a mountain pass and down the other, left everyone in awe. I was particularly intrigued, as my great-grandfather moved to the same area under discussion sometime around 1900 and some of my relatives may have seen the actual images pictured in these photos.

In the afternoon, I ventured out into the snowstorm and witnessed more people (mostly William & Mary students, I think) out walking in the village. I was surprised there wasn’t more snowball-throwing and snowman-building, but perhaps that will take place today, now that the snow has stopped falling and the wind died down. As I write this, the sun is coming up on Sunday morning, the snow is glistening just a bit, and it promises to be a beautiful day.

Some photos from Saturday …

the wheelwright’s apprentice mixing paint: equal parts pigment, chalk, and linseed oil

the journeyman wheelwright (Paul, on the left) and the shop’s apprentice (Andy, on the right) working in the shop on a snowy day; Paul is finishing the wheel that received its tire on Wednesday, and Andy continues to mix paint

a Williamsburg doorway with snow piled up on the front steps

a snowy tree over the sidewalk on Duke of Gloucester street

the Capitol in the snow

Be sure to read the full report on the symposium in the March issue of The Carriage Journal, and to join us here in 2012.