Nothing in Common goes South, Part 2, The last day

There is always something unimagined. And then there is a billboard by the highway. Driving through North Carolina I discover the existence of Actors, Models & Talent for Christ. (The AMTC vision is to see “the Great Commission of JC fulfilled in film, fashion, music and theater.”)

We spend the night in Petersburg, because that as far as we get. It is my last night for communing with William Shatner and I am happy to report that we remain BFFs. Though the night clerk at the Hampton Inn should seek other employment, perhaps as an enforcer for a Russian oligarch, that is how charming he is.

Otherwise, Petersburg, VA is delightful and full of old historical houses in need of restoration. CSB considers moving.
While we might have predicted the plethora of decrepit but lovely houses, I had no idea about Pocahontas Island. Native Americans lived upon this peninsula into the Appomattox River more than 8000 years ago; more recently, it was the largest settlement of free blacks in the country. It is early Sunday morning as we drive around, and like early Sunday mornings in Brooklyn, it appears that everyone is still asleep. Many of the houses are covered with fine print, telling stories, bearing witness.

Then we are on the way to Manassas, and sandwiched between a billboard for webuyuglyhouses.com and a billboard advertising the best exterminators in the county, is this message: HOLY BIBLE. INSPIRED. ABSOLUTE. TRUTH. I appreciate the emphatic use of periods.

Manassas is the site of the Battle of Bull Run and also the Second Battle of Bull Run. These are the normal and appropriate things to know about Manassas. But just in case there is more, we start Googling; really it is our last Googling of the trip, our swan song of Googling and this is what we learn. Among the Notable People who have lived in or were born in or passed through Manassas, are John and Lorena Bobbitt.
Lively conversation ensues. Yes, of course we remember the notorious case of John and Lorena Bobbitt but did she chop it off, or bite it off? And then what happened? There is far more to the story. She chopped it off and threw it from her car window. But here is the amazing thing – later it was found and re-attached. (The surgery took 9 ½ hours.) The imagination does somersaults.
That however was not the end of the Bobbitt’s. John later played in a band called “The Severed Parts”. The band failed, not surprisingly. He also appeared in several porn films. Sadly, their titles were likewise unimaginative, never straying from the obvious.
From Manassas it is straight north for us, home to Bruno and the chickens. Home to the very delayed appearance of these events in SQD.