Photo of the Day: The Things I Didn't Know

On the way to Charlottesville for a football game Saturday, a little stop at the birthplace of Sam Houston--yes, THAT Sam Houston--jumped right out at me in Rockbridge County. This is on a pull-off just off the Interstate (a shortcut, as it were) and I had no idea Houston was a Virginian. I had always thought he was a Tennessee native.

Let us not ignore the fact that Sam and all those old boys at the Alamo--many of them Virginians--fought hard to give Texas independence so they could keep their slaves. Mexicans thought slavery immoral. What did they know about commerce?

(Chris VanCanofort adds this on Facebook: "Double down on Texas! The 'Father of Texas,' Stephen Austin, was also born nearby in Wythe County in a little town called Austinville where his family originated. There is a roadside marker off I-77 at the Shot Tower exit commemorating the fact.")