Great topic!--thanks, Brent. Not that I have any answers. I've wondered the same thing about stagecoach travel. It's one thing to make a scheduled stop at a tavern, say; quite another to deal with such matters unscheduled on long hauls between towns. And given the almost proverbially wretched state of Virginia's roads in the stagecoach era (e.g., http://www.alexandria.lib.va.us/lhsc_online_exhibits/doc/archived/ dec_2005/doc.html), there must have been many such unscheduled stops. I'm thinking of the plight of women, particularly. Those long skirts! And how on earth did women manage the practical side of their menstrual cycles while traveling? Or, for that matter, on or off the road in the eighteenth century, when even among the wealthy (if memory serves) the only undergarment normally worn below the waist was one's shift? All such matters may be one more element explaining why early Virginia's traveling population in all social strata, including runaway slaves, seems to have been heavily male. --Jurretta Heckscher Opportunistic P.S. on a tangential topic: Eventually, as we ponder these mysteries and refresh our gratitude for modern conveniences, can someone please explain why the rest area at approximately mile post 105 on I-95 north of Richmond is officially designated the Petersburg rest area? It's more than 50 miles from Petersburg. Thanks.