Day 52 - Charlottesville to Appomatox, Virginia

Tonight we're sitting in a big open field in the town of Appomattox, Virginia. The sky to the east of us is painted in broad brush strokes of purples and pinks and muted blues. Earlier, the sunlight on the assembled RVs was so startling that I grabbed the camera and dashed outside to grab a shot before the "magic hour" faded into twilight and night settled onto our camp. While I was out there, I ended up talking to a nearby neighbor and his wife about RVing and all the inherent joys and complications one encounters while motoring across our vast country. That's the best thing about RVing: the telling of tall tales; the reminiscing; the comparing of solutions; the giving of advice. I just love every single minute of it.

We had high hopes for today since the first thing on the agenda was our long-anticipated visit to Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello. Everything looked in apple pie order when we got up and broke camp in Charlottesville. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and we pretty much knew exactly where we had to go.

The Charlottesville KOA where we camped yesterday afternoon lay only a scant eight miles from Monticello, so we knew we'd be there for the very first tour of the day. Though our GPS refused to "acquire a satellite" all the way up Route 20, we didn't really care. We did have to use some intuition when the roadside sign said "turn right" for Thomas Jefferson Parkway and the GPS seemed to be saying to go straight. But the little unit came to its senses when we turned the way we knew was correct.

Once in the parking lot at Monticello we discovered that the spaces were pretty slanted and I opted to put the passenger side front wheel on a block to try and level the coach a bit. But that was easy. Then, with tremendous enthusiasm, we set out for the ticket agent's desk. Arriving there at about 8:40 or so we discovered that one doesn't just arrive and expect to buy the necessary tickets. No, Monticello is too popular. "You're lucky," the clerk said. "I have just two tickets left for the 9:00 a.m. tour. TWO! I wonder if she saw me gulp.

But, of course, we only needed two, and before long we were standing with about twenty other members of the 9:00 a.m. group. There were no tickets left for the upstairs tour, but that didn't bother us. The downstairs tour was going to be just good enough, since it came with unlimited access to the grounds, the gardens, and the servants quarters beneath Monticello.

The good news is while we waited for our official guide I was able to snap a couple of photos of the house from the east side. The bad news is, the longer we waited for our guide the worse the sky looked. Before we were ready to go into the house for our tour the sky had transformed into something quite gray and foreboding. The guide, once she arrived, kept going on about the beauty of the blooming tulip gardens, but by the time I was near the tulips the light was so flat that I didn't even bother to shoot them. It was very disappointing.

The interior of the house WAS very interesting, and our guide did her best to acquaint us with all the fascinating components of Jefferson's innovative design, but I longed to be out in the yard shooting the gardens. In fact, no photos are allowed in the house, though I was able to shoot in the basement areas where the beer and wine were stored, and the kitchen (photo right), smokehouse, and privies were located.

But wait, the news was about to get worse. As Concetta and I strolled around the grounds after the official tour I heard one of the docents telling one of her cohorts that they expected rain in approximately forty-five minutes. Well, that put a new complexion on the whole thing. We still wanted to visit the vegetable garden on the south side of the mountain. If we wanted any photographs of that important feature, we had to get moving.

Fortunately, we were able to cozy up to a group getting a tour of the veggie garden and were able to learn a few facts and grab a few photos. Thomas Jefferson was a meticulous record keeper and so today we know precisely what he successfully grew, what he failed at growing, and where the various seeds came from.

Today's garden is grown right where Jefferson grew his garden, and the docents have labeled on wooden sticks (photo below) the exact seed name and date at which Jefferson first grew that particular seed type.

In addition to veggies, Jefferson also grew several types of fruit, as well as numerous types of grapes. These products are largely restored and grown today. Marking the boundary between the grape vineyards and the veggie garden is wonderful solarium where Jefferson would go out to spend time with the garden, whether it be summer or winter. The solarium was designed with windows on all sides so that he could take advantage of the breezes with the windows open, or, in winter, he could close the windows and the structure would be warm like a garden hot house. We loved it.

When we where through enjoying Jefferson's mountain-top home, we visited his grave site where many members of his extended family are buried (photo below left). In fact, anyone can still be buried at Monticello if they are descendent from one of Jefferson's two surviving daughters. The cemetery is a very peaceful place, tucked away down slope from the main part of the estate, and shaded by numerous trees.

From the cemetery, Concetta and I walked the 1/3 mile path down to the visitor center and dropped in on the twenty-minute film of Jefferson's life, then went next door to the museum devoted to his many talents and inventions. I especially liked a section on a specialized roof that Jefferson designed to go over his "basement" work areas where a patio was designed to cover some of the rooms. He had tried to conquer much the same problem as I had tried to conquer when I built my sunroom, so I was impressed with his solution. In Jefferson's design water needed to drip through the patio deck, but be shed from the roofing underneath so it wouldn't damage the ceilings of the basement rooms. His design looked perfect to me.

Much to our surprise, when we exited the museum the promised rain had finally arrived. Rain was sloshing down like we were standing under a waterfall. Fortunately, we were just steps away from the gift shop where we hoped to score a few books on Jefferson for our collection. By the time we had accomplished that mission, the rain had abated and we were able to dash to the RV and get under cover again.

After eating lunch right there in the visitor center parking lot, we headed down the mountain toward Route 20, and a trek south towards the Civil War battlefield of Appomattox. I knew what lay ahead was a very tough drive in the rain along a particularly narrow road, but I also knew that Appomattox lay no more than ninety minutes away and I thought if we took it easy we could get there okay.

The very first thing that happened when we'd only been on the road for a quarter hour was we rounded a bend and encountered a long line of traffic stopped for an auto accident. We were listening to a book on tape by Elmore Leonard, so we just sat back and enjoyed the wait. Before long, the crash was cleared and we were on our way. At times it rained very, very hard on the drive to Appomattox, but the scenery was wonderfully rural and intensely green.

By 3:30 p.m., our trusty GPS had lead us to the front door of our RV camp, we had paid our fee, and had set off to visit the Confederate Museum which we had discovered, of all places, right across the street (photo lower right). The museum was wonderfully new, and thoughtfully constructed. Though we're beginning to weary a bit of displays of Civil War uniforms and weapons, this museum in Appomattox is just so well done we loved it. Here they concentrated on the human story throughout. I especially like the areas where you could learn everything about a particular soldier, from enlistment to his last days. We learned about soldiers who were killed, of course, but we also learned about soldiers who went on to become statesmen and prominent businesspeople after the war. Yes, they had the uniforms and weapons, but the human story was the linchpin of their efforts. It was just great.

Incredibly, when we looked out the museum's windows as we prepared to exit, the sun had burst forth in all its glory. How amazing! Short hours before it had been raining so hard the RV's wipers had trouble clearing the water even when set to "high." Now the day promised no more rain and perhaps a beautiful sunset.

Deciding that we needed to stock up on groceries while the weather was dry, Concetta and I set off for the nearby Walmart, which ultimately made dinner a little late tonight. Still, as I type this account, dinner is over, Concetta has had her shower, and I'm doing the finger dance on the keyboard. Everything is darned right with the world, damp though it may be.

Tomorrow we hope to spend the morning visiting the Appomattox battlefield and whatever that might entail. After lunch we intend to head east from here and visit Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and perhaps the Cornwallis surrender site over on the Atlantic coast. Crazy, I know, since it might appear to some that we're traveling in circles, but hey, who cares? We're just having a ball, and that's all that matters. N'est-ce pas vrai?