We woke up in the Cracker Barrell Parking lot to some extremely loud rap music. It sounded like someone had pulled up right next to us with all their windows open in their car playing their music. Curtis looked out the window and the car was actually not next to us, but a bit away over in the McDonalds Parking lot. So the music was actually louder considering the distance from us.
We took that as our sign to get out of Richmond and head to Monticello, Thomas Jeffersons house, in Charlotesville, VA. It was a beautiful green drive. Charlotesville is a bit out of the way. We were driving on some little back roads, when we heard an awful sound coming from below. At first Curtis and I thought it was a flat tire- ughh. These roads were small and no place to pull over. We just hear more grinding until Curtis can pull over. He gets out and there is part of a wire fence caught up under the RV. We didn't see it coming, so we're not sure how it got there. Curtis tugged at it for a bit but we still were not in a good place where he had the room to get it out. So we drove on a bit further, and then all at once it released itself, no more noise and we continued our journey.
We arrive at Monticello and the grounds are beautiful. It is so green and lush. We had to wait for our tour so we walked around and checked out the gift shop. There was neat stuff in there. The kids all walked out with a souvenir. Dax got a mouse pad with a picture bunch of of old books, then a quote of T.J "I cannot live without books" which was fitting for Dax. Curtis got a mouse pad with all the US Presidents on it, but it also had something about Monticello. Trey got an over sized nickle. It was cool/significant for a few reasons.Number one when Curtis was a kid he went on a trip to Washington D.C. and he got a quarter and dime back then, so this added to the collection and number two it was cool, because the nickle has Thomas Jefferson on the front and a picture of Monticello on the back. Derek got a little kaleidoscope that had Monticello on the outside. We also picked up some seeds of plants/flowers grown in Monticello, along with a book about the Monticello gardens for Alisa, Curtis sister. We felt she deserved a thank you gift for taking our dog for a month. She loves to Garden, we hoped it was a good fit for her.
Monticello was very cool, mostly because Thomas Jefferson had types of little inventions he made and most of them were about efficiency. He made his weather Vane so he could see it from the inside of his house, so he didn't have to walk all the way outside to check the weather. There was a cool clock that used weights to keep track of the time and day (it has just broken for the first time, the day before we arrived) He put the beds in little coves so it didn't take up space in the rooms. He loved to read so he had this contraption so he could be reading several books at once and it was tidy and organized. He also had an invention of a copy machine. He would write with a pen in once hand and it was attached to this "machine" that linked to another pen, so as he wrote something out, the other pen also traced out what he wrote. The tour guide said it didn't get very popular because carbon paper was invented soon after that, so it became obsolete. Our Tour guide was great and Curtis loved that she was so passionate about what she was teaching us. Thomas Jefferson seemed to have an interest in everything, art, science, astronomy, gardening. It was very inspiring. He also came up with a way to collect rain all over his property and have it gather in rain gutters. It doesn't sound that exciting as I explain it, but to see how it set it up was very cool. Most of the stuff he built was very well made. The guide said some things have only had one or two repairs and they are 200+ years old.
He was very innovative. Curtis loved his desire to make everything more efficient. He had slaves but he always felt that slavery was wrong, as a president he struggled with Slavery and hoped that someday it would be abolished, but it would have to be at another time, another generation. He didn't feel he could do it in his presidency.
The grounds were beautiful, there was even a small cemetery, where he was buried along with his family members. We were surprised to see recent death dates on some of the tombstones. A guy was going inside to visit a grave of a friend who was buried there. In order to be buried there, you must be related to Thomas Jefferson, so apparently his friend had some lineage to Thomas.
After Monticello, we started heading up north to Gettysburg, PA . As we were driving we started seeing signs for the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, we were curious what that was about. We didn't know if it was for drugs and alcohol or what. It sounded like it was a place for people to get training for jobs, who needed to get back on their feet. Then we saw a sign for the Woodrow Wilson Library. So we pulled over found a parking lot to park the Betty Ford, and took a short walk in the rain up a hill to his museum. We didn't know what to expect since he wasn't that great of a president. The museum wasn't that big. It was in two homes, one home was his birth place, which was where we bought tickets and they had a movie to watch. Mostly that home was just offices for the library staff, The next door home was the actual museum. It had an old car, and an exhibit of WWI trenches. It was a little graphic, but good to see. Since it was May there was a big things about Mothers Day. It was President Wilson, who officially started Mother's day 100 years ago in 1914. There were a bunch of old Mothers Day cards. We couldn't stay long because we only had parking for one hour. The museum did a good job of keeping the kids interested. There was a scavenger hunt for the kids at each grade level. Dax and Trey did well. Derek didn't do much. When they turned in their scavenger hunt they got a little prize. All three kids chose the pencil. Trey was most excited about his pencil. I took the campaign button because I thought it was a neat little piece of memorabilia.
It was about a three hour drive up to Gettysburg, PA. As we were driving up we played a game a little game we invented. Since we had just seen two Presidential libraries and had a few souvenirs, we had presidents on our minds. Each person went around and gave a little fact about a president and we had to guess which president it was. We had fun with it and Trey even got involved. I would wisper to him a little fact and then he would repeat it. It was a fun game that fit the moment.
We arrived in Gettysburgh and it was pretty rainy. We got to the RV park, it was decent. There was a nice RV neighbor who helped us back into our spot. People are always curious about the RV rental. The plates were CA, so everyone assumed we were from there. A nice little conversation piece. When we tell people, what we are actually doing-taking a month to see the country. They are always amazed, and fascinated by the whole idea.
This RV place had a little play ground. The kids were excited (especially Trey) to go out and play even though it had been raining, and the equipment was a bit wet. We were ready to be down for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment