Saturday, August 18, 2018

In Charlottesville, VA. Today we toured and walked for 3+ hours inside and on the grounds of Jefferson's Monticello (an 11,000 sq.ft. home and 4,000 acre plantation from 1778 to 1826); a hot, humid, cloudy day. 

Each room inside Monticello (Italian for 'little mountain')

Monticello required acres of gardens to support 250+ people.

Thomas Jefferson's Grave Site

Wilma and TJ

Bill with M.Lewis Birthplace Sign
Lewis' house is privately owned gated.

was a testament to his great learning, his French influence and inventiveness. James Monroe owned an adjacent plantation called the Highlands, and James Madison lived 35 miles from Monticello. 

NOTE: T.Jefferson and J.Adams died on the same day, July 4, 1826 on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

We viewed a film called “Thomas Jefferson’s World”, and visited the Sally Hemings exhibit, putting context to the Virginia southern planters and the enslaved African Americans laboring both on the land and in the home. We then had lunch in Michie Tavern (est. 1784); and visited Meriwether Lewis' birthplace (approximate) location around Locust Hill, Ivy, VA.  (The tour guide in one exhibit told us to view, "for comic relief," an old black and white, Lewis and Clark based movie called The Far Horizons, with Carlton Heston, Fred MacMurray and Donna Reed.  He said “they got absolutely 100% of the facts completely wrong!”).

All in all a great first week:  experiencing Lewis' Eastern Legacy Trail, we drove 825 miles through 5 states, crossing 5 major US rivers, seeing 31 bird species.