MONTICELLO, OR, CHEZ WINO

JUNE 7-8, 2012         

We departed Anvil about mid-morning on the 7th for our trek to Charlottesville, where we were to visit a former neighbor and go see Jefferson’s home at Monticello.  From Williamsburg, it’s about 120 miles or so, all on I-64, so a pretty easy drive despite having to skirt Richmond.  Not too many camping options in the area, so we chose to stay in a KOA a ways out of Charlottesville.  It was pretty rustic and had zero cell phone service, but decent wifi.  We had planned to meet with Joyce at her home at 4:00.  She used to live just up the block from us before relocating back east about 8 years ago.  She and Loni carpooled to UCLA so they had years of gab in their background.  We had to wait out a brief drizzle before setting off on the scoot.  About halfway there, on a windy, narrow two-lane road, we came to a dead stop in a long line of vehicles.  Nothing happened for a while, so Loni set off on foot to see what was going on.  She came back and reported it was a three-car head-on collision, with ambulances and police cars galore.  Nobody was going anywhere for a long time.  Other than this road, we had no clue as to how to reroute ourselves.  Our map was a state-sized scale, thus useless for the small roads in the area, and we have no GPS on the scoot.  Gotta remedy that.  We asked a local, who suggested we backtrack to Red Hill (where the KOA was) and take a series of roads to eventually get back to our main route beyond the wreck.  We took off, quickly got lost, and started navigating by dead reckoning.  Then the rain came down and we had to pull over to put on our slickers.  Finally having a couple bars of cell service, we called Joyce who, while a dear soul, isn’t much for directions.  Thinking we were getting close, we pulled off at a large, mansion-like building, which turned out to be a Kappa Epsilon headquarters.  A staffer pointed us in the right direction and we finally arrived at 6:00 – only two hours late.  We brought the wine and Joyce, ever the gracious host, put out a “modest” spread.  Yum.

We had to make this a brief visit (we’d return tomorrow) because the scoot’s headlight isn’t working and we can’t be driving back on these narrow, twisty roads after dark.  We ended up leaving at 8:15, and just barely made it home before the twilight failed.  This is what passes for geriatric excitement.

Friday, we breakfasted on some delish croissants from Joyce, plus fruit and cereal, then headed off to Monticello, pictured above.  What a beautiful place.  We weren’t permitted to take pictures in the upstairs area, but it was very cleverly done with a lot of advanced ideas.  Double-paned windows in his study to keep out the cold.  Two dumb-waiters to bring food and wine up from the cellars.  Skylights above.  A revolving door to admit the servants into the dining room.  This was another of those “I can’t believe I’m standing right where . . .” moments.  You look around and imagine him working in his study, sleeping in that bed.  Very cool.  Construction began in 1769 according to Jefferson's first design, which was completed (except for porticoes and decorative interior woodwork) when he left for Europe in 1784. Work on a new design for remodeling and enlarging the house began in 1796 and was complete by 1809.  He lived here from 1770 until his death in 1826, on the 4th of July. The estate was sold at auction, to pay his debts, but fortunately preserved by its eventual purchase by, first, Jefferson admirer Uriah Levy and then by his nephew, Jefferson Levy, who bequeathed it in the 1920’s to the Jefferson Society.

We did get to explore the lower level, where we could take photos, which had its own interesting items, like this circular “ice house” installed under one of the wings.

Jefferson must have gotten a lot of use out of that dumbwaiter, for he was quite the wino after spending some time in France.  And, he wasn’t drinking two-buck Chuck!  Check out those bottle seals.

Loni says she, from her history readings, had always thought of Jefferson as a lonely man after the early deaths of his wife and 4 of his 6 children.  But, his daughter, Martha, came to live with him as his hostess, first at the White House, and then at Monticello along with her entire family (eleven kids!).  And, of course, there may have been Sally Hemmings.  There is precious little, if anything, about her here.  An interesting factoid is that Jefferson kept a copy of most of the documents he wrote, by means of a “polygraph.”

The grounds outside are impressively laid out, and you can do a lot of walking to get around to see everything.  Monticello sits on a high knoll, with beautiful vistas.  Loni’s standing in front of a Catalpa tree that might date back to Jefferson’s time.

Jefferson is buried on the grounds in the family cemetery.  One of the plaques noted that he chose to be remembered as the “creator” of the Declaration of Independence, the author of Virginia’s religious freedom document, and father of the University of Virginia.  Even without noting his presidency, a nice body of life’s work.

We finished up and took off with a better sense of geography for Joyce’s home and another lovely dinner, this time topped off with a pear/almond/raspberry torte for dessert.  Oh, yes.  I can show a picture of her house, because by the time this gets posted she will have sold it and moved to Edinburgh to live with her sister.  Ahh.  Now we can plan that Scotland-Ireland trip!  I like scones, Joyce!

JAMESTOWN, myeh

JUNE 6, 2012        Back again on the scoot to Williamsburg to catch the free shuttlebus to Jamestown.  When we had the scoot repaired in Annapolis, we discovered that the front tire was badly cupped, so we didn’t want to make any longer trips on it.  Besides, the shuttle was convenient and we wouldn’t have to worry about staying dry.  There actually are two Jamestowns to see:  Historic Jamestown, with archeological digs and stuff, and a theme park place.  The first was sorta interesting, the second, not so. 

We hit the historical site first, and encountered the most over-the-top ranger I think we’ve ever met.  Everything he said was mouthed in vox dramaticus, accompanied by exaggerated hand gestures.  He was something to watch, but we quickly tired of his presentation, and wandered off.

The grounds are not the place of drama, consisting mostly of grassy fields interrupted now and then by excavated foundations, or casts of old post-holes from the bulwarks.

Exciting stuff, eh?  It does have historical interest, of course, being the site of the first permanent English colony, established in 1607.  The only surviving 17ty century structure is the 1690’s tower of the brick church.  The rest is all foundations or re-creations.  They are still beetling away at the excavations, and have uncovered the site of the 1608 edition of the four churches that stood here.  It’s mostly a bunch of sandbags outlining the perimeter, but it is interesting because this was the site of the marriage of Pocahontas and the planter, John Rolfe, in April of 1614.

 

There was a pretty good little archaeological museum on site, called the “Archaearium.”  A fish tank of artifacts?  Here they mercifully display only some of the one million plus items they’ve unearthed.  Also thankfully, they had some decent sandwiches in the cafeteria.  Good thing, cause there wasn’t any restaurant within miles.

After lunch, we boarded the shuttle bus for the trip over to the Jamestown Settlement, which is a Williamsburg-like “living history museum,” but aimed a little lower on the entertainment scale.  While the ship replicas were interesting,

the rest of the displays and exhibitions were more on the tone of Knott’s Berry Farm.  There were dwellings to enter, dugout canoes being burn-formed, anvils pounded, and I honest-to-god don’t know what the kid is doing with the fire.

All in all, we were less than thrilled, and cut out early to go back for the late afternoon at Williamsburg (covered in the previous post).  Although we hauled our rain gear around with us all day, we saw nary a drop.

COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG, DAY 2

TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2012                Learning from our mistakes (a novelty), we loaded up with rain gear for the scoot trip to CW.  As it turned out, it never rained while we were on the scoot, but we did get a few showers as we walked around.  Today we wanted to see the interiors of the various period buildings and we started out with the gunsmith shop and a basket-making place.  The latter are doing it from scratch: the woman in the upper photo is stripping bark to get at the fiber for the baskets. 

These kinds of things can be seen at other historical recreation communities around the country (like Conner Prairie in Indiana, near where Mom lives), but the difference here is that much of this is original, not a reproduction.  This gunsmithy was built back in the 1700’s and operated for decades by the same family.

Next up was the Thomas Everhard House, built in 1717!  We milled about a while (Loni in yellow slicker), waiting for our genial, if geriatric guide (right).

What we found over and over in these colonial homes was the use of bright colors for the painted walls  and bold wallpaper elsewhere.  This green was really startling, and I don’t think we could live with it.

Next up was the Governor’s Palace, initially constructed in 1722, destroyed by fire in 1781, and later rebuilt.  It was the home of seven royal governors and the first two elected governors of the new Commonwealth of Virginia, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.  It’s furnished today as the home of Lord Dunmore, the last British governor.  Lots of dark wood and zillions of swords, pistols, and rifles intertwined on the walls and doorways.

It wasn’t all dark and gloomy.   I liked the stove venting right through the window pane.  And note the bright blue paint.  Sherwinn Williams run amok.  Down in the kitchen, the ladies were rolling out some chocolate concoction, but no samples were on offer.

The artisans throughout the town are the real deal.  We particularly enjoyed the woodworking shop where they were laboring with period tools to build exquisite pieces.  Don’t know where they ended up.  Didn’t see any for sale.  Perhaps they are installed in the various exhibit houses?

We were pretty much done after a full day of wandering around, but we decided to go literally across the street to the campus of the College of William & Mary.  School must have been out for the summer as we didn’t see a soul as we walked around.  Pretty campus, with tons of green, brickwork galore, but not many “vistas” other than this sunken green on the other side of the ironwork fence.

And then we saw a rare sight for these parts, also green of a sort.  We tried to wave them down to say hello but they never saw us.

 

We weren’t ready quite yet to say adios, Williamsburg.  We came back the next day after spending the morning at Jamestown (next post).  I’ll finish up with Williamsburg here to keep it all together.

 

What we were after on the final day was to get a peek inside Bassett Hall, which was the home of the Rockefellers when they were in this area to honcho the preservation.  Built around 1760,

the house is decorated as they had it in the 1940’s.  It actually looks very homey, without a lot of straight-laced furniture posturing around.  I could live there.   Yeah.

It was the end of the day by the time we finished with Bassett House, and we had to hustle a goodly distance to get to the final program of the day, already underway, the review of the troops, fife and drum corps, and some musket and cannon firing.  The “review” was over before we got there, but they were still firing off their guns.

They tried to “organize” the kids in the audience to form ranks and march about.  A mild degree of success, followed by the local Jr. High fife corps.  A good time had by all.

SHOOT CASEY JONES

JUNE 3-4, 2012     Farewell to DC and on to Colonial Williamsburg down in Virginia.  First, a little housekeeping and an ironed blouse.  Gotta be neat, even on the road.  We also had a leisurely Sunday breakfast of blue cheese omelets and a big fruit salad. Not getting such an early start, we paid for it by hitting traffic on the way out of DC. 

Several hours later we got to our campground for the next few days, the Anvil Park near Williamsburg.  It is nicely landscaped, and is an older, family-owned park with, ah, quaint facilities.  The waterwheel was a nice touch. 

We got settled into a spot in the back row by the trees and bushes you see on the right side.  Settled, that is, until all hell broke loose.  A tremendous roar accompanied by Thor’s hammer beating an anvil tattoo.  What lurked behind those trees and bushes was a railroad line.  The noise was stupendous as befits a site where the back of our rig was only 16 feet from the track.  Back to the office I went and gave the ultimatum:  we move or we go.  Management was eager to please, and switched us to the front row (of three), which abutted the road into town.  This put us about 100 feet from the tracks, but made all the difference.  I took a shot from our new site of a passing train, which is but a blur in the pic.

I don’t know how many trains there were during the day, as we were out from early morning until dinner time, but at night there were at least six.  Surprisingly, once we had this little buffer, it was a manageable background growl.  Even light sleeper me could get through the night.

I initially wasn’t all that keen on going to Colonial Williamsburg, but it was something Loni really wanted to do.  I have this thing about costumed “period” staff.  They give me the creeps and I usually find them hokey or obnoxious, or both, and I loathe being drawn into conversation in periodspeak.  Glad to say I was proven wrong.  Williamsburg was a highlight of our trip.  We spent four days in the area, two and a half at Williamsburg and one at Jamestown.  I think two is the absolute minimum to spend at WB.  There is a LOT to see.  I think one hour would be enough at Jamestown, but more on that later.  You definitely want to buy a multi-day, combo pass to the two rather than individual day passes.

The place is huge, covering over 300 acres, 500 buildings, and 35 exhibition sites. 

The buildings date from 1699 to 1780, and include original, restored, and re-created structures.  Way too many to cover thoroughly, so we’ll just hit those that were highlights for us.  The whole place, of course, is one big, authentic theme park, with obligatory horse carriages.

  The preservation was the brainchild of local Parish rector W.A.R. Goodwin who, in the 1920’s, convinced John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to finance the return of Williamsburg to its 18th century aspect.  Rockefeller, through dummy entities, began buying up properties in the area.  At the time, there were some 70-odd colonial era buildings remaining in the town, surrounded by untouched farm and woodlands.  [You will note I’ve finally figured out how to wrap text around pictures!] 

Efforts already had been made to restore the Bruton Parish Church, and had begun on the George Wythe house when Rockefeller made his first visit.  Wythe was the first professor of law in America, the teacher of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Chief Justice John Marshall, and Henry Clay. The Wythe House had also been turned over to George Washington as his headquarters during the Yorktown Campaign, and there is every probability that the Battle of Yorktown was planned by Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, the Comte de Rochambeau, and General Thomas Nelson in the parlor. George Wythe was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  The place reeks of history.  Rockefeller became very interested in the project, and it exploded from there.  He even bought a residence on the property, Bassett Hall, and his wife, Abby, lived there while pursuing her passion for folk art by establishing a folk art museum, the first in the U.S.  We really liked the folk art museum.

We also liked Basset Hall which, being a little out of the way, tucked into a far corner, isn’t as heavily trafficked as the central area.  The 18th century frame house is decorated just as it was in the 1930’s when the Rockefellers lived there.  Unfortunately, no photos were allowed, but it was worth the visit to see how the unimaginably rich lived when “dressing down.”

Every day there are events – historical portrayals, tours, exhibitions, parades, etc. – that change daily, so you really need to be there more than one day to get a good taste.  Actors in period costume will casually mingle with you on the street, others give more elaborate speeches recounting some historical event.  I stayed my distance from the minglers and avoided their period-speak conversation.

The brick building above is a reconstruction of the Capitol.  The scene is “Lady Washington Visits The Capitol” during the war, receiving honors in her husband’s name for his service to the country.  The Capitol was a neat building, with exquisite brickwork and, of course, plenty of history.

It was also the site of the single best docent tour and lecture I’ve ever taken, anywhere in the world.  These tours rotate among various docents, so we just got lucky.  He was knowledgeable, personable, and unflappably “in character” in a way that even I could get into.  Somewhere on some scrap of paper is his name, alas lost to me now.  I am amazed that these folks can keep up such a high level of enthusiasm day after day.  If you spot him, latch on!

Since the place is so spread out, you do a lot of walking around the streets, watching random events like the musket firing, and just goofing around.

There’s no lack of taverns and restaurants and specialty shops to quench your thirst, appetite, and wallet.  However, some of them are “stages,” and thus free, like the hot chocolate shop.  Yum.  The docent here was downright creepy, but we liked the chocolate.

That was enough for one day.  We were pooped, and the skies were getting dark.  It takes a while to get back to the parking area, as it is located remote from the historical area over by the visitor center.  They have trams that run constantly to take you to and fro, but we decided to hoof it back on the pathways.  As it turned out, we should have taken the faster tram.  On the way back to the park on the scoot, we got hit by a gullywasher of a cloudburst and got soaked head to toe.  Fortunately, we were wearing stuff we could just hang in the bathroom to let dry.  Dinner in the rig, and lulled to sleep by the ghosts of Casey Jones.

BOOKS, STAMPS, AND MORE ART: LAST DAY IN D.C.

JUNE 2, 2012     Wow, two weeks went by quickly.  This is our last day to tour DC.  We decided to start with the Library of Congress.  It’s housed in three buildings, but the one to see is the original – the Thomas Jefferson Building across from the Capitol.  It was built in 1897 in ornate Italian Renaissance style, much better looking on the inside than out, in my opinion.

The interior has elaborately decorated vaulting, sculptures, paintings, etc.  This truly is one of the most opulent buildings in DC.

A tour was beginning just as we got inside, so we tagged along.  Our guide was knowledgeable and passionate and made the things we were seeing come alive.  She is a volunteer docent whose specialty was health care publications, working primarily out of the NIH in Bethesda.  Gosh.  Our dining room ceiling didn’t come out quite like that.

We weren’t allowed into the Main Reading Room, and the vantage point we had from a balcony didn’t permit pictures, so you’ll just have to go see for yourself.  The building did house a number of oddball exhibits including a gallery devoted to Bob Hope and another to the Gershwins.  If you’re interested in either, this is the place to be, but otherwise not a must-see.

One of the real must-sees is the Thomas Jefferson Library.  When the British burned the Congressional Library in 1814, his was the largest personal collection of books in the country.  To re-establish the Congressional Library, he sold his to Congress for $23,950 in 1815.  Here, they recreated his original library and it is stocked with a combination of originals and replicas of the volumes that were in it when he sold it to the country.  The replicas are of those books destroyed in a fire in 1851.  It was very cool to see what stimulated him back then.

By the time we were done touring, we were ready for a late lunch.  Our guide was happy to recommend a couple of places nearby, and we settled on “We, The Pizza.”  OK, corny, but the pizza was really good.  At least I managed to remember to take a pic before devouring all of it.

After that, we were not in the mood for anything too intellectual, so where better to head than the National Postal Museum!  On the way there, we passed by the Supreme Court, looking quite lovely in the bright sunshine.

The Postal Museum is housed in the basement of the Old City Post Office, built in 1914.  It didn’t rate a photo, but the museum was quite interesting.

The exhibitions portrayed the history of the mail service including moving the mail, stamps, the art of cards & letters, and more.

One of the more interesting oddities for me was the description of how they used to save weight on overseas mail during WWII by microfilming the mail, then printing it out at the other end.  I’d never heard that before.

We still had a bit of time left before things closed down for the day, so we hotfooted it over to the American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery.  These had some excellent works.  You could get lost gazing into the depths of Bierstadt’s painting of “Among The Sierra Nevada,” (1868) often referred to as “The Great Picture.”  You’re only a little deflated when you learn he painted it in Rome, and the composition was a complete fictional rendering of what he thought the great mountains of the West “should” look like.

Another favorite was Thomas Hart Benson’s mural, “Achelous & Hercules,” (1947), supposedly a parable for the taming of the Mississippi by the Army Corps of Engineers.  Achelous is the bull, and Hercules is the guy grabbing the horns.  Missisip and the COE?  Okayyyyy.

We also enjoyed the monumental canvasses  by Thomas Moran of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872-R, 1892-L), as we saw that on one of our RV trips.  Didn’t look quite like that, as I remember.

Loni, I think, preferred the presidential portraits, which didn’t inspire me to take any shots.  She was also very taken with the work of George Catlin who did portraits of Indians in a style that reminds her of Modigliani.  Couldn’t shoot any shots in there, but here’s one from the web.

We ran out of time, closed the joint, and caught the metro back to our station.  D.C. is trying to be quite friendly to non-car transportation, including bicycles.  At many metro stations they have these bike repair stands that anyone can use for emergency repairs.  Neat.

DOWN(ER) DAY

JUNE 1, 2012   No touring today.  We did an early morning laundry run at the very good facilities here in the park, then put everything away so that we could take the rig out and drive to Annapolis to pick up the scoot.  The parts had arrived from Georgia, and it was ready to go.  We had to park the rig in a nearby mall parking lot as there wasn’t sufficient room at the repair shop.  The mechanic warned us that the headlight no longer worked, there was a (death?) rattle coming from the back of the engine, and we desperately need a new front tire.  It is cupped beyond belief, and was the source of the singing whine I was hearing when we got up to speed.  Curiously, we never felt any effect from it.  I ran my hand over the tire and it felt like a stegosaurus’ back.  We had no time to get repairs done, as we have to be on the road tomorrow.  Hmmm.  Maybe I’ll donate this scoot to one of the boyos, and get a new one?

We made haste getting back to the park because the weather reports were turning ugly.  Unlike SoCal, when they get worked up back here for a “storm watch,” they mean real weather.  We made it back, hooked everything up again, and turned on the t.v.  Oh, yeah.  Here it comes.

Our park is located about midway between College Park and Greenbelt on the map.  We got some pretty high winds and a lot of rain, but the tornados went elsewhere.  We stayed nice and snug in the rig and rode it out.