Charlottesville, VA

Getting closer to home!   We are camped at the KOA about 8 mies south of town.  Our reason for being here is that we wanted to revisit Monticello and visit James Madison's Montpelier.   We were in this area in about 2003 and had visited both.   Monpelier at that time was being refurbished and taken back to the time of Madison, so we really didn't see much of the house.   Time for a revisit!

On the 21st we went to Jefferson's Monticello.   It was very busy, and has a new visitor's center with theater, museum, and gift shop as well as a cafe.   Our tour was at 12:10 so we rode the shuttle up and we were early so enjoyed the grounds until time for our tour.   There were about 25 people per tour, which made it a bit crowded in some of the rooms.   Most of the information given was about the architecture of the house, and not much was said about any of the furnishings, etc.   After the tour we did a self tour of the dependencies, or essential service rooms such as kitchen, smokehouse, ice house and wine cellar.   All could be accessed in Jefferson's time from all weather passageways at the cellar level.   They were invisible from the pubic spaces of the house.  

Jefferson had about 200 slaves, most of which he had inherited.   His plantation initially grew tobacco but eventually switched to wheat.   House slaves lived in wooden cabins on Mulberry Row, named for the mulberry trees planted along it.  

On September 22 we drove the 30+ miles to Madison's Montpelier.   Our tour started with a short 20 minute documentary about Madison and his contributions (Father of the Constitution, Architect of the Bill of Rights, and fourth president of the United States.)   We had a guided tour of the Madison mansion and had access to self-guided exhibits on the second floor and in the cellars.  We were also able to visit the area of the slave quarters where an archealogical dig of the area was ongoing.   At Madison's house it seemed we had a lengthy lecture in each room.  Glad we returned to see it!   My only regret was that there wasn't much mention of Dolley.