Jefferson's Home Monticello

     We are camped a few miles from Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.  He had a plantation of over 5000 acres situated on the top of a Virginia mountain.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Jefferson was an amazing man of many talents.  He was a member of the Continental Congress and drafted the Declaration of Independence.  During his two terms as President he promoted the purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803 and supported the Lewis and Clark expedition.
      My father always wanted to visit this house after he read about Jefferson's many inventions.  Jefferson taught himself architecture and designed this home.  He was very interested in science and technology and built many time saving features into his house including a dumb waiter which brought up bottles of wine from his wine cellar and a cupboard which was built on a turntable so the servants could put the food on the shelves from the kitchen and spin the cupboard around so the dishes were available in the dining room.
    The house sits up high on the mountain, has amazing views and gets a nice breeze which was important in the days before air conditioning and made our tour on this warm day very pleasant.  Jefferson grew grapes and fruits on the slopes of these hills to make wine.  He had extensive gardens and experimented with growing many types of plants from around the world.  At some times he had over 25 members of his family living with him.  He had other homes nearby and often spent time at these smaller places to get away from the many visitors and family at Monticello, I don't blame him.  As the writer of the document which claims that "all men are created equal" it was an interesting dichotomy of Jefferson's character that he promoted equality and religious freedom, but also owned slaves as well as having several children by one of the slaves.  It was clarified on the tour that his wife died after only 6 years of marriage and implied that the relationship with his slave came after her death.  The situation was certainly not unique in his day.

   After our visit to Monticello we stopped for lunch at Michie Tavern which was only a half mile away.  This tavern served travelers and was a social center of the area from 1784.  Lunch was a buffet of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, black-eyed peas, stewed tomatoes, green beans, pickled beets and cornbread and biscuits.  After we rolled ourselves away from the table, we walked around the property which had several other buildings from the same period including a general store, a dry goods store which sold QUILTS and a metal shop.  I wasn't impressed with the quilts although it is always fun to look.  We left with a bottle of Hard Cider since it is apple season here.  We sampled it with some crackers and cheese which pretty much became supper after such a big lunch.  Pretty good stuff.
    I really like Virginia.  The landscape is endlessly rolling with lots of beautiful hardwoods.  I can see why folks settled here.