Today, we’re headed to Monticello, Jefferson’s home. We’re renting a car and driving about 2.5 hours to get there. Did I mention before that I lost my driver’s license? Yep, I’m pretty sure it fell out along with my credit card when getting out of a cab. The good news: 1) I have my passport and another credit card with me. 2) No one has tried to use the lost credit card. 3) The Oregon DMV was able to send a letter to the rental car company that they say will work for us to rent a car. I’m still a little nervous about this (sayin a prayer).

UPDATE: We made it to Monticello and had a wonderful time - maybe one of our best days on the trip. The drive was gorgeous. We hadn’t planned on seeing such fall beauty but the trees and hills in Virginia make for an extraordinary backdrop. I took way too many pictures. I just couldn’t stop.

Our first stop was Monticello where Jefferson lived. Monticello means “mountain top” and that’s where he choose to place his house and plantation so that he could get a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge mountains. Jefferson was clearly a brilliant man. His house is filled with books, gadgets, documents keeping records of everything, etc. He considered Monticello his lab where he could test all of his ideas. And you can tell this when you walk through the house. The architecture is unique - like placing the out buildings under north and south pavilions so that they didn’t interfere with the look of the rest of the house. He had a weighted clock that told the time and day of the week, a gadget that copied whatever document he was writing while he was writing it, pocket doors, a wine dumb waiter, and lots more. He split his bedroom in half by building a center wall on either side of his bed. One side was kind of his office, the other more of a typical bedroom. Jefferson grew and experimented with all kinds of plants, evidenced by his extensive garden. And he had a little room with lots of windows built out by the garden - a place to survey his land and just think.

We also took a tour of Jefferson’s plantation, which included stories of the many slaves who lived there. Jefferson was conflicted about slavery. Morally, he’s documented as saying many times that he knew it was wrong. But, financially he was dependent on them, like many were in the South. In the end, he choose not to do anything about it, either personally or politically. He did train many of his slaves in a useful trade and many of them learned to read and write from Jefferson’s grandchildren. His only living child, his daughter, and her 12 children came to live with him after his presidency through the rest of his life. Because some of the slaves knew how to read and write, they wrote memoirs about their time at Monticello and so there is documentation about what it was like. The stories were fascinating.

For lunch, we went to Michie’s tavern. They serve period food and it was pretty good. Then we toured the real tavern from the 1700s, that they now keep as a museum. Interesting to see the contrast from Monticello and to hear the stories of what it would have been like to be a patron in that tavern.

We unexpectedly stopped at Jefferson winery and tasted their line up. The wine was surprisingly good, and we bought a couple bottles made from unique grapes that grow well in Virginia. This quick stop was a nice change of pace.

Our last stop was Ash Lawn-Highland, which was the home of Monroe. He only lived a few miles down the road from Jefferson. They were good friends. As were the Madison’s. Jefferson recruited them to live near him so that they could see each other often. This house was not nearly as interesting or spectacular as Monticello, but what made the tour great was the guide. She knew everything about Monroe and this house and was clearly passionate about it. She made us interested. And it was again interesting to see the contrast in styles and tastes from Monticello.

The rental car turned out just fine. The letter from the DMV worked and we were able to navigate through DC and Virginia without a hitch. It was actually fun to have a car for a few days, with the freedom it affords. And I honestly liked driving around in the big city. It brought out the aggressive LA driver in me. :}

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