Mr. Jefferson will see you in his study, now.

Evening. Campers! It's Silver Cliche' with you again tonight… or the night before last since I have no internet here in the wilds of Virginia and you won't read this until Tuesday at best. Tonight's report is being filed from Sherando Lake Recreation Area near… well… I can't tell you since I don't have internet and that's the tool I use to look up facts like “what's near wherever the heck we are?”. I feel totally confident saying where we are not… that's anywhere with a cell phone tower. I can also say we are west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, east of I-81 and south of I-64. If you have an atlas, or internet access that might give you an idea.

So, I owe you some pics about Skyline Drive. We have traveled about 75 miles of it so far. As I mentioned last night, it is an impressive road built by out of work Americans during the years following the Great Depression almost 100 years ago. These folks received employment through a program initiated by Franklin Roosevelt as part of the “New Deal”. That program was called the Civilian Conservation Corps. The road is impressive for the fact that it truly follows the spine of the Blue Ridge range. How do I know this? The key indicator is the fact that overlooks alternate between the left and right sides of the road and are equally impressive. Roads that run along the side of a mountain only have overlooks on one side. A byproduct of the route along the ridge is that there isn't a straight section to the whole darn thing. I bet the longest straightaway we've been on in those 75 miles is 100 yards. The other thing it doesn't have is width and sometimes shoulders. This combination of curves, ups and downs, narrow lanes (I'm thinking the lanes are 10' wide and we are 8'6”… precision is the byword when driving Skyline Drive) and no shoulders makes for challenging driving even at the 35 MPH speed limit. What do you see on Skyline Drive? Well there' a whole lot of this….

And this….

But sometimes this…

or this...

 (remember, that's a panorama the two wall sections are actually straight... the picture shows what you would see if you stood in one spot and pivoted 180 degrees)

or even this...  

Note, that one includes the rarest of all Silver Cliche' photo features... a human being. That woman was drawn to the giant Queen Anne's Lace that were growing in the field. They had blossoms the size of dinner plates or maybe even garbage can lids. She moved on them so quickly that I'm thinking of gluing a Queen Anne's Lace to my head to cover the bald spot and attract attention to myself. It's kind of like when I tie a bone around my neck to get the dog to play with me. She graciously shared a pic with me to share with you here:

Every 10 miles or so along Skyline Drive is a major facility like Skyland where we are lunch (presumably named because it's where the sky meets the land, although by that definition everyplace is “skyland”… even Death Valley) or Big Meadows where we camped last night.

This is the third trip we've planned to follow Skyline Drive and the first we've actually executed. The first was scrubbed on account of weather. The second was scrubbed on account of having a rambunctious 10 year old added to the trip which drove a more direct schedule. Now we are here. After 30 miles of what you saw in the pics above, the novelty had worn off. After 50 miles tedium set in. After 70 miles the thought of driving off one of those overlooks started to sound pretty good. After 75 miles we concluded it was time to explore the valley below which just happened to contain Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

So after an hour and three quarters of driving this morning we reached Monticello. I'm thrilled to report that we had the right day for it. Temps in the low 80's, dry, clear, in a word, perfect. All I could think is “if I could bottle this and take it to St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin I could make a frickin' fortune!”. I'm thinking that when people from Wisconsin come to Monticello they don't even notice the house. They just say “I didn't know weather could do this!”.

Anyway… Monticello. Like George Washington's home, Mount Vernon, Monticello is not owned by the US Government. It's owned by a private, not-for-profit organization. That makes it very different from other national landmarks and treasures you might visit that are owned by the Feds. The first thing I noticed was on the approach to the property. You may already know (although, I didn't) that Monticello means “little mountain” in Italian. I hope you're proud of yourself for knowing that… don't be so smug… it makes me feel undereducated. Naturally, the trip to get there is up hill. If the government owned this national treasure (actually, a world treasure… Monticello is a UN World Heritage Site just like that crazy dirt mount we camped near in Louisiana at the start of this trip) they would have used eminent domain to claim all sorts of adjacent property and rights-of-way to create a 4 lane highway into the parking lot. That's not how it is. The two lane, winding road from the nearest state highway is a shorter, less navigable version of Skyline Drive. The spacious 10' wide lanes on the mountain are about 9' for the last two miles into Monticello. Far from dissuading the visitor, this gave me a feeling of what it must have been like for visitors in Jefferson's day to make the trip from Charlottesville up his little mountain on a narrow winding road. Given his stature as a statesman, philosopher and scientist, this was truly a journey to the top of the mountain for those seeking enlightenment in the early 19^th century.

The other aspect of Monticello being in private hands that was striking was the fact that our National Parks Senior Pass didn't work there. “That'll be $26 per head, please.” Gulp “Thank you”. Maybe we should have waited until they made it into an IMAX experience and saved $11 each. Oh well, we were there already. From the parking lot its a short walk to the visitors center. From there shuttle buses take the groups of 25 the last half mile to the very top of the hill where the home is situated. It was worth it. Jefferson chose a beautiful little mountain top on which to situation his masterpiece. It isn't the tallest peak in the area, but it is high enough and far enough removed from other hills to offer inspiring views. Then one sees the house itself. Here is the first view we got as we exited the bus. One can imagine that a visitor who had ascended the mountain might have had a similar first view over 200 years ago:

Although the tour is described as “self guided”, the house is smaller than it looks on currency and the groups of 25 are generally herded through each room on the first floor. At each stop a docent tells the story of how the room was used (they ate in the dining room!). No photography is allowed in side the house. The second floor is only open for a few tours a day to those paying a surcharge (cha-ching!). My interest was in seeing the place and the exterior, and Mrs. C's interest was in getting back on the road. We skipped the extras. Here is the shot I came for. Its taken from the lawn on the opposite side of the home from where the initial shot was taken. To get this view, one must pass through the home (or around it) to the grassy area outside the major living space on the first floor which is the parlor located in the middle of the home on the side you see below. Jefferson's private space (library, study and bedroom) are on the right side. The family spaces (e.g: dining room) are on the left. The green louvered box on the corner is repeated at all four corners and contains a semi-outdoor room which must have been a blessing in the hot Virginia summers when shade and moving air would have been essential for comfort:

The hilltop location affords inspiring views as I mentioned above. Here is one taken from the area outside Jefferson's private wing:

It was well worth the trip. In addition to statesman, philosopher and scientist, I can suggest you add “architect” to Jefferson's list of talents. The house feels innovative even today over 200 years since it's construction. Little touches abound (e.g.: his bed in an alcove between two rooms, closets that had light shafts and ventilation, triple sash windows that could open tall enough to become doors when the weather was suitable) but its the flow of rooms and the way each was suited to its specific task that would have made this a tremendously livable home.

After our tour we had lunch of our own creation in the trailer in the Monticello parking lot. We called it “dining with the Jeffersons” although it was more “Movin' on Up” than “Declaration of Independence”. It was another 45 minute drive to the campground and we were camped for the day by 2:30 on a beautiful early summer day.

Tomorrow we press farther south.

Later…

SC'