Next week, we will be celebrating the 4th of July. What does this holiday stand for? Some say freedom, some say the birth of our nation, some say liberty, and some say fireworks. If you look at America’s history, you will find that Independence Day began as the celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, sites it as his greatest achievement despite his long list of accomplishments. This is one of the facts that we learned on our tour of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home and our final stop in Virginia and Bilbo’s favorite.
It was a stormy day on which we rolled into town. Lightening storms had caused the buses up to mountain top to delay departure. This put all of the timed tours behind, causing the little old ladies that line tourists up to be in quite a tizzy. We all got a few laughs as the head line lady barked out orders. I think that she knew we were laughing at her because she cut off the tour group right before us, making us wait an extra five minutes. Our tour guide, a very knowledgeable elderly gentleman named Thorny, was much nicer and he gave a wonderful tour. Sorry that we don’t have many pictures but no photography was allowed inside. Bilbo being the sneaker that he is took a photo of Jefferson’s favorite chair so that he might reproduce it at a later date.
Monticello, meaning “little mountain”, is nestled among the hills in Charlottesville, VA. It is a beautiful and innovative house built by Thomas Jefferson in his boyhood playground. The house featured many unique characteristics for a building of its time, owing to Jefferson’s inventive mind. One such innovation is a wine trolley running from the basement to the upper level. He also had a singular style of decorating with nick-nacks and artifacts from around the world, the most interesting of which are displayed in the entrance way. On top of this, the house boasts unique architecture with 6 and 8-sided rooms, only two sets of steps, and a wall with a bed in the middle to separate the bed chamber and office. This bed was occupied by Jefferson himself and was the site of his death, which occurred July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Just a impressive as the house were the grounds. Jefferson considered himself a farmer and was interested in cultivating as many varieties of vegetation as possible in his Virginia soil. He planted in rows, studied the growth, and noted conditions surrounding success or failure. Then there was the view. It was a 360 degrees of beauty. From every angle you could overlook the accompanying valley, town, or university. It is said that Jefferson would stand on the mountain to oversee the building of the University of Virginia, which he founded and designed.
As you left the ground of this great man’s great house, you passed the family cemetery. The inscription on our third president’s grave reads: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the statute for Virginia for religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.” It seemed like this was an understatement, but it was all he wanted to be remembered for.
Monticello ended our Vance family vacation. We are very grateful to my parents for funding it! After the tour we headed back to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia to relax and get the RV ready. Unfortunately, Miss Kitty needed a bit more fixin’ than expected. But no worries, we just packed the Honda back up and set our course to New England…with a couple of stops on the way.
Before I sign off, I’d like to remind everyone to become a follower! We only have 16 right now. That mean 14 more need to join before we can do a grand prize drawing. In the mean time, I have a challenge for you. Everyone that posts a comment related to Thomas Jefferson will be put into a drawing for a little prize.
Until next time…
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