Friday Afternoon

It's Friday afternoon, errands are done, Sharon's watching baseball so I decided to download the pictures from our tour of Ash Lawn - Highland yesterday.   Decided I might as well update the blog.  Scary, isn't it.  I've posted a few times all ready. 

I've decided that I need to find a different route to Walgreens and Walmart.  If you've ever been in Des Moines around rush hour then you know you want to avoid the west mix master or the 63rd street exit on I235.   There's a similar area in Charlottesville and it doesn't seem to matter what day of the week or time.  It is awful either going or coming.  You're not going to like the traffic - patience is definitely needed.   We thought we found an excellent time.  We drove in shortly after noon today and no issues.  Yay!  Should have known.   After leaving Walmart, we could travel about 2 car lengths at a time for the lights up ahead.  What normally takes about 30 minutes took us an hour.  And did I mention we watched an accident at one of the intersections we were stopped at.  One vehicle decided it was tired of making a left turn and turned right in front of a car.  Crash, Bam, Boom.  Yep, then they sat in their vehicles and yelled at each other.  So glad they decided to do it right in the middle of the intersection.  There are 5 lanes so we could just drive around them.  :)

On another note, we have had very nice weather the last couple of days.  We could open the windows and excellent sleeping weather at night.  Looks like the ac will be coming back on later today.  The sun is coming out and we're supposed to get into the 80's again.   Apparently it got hot earlier than usual this year. 

Back to the tour of yesterday.  We went to James Monroe's home and took the tour.  It's about 12 miles from the campground and yes, we had free passes for this one, too.  We drove up this road to get to the house, gardens, and lawn.  It's a modest house but they still have gardens and livestock.  When Monroe owned it there were ONLY 3500 acres and it's adjacent to Thomas Jefferson's home.  The tour guide that we had knew a lot about his life.  It was extremely interesting. 

We started our tour here at the front door of Ash Lawn.  This addition was added 20 years after Monroe built his house.  He sold his home when he retired from public service and the new owners added on this addition.  The second picture - the white part of the house is the original Monroe home with the yellow part the newer addition.   Since Monroe was solvent when he died, they still had quite a few of his original possessions including the presidential china used in the White House.  The Monroes were the first presidential family to decorate the White House and the first to have China.

It truly was amazing hearing about Monroe's life from the time he crossed the Delaware with George Washington, US Ambassador to France, Secretary of State, Secretary of War and 5th President.  There were a few other things in between also like governor of Virginia. 

A couple of pictures of the lawn, gardens, and view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, until the next time. 



 

Michie Tavern

We're having a blast.  On Thursday, we went to Michie (pronounced Mickey) Tavern.  It's an historical site.  Used to be a stage coach stop.   They actually moved the building 17 miles when setting it up as a historical site.  The owner numbered the boards when moving it so it's the original building.  First was home to John Michie.  He was sent to the Americas from Scotland since he was caught as a rebel.  This is how it looks from the parking lot.

They still getting ready for the tourist season.  Some outside grooming and painting going on while we were there.  It's a buffet from 11:15 - 3:30.  They actually ring a dinner bell when they open the buffet for the day.  Dinner was good.  We took a tour of  the tavern and walked around checking out the shops and the other buildings before eating.  Some of the steps were very steep.

After climbing up the back steps to see the kitchen, necessary room, spring house, and well, we climbed back down through the wine cellar.  This brought us back out to the porch.   We then visited the shops.  After eating Sharon went back to the metal works place to get a peacock chime.  As soon as we get it hung, I'll try to remember to post a picture.

The metal works is in a one room family cabin that they moved to this site also.  This site was chosen to move all these buildings due to the opening up of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe's home back in the 1920's.    If you're ever in this area, this is one of the places you should stop in and see.

After walking around this place for most of the day, we decided that we would probably only do walking tours once a week.  We will be here for a few weeks.  It's a self-guided tour, except for the tavern.  Of course, we took our time but managed it in about 3 hours.  It was a very nice day.  Mostly cloudy as you can see from the pictures. 

As you can imagine, I'm not posting all of the pictures we took.  Yes, Sharon and I still take a multitude of pics.  This time between the two of us, I believe we only took about 80.  We loved the trees and the flowers.

Sharon with our docent.

Oh, I forgot to mention, this was all free to us since we are an employee of the KOA.  Nice perk, including lunch.

First Work Week

Well, we made it through our first week of working.  I definitely think we're being spoiled.  We work 4 hours a day so we take turns going in.  This pays for site and utilities for now.  Later on during the season we'll probably pick up more hours.  For now, we are really enjoying the time.

The weather did get hot all of a sudden.  We broke down and turned the ac on yesterday.  It was so enjoyable having the windows open and the breezes coming in until it got HOT!  They say it's hot and humid here in the summer so we'll see.

We've been enjoying watching the birds and sitting outside reading.  Not having anyone to the east of us is really nice.  Just a woodsy area and the pond. 

We keep meaning to take pictures with the smaller camera but . . . .

As you drive into the park, you stop here.  The office is to the left and the game room/laundry/pavilion is to the right.  This park was built in 1966 so it does have a unique type of layout as they have changed sites to accommodate the campers of today.

Here's our camper as you pull to our site.  Sorry, we didn't realize the camera was tilted until we saw the pic.  It looks like it's not level but trust me it is.  The little hill sort of throws it off.

Tomorrow, we're planning on going to Michie (pronounced Mickey) Tavern for lunch and tour of the grounds.  Friday, we'll probably do a little more exploring in Charlottesville - stopping at a Walmart and who know what else we'll find.

Back to the campground.  The following is one of the tenting areas.

There are levels as you go on up the hill.  Keep going straight and this road will take you back to the pool and another pavilion area.

The dogwoods were in bloom when we arrived.

We're not sure what this flowering tree/bush is.  But it was very pretty.

 Until the next time.