Day 22: Sweet Virginia

We decided to change our itinerary to add in Montecello. Meaning little mountain, Montecello is Thomas Jefferson's estate near Charlottesville Virginia where he retreated between all his stints in public service. With our ticket we got a tour of the house, which was beautiful and tours of his gardens and Mulberry Row (his slaves quarters). The house has grandeur to it but is also quite cozy. One wing of the house has his study which is broken up in three cozy little rooms that open to each other. Also his bed is in an alcove that is open on both sides so he could get out of bed on his right and be in his study or get out on his left and get dressed. It was a gorgeous day; hot yet dry with a breeze. The grounds are amazing; a huge vegetable garden with all kinds of crazy lettuce and herbs in perfect lines. Fruit trees everywhere, groomed lawns and even English style forests (they have the trees grow tall and trim out a lot of the undergrowth). I almost felt like I was in Pride and Prejudice. I wanted to put on a lacey dress and roam around the grounds with a basket of fresh fruit and a parasol all day. It was great. We walked down to his grave and followed a forested path that meandered back to the large craftsmanish style visitors center. So, all in all, I heart Virginia.

We regretfully left Thomas's land of milk and honey and drove the 4 hours back north to Pennsylvania. We had planned to camp near Gettysburg and do the whole Gettysburg thing the next day. As we neared the town though I started looking at camp grounds. The cheapest I could find was $35 dollars for a night at a tent site. Our money at this point is running low and its hard to justify $35 for a 10x5 space of dirt and a bathroom. Plus, I'm just so american historied out that an old battlefield just doesn't seem exciting enough to fill up my whole day. So, we drove through the quaint little town, got a self guided tour at the ginormous visitors center and did all the stops in an hour and a half. It is a bloody story of the battle where 50,000 civil war soldiers gave their lives. Every 15 feet of the whole countryside is now covered with gravestones and large marble memorials to different militia. Towards the beginning, there is even an eternal flame and at the end, a large cemetery with little place markers for graves only marked by numbers. The Gettysburg Address was given by Abe Lincoln at the dedication of the cemetery. So anyhow, after 2 hours of seeing all this we got McDonalds soft serve in the hot Penn weather and blew out of there to a cheaper campground on the road to Chicago.