Play time, UVA tour, bagel lunch, and swimming at the community pool

I started the day folding paper airplanes with Carolyn's son and flying them around the room to see how well different designs would fly and who could fly them the farthest. We then had a nice breakfast of homemade waffles.

I saw online that the University of Virginia has a historical tour that starts daily at 11 am at the rotunda on campus. The website says the tour runs whenever school is in session, so I assumed it would be available during the Summer session.

Carolyn, the two younger children, and I piled into their van and drove to campus. The oldest daughter didn't want to come, so she stayed home. We planned to meet Nathan for lunch after the tour. 

When we got to the rotunda, we saw a sign telling us he tours are not available during the Summer. However, the rotunda has a visitor center room with historical information on the wall. Carolyn gave me a quick summary of the history before the children got too restless.

Jefferson envisioned the University as an academic village, where professors and students lived near each other and intermingled. The main campus building he envisioned is shown in the middle of the drawing, below. Small student rooms and larger faculty homes surround a central grassy area. The central historical part of the campus still looks like this, and people still live in some of the rooms.

One of the students who lived there in the early 1800s was Edgar Allen Poe. His dorm room has been restored with a bed and desk from the time period, and the front door has been replaced with plexiglass so everone can look through the doorway and see what the old dorm rooms looked like. There was no indoor plumbing at the time. 

We did our own form of self guided tour of the rotunda building. Many of the rooms are oval shaped. The main doors are flat, but there are some "hidden" curved doors built into the walls. The two children opened whicever ones were unlocked, to see what was behind them. They found closets, a control panel, a passageway between two of the rooms, and even a hidden restroom behind one of the doors. They had fun discovering what was behind each unlocked door!

We went upstairs into the rotunda. The rotunda had an open main floor where meetings can be held, and stairs to a balcony that circles the room. The balcony is supported on the inside by pillars and has some study chairs and desks around the outside. One student was studying at a desk.

As we walked around the balcony, the kids held back and hid from us by ducking behind and running between pillars. The student watched and was amused!

We went outside onto the front steps, and the children ran down onto the field, around pillars, and through the pathways under the building -- playfully running around and hiding from us.

It was a hot day, and we caught up with them by a marble pool of water, where they got their arms and shirts wet while testing how deep the water was. Carolyn's daughter dipped her hair in the water to cool off. Oh, to be a child again! They enjoyed themselves, and it looked like a good way to cool off!

We met Nathan for lunch at "Bodo's Bagels" on the UVA campus. We all had bagel sandwiches. The bagels were realy fresh and the sandwiches were delicious! It was fun meeting for lunch and eating together. Their oldest daughter had to fare for herself at home.

I was sleepy after we got back to the house, and took a nap. The sky had dark clouds and I think it might have rained while I was asleep. When I woke up, the storm had passed and the kids were excited to go swimming at the community pool in a nearby town. Their family has a monthly membership that expires today (the last day of July)! Since school starts in a few weeks, they won't be renewing next month. So today was their last chance to go swimming!

We had a great time playing together in the pool. All three kids wanted me to lift and throw them forward while we were in the water. They also took turns holding onto my back while I swam underwater like a submarine.

Eventually fun time was over,  and we went home for another great dinner -- this time, curry chicken over rice, with a side salad. I told the kids they're lucky to have a mother who is such a good cook!

After dinner, we went onto the back deck and watched the humming birds fly around the humming bird feeder and a couple of  bright yellow goldfinches flitting between plants in the garden.

Their oldest daughter worked on a posterboard calendar project today. She has a monthly calendar with a different color paint chip for each day of the month. Today she stuck clear contact paper over each paint chip, to make it easier to erase things written on her calendar when they are no longer needed.

Carolyn and her oldest daughter went for a run outside, while the younger daughter and I played the skipbo card game on the living room floor. 

After the kids went to bed, Carolyn and Nathan and I stayed up and talked about several different topics... mini-homes, housing and utilities, cars, and some of the airplanes and the space shuttle that I will see at the Smithsonian "Steven F. Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum" (located near the Dulles airport), when I go there tomorrow.

I'm really glad I stayed the extra day and got to spend time with everyone today. I had a great time and love those kids! Too bad we live so far apart and I don't get to see them very often. They are good kids and fun to be around! I enjoyed spending time with Carolyn and Nathan, too.

Visiting Monticello and Carolyn's family near Charlottesville

-- Moticello --

There are several tour options at Monticello. I considered the highlights tour and the behind the scenes tour. The 45 minute highlights tour ($42) covers the first floor rooms and the outdoor spaces. The 90 minute behind the scenes tour ($99) also includes the second and third floors and dome of the house and the grounds. There is also an option to visit only the grounds without going inside the house ($22). All three options allow you to take a 45 minute Slavery at Monticello tour and a 45 minute Garden Tour. Because this is probably the only time I will visit Monticello, I decided to splurge and take the behind the scenes tour. I didn't consider taking the 2.5 hour small group slavery tour -- a much more in-depth and expensive tour than the regular slavery tour.

I enjoyed the behind the scenes tour, but if I had it to do again, I would skip the upper floors and simply take the highlights tour. I enjoyed the Slavery and Garden tours more than seeing the upper floors, but I understand why I chose what I did.

A small bus shuttles betwen the visitor center and the house / grounds, which are at the top of the hill. You can take the bus or hike, but in either case, you need a tour ticket go up the hill. For anyone short on time or money, the visitor center doesn't cost anything, and has a lot of information, artifacts, and a couple of audio visual presentations. One of tha artifacts is a perfect copy of the Declaration of Independence that was made from an engraving commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820. It is one of 50 surviving copies made from the engraving. 

It was interesting to visit the house and grounds and learn more about Thomas Jefferson and the workings of Monticello. It also reminded me of some of the history of our country, such as the Louisiana Purchase, that was made during Jefferson's time and greatly expanded our borders.

The house tour started in the entrance hall, where a unique clock hangs high on the wall over the entrance. The clock is wound once per week by climbing a ladder and ratcheting the cables. Six cannonballs hang from cables on each side of the clock, and their weight makes the clock tick and the hands move. The cannon balls get lower and lower as the week progresses. The days of the week are labeled on dark strips of wood on the wall. I visited on Tuesday afternoon, and the top cannonball was hanging midway between the strips marked Tuesday and Wednesday, which made sense for a Tuesday afternoon.

The funny thing is that the clock was actually designed for a taller room in another building. When Jefferson had the clock moved to Monticello, he discovered the cannonball mechanism was too long. He had to have holes drilled into the floor so the cannonballs could descend low enough for Saturday. The strip of wood labeled "Saturday" is actually on the basement wall instead of on the main floor.

Meriwether Lewis was a friend of President Jefferson's. President Jefferson had Lewis and Clark trained and sent on an expedition to discover what the western lands were like that were acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. Some of the artifacts hanging on the wall in the entrance hall represent things learned from that expedition, such as replicas of Native American items.

The entrance hall had lots of other things, such as a buffalo skin with drawings on it, dinosaur bones, a map of the United States with the Louisians purchase, paintings, and busts of famous people. Jefferson was curious about the world and always learning. Below is his study, and one of several bookcases full of books. 

He thought stairs and beds were wasted space. As a reault, the stairways in the house are narrow, and the beds are usually in alcoves between the walls.

The photos below show Jefferson's bed on the main floor, which was situated in the wall between two rooms. Although Jefferson was tall for the time (6' 2"), his bed and the other beds in the house were short. He believed it was more healthy to sleep sitting down than lying down.

Good friends, such as James Madison and his wife, slept on the main floor when they visited. The Madisons were frequent guests and had their own room. More distant friends and family slept on the upper floors.

Jefferson was constantly learning and making changes to the house. Our tour guide told us that after one trip to Europe, Jefferson decided he liked the look of single story buildings better than multiple storied ones. He had the second floor windows lowered, so when viewed from the outside, the windows looked like they belonged to the first floor. 

Jefferson collected plants such as flowers, trees and grape vines from distant parts of the world and tried growing them on the grounds. President Jefferson kept detailed records, and the Jefferson foundation has tried to recreate what the grounds looked like in Jefferson's time. 

Many of the plants are labeled with small sticks. The initials "TJ "on a stick indicate the plant appears in Thomas Jefferson's records. A couple examples of such plants are the tri-colored "Joseph's Coat" flowers and the "love-lies-bleeding" flowers shown below. 

Plants that were brought back from the Lewis and Clark expedition, such as the "Snow-on-the-Mountain" that they brought back from Montana, are labeled with "L&C"on their stick.

 

The quaking aspen trees didn't grow so well. Neither did some of the grapes Jefferson had shipped from Europe, which were susceptible to something in the soil here. Many other trees did well. The grounds and surrounding area were originally full of American Chestnut trees before the blight introduced from foreign chestnuts decemated the American Chestnut.

Jefferson's father died when Thomas was 14 years old, and as the oldest son, Thomas inherited all of his father's property. He took possession of it when he reached 21 years of age. He inherited 52 slaves from his father, and inherited 135 slaves from his father-in-law. He owned about 600 slaves over his lifetime, but personally purchased fewer than 20. Some of the purchases were to acknowledge marriages.  He sold more than 110 slaves over his lifetime -- mostly for financial reasons. 

Monticello had a big garden, but it did not supply enough food for everyone who lived there. The garden area was actually dug out from the hillside by slave labor to create a flat area suitable for growing crops. One positive side effect is that the flat area has taken on a warmer growing zone than the surrounding area because bad weather often passes over the top. 

There were typically about 130 enslaved men, women and children at Monticello at any given time. Jefferson also frequently entertained guests. Some of the slaves were allowed to grow their own gardens on other plots of ground. Jefferson purchased some of the food they grew to suppy his needs, and bought more from elsewhere. 

Jefferson originally wrote into the Declaration of Independence that the United States would be a free land with no slaves, but he was pressured to take that out of the document in order to get consensus and have the declaration adopted.

His beliefs and actions regarding slavery were complicated and somewhat contradictory. For example, he experimented with growing Sugar Maple trees, and encouraged others to grow them, in order to not support slave labor in the Caribbean sugar plantations. That was ironic, given that he used slaves at Monticello to plant the sugar maple trees and harvest the sugary sap.

My afternoon at Monticello was cut short by a thunderstorm, so I didn't get to visit the family graveyard. Thomas Jefferson specified that he wanted only the following  words on the obelisk marking his grave: 

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson

Author of the Delaration of American Independence

of the Statute of Virginia for religous freedom

& Father of the University of Virginia

He considered those to be "testimonials that he lived". They were the things for which he wanted most to be remembered.

Before today, I was unaware that Thomas Jefferson was heavily in debt when he died. He started out growing tobacco, but that market did not do well. Tobacco required a lot of land because it pulled so many nutrients from the soil that the ground had to be be left idle for years in order to recover. Thomas was curious about the world. He traveled and imported plants and other goods from his travels, which could be expensive. In addition, he had the expense of having to support a large household of workers and slaves. Because of his fame, lenders were willing to lend him a lot of money, but after his death much of his property, including many slaves, had to be sold to satisfy his debtors.

-- Visiting Carolyn --

My niece Carolyn, her husband Nathan, and their three children live in a nice house in an unincorporated area near Charlottesville. They have a beautiful house in a quiet area. Nathan was still at work when I got to their house.  My niece Carolyn and her children were home. She fixed a delicious dinner that we ate after Nathan got home. We had with roasted sweet potato and black beans with rice, with raw spinach and berres. I really liked it.

Before dark, I showed everyone my car setup -- my bed, blackout curtains, and mosquito nets. Carolyn's husband Nathan mentioned that he had thought about living in a car, van, or truck and traveling. Now that he has a family with children, it's not the right time.

The three children are all a delight! I originally planned on spending only one night and leaving in the morning, but Carolyn and Nathan told me I was welcome to stay longer and encouraged me to stick around. I enjoyed talking with Carolyn and Nathan after the kids went to bed, and told them I would sleep on it and let them know in the morning.

Paying my respects in Colfax, and onward to "pig out" in Virginia

I did my laundry yesterday afternoon. This morning I organized my things and packed them into the car. 

My original plan for the day was to drive to the LDS  church in Colfax, NC, where the Abe family has plots in the cemetery behind the church; then drive to the Checkered Pig BBQ in Martinsville, Virginia, for lunch; then drive to Appomattox Court House, VA, where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to end the Civil War; then end up somewhere near Charlottesville, VA, where I'll visit Monticello tomorrow.

Well, some of those plans worked out. I got to Colfax  and Martinsville, but wouldn't have made it to Appomattox before the visitor center closed, so I went to Roanoke and tried out some new exercises and updated my blog at Planet Fitness instead.

My right shoulder and left leg have been bothering me since my kayaking trip two weeks ago. I called my sister Claudia last night and described my symptoms to her husband Richard, who is a family physician.  Based on my symptoms, my hip injury is trochanteric hip bursitis, and the pain in my right shoulder is tendonitis. My shoulder was  sore even before the kayak trip, but the paddling aggrivated it.

The recommended treatment is ibuprofen and shoulder/hip exercises. I found exercises designed to help with those injuries on the Internet and did some of them tonight at Planet Fitness.

I added silk flowers to the front of the Abe parents' grave, their daughter Kathy's grave, and their son Mike's  grave. I have good memories of all of them.

On Dan's recommendation, I drove to the Checkered Pig in Martinsville, Virginia, and ordered  ribs.

I ordered a half slab of the St louis style ribs, with sides of green beans, coleslaw and hushpuppies. The ribs and hushpuppies were good, but the green beans were overcooked and the coleslaw was bland. I polished off the meat and  the hush puppies -- even though it was too much food!

Despite being full, the waitress tempted me with blackberry cobbler ala mode, and I succumbed! It was delicious!

After first seating me at a table, the waitress had forgotten to come back and take my order until I flagged her down. She surprised me when she brought the bill and told me she wasn't charging  me for the cobbler because she had taken so long to get my order. That was a nice surprise!

I had told her I had driven all the way from California, have been visiting friends in North Carolina, and was now heading towards Charlottesville. She was pleased to have a visitor from so far, and brought me a complementary bag of pork rinds to snack on while I travel!

The waitress was really nice! She even told me a scenic route to take out of town. Too bad I don't care for the pork rinds. I tasted one and don't like them. I'll have to give them away to someone who likes pork rinds!

My seat repair from yesterday isn't perfect, but the flexible glue should keep the damage from spreading. Hopefully it won't peel off.

I looked on the Internet for campgrounds, but it's already dark, so I'll just spend the night in one of the walmart parking lots in Roanoke tonight. Tomorrow night I'll be staying with my niece Carolyn in Charlottesville.

UPDATE: I spent the night in the Sam's Club parking lot next to the regional Roanoke airport. The temperature was great and it wasn't humid, so it was good sleeping weather! I heard truck noises off and on during the night -- such as the beeping noises when they back up -- so maybe it wasn’t the best location, but I got a good night's sleep.

My last day in Raleigh

After church, for old times sake, I drive by the apartments where I used to live in Raleigh, to see how they look now. I knew the house in Apex where I rented a room from Bill over 30 years ago was still in good shape, and that Bill and his wife Ellen are out of town this week, so I only went to the Raleigh apartments and didn't drive all the way to Apex.

I attended church in one of the buildings where I used to go in the 1980s, but didn't see  anyone I knew. I recognized one person, but never really knew him, so I didn't talk to him. 

Since Elizabeth mentioned at dinner on Wednesday that the house on where she and Kathy lived while attending NC State had been torn down, I first drove to Enterprise Street to see what had replaced it. Evidently, the houses on that block have been leveled and condos will be built in their place.

My first apartment, 129-B Hunt Club Ln, looked as good today as it did when I moved there in 1984. It was brand new when I moved in -- I was the first renter.

The second apartment where I lived, 38-B Charles Dr, did not fare so well. It was old when Mark and I moved in, and when Ralph and I lived there. It is currently fenced off  and  ready to be torn down and replaced by either condos or newer apartments.

The third apartment, 4001 Jamie Ct #3B, where Vin and I lived, still looks good. We lived on the third floor, which is where I had a close call with a tornado late one night on a Thanksgiving weekend. The building shook, my car windows got blown out, and we had to live in a friend's basement until the building got inspected -- but the building and we survived. 

That third  floor apartment had a nice view of the pool.

Tonight Jasey fixed us a delicious goulash dinner. Their son  was enjoying it so much that he barely paused his eating for the photo! 😂

After dinner, we  chilled out and talked. I felt a little meloncholy, knowing  I'll be leaving  in the morning. I've enjoyed hanging out with everyone here and will miss them -- even Hershey the dog! 

Dan and Jasey's son starts 8th grade tomorrow. Their daughter has been working at the YMCA every day, and will do so again tomorrow -- her Summer vacation isn't over yet.