Monticello

On Sunday, I headed south.  Ultimately my goal was Florida to meet my family, but I stopped along the way.  I stopped at Monticello and got on one of the late afternoon tours of the house.  Monticello was Thomas Jefferson's home.  It was a very nice tour and while I didn't take a look at the University of Virgina campus, he had overseen that as well and I'm sure it's a beautiful campus.  As always, I took my time and was the last person to leave the grounds after my late start.  I managed to find a KOA outside Charlottesville, VA and camped there for the night.  Here are some pictures from the day.

The homestead - it started out as the little building off to the right where Jefferson lived while the house was being built.  The house sits atop a hill and has great views.

One of the flowers from the surrounding gardens and a couple bees that help out. I really liked these fan shaped flowers.

He had a dumbwaiter for wine installed :).  It went directly up into the dining area.

 This is a look down into the ice house.  In the winter, blocks of ice were taken from the water nearby and dropped down into this large looking well.  When the ice was an inch think, it was harvested and brought up the mountain. The first time TJ noted it took 62 wagons/carts to fill it.  It was then insulated with straw/wood shavings and a bucket was used to remove any excess water as the ice melted.

A view of the ice house from the outside.

 There was a long spot for gardens which grew all sorts of items.

There was also a graveyard which held members of the Jefferson family from back then and through to today.

This was a model of Monticello (made up of four farms) up near the museum area where you buy tour tickets.  The bald spot in the middle is where the homestead is built. It's the spot of something that you see right on top. Monticello was like its own little town, with lumberyards, blacksmith, farmers, cooks, etc.

 I can't recall if this was on the way to or from Monticello, but somewhere I passed a sign for a historic bridge and exited the highway.  It ended up being a longer detour than planned, but it was fun to see this bridge that now has zero traffic.  It was a good place to stretch my legs as well :).