On The Road Again! First Stop, Virginia!

05/18/2024 – 05/26/2024

On the Road Again!

We are ready to get back on the road! I spent the last few weeks planning our route (with a little bit of help from my wonderful husband), making all the campground reservations and reading up on all the “what to see and do’s”. We will be on the road for 21 weeks! That is the longest we have travelled with no stationary stays in between. We have some exciting stops planned and can’t wait to get going!!

The fridge and pantry have been restocked and we are ready to head out. One thing might stand in our way of departing as planned on 5/18… rain and a grass covered clay storage area. Earlier in the week we had 2 days of non-stop rain and were a little concerned about getting the motorhome out of the storage area. More rain was forecasted for Friday night and we needed to leave Saturday morning. Thankfully, the RV Park/Storage area had a dry place we could move the coach to overnight.

As Bill is pulling out of our spot, the back tires hit some wet clay and the whole coach started to slide sideways… into the camper parked next to us! By the grace of God, it stopped sliding about 3 inches shy. But now what do we do? The park manager came over, assessed the situation and offered to call the owner of the camper. Luckily, he was in town. Luckily, he only lived about 15 minutes away. He arrived just before the rain and we were all able to get free with no injuries to either rig. I send my thanks to the Big Guy above and pray this is not a sign of how our summer goes.

Time to hit the road!

Monticello

Thomas Jefferson designed Monticello and construction began in 1770. It was his home until his death in 1825. Jefferson died in debt. His daughter sold the plantation in 1834 to Commodore Uriah P Levy. It became their main residence for the next 90 years. In 1923, the nonprofit Thomas Jefferson Foundation was formed and acquired Monticello to preserve the life and legacy of Mr. Jefferson.

Tickets in hand, we boarded the shuttle bus for the short ride from the visitor center up to the plantation. Our ticket included guided tours of the first floor of Monticello, the gardens and grounds and slavery at Monticello. Because of the rain, there was no tour for the gardens and we missed the last tour that discussed the enslaved.

House Tour

The house tour was very interesting. We learned many fascinating things about Thomas Jefferson. Here are a few:

• Not only did he draft the Declaration of Independence, but he also drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1777.
• He loved books and I mean LOVED books. At one time his library contained over 6000 books! He sold those books to the Library of Congress after it was burned down by the British in the War of 1812.
• He and John Adams had a love/hate relationship. In today’s world they would be considered “frenemies”.
• Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within hours of each other on the July 4^th, 1825, the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
• He founded the University of Virginia.
• The time he spent as Minister to France had a profound impact on his taste in art, music, architecture, food and wine. In fact, he brought back a chef to teach his staff how to cook French cuisine.

After our tour, we wandered around the gardens on the west lawn, along Mulberry Row and then down to the 300-yard vegetable garden. Even in the rain, everything was beautiful. What I enjoyed most in the gardens… all the vegetables and flowers had markers identifying what they were! I love that!

Gravesite

On our way back to the Visitor Center, we stopped at the gravesite. Jefferson and his schoolmate and friend, Dabney Carr, agreed as young men that they would be buried under a large oak tree at this location. Carr passed away in 1773 and was the first gravesite on this property. Jefferson was buried here in 1826.

Jefferson stated that upon his death he only wanted to be remembered for three things: Author of the Declaration of American Independence, Author of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and the Father of the University of Virginia.

The graveyard remains the property of Jefferson’s descendants and continues to be a family bur ground.

Visitor Center

Back at the Visitor Center, we followed the building of Monticello. This exhibit displayed copies of Jefferson’s drawings, drafting instruments and models of the different building phases of Monticello.

Across the hall is a rare exhibit of an engraving of the Declaration of Independence. John Quincy Adams commissioned engraver William J Stone to create a facsimile of the official Declaration and signatures. It took Stone three years to perfect the copy and printed 201 parchment replicas. Thomas Jefferson owned one of those copies and it is on display today. It is one of less than 50 copies still in existence today.

We enjoyed our visit to Monticello and learned quite a bit about one of our Founding Fathers and author of our Declaration of Independence.

Shenandoah National Park

People have been coming to the Blue Ridge Mountains for a little R&R since the 1800’s. In 1901, legislation was introduced to create a national park in the Appalachian Mountains. Despite support from President Teddy Roosevelt it failed to pass. Yellowstone became the first national park followed by 6 more parks in the west. Acadia National Park broke the western mold and became the first eastern national park in 1916. After Acadia was established the director of the NPS saw a need for a national park in the southern states and in 1935 Shenandoah National Park was established.

The park contains over 500 miles of hiking trails, several waterfalls and the largest concentration of black bears in the area. However, the park is most famous for its Skyline Drive.

Skyline Drive

The park is long and narrow and runs a ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Skyline Drive is a 105-mile road that runs the length of the park and offers panoramic views from over 75 overlooks. It is also designated as a National Scenic Byway. That right there means it is worthy of a leisurely cruise.

As we head out on Sunday morning, our hope is to travel the entire length of the Skyline Drive. There are several entrances to the park. We decided to enter at Rockfish Gap on the south side and end at Fort Royal on the north end. It was sunny at camp but as we got closer to the entrance it became cloudier and by the time we entered the park it was extremely foggy. The park ranger said it was just in that area and as you climbed the ridge the skies were clear and blue. We decided to continue on.

The fog broke a little. The western overlooks towards the Shenandoah Valley were somewhat clear but not great and the eastern overlooks towards the Piedmont Valley… well it wasn’t even clear enough to see 5 feet in front of you. We made it to Big Meadow, about 55 miles in and decided to bag it and go back to camp and try again later in the week after work. Whomp whomp whomp…

Second Attempt

Tuesday rolled around and the skies were clear. While Bill was working I made a picnic dinner of roasted pork tenderloin, broccoli salad and a sweet potato salad and looked for the perfect sunset spot. It’s a little after 5 and the work day is done. We loaded up and headed back out to the park. At this point, we knew we were not going to be able to travel the entire drive, so we opted to enter the park at Thornton Gap which was about 45 minutes northwest of camp. This would allow us to drive another 30 miles of the Skyline Drive and exit the park close to our campground.

The views were outstanding! Every overlook offered amazing views of both valleys that earlier in the week were not visible. The Appalachian Trail travels the length of the park as well and crosses the Skyline Drive several times. I often think of our little hiker we saw in Georgia as he was starting his thru-hike and wonder where he is now. He was expecting his trip to take him about 5 months.

We ate our dinner on the back of the truck overlooking the Shenandoah Valley and Stony Man Mountain. It was beautiful!

We continued to travel south, always on the lookout for critters and hoping to see some bear. No bear but plenty of deer! Bill and I are convinced the bear have a network system, they send out alerts that we are in the area and should all go hide. Oh well…

Sunset

My sunset investigation told me there was not really a bad overlook to view from but… the best viewing areas were Stony Man (where we had our picnic) Timber Hollow, Tanners Ridge and Hazeltop. I chose Hazeltop and we arrived about 30 minutes before the show. And what a show! The mountains turned from green to dark green to purple (maybe blue, they are the Blue Ridge Mountains after all). The sky, blue and orange turning to soft pinks and lavenders while a light mist settled between the mountains and birds chirping in the background made for a very peaceful evening.

Is there anything else to do in Shenandoah?

The big draw of Shenandoah is the Skyline Drive but there are other things to check out in the park. Like I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of hiking trails. Most of the trails are lengthy and we did not have the time (or desire) to do any. Even the few waterfalls in the park require a 3-mile hike. I know that may not seem far, but when time is limited and your knees are not in the best shape… well, you just do what you can do and see what you can see.

There is an old lodge dating back to the late 1800’s, Skyland Lodge, that is still in operation today. You could also visit Rapidan Camp, which was President Herbert Hoovers summer retreat.

All in all, we enjoyed the drive in Shenandoah and would highly recommend it, but we would not go out of our way to visit again.

Manassas National Battlefield Park

On Friday we moved camp north an hour to Haymarket, Virginia. This was to provide us with a place to stay so we could go to D.C. for the day. When I was reading reviews on this campground, several reviewers mentioned Manassas Battlefield was a “must see”. Hmmm, a civil war battlefield? I guess we could go check it out since it’s just 10 minutes away and is part of the NPS.

I’ll be the first to admit, neither Bill nor I are huge civil war buffs. I don’t know why, just aren’t. We went to Manassas with no expectations and boy oh boy, were we amazed!

The Battle of First Bull Run and the Battle of Second Bull Run, were both fought in these fields. They were fought almost one year apart from each other.

First Bull Run or First Manassas

The Henry Hill Visitor Center focuses on the story of First Bull Run and that is where we stopped first. The Visitor Center housed many artifacts related to both battles as well as an electronic map that detailed troop movements and the battle itself in 6-minutes. This was an excellent way for me to visualize what was happening while listening to the story. It helped me understand the events and timeline much better.

First Bull Run was the first major battle of the Civil War and it was on this battlefield that General Thomas Jackson would earn his nickname “Stonewall Jackson”. Did not know this… During the battle, Jackson provided crucial reinforcements to beat back the Union forces. His resolve stood and he did not back down, therefore, he was compared to a “stone wall”.

Over 900 young men lost their lives that day along Henry Hill, Matthews Hill and Chinn Ridge. Very sad. We walked out to the Stonewall Jackson monument, Henry Hill house and the Bull Run Monument.

Bull Run Monument

Union soldiers erected the Bull Run Monument soon after the war ended to remember the Federal soldiers who lost their lives during both battles. It was one of their final acts before being discharged. The monument took three weeks to build and was completed in June of 1865. It remains one of the oldest monuments on any Civil War battlefield.

Second Bull Run or Second Manassas

The second battle occurred just over a year later in August of 1862 and once again Stonewall Jackson was involved. This time over 3,300 men were killed. ☹

The second battle was spread out over a larger area of land and the NPS put together an 18-mile driving tour with 12 stops numbered in the order of how the events took place. Using the NPS app, we set out on the driving tour, however, we did not tour the sites in order as it was getting late in the day and the park closed at dusk.

Each stop had an interesting story to tell but the ones I found most interesting were the Stone Bridge, the Stone House, New York Monuments and the Confederate Cemetery.

Stone House

The Stone House was built in 1848 and was home to Henry Matthew who farmed the land surrounding the home. In 1861, though, this house served as a site to treat the wounded.

Stone Bridge

The Stone Bridge spans Bull Run. The original bridge was built in 1825 and played a key role in the war. Without the bridge it would be difficult to move troops and supplies across the steep banks of Bull Run. The Confederates blew the bridge up the first time in 1862 to prevent Union use. Then the Union army built a temporary wooden span across the river. After suffering defeat at Second Manassas, the Union army blew their bridge up as they retreated. A new Stone Bridge was built in 1884. It very similar to the original and remained open until 1926 when the original road was realigned with a new highway bridge. I love this little stone bridge.

New York Monuments

This was another site that just makes you say, “Wow”. Two New York Regiments stood their ground on these ridges as Confederate General Longstreet pushed his massive troops forward. In less than 5 minutes 123 men of the New York Regiments lost their lives, the greatest loss of life in any single infantry regiment in any battle of the Civil War. The State of New York erected these two monuments to honor the 5^th and 10^th New York Volunteers.

Confederate Cemetery

After the battles were over, the fields were littered with lifeless bodies. To prevent the spread of disease, shallow graves were dug where the soldiers fell and crude headboards marked the site, sometimes noting the soldiers name and rank.

In 1867 the Bull Run and Groveton Ladies Memorial Association launched a campaign to recover the Confederate dead and established the cemetery for the re-interment. The Union soldiers were reburied in Arlington National Cemetery. For a brief moment, I wondered why the Confederate soldiers did not get buried at Arlington as well, then quickly realized the answer to that question.

I am so happy we took a couple of hours and reacquainted ourselves with this piece of history. I have a feeling as we travel around this part of the country we will be learning a lot more. Like in two days when we visit Gettysburg.

Washington D.C.

We are continuing to check states off our map one at a time. Our criteria to put a sticker on the map is that we have to stay at least one night in the state and do one activity specific to the area. Sometimes we kind of have to bend the rules though…Like when we went to Hawaii, we couldn’t really take the coach to Hawaii, but they put a place on the map for a sticker! So, we took our mascot Theo to Hawaii and called it a win.

Today we have to enter the gray area again. We are staying in Virginia about 30 minutes from a Metro station that will take us into D.C.

This is our 4^th time to Washington D.C. and we have seen all the “big” things; The Capitol Building, the monuments, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, The National Museum of Air and Space, and so on. My plan for the day was to just go to The Mall, explore some of the museums and then go to Arlington. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, I wanted to see all the flags on the gravestones. That was my plan. Bill, however, found something else for us to do…

Usually, I am the one who plans where we are going and what we are going to see. I mean, I consult with my other half and we pretty much like to do the same things so he just lets me plan it. (And I think that takes a lot of the work off him too 😉). Well, that morning as I’m fixing breakfast, Bill is looking around and finds the Smithsonian Museum National Postal Museum. Works for me!

The Mall

We make our way to the Metro station in Vienna VA and take the orange line all the way to the Smithsonian station at The Mall. Seeing the monuments always feels like it’s the first time, no matter how many times we have been here. It fills my heart with pride. Even though it seems like our country is in a state of disarray right now, it feels good to be in our nation’s capital. Knowing some of the conflicts that have taken place in our nation’s history, obstacles that had to be overcome and compromises that had to be made… I do feel confident that we will get through these crazy times as well.

White House Visitor Center

So… anyway… on with the day… we walked around The Mall, then headed over to the White House Visitor Center. We learned that they are now doing tours of the White House again! They had stopped this for what seems like a long period of time. Good to know. To secure tickets, contact your local congressman. This is going on “The Bucket List”.

The White House Visitor Center offers a close look at life in the White House from both the office and residential sides. The White House has gone through many changes over the years. Prior to 1901, the executive offices were located on the second floor of the house. President Theodore Roosevelt felt the house was getting too crowded for his large family and staff and had the West Wing constructed. Eight years later, President Taft expanded the West Wing and added the Oval Office.

There were several artifacts on display including a mantel clock used by President Ulysses S Grant in 1869, the telegraph used to acknowledge General Ulysses S Grant’s message that General Robert E Lee had surrendered and the desk used by FDR to broadcast his “fireside chats”. Well worth the couple of hours we spent here.

Smithsonian National Postal Museum

The National Postal Museum is housed in the former Washington City Post Office and located next to Union Station. For 72 years this building was the main post office for the District of Columbia. We hopped on Metro red line that took us straight to Union Station. I have to take a moment to say how impressed we are with the D.C. Metro. The stations and trains are very clean, you feel safe and the system is very easy to navigate.

Stamps

The first exhibit in the museum is all about stamps. Did you know that when mail was first sent it was the receiver that had to pay the postage due? Sometimes the recipient refused to pay. Then in 1837 a British school teacher had an idea that postal fees should be prepaid with a “bit of paper covered on the back with a glutinous wash”. In 1840, Great Britain issued the world’s first postage stamp, the Penny Black. The postage stamp was very popular with the British people and use of the mail soared.

The first national postage stamp made its debut in the US on March 3, 1847. A 5 cent stamp for letters weighing less than ½ ounce and traveling under 300 miles and a 10-cent stamp over ½ ounce or deliveries over 300 miles. Did I get a pic of these stamps? Nope but Ben Franklin and George Washington were depicted respectively.

The Inverted Jenny

There were several rare stamps on display and the one that caught my eye was the inverted Jenny. Back in 1918, a Curtiss JN-4-H WWI plane was reconfigured to carry mail and a new stamp was commissioned to honor the first “air-mail” delivery. It was a two color stamp with a red border with a blue airplane. However, on the initial release, the image of the plane was printed upside down.

As far as anyone knows, only one sheet of 100 stamps were sold before the error was spotted. The stamps were quickly recalled and the error fixed. Today it is the most sought-after stamp and has been known to fetch over $1 million dollars in auctions. If you see one at a garage sale or thrift shop, snatch it up!

The Hope Diamond

The second most fascinating piece in the stamp section was the envelope used to mail the Hope Diamond from Harry Winston Jewelers to the Smithsonian in November of 1958. The total cost of postage was $145.29; $2.44 for the stamp and $142.85 for the insurance. That blows my mind! Not the cost of the postage, but that this very valuable diamond would have been put in the mail! I sometimes have a hard time mailing a gift card with a value of $25. LOL

Systems at Work

Level 1 of the museum had several exhibits about how the mail moves and how the system works. We learned how mail was moved across the frontier as westward expansion grew. Speaking of growing, do you know when the zip code was invented? In 1960! I would have thought it was long before then. Do you know what each number in the zip code means? 1^st is for the region, next two represent the central post office in that region and last two are for the city or zone.

It’s pretty cool when you think about it, approximately 700 million pieces of mail are sorted and delivered to over 150 million addresses six days a week.

Moving the Mail

Moving all this mail takes many different forms of transportation; air, rail, boat and even dog sled. In remote areas, locals are sometimes contracted to deliver mail. Out in Oregon we were able to ride on a mail boat up the Rogue River. Jerry’s Rogue Jets has been delivering mail to the small, isolated towns on the Rogue for over 160 years. If you find yourself in Gold Beach Oregon, hop on a jet boat and go for a ride!

And finally, the Mail Truck

What kid didn’t dream of being a mailman? Or maybe I’m the odd one? I always thought being a mailman, school bus driver or grocery checkout clerk would be a fun job (as a kid LOL) In fact, my brother and I used to play bus and mailman on our bikes. Hahaha!

As of 2004, there were over 188,000 delivery vehicles in service in the US. Every day these vehicles are delivering mail, dodging potholes, travelling in rural areas on washboard roads, maintaining traction on salt covered icy highways and they take a beating. Today’s fleet is manufactured by Ford and they are put through the most grueling test of a government vehicle, this side of a tank. They need to be tough and strong so “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

I am not sorry Bill found this interesting museum for us to explore 😊

Arlington National Cemetery

The day is slipping away, Kona is back at the coach crossing her legs, I’m sure and my feet and knees are starting to complain. (I’ve logged almost 15k steps today!) One more stop to make before we head back to Vienna, Arlington National Cemetery.

Being Memorial Day weekend, we wanted to stop by the cemetery and see the graves marked with the American Flags and pay our respects to all the men and women who served in our armed forces and especially those that gave their lives in battle defending our freedoms.

It was a perfect day in D.C. I believe everyone should come to D.C., see our democracy in action, visit the memorials of the great men who helped form our nation, view the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Honor the men and women who severed our country in peaceful times and times of war. Bring your children, bring your grandchildren. It is important to teach and learn about what makes this the best nation in the world. We brought our boys to D.C. in 2011 and enjoyed sharing that experience with them.

Next time we make it here (hopefully to tour the White House) I would like to do a night tour of the memorials.

What’s Next?

Next, we continue north to Pennsylvania. We will be stopping at Gettysburg before heading over to Pennsylvania Dutch country, aka Lancaster County. Can’t wait to try PA’s whoopie pies!