Day 22 part 1: Monticello

We got up early yet again and made our way to the US Capitol builing hoping for a tour. We got there at 9:30am and were handed 2 tickets for the 11:30 tour. We really were hoping to be out of DC by noon as we had a 6 hour drive to Charoltte, North Carolina to see yet another Burning Man campmate, Dirty and wanted to stop in Monticello for some good old fashioned Thomas Jefferson action before that. The tour seemed like it was worth the delay, but alas we were wrong. I assumed that a tour of the Capital building would include access to the galleries of the House and Senate. I was in Washington (in the middle of some exciting Senatorial history mind you) and wanted to see some actual government in action. Buyouts! Morgage Crisis! Banking Meltdown! you know: what we pay these people to do for us. Well, it turns out that the "tour" of the Capitol includes three rooms: The rotunda (actually pretty cool), a statue gallery, and the crypt where the gift shop and rudimentary historical displays were set up. At the end of the tour we were told that if we wanted to get into the galleries, we needed to exit the building, go across the street to one of the House office buildings, find our House Representative's office and request a gallery pass from them! Say what? I knew Washington was full of red tape, but come on. really? It was already too late in the day for us and we decided against doing all of that and leaving it for the next time we were back in DC. I did however pass by Nancy Pelosi's office.

We sped our way towards North Carolina and stopped in Charlestown, VA, home of Thomas Jefferson.

That was great. Lots of good history, pretty grounds and we got to play a game I invented called "Did you know that Thomas Jefferson invented _______" where we filled in the most ridiculous items in the blank. For example: Did you know that Thomas Jefferson invented trees? He also invented Ballroom dancing, the internet, fusion, slaves, tea-bagging, and the color white? TJ was the man, btw. my third favorite president.

We left Charlestown latter than expected and stopped in Lynchburg, VA for dinner and eventual bed. The knowledge box helped us to decide on a tapas place called Dish which lived up to the reviews. It was while eating dinner that we decided to stay the night and the oh so helpful waitstaff helped us find a place to stay. We ended up finding a cheaper motel outside of town, but it was so nice of them to help us.

Things about Lynchburg you didn't know, but Wikipedia does: Dr. Fleet invented the Fleet Enema and chap stick (hmmm, what do these two things have in common?) here and the Fleet corporation still has it's headquarters there; During the Civil War, prostitutes from Lynchburg were sent out to service the Union soldiers a few miles away only to provide them with false propaganda about the *ahem* size of the Confederate army stationed there, thus defending the town from invasion from the North; Jerry Falwell's church and the university he founded, Liberty U is located there; AND the Obama campaign has a very well organized office there.

Are you registered to vote? It's too important not to be.

We got very lost looking for the motel, but eventually found it, settled in and spent a few hours catching up on blogging and emails.

written by

JRadhirsch on September 22, 2008 from Lynchburg, United States

from the travel blog: The Great American Road Trip

Send a Compliment

Monticello is in Charlottesville, VA :-) Thanks for sharing your travels.

written by Tori T on June 9, 2009

comment on this...