Day 2: Charlottesville

By Matty

Day 2 started off around 7:30. We packed up and headed for Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Charlottesville. After some fierce games of Liar’s Poker, we arrived at our destination and Mom went to check out when we could get on a tour. She was back soon and informed us that we had three minutes to eat breakfast, as our tour started at 9:40. We moved quickly and found ourselves on a shuttle bus outside of Thomas Jefferson’s beautiful Virginian home. Our interesting tour guide led us on a tour through the old colonial house that was filled with originals and replicas of furniture in Jefferson’s time.
The tour guide didn’t mention much about Jefferson’s history with slavery, but Mom filled us in on Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemmings. Thankfully Monticello was air conditioned, because:

It was hot.

After the house tour, we walked around the grounds, took some pictures, and wrote with old fashioned ink and quills. Mine was beautifully artistic, and if Mom wasn’t standing behind me it would’ve said something vulgar about the Patriots. We then saw TJ’s grave and an educational video on the way back to the RV for lunch. After lunch we got back in the RV and rolled to Charlottesville for the trip to UVA. We were sidetracked a bit, however, because of our stop at a walk-in medical clinic to check out Molly’s earache.
While Mom and Molly were in the clinic, the rest of us went food shopping in the store located conveniently next to the clinic. With time to kill, we started wandering around into the different shops, checking out which had the best air conditioning.

It was really hot.

After Mom and Molly returned armed with antibiotics for Molly’s ear infection, we headed up to UVA to find the Catholic church for mass. While attempting to park, we had to evade fallen trees that had been knocked down by a disastrous storm that had swept through two days ago. After parking and walking around a little, we headed for church. Upon our arrival we discovered the church’s power had been knocked out by the storm and therefore had no air conditioning.

It was flippin’ hot.

After surviving mass, we walked around UVA. It was nice. Then we got back to the campsite. Those family members determined (stupid enough) to go running in this weather did, then we all jumped in the pool, took much needed showers, and ate bratwurst for dinner at 9:30. Thanks for the macaroni salad, Granny.