Day 23 Toby Jefferson

Trip Start Aug 25, 2010

Trip End Oct 18, 2010

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Flag of United States Danville, Virginia
Thursday, September 16, 2010

As I walked to pick up the hire car, I reflected on how many other museums we would have liked to see if we had had more time in DC: the Postal Museum, Museum of American History, Holocaust Museum, National Gallery of Art, Museum of Buildings, etc. And thanks to the Smithsonian donation, most of these are free. But we will definitely return.

Monticello was Thomas Jefferson's retirement home in the foothills of Virginia. After his second term as president, he returned to country life as a plantation owner, amateur architect, record-keeper, and raconteur. And what a setting to retire. As a world heritage listed building, it was definitely worth the trip. Strangely all the house staff all referred to Toby as "the young Mr Jefferson" presumably because of his red hair. But perhaps they detected his steely determination to protect the right to religious freedom. Who knows.

We stopped at a small hick village outside Lynchburg for a spot of Italian, in a beer garden on the side of the main road. The waitress couldn't believe that we had come all the way from Australia to visit Monticello. But we just sipped our $0.99 pints of Bud Lite, and watched the locals dance to MC Hammer.

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