Bicycling from Washington DC
Through:
Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware & Virginia

2007 - August - September

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August 29 - 31, 2007

Car Traveling
Virginia

Wednesday night we drove the rental car to Williamsburg where we slept and had a good breakfast and then the four of us got in the car and Jim drove us to Charlottesville, to visit Jefferson's home at Monticello. We enjoyed both the tour of the house and the grounds. We then had a great lunch at a historic tavern followed by a tour. The tour included dancing lessons in the upper hall. We got back in the car and headed for Monroe's home which was a nice tour by someone that really enjoyed the house. After which we drove to the motel stopping at a grocery store on the way to pick up food for dinner. The hotel was not a huge success. Jane and George's room smelled like mold, we had three rooms; one was noisy with large generator outside of the room, 2nd room smelled like bleach bad enough to make Mary Kay's eyes red. And in the morning none of us had hot water for showers.

Friday morning after breakfast we headed to Montpellier Station to visit Montpellier, President Madison's home. Jim and I had visited Montpelier in 2000 when it was both Madison's home and an additional 33 rooms added by the DuPont's.

They are in the process of removing all the DuPont additions and restoring Madison's home to its original condition. Most of the rooms we visited were still under construction with workman sawing away during the tour. It will be great when they complete the project. After a late lunch we got back in the car and headed back to Newport News. We arrived Friday night just about the time Amber returned from work. She cooked us all a great supper then Jane and George settled in to a motel and we enjoyed Sophie time.