The spectacular Blue Ridge Parkway

 Sometimes it’s just hard to describe a place, and this is one of those times.  The Blue Ridge Parkway is a spectacular drive along the ridge of the Appalachian mountains, spanning 469 miles between Virginia and North Carolina. It connects the Shenandoah National Park to the north and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to the south.  We were fortunate that last night’s stop in Charlottesville is very close to mile zero of the parkway.  

Services are extremely limited, so before jumping onto the parkway we stopped and got fuel.  We had purchased an audio tour of Shenandoah and it included a tour of the parkway so we were able to start it right from the beginning of our drive.  The narrator is great, and he not only describes what you are looking at, but he also tells stories about the area and the people who made this parkway happen.  

Once again, we were practically alone! I’m guessing we didn’t see more than a couple dozen cars the whole day.  That’s going to change in the next few weeks when the fall foliage is at its peak.  We were lucky on our drive that some of the trees decided to turn early and we got to see some beautiful colors.  Our plan today was to drive about 86 miles to a campground that has first come first served camp sites.  The speed limit on the parkway is 45 mph. Sometimes it’s 25.  With stops at various overlooks and visitor centers, it took us over 4 hours to make the drive. 

To say the views are spectacular still doesn’t describe the beauty of this place.  The vistas go on forever and the blue color you see in the mountains is actually a chemical produced by trees called isoprene.  It scatters light into the atmosphere and causes the bluish hazy cast to the mountains.  

Our campground is located in a place called Peaks of Otter.  I’m still not sure why it’s called that, but a lot of the places here have odd names.  We got a bit worried when we were about 5 miles from our destination because there was a sign saying ‘parkway closed ahead.’ Not a good thing as we would have had a long drive back to the closest road leading off of the parkway.  Turns out the closure was right at the campground, so ‘whew’ we had a place to stay.  Our plan was to continue on for a while tomorrow and then jump off the parkway to our next adventure.  Because of the closure we will be taking a detour off the mountain from here instead.  It was a long and curvy drive for Steve today, so we are both fine with the change in plans.  As I looked at the rest of the parkway route, there are many sections in North Carolina are closed due to damage from last year’s hurricane Helene.  I think we got the best of the parkway and I’m happy we got to see the 86 miles that we did! 

The beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway 

A recreation of an Appalachian pioneer garden and scarecrow

An authentic Appalachian cabin 

At the end of the day, the sun would cast a glow on some granite rocks here 20 minutes before sundown, hence the name

Our campsite at Peaks of Otter

❤️

Monticello

 This morning’s travel day was far better than yesterday's.  I was sad to say goodbye to Shenandoah National Park.  We did pull off at a couple more lookouts as we headed out, and the morning light filtering through the trees was just beautiful.  

We only had about an hour and a half to our next destination, Charlottesville, Virginia.  We are staying at a tired KOA in the forest, but it is near Monticello which was today’s activity.  Once we got set up and had a little lunch, we headed out.  On our way there, we stopped at James Madison’s home, Highlands.  It is adjacent to Thomas Jefferson’s property, and the home was designed by Jefferson himself.  Jefferson was Monroe’s mentor and wanted him to live nearby.  We didn’t take a tour while there as we had a scheduled one at Monticello we needed to get to.  We did walk around the property and enjoyed the tree lined drive to the plantation house.  

Steve enjoying a rocking chair on the porch at James Madison’s Highlands

We had about a 10 minute drive to Monticello, and we passed something we totally didn’t expect to see… I’m going to let Steve talk about that! 

We decided to take the ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour of Monticello.  This tour took us to see all three floors of the mansion as well as the basement where the kitchen, wine and beer cellars, and storage areas were located.  Prior to the tour we had some time to walk around the property and view some of the other buildings and the multi-acre vegetable garden! Our tour guide was excellent and there wasn’t a question he didn’t know the answer to.  He was extremely knowledgeable not only about Monticello, but also of Jefferson and the history of our young country at the time.  

The house is 11,000 square feet but really didn’t seem that big.  Rooms were small by today’s standards, and there weren’t any large areas like ballrooms.  Even the dining room seemed small for the large dinner parties that were hosted there.  I hadn’t realized that Jefferson had everything the plantation used manufactured on the property.  He had a small textile mill, blacksmith, carpenters, and of course the crops he grew.  All of this, of course, at the expense of the over 600 enslaved people whom he owned.  

I think Monticello did a pretty good job of discussing the lives and living conditions of the enslaved people.  The very first thing we saw upon arrival was a graveyard for the slaves.  It was set away from the plantation house and none of the graves were marked.  If it had not been for ancestors of those buried there, that graveyard likely would have become a parking lot.  

The entire time I was there, I could not get out of my mind that all of this grandeur was built on the backs of enslaved people.  I was shocked to hear that the mountain top that the home is built on was rather pointy at the top, so Jefferson had slaves dig it out with shovels before the home could be built.  As we climbed very narrow and steep stairs, all I could think about were the slaves running up and down them with full chamber pots, laundry, or carrying the young children of the residents.  I was greatly moved by the thought of it all, and I found myself thinking about these people more than the house itself.  While some in our group were commenting on how hot or cold it must have been without central heating or AC, I kept thinking about the stone buildings on the property that were the homes of the enslaved people that didn’t even have the luxury of a window. 

By the way, Jefferson did not really agree with slavery, but he knew it was the backbone of the southern economy, and he didn’t have a solution for abolishing it without causing financial collapse.  He commented that slavery was a problem to be solved by future generations.  

This mirror is original and hasn’t been moved since it was first hung in the drawing room.  It was weird to be standing in front of a mirror that so many famous people from Jefferson’s time had also stood

These stairs are only 24” wide and very steep!

These holes in the doors were to let cats through… it was their pest control system 

Interesting information about Sally Hemings 

Ok - my contribution (Steve).  On the way to Monticello we passed Trump Winery. Apparently our failing octogenarian president, would be dictator, bought the winery in a bankruptcy sale. It is run by son Eric so Donald obviously has no interest in it and makes no profit from it (interested in buying some nice swamp land?).  The flags you see actually extend for a least a full mile along the road - perhaps even more. The gates and structure look like they belong to a sultan. It’s so nice to have a leader whose concern is centered on the well being of common folks.