A short trip from Williamsburg to the Washington, DC area brought us to the Greenville Family Farm where we parked the motor home for our stay in Haymarket. It is a working farm with campground facilities in ‘the North 40’. We had a relaxing time visiting with JoAnne’s sister and family. It was great to see the nieces and nephews and grand nieces. We even attended Madeline’s graduation from kindergarten – the kids were all so cute and so proud of themselves!
We spent a day touring Jefferson’s home, Monticello, and James Monroe’s home, Ash Lawn-Highland. We were especially impressed with Monticello not only for its beauty, but also for all the innovations that Jefferson had designed and had built into the home. He installed such things as double windows to control the amount of cold and heat in the house, two dumbwaiters, one for delivering food from the kitchen to the dining area, and another for delivering wine from the wine cellar. There was also a set of automatic double doors, when one was opened it opened the other at the same time, and a seven day clock, with a gong, that kept everything on the plantation running on the same time. At Monroe’s house during the tour, one of guides even showed us how they spun wool onto a dradle (sp?). We had lunch at and toured the Michie Tavern, which dates back to about 1784. All in all it was an extremely interesting day.
As an aside, one thing we’ve noticed during our drives is that when a river or creek is noted on the highway, unlike in the west, they actually have water in them!!
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