Museum and WINE TRAIL!!!!!

August 2 – I decided to try sleeping all night in my recliner and it was pretty good.  I didn’t

Front of Exchange Hotel

wake up until 9.  Bill was still in bed until he heard me up and around.  Guess we needed the rest.   After I made breakfast we headed out for the day.  We drove to Gordonsville to visit the Exchange Hotel Civil War Museum.  One of the visitors to Ferry Hill told Bill about it and it was very interesting.  It’s 3 stories, self guided.  The first tavern was built on the site in 1840 and it burned down in 1859 and the current building was constructed in 1860.  It was a hospital during the Civil War, the Freedman’s Bureau in 1865 and in 1869 was the Grand Hotel.  One of the downstairs rooms that faced the train tracks was the train station and the upstairs rooms were guest rooms.  Although the furnishings are not original to the house, there are many nice examples of period furniture and memorabilia.  Each floor and room exhibits a different stage in the history of the house.

We drove out to the town cemetery when we left to visit where the many Confederate soldiers were buried that arrived on the train already dead or that died at the hospital.  It was very sad because most are in a mass grave with a memorial to them.  Only about 20 individual headstones are placed and those were by descendants without the body.  Some interred a coffin just as part of their memoriam.

Horton's Vineyards

Leaving Gordonsville we headed on some of the Virginia Wine Trail.  We stopped at the Horton Vineyards.  The building was beautiful, like an English manor.  They allow you to taste up to 10 wines.  Well, it’s just a sip but there weren’t 10 that interested me, so I chose 8.  One of those was so nasty that I said forget the last one.  I left with 3 bottles though!  I forgot I could also purchase the glass for $3.  Darn! 

 

The Ruins

Then on up the road to Barboursville was the Barboursville Vineyards and Ruins.  We were intrigued at what the ruins could be and it was a house designed by Thomas Jefferson for Governor Barbour in 1814.  It was destroyed by fire on Christmas day in 1884.  It was a magnificent home with a full basement and 2 floors with large porticos on front and back.  It was totally symmetrical.  The brick is still standing.  All of the interior walls were of 2 rows of brick.  The fireplaces are still standing but most of the top floor is gone.  The front faced onto a horse racetrack.

The winery also boasts of its fine dining restaurant.  We considered having the prix fix lunch of 2 courses for $38 EACH, but I could tell Bill was not terribly interested.  I did a tasting in the winery and was somewhat disappointed.  They mostly offered dry red and whites so I did try a Riesling and sauvignon blanc but the Riesling was not to my liking and the blanc was so blah it tasted like it had been watered down.  I did like the dessert wines and bought one bottle.  When I checked out I told the lady how I felt about the sauvignon blanc and she agreed and said their joke is they call it Sauvignon Blank.

They recommended a place 2 miles further for lunch, Stonefire Kitchen.  They use a lot of local products in their cooking and have exotic salads and sandwiches, soups, specials like lasagna.  Bill had a meatloaf sandwich and I had a beet salad with pulled chicken and a balsamic wine dressing to die for.  It was kinda thick and I asked if it was made with honey and he proceeded to explain the entire recipe.  I should have written it down.  It starts with 2 bottles of wine and sugar and it’s reduced and red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar and rosemary are added and it was the best.

I discovered a World Market in Charlottesville and that was only about 20 miles so we headed into town and also found a Trader Joe’s.  Since I didn’t have ice in our cooler I was limited to what I could buy but left with a few things.  It felt good to be back in one!  I hoped they’d have a new bag design but no, not this time.  Then we went to World Market so I could get my coffee syrup.  As luck would have it, they don’t carry the exact one I wanted but I found a similar one and another flavor, AND a bottle of wine, so for sure I did not leave empty handed.

It was quick to jump back on the interstate and get back to our exit.  At the exit is a Lowes and Wal-mart so I picked up a few things, detergent being one.  At Lowes we got a 3 foot piece of wire that we’re going to try to unplug the drains on the truck bed topper box with.

We came home and unloaded and Bill realized his watch was gone.  He knew he had it on when we left and since it’s broken a couple of times he figured he lost it along the way.  I looked everywhere in the RV and thought when we left to go to dinner I would check outside and in the truck.  Bill was not in the mood for me to suggest it so I didn’t.  Then he left out before me and found it outside.  The pin came out of the band so tomorrow we will see if we can find a jeweler to fix it.  He was so relieved to find it.  He’s had that Indian watchband for 32 years and has had it repaired in AZ once for sure and maybe twice. 

The campground info included the restaurants in Louisa they like best and others they like so we did have several to choose from.  I let Bill pick and he chose Roma’s Italian.  My meal was very good but his chicken parmesan didn’t look like any we’d ever seen.  I had minestrone instead of pasta and it was excellent and my lemon chicken in a light wine mushroom sauce was very good.  The only improvement would have been fresh mushrooms. 

We checked out what the Peebles store is and it’s like a Bealls or Kohl’s but we didn’t buy anything.  Then we stopped at McD’s for another ice cream. I went with an iced mocha coffee with non-fat milk.  It was good but too sweet.

When we drove home it was close to dark and we saw one deer about to jump in the road.  Bill really does not like driving these roads in the total dark.  The campground took on a new life since the weekenders have arrived and there is lots of activity and lights at all the sites.  Nothing much on TV so Bill did email and I wrote 2 days of my journal.