Fun Day Off!

June 13 – It was a long day!  We’re off and had travel plans but before we could leave I called Patty our supervisor and told her our problem with the safe.  She kinda blew me off.  I also tried to give her our soda order and she just said she’d take care of it.  So we stopped by the VC when we left and I tried the safe again, no luck.  I tried every key we had and no luck.  We stopped at the front gate asked the seasonal there to look in the Admin office for a key with the lock number and also to let her know we never received a fire extinguisher or the defibrillator that we were told would come 2 weeks ago.  So we headed out and figured we had another day to see what happens.

We went up the really steep road over the mountain, which crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway.   I really don’t like that road!  On the other side we stopped at the Bold Rock Cider facility.  We were there years ago and the tasting was in a huge barn.  Things were quite different now.  They have a beautiful brewing and tasting building on the top of a hill with an incline walkway that’s a nice walk up.  There was no way Bill could make it on crutches or

his knee walker so he waited in the car.  They also now have a restaurant, quite an upgrade from 4 years ago.  Now they only give you 2 small “tastes” of 2 ciders free and it's $5 for a flight of 4.  I went with it so I’d know what I wanted to buy and the flight portions were 3 times the size.  One was too dry for me but I liked the other 5!  I left with 2 6 packs and the knowledge that they are now in 13 states, the closest is Georgia.

Wolf Brewing

We stopped for lunch at the Wild Wolf Brewing in Nellysford, VA.  We’d been there before and this time there was no huge crowd waiting and the weather was perfect so we sat outside and enjoyed it.  I had a Risotto with lemon, parsley and goat cheese topped with sautéed kale and Bill had a burger.  Perfect lunch portion!

Then on to Charlottesville!  First stop, Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson.  Boy, has that all changed.  Now you are parked in the woods, one way going in and one way going out with no view at all of the house from the massive Visitor Center Complex.  I dropped Bill off at the doors and went to park.  We have been here before and knew the tour would be difficult for Bill so we chose to see one of the movies and check out the gift shop. 

The side we entered from - Ashlawn

Next stop was James Monroe’s house, Ashlawn, but now it’s called Highland.  Possibly it’s because the original house is gone and maybe it was Ashlawn and the guest house that was used after was named Highland. This discovery was just recently made through excavations.  Hard to believe that all this time, 200 years, no one knew this wasn’t the house?   Not being as popular, it was easier to park and navigate.  They provided a wheelchair that worked pretty well on the visit into and around the house.  The biggest issue was the door sills were elevated

Slave quarters

about an inch and difficult to get the chair over.  It’s not nearly the impressive home that Monticello is but you see pieces of furniture and art that were the Monroe’s and also learn a lot of history about him, his life and his service to his country.  After the house tour I parked Bill and took a peek in the out buildings.  They had period dress volunteers in the slave quarters providing insight and information of the lives of the slaves there.

Mitchie Tavern

On the way out and down the mountain we stopped at Mitchie Tavern in hopes of a late afternoon sweet but they close at 3:30.  We’ve eaten there before but thought they also served dinner but guess not.  The gift shop was open so we checked it out and took some photos.  Bill learned that this is not the original location of the tavern but we don’t know where that location was.

We headed onto I-64 and soon saw a huge traffic jam in our lane so we got off and took a series of little roads and eventually got back to Waynesboro.  We stopped at the main shopping plaza so I could go to Bed, Bath and Beyond, Target and Aldi’s then we crossed over and had dinner at Applebee’s.  It was OK, nothing to write home about.

Molly was glad to see us as we’d not been gone all day like that on this trip.  It was a beautiful day out and perfect for sightseeing.