Visiting Jefferson's Plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia - Spring 2022 Episode 5
[Music] in this episode of my spring road trip with mom the prelude to the 2022 lewis and clark trail we're going to visit jefferson's monticello where the president would teach meriwether lewis many of the skills needed to explore the west we will take a ride on the blue ridge parkway as we make our way south towards charleston enjoy the ride [Music] we've been staying at fabulous jellystone park at natural bridge and today we're going to make a day trip to the property that used to be thomas jefferson's plantation just outside charlottesville virginia originally 500 acres it is a unesco world heritage site this location is very relevant to our upcoming lewis and clark trail road trip because the library at monticello at the time was the most extensive in the world when it came to the geography of the north american continent there meriwether lewis learned about botany mineralogy astronomy and ethnology at the tutoring of the president himself about an hour later here we are we're going to park and take a shuttle to the actual residence well here we are at jefferson monticello and there's jefferson the greatest national historic landmark the only presidential home in the united states designator as a united nations world heritage site a brick and gravel trail six tenths of a mile in length also connects the mountain top grave site and visitor center over 400 enslaved people lived and labored at monticello during jefferson's lifetime during your tour of the house you'll spend about 40 minutes exploring the first floor of thomas jefferson's autobiographical masterpiece plan to spend time in the dependencies on the lower level including the kitchen and wine cellar to learn more about all of the things you see and do today please visit us online at monticello.org there it is the neoclassical facade is even depicted on the u.s 5 cent coin also known as a nickel before we go inside i want to say thanks to skillshare for sponsoring this episode and as you know there are always new things to learn even more so nowadays in our ever evolving world and skillshare is an online creative learning platform with thousands of classes for anyone who loves learning and i've been using skillshare for several years now improving my skills refining my craft you know things like storytelling social media even color grading i mean all aspects if there's a skill you'd like to learn chances are they are going to have a class for it for example they have this one called finding fulfillment using pivots to power your creative career by emma gannon author broadcaster podcast host because sometimes it is good to switch it up you know make a pivot not that i'm going to stop making videos anytime soon but i may add something to the mix like you know i still want to write that book someday so and this would have come really handy a couple of years ago when i left my office job to start doing youtube full time now let me tell you the first 1 000 people to use the link in the video description will get a one month free trial of skillshare so you can start investing in yourself today let's step inside which by the way as of early spring 2022 you had to make a reservation online this is the entrance hall which feels almost like a museum display of items cherished by jefferson [Music] this is the sitting room although jefferson called it the book room [Music] and this is the library part of jefferson's office where he stored his collection of books and scientific instruments [Music] this is the cast of home oliver cromwell oliver and this is the cabinet his actual office the room is full of gadgets this polygraph telescope a theodolite which he used to survey and map his land the polygraph was actually the latest technology at the time around 1802 1803 and apparently it never worked quite right but you could have an instant copy of your writings [Music] let's go back to the entrance hall so we can explore the rest of the house [Music] here's the bed chamber jefferson's most private room away from visitors and most family the great clock at the entrance hall was designed by jefferson himself talk about a renaissance man next the parlor the center of social life at monticello and of course there would have to be a happy chord and the saturn which is an english guitar i've learned there's a camera obscura the precursor to photography framing the window a bust of napoleon bonaparte and sar alexander the first [Music] next we have the dining room [Music] [Music] [Music] and that's it for the first floor of the house in order to visit the second and third floors you need to reserve a guided tour which we didn't in hindsight maybe we should have here's the ice house which they would fill in winter and generally it lasted throughout the summer what a beautiful linden tree he did have a view that much is certain a commanding view i might add look at that side of monticello and the view to that side which i'm sure we're gonna be able to see as we head over there i believe that's a linden tree and uh once again commanding view the blue ridge mountains i think they're the blue ridge mountains over there the north this feather is this is the all-weather passage that goes underneath the house with access to the cellar going to the cellar [Music] do [Music] it looks like good old tom had a pretty good tasting wines at least in his latter years especially after spending some time in france and germany this device called a dumb waiter was an elevator of sorts to send the wine up to the dining room i've never seen one that small yeah that's what she said that's the seller door right there [Music] yes this would have been the area where their slaves worked and apparently even though jefferson owned many slaves he was actively involved in legislation that he hoped would result in slavery's abolition after all didn't he right all men are created equal in the declaration of independence but i imagine at the time that would have been an uphill battle in virginia he called slavery a moral depravity and hideous blood the greatest threat to the survival of the new american nation radical views at the time little did he know it would take over half a century and the civil war to finally abolish slavery and here's the beer yeah apparently he used to brew his own beer [Music] i wonder if they had any ipas what do you think ipas maybe yes [Music] ale a stronger beer better sweet to storage malting okay [Music] there's another storage cellar here for wine there you go cider wine that beer yeah i think i think thomas liked to you know not maybe not i don't know [Music] that's a nice clock right there [Music] this would have been the kitchen right here you know at the ground level [Music] let's check out the vegetable gardens and the stables [Music] here's the vegetable garden such a beautiful setting and such great time of the year to be here in early april with all the flowers blooming textiles [Applause] [Music] this is the textile workshop [Applause] live in the stone house and overseers houses on the court farms [Music] here's what a slave's house would have looked like and they do have specific slavery at monticello tours [Music] [Music] this would have been the stables i guess [Music] fake horses really let's see what's in here [Music] [Music] all right let's go back up mom's waiting for me [Music] [Music] smokehouse [Music] sometimes you time it perfectly and this time we did to see the tulips in bloom [Music] well here we are about to depart they close the cafeteria they close this room so i think this place is like closing down slowly behind us so uh hopefully we're able to to see the cemetery you know the graveyard but [Music] it is actually very nice to finally be here and see this that's a legit water pump right there for the cistern and with that we're gonna say goodbye to monticello but before we go let's stop by the graveyard which you can access via a trail or the shuttle there is a stop on the way down [Music] well here's our final stop this will be the gravesite thomas jefferson's gravesite let's check it out [Music] [Applause] [Music] it would have been really nice to be able to to walk inside the graveyard but as you can see you know there are no paths or anything like that i don't even know if it's like open at some point you know so now we're gonna have to hike the 400 yards down to the visitor center where mom is waiting for me actually [Music] captain kirk [Music] and here's the museum look at all that jefferson was definitely into recording and sharing useful knowledge a renaissance man of his time and the ultimate knowledge was to be acquired by the lewis and clark expedition the core of discovery jefferson was a very well traveled man for his time as well both in america and europe [Music] let's go back to jellystone and tomorrow we continue the journey back south although we are going to take the scenic route [Music] now [Music] mm-hmm [Music] on the road again [Music] here we are passing by natural bridge state park once again and the historic hotel across the parking lot [Music] now going over the natural bridge which you can't really see anything we are gonna take interstate 81 south for a little bit and then a detour because we want to do a section of the blue ridge parkway we don't have a very long drive today and it is such a clear perfect weather day [Music] do [Music] do [Music] we've finally made it to the blue ridge parkway and we're going to take it southbound not the whole way to cherokee although let me tell you i'm tempted but just for a couple of hours today we're staying at a harvest host and we don't want to get there too early [Music] let's stop at the overlook and taking the view [Music] it is one of those rare overlooks with views to both sides of the road [Music] let's continue [Music] let's stop once again right here [Music] as you saw we decided to come back to the blue ridge parkway you know for a couple of miles just to see more um what can i say commanding views of of the blue ridge here and there's mom taking pictures as as we start slowly heading south back to back to sea level there's a city down there yep there's a big city down there and i wonder if that would be roanoke it's gotta be right it is rare to see a big city from the blue ridge parkway it is usually just peaceful valleys like this one [Music] it is impossible not to be tempted to stop at every single overlook but if we did it would take a very long time so we must continue the show must go on [Music] let's check out the query overlook [Music] here we are at the query overlook and that must be the query down there [Music] do [Music] [Music] this is supposed to be the nmw railroad overlook but the town itself nestled here in the middle of the blue ridge it's beautiful [Music] there is a section of the blue ridge parkway that is closed so we're going to have to take a detour [Music] and we're back on our preferred route when time is none of the essence i see a large overlook here on the left so let's break for lunch because we're starving well let me tell you it was a little bit of a disaster in here with all those curves but we stopped here at the blue ridge parkway once again my and you know reheating some leftover picadillo and we're going to have lunch with the view look at that it is quite the view all right right here that's what i love i'm in an rv [Music] as much as we would love to linger and stay on the scenic route all the way to cherokee at some point we have to look for the interstate and head straight south what a beautiful area though we are now on i-77 and we're about to go through an area right before the north carolina state line that i'd like to call the great descent and you'll see why they have all these warning signs about steep grades and possible crosswinds [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well we made it to our harvest host windsor run cellars that's what it's called and here we have some vineyards we have some more vineyards in the back and now i'm gonna go to the tasting room and get a taste basically such a beautiful day it's just nice to relax out here after such a long drive so cheers [Music] before we go let me tell you really quick about an app i've been using lately to find places to camp and for trip planning and that is the dirt pro i had heard about them before but you know how it is you keep using what you're familiar with because why learn a new app anyway they reached out to me and i've been using it lately and especially the pro version has improved so much compared to what i saw a couple of years ago that i decided to become an affiliate with them and start using them you can download offline maps and then you can filter out what you want to see or not see for that matter i mean even by cell phone coverage type of campsite actually let me show you for example here we have a map of the area with all the available campsites right but let's say i only want to do like 73 campgrounds right now i only want to do standard tent and rv 41 campgrounds so you should narrow it down to where you want to see right uh for example i only want to see campgrounds that have t-mobile service because that's the only unlimited service that i have well not only we only have four campgrounds now for example you can overlay a for example your atnt if cell phone coverage it overlays that on the maps which is really cool and if we were to be out west for example and we want to see around here too but out west you have more right you have you know it overlays like forest uh land or blm land out west if you wanna go like really really far west by the way some of this data is crowdsourced so when you open the app at a campground it'll ask you to contribute to their database like by testing cell phone signal for example and this is the thing before the dirt i had to use an app to find free public lands and where to park other apps to find about cell phone coverage another app to plan my trips and now with pro maps i have an all-in-one solution everything in one place and that saves time and potentially money because with pro discounts you get discounts at over 1 000 campgrounds and save up to 30 on select outdoor brands and that's all i'm gonna say download the app play with it and sign up at this special page the dirt has made available for you my viewers and that is pro.thedirt.com robert discount code robert normally you only get like a week trial if you go through my link you get 30 days for free you get a deal and i get a commission win-win situation product thedirt.com robert discount code robert that's all next we're going to visit charleston south carolina but more about that on the next episode until then thank you so much for watching and see you on the road [Music] i'm writing riding in my rv wherever i want to be [Music] wherever i want to be because i'm free in my rv [Music] wherever i want to be
2022-06-17 00:08
