17 January 2026
Rocky Mount Campground
Enfield, NC
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
Marc- Today was a travel day with one long stopover at Jefferson's 5 thousand acre estate near Charlottesville, VA. This is a fantastic place to visit if you are interested in history and architecture. Jefferson is famous for drafting the Declaration of Independence and serving in various elected positions including Governor of Virginia and POTUS for two terms. He also served as the US Minister to France for 5 years and founded the University of Virginia and was a backer of public schools.
We started off the visit with meeting a present day actor "Thomas Jefferson" who was captivating and answered everyone's questions with skill. Next came a tour of Monticello (means little mountain in Italian), a three story mansion with a decided French influence. He designed it (was a self taught architect) and spent 40 years building this 14,000 square foot home. The top two floors are well hidden. Perhaps this was planned as he had to escape once when the British forces attempted to capture him when he was Governor of Virginia. The views are incredible from this location. There are amazing vegetable gardens.
"Mr. Jefferson"
Note the bust of Benjamin Franklin. Most of the upstairs bedrooms had Franklin stoves installed in the fireplaces.
Jefferson was also a musician. His instrument of choice was the violin.
One of many work rooms.
Bust of John Adams in Jefferson's main office.
Most of the rooms in this house are octagons. All of the beds were in alcoves.
Some of the young Jefferson ladies opted to bring the bed out into the room for better ventilation.
I do like this fabric pattern.
The Marquis de Lafayette was a good friend and comrade in arms during the revolution.
Inside the dome room.
He believed in compact stairways that were hidden away.
The home has skylights in every room.
Sue - Jefferson believed education was essential for a democracy. He thought citizens needed to be educated in order to resist tyranny (I think this is truer than ever!!! How about education in learning how to think, in media literacy, in deciphering what the truth is?!)
We did not visit any quilt shops today. We were going to stop at Buc-ee's, a humongous gas station (120 gas and diesel pumps) and 74,000 SF store with great sandwiches and junk food, as well as souvenirs and the kind of things you see in the Cracker Barrel stores. We started seeing signs for it yesterday, over 100 miles away, but were distracted when we got close, and missed the exit.
We saw our first fellow camper driving down the highway today when we got to NC--the first since leaving VT.
This is the first night we have been hooked up to water (because it won't be freezing overnight as it has been). Good thing, because we have no more dishes or cutlery. And the water is hot!
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