The best of Kentucky - from Lucky to Yucky!

We had been to Kentucky a few times before, but it was the only state we had never slept in. Now we not only know what it’s like to sleep in Kentucky, we even know what it’s like to sleep on the grounds at the Kentucky State Capitol! We now also know who the Shakers were and why they are no more. And we learned that, as nice as Kentuckians are, our favorite Kentuckians are the ones from Indiana and Ohio.

Bourbon is everywhere in Kentucky

We spent our first Kentuckian night at the Carter Caves State Park. We toured three different caves, including one with a waterfall and one that was used to mine saltpeter during the War of 1812. There is also a very cool natural tunnel. This state park is nothing to sneeze at, but was great to snooze at. 

Natural Bridge (or Tunnel?) at the Carter Caves State Park

We spent our second night in Kentucky at the “Abettor Brewing Company”. At first,we thought that was a weird name. Now that I understand the double entendre, I think it’s a better brewing company name. 

"Abettor Brewing Company"
is a better brewing company

And they actually did have (even) better beers than most breweries! But we thought the best part was talking to the owner, who has once lived on Molokai out of all places! He didn’t look familiar, but we might have seen him from our lanai once.

Caves and beer are accepted in Kentucky, but the state law says that after two days in Kentucky, you have to do something related to bourbon or horses. We are pretty sure that drinking our Bourbon from Virginia didn’t count, so we visited the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. We enjoyed learning about the evolution of horses, about the different breeds and actually meeting some Triple Crown winners. 

At the Kentucky Horse Park

Amongst other things, the Kentucky Horse Park specializes in serving as a retirement home for champion race horses. I think it’s really nice that the horses who made millions of dollars in prize money for their owners get to retire in comfort and are celebrated as rock stars long after their racing careers. We got to meet “Funny Cide”, who apparently was a very beloved underdog because he was owned by a bunch of regular folks instead of some rich guy. Because there were so many owners, they traveled in a school bus to the races, rather than in the customary limousine.  

I never realized how similar
horse and human skeletons are 

We thought the Horse Park was interesting, but I can only imagine how fascinating this place must be for somebody who enjoys horses as much as we enjoy presidents. Speaking of presidents: Lincoln was born here, but left at age 7, so he is rightfully claimed by Illinois. Other than that, there is not much presidential history in Kentucky, but that doesn’t stop us. If you think we’d retire from road trips when we have been to all presidential libraries and birthplaces, think again. In Lexington alone we visited the homes of Mary Todd Lincoln and of Henry Clay. And if we try to visit all the sites of first ladies and of people who tried but never became president, we’ll never run out of sites to see.

Mary Todd Lincoln House in Lexington

Up until that point, Kentuckians had been very nice to us. But of course it pales in comparison to the hospitality of our friends Elke & Mark at their Kentucky lake house. By coincidence, we arrived there on my birthday and they were not just willing, but eager to play games with us. My favorite was “Piece o’Cake”, my kind of birthday cake and no sugar headache!

Birthday Cake game with Elke & Carl

They don’t just have game loving neighbors like our new friend Carl, they also have neighbors willing to put on a 4th of July party a week early, just so these two new Americans can celebrate two Independence Day parties in their first year as citizens. 

Just a little backyard fireworks show

Happy Birthday, America!

The only risk of staying at Elke’s of course is that you could starve. They don’t offer their guests much to eat, other than breakfast, lunch, dinner and a few snacks in between. But that’s where our friend Brad came to the rescue, driving all the way to Kentucky with 20 pounds of the best non-German potato salad we ever had.

Breakfast with old and new friends

We had heard about the “Shakers” many times, but really had no idea who they are. If you are equally unaware, I strongly recommend visiting the “Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill” by Harrodsburg, KY. Or, if that’s not on your route, you can just read the next few paragraphs. It won’t be as much fun as visiting this fabulous site, but at least you’ll know what’s shaking: 

Technically, Shakers are called “The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing”, but that’s not a catchy name. The term Shaker was first a derogatory name based on their spontaneous dancing during worship. But when they realized they needed a catchier name to recruit people, they embraced the term “Shakers”. 

 

Garden and home of the hardworking,
forward thinking, celibate, dancing Shakers

The movement was started by disillusioned Quakers in England. They started their own religion based on the revolutionary idea of equality between genders and races. Yes, these people believed that a black woman had the same values and rights as a white man. No wonder people thought they were crazy. 

They came to America in 1774, just in time for the revolution. This “Shakertown” was one of their Utopian Societies, where they lived as a commune, sharing all the work and all the wealth. They were hard working and pretty successful for almost a century. But there were three reasons for their eventual downfall: 

1. As pacifists, they did not fight in civil war, but they helped the hungry and the wounded on either side, depleting their own resources. 

2. They emphasized teaching young members numerous skills and crafts, many left when they grew up and could put those skills to use for their own benefit instead of the whole community. 

3. They demanded celibacy from all of their members, eliminating the most obvious recruiting option. 

Excellent tour at the Shaker Village

Shakers still exist, but there’s only two elderly Shakers in Maine left, of course both of them celibate. Soon, there will be no Shakers left, but at least their crazy ideas of equality for all genders and races is slowly catching on.

Old Fort Harrod State Park is a reconstruction of the first European outpost in what is now Kentucky, but was the wild west part of Virginia in 1775. The history of this place is slightly different, but the exhibits were familiar: We’ve seen a lot of historical craftsmen and women, but we probably need to see a few more before we can make our own soap, weave our own cloth or forge our own tools.

Old Fort Harrod State Park

Frankfort is one of the smallest state capital cities and one of our favorite. Like many other states, they learned the hard way that stone buildings are more fireproof than wood buildings. The current Kentucky State Capitol is the 4th capitol building. It’s our number 33 1/2 for those of you keeping track, which I assume is nobody.  

The building from the outside is your normal state capitol, impressive, but not unique. But we loved the inside with the open halls and staircases and the dome actually changes colors. There is a larger than life Lincoln statue in the center of the rotunda. It’s nice they embrace the “Great Emancipator”, even though he left the state at age seven. Up until 2020, they also honored the other Kentucky born president, even though he was the president of the sworn enemy of the United States. Now there is a prominent empty space. Knowing Kentucky, they probably will fill it soon with a horse or a barrel of bourbon.

Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort

Our favorite thing about the Kentucky State Capitol was that they let us park overnight on the capitol grounds…that was a first for us. Just shows, it never hurts to ask. 

Impressive Covid Memorial on the
Kentucky Capitol grounds,
first one we have seen anywhere

I will not bore you with all the details of the other museums and historical buildings we toured in Frankfort. But here’s the most interesting little bit of history, which I will share so that we don’t have an unfair advantage in the next trivia game: No state governor has ever been assassinated. But a governor has died of an assassin’s bullet. What? How is that possible?

In November 1899 William Goebel narrowly lost the election, but did not concede. While the investigation was still ongoing, he was shot. The very next day, the General Assembly overturned the results and Goebel was sworn in immediately, only to die three days later. So he wasn’t a governor when he was shot, but he did become the only governor to die by assassination. 

Still think we are more divided than ever today?

Since this all happened over a century ago, I think of it as interesting history…so why did I title this blog “from Lucky to Yucky”? Well, we felt pretty lucky that we got to experience this beautiful state and spend time with old and new friends. We also felt lucky to find this beautiful campground right at the confluence of the Kentucky and Ohio river for our last night in Kentucky…and then it turned yucky:

Our toilet brush has a brush that is screwed on. Or I should rather say that was screwed on. Now it’s in our black water tank and all our attempts to get it out have been unsuccessful. Unfortunately, a toilet brush head is almost perfectly designed to clog a drain pipe and Joy’s drain pipe is almost perfectly designed not to be easily accessible. So tomorrow we will try to get some professional help, so that we are just happy-go-lucky again, not happy-and-yucky-go-lucky.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Appalachian Mountains, New River Gorge,
Life is good on the road, driving past the trees
Good up on the mountains, good down in the valleys,
On country roads, we feel at home,
Joy is the place, we belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Joy is our home, on country roads...

With all those hills and valleys,
I'm not sure Joy thinks it's 'almost heaven'

The West Virginia Visitor Bureau is milking that line from John Denver’s song for all it’s worth and I can see why: It’s a beautiful state; driving on the winding roads through the green hills of West Virginia, it’s hard not to hum that song. The scenery is almost heaven, but we haven’t found a town yet where we would want to live. Actually, for the first 10 days in West Virginia, we didn’t see any sizable town at all. Or like our friend Kelly used to say: “There’s nothing to see but scenery!”

78.5% of West Virginia is covered with trees

We left Virginia via the Shenandoah National Park with a short hike on the famous “Appalachian Trail”. Since we will probably never hike the whole thing at once, we are a special kind of “sectional AT hikers”, we hike the 2200 miles in sections. We completed over 3 miles on this trip, so we should be done by 2723. 

Silly sectional hiker on the AT

The Skyline Caverns was our last highlight in “East Virginia”. The caves are not as spectacular as the nearby and very popular Luray Caverns, but getting a private tour made up for the difference in ornamentation. 

Skyline Cavern

And they do have the best examples of anthodites in the world. Now if you ask yourself “What are anthodites and how do they form?”, then you are in very good company. Apparently the leading scientists and speleologists of the world are wondering the same thing. The signs at Skyline Caverns, our tour guide and information I find online all contradicts each other: Anthodites might form only in vacuum sealed caves or not. There might be one, three or a dozen places where they were found. The Skyline Caverns might or might not be the place where they were first discovered. But at least everybody seems to agree: Anthodites are very rare and very pretty.

The rare and mysterious Anthodites

And then we came to West Virginia….

Now be honest: Do you think of West Virginia as a backwards hinterland, left behind by modern developments? How about this: On our first day, we did not have ANY cell phone reception. They did not even have any radio stations. It gets weirder: They have a rule in that area that you can’t even have wifi or a microwave oven!

But there is a very good reason for all that: This is a “Radio Quiet Zone”  because this part of West Virginia is home of the Green Bank Observatory. They are the opposite of backwards…they are on the cutting edge science. Radio astronomy science to be precise. They have the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world. The National Science Foundation operates a museum and gives tours. We got to stand right under the Green Bank Telescope. But taking a picture from close up with a digital camera (even a phone in airplane mode!) would interfere with their observations of galaxies thousands of lightyears away. So we had to settle with a picture from a distance. Luckily the telescope is 485 feet tall, so you can probably still spot it:

Two football fields would fit inside the dish
of the Green Bay Telescope.

West Virginia has one thing in common with Kauai: It’s pretty and it’s green almost anywhere you look. Every few miles there’s something to see: A pretty waterfall, wild lilies and mountain laurels, a bog with carnivorous plants or an observation tower to get above the trees so you can see all the other trees. Green hills for as far as you can see, just no beaches and no Na Pali coast.

Cathedral Falls, WV

One night we spent at a very low key golf course. We got to pay for the round of golf, but it was the second time that strangers insisted on paying for our meals. Not sure whether it was because they were intrigued how two Germans from Hawaii ended up at their little country club in the remote hills of West Virginia or whether they just felt sorry for us because they saw us golf.

This shot cost me par,
but it might have won us a free lunch

I have come to find out:
I'm better at floating down a river
than hitting a golf ball

The New River Gorge was called the New River Gorge long before they knew that the New River is actually one of the oldest rivers in the world. But it’s still a very appropriate name because it is now “America’s Newest National Park”!

The grand view from Grandview

The New River Gorge claims to be the “Grand Canyon of the East”, but so do at least five other places. None of them look anything like the real Grand Canyon or are anywhere as big. But the New River Gorge is gorgeous, has some cool rock formations, grand views, a very impressive bridge and an interesting history. 

The National Park ranger insisted
not to call Thurmond a ghost town,
six people still leave here.

This idyllic national park once was the site of the most prolific coal mines in the country. What appears like ghost towns now were bustling boom towns. The coal trains still run through the valley, but otherwise nature is restoring the idyllic beauty.

New River Gorge Bridge,
taller than the Golden Gate Bridge and
the longest single span bridge in America 

On the Rock Cliff Trail
in the New River Gorge

There used to be thousands of coal mines in West Virginia. Only about 50 are still active today. One coal mine in Beckley is re-opened as an exhibition mine. It is humbling to learn how hard the work of a miner was. We feel like wimps in comparison. The fact that people took these jobs, despite the dangers, hardships and the fact that they often got paid in ‘fake’ money that could only be used in the company store means that people back then were a lot tougher and much more desperate than we all are today. We love history, but we are sure glad we live today.

The West Virginia State Capitol 

Charleston is the capital of West Virginia. With only about 50,000 residents, it is one of those small town capitals, even though in this case it’s still the largest town in the state. Of course our first stop was the capitol building. It’s very impressive: Taller than the Capitol in Washington DC and easier to find RV parking close by. Surprisingly they stayed under budget when they built it almost 100 years ago, despite using lots of gold and marble and installing ridiculously fancy chandeliers.

The little white dot in the dome is a chandelier,
8 feet across and weighing 4000 pounds 

To me, visiting state capitols is every little bit as impressive as visiting the huge cathedrals in Europe. The architecture is awe inspiring and the free tours usually include a quick civics and history lesson of the state. As an extra bonus, Charleston has the free State History Museum right next door. I wish all West Virginians would take advantage of that. Maybe those West Virginians who still fly confederate flags could learn that their state was literally formed for the purpose of leaving the confederacy. Maybe those people are the reason why John Denver said that West Virginia is only "almost heaven". But if it weren't for those roadside reminders, you wouldn’t know: Every single person we talked to in West Virginia was very friendly.

The golden dome of the capitol
in Charleston, WV

Charleston seems to have it all: One of the best capitol buildings, great museums, a riverfront, a large market and beautiful surroundings. We even happened to be there during their FestivALL celebration, with lots of free music and food. They are really trying, but it still has the feeling of a town in decline with abandoned buildings even in downtown. 

Every fun festival has to have a balloon artist

On our way out of West Virginia we came through St. Albans. It is the kind of small town where if you don't  pay attention, you might think you are still in Charleston. But we stopped because they offer three RV camping spots right along the river for free. At that price, it was not surprising that the three sites were already taken. But campers are nice people and Kiwis are nice people so it’s not surprising that campers from New Zealand are extra nice. They let us pull up next to them and soon we were sitting there with our new friends and neighbors talking late into the night. Then this truck drives up. At first I thought we might get chased away since we were not really in an official spot. But this guy just wanted to tell us about the kayak and music festival they had in town. Turns out he was the mayor of St. Albans and rather than chase us away, he convinced us into staying for the weekend in St. Albans. 

We can't be with Ronja on her road trip in New Zealand,
but we can be with New Zealand road trippers.

We only saw a few of the 2,000 kayakers on the “Tour de Coal”, but we listened to plenty of the music at the “Yak Fest”. What a fun street party. It’s the kind of event where everybody seems to fit in, no matter who you are or what you wear. Really fun atmosphere, cheap beer and good music. We are glad the mayor went out of his way, even late at night, promoting his hometown festival.

Buck Covington has performed in every
state except Hawaii and we don't watch
American Idol, so we HAD to come here
to see him.

Yak Fest 2023 in St. Albans, WV

Backstage at the Yak

I feel a little guilty for not putting Charleston or St. Albans on the list of places we’d want to move to when the volcano blows, even though they organized all these fun things for us and we enjoyed our time here so much. But now we are actually leaving West Virginia. We are spending just one more night at the Beech Fork State Park tomorrow, then we will be in Kentucky …unless the governor stops by the state park and organizes another festival for us.

And that’s the news from Lake West Virginia, where all the festivals are fun, all the hills are good looking and where two Germans from Hawaii definitely stand out more than average.

Aloha from Almost Heaven,

Chris & Sandra 

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness in Joy

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for two people to depart from their beloved island home and to roam and enjoy freely the beauty of this earth, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to leave their friends behind and take on such an endeavor:

Sandra and I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all states are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with a certain unalienable beauty, that exploring them freely in Joy is the very essence of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

If you feel this sounded a little bit too eloquent or melodramatic, I’ll admit that during the first three weeks of our road trip, we might have listened to one too many speeches by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and about five guys named George.

But you get the idea: It was a joyous reunion with Joy in North Carolina. She came out of her hibernation without any serious issues. I can’t really explain why we are always so excited to move into this tiny box on wheels.

The JOYous Reunion

Our main reason for going into downtown Raleigh was to see the North Carolina Capitol. We had not made it there last year. We knew that we’d start this year’s trip in Raleigh, but we did not know that the capitol was going to be closed for renovations. Well, as we tend to say “sometimes it happens that way”. We found other places in Raleigh to entertain ourselves: Museums, historical sites, even President Andrew Johnson's birthplace and a beer garden. Only by chance did we find out about the so-called “Legislative Building”, which is open to the public. Turns out this is where the House of Representatives and Senate of North Carolina actually meets, the
capitol building is mostly ceremonial. Not sure how we are going to count this for our state capitol statistics. I guess we have now been to 31 1/2.

NOT the North Carolina State Capitol

We visited three historical sites on our way from North Carolina to Virginia: First the ‘Bennett Place’ in Durham, an unassuming farm house that really should be as famous as Appomattox Courthouse. Contrary to popular belief, the Civil War did not end with Lee’s surrender in Appomattox Courthouse. Viscous fighting continued. The largest surrender of Confederate forces (90,000) happened here at the Bennett Place, three times as many as the much more famous surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.

The room where it happened:
The largest surrender of Confederate troops

We also visited the the Duke Plantation, where the Dukes family made their fortune. This is where they started growing tobacco (of course by leaving the actual physical work to the enslaved workers). They used part of the tobacco money to fund Duke University, which in turn educated the doctors to work at the Duke Medical Center to treat, amongst many others, patients suffering from cancer caused by tobacco…

Tobacco was so important for Virginia's early economy
...and now it is hung out to dry

Our last stop in North Carolina was Halifax. Most NC license plates say either “First in Flight”, referring to the Wright Brothers in Kitty Hawk where we went last year or “First in Freedom”, referring to the “Halifax Resolution”. In this little town on April 12, 1776, North Carolina became the first American Colony to declare their independence from England. Even though our Virginian friend Patrick Henry later pointed out to us that the actual wording of the North Carolina resolution was to declare independence IF someone else were to bring it up first. So the honest version of that license plate slogan should read “North Carolina: First in Freedom…if Virginia is ok with that”.

The building where the Halifax Resolution
was passed is long gone, so here's a picture of
Joy at a distillery where we stayed afterwards.

On our previous visits to Colonial Williamsburg, we always felt that we did not have enough time. So this time, we planned a whole week there. In order to do that, we actually moved out of Joy into a…gulp…hotel. It was a little hard to explain to Joy that we would ditch her so soon after our happy reunion. But we explained to her that there is no good campground close by and we had this “free week” at a hotel next to Colonial Williamsburg. Joy said that if you believe that, she’s got a timeshare on Kauai to sell to you.

Sandra with Patrick Henry
in Colonial Williamsburg
Back at our History Happy Place

As fascinating as we think it all is, I will not bore you with every presentation or every conversation we had with George and Martha Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and so on. Even meeting the ‘regular’ people of the 1770’s was very interesting. But the two people who actually want to read that (you know who you are!) can simply read last year’s blog from Williamsburg (www.bestofbothworldsroadtrip.com/2022/10/hobby-historians). This year was basically the extended version of that. I dare you to ask us about it, if you ever have a free 4-5 hours. 

Chatting with Martha and one of the Georges
on the Palace Green in Williamsburg 

Just to give you an idea how much we enjoyed our time in Williamsburg: You know the Jimmy Buffet song “I don’t know where I wanna go when the volcano blows”? Until last week, our answer was Chattanooga, now it’s Williamsburg. We could see ourselves living and even working in Williamsburg. I’m no geologist, but I think chances are still pretty good we’ll stay on Maui, which is still our favorite place.

Discussing life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness
with Thomas Jefferson 

Virginia advertises the “Historic Triangle”; consisting of Williamsburg (the colonial capitol of Virginia),  Jamestown (the first successful English settlement) and Yorktown (where the Revolutionary War was won). I think they need to call it a Historic Heptadecagon or some sort of Polygon, since there are at least 17 great historic sites in that area. Here just a few that we visited:

Berkley Plantation - This place has all kinds of historic significances: Home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and of William Harrison, the president who died after serving only 31 days (in bed). It’s also the site where the very first Thanksgiving was held in 1619, a year before the pilgrims even landed in Plymouth… and they have the document to prove it! It’s also the place where ‘Taps’ was composed and first played. Berkley Plantation was so significant to early American history that all of the first 10 presidents came to visit, plus Benedict Arnold came to plunder it.

Berkley Plantation - home of the Harrisons,
birthplace of "Taps" and the site of the very
first Thanksgiving 

Chippokes Plantation - The Jones-Steward Mansion is ‘only’ about 170 years old, but the land has been continuously farmed for over 400 years, almost as long as the Jamestown settlement has been here, so they claim to be the oldest farm in the country.

Bacon’s Castle - built in 1665 by a Mr. Allen, one of the earliest successful plantation owners. It was named Bacon’s Castle purely for marketing reasons after Nathaniel Bacon, the leader of the Bacon Rebellion in 1676. Weirdly, the name was not used until 150 years after the rebellion and we now know that Bacon himself never made it here, only some of his supporters. The name stuck anyway, because as the tour guide rightly pointed out “Would you have come here to see ‘Allen’s Brick House’?”. Maybe not, but I would suggest naming it “America’s Oldest Brick House”, because that’s what it actually is!

Bacon's Castle - America's oldest brick house

Shirley Plantation - not just another plantation home, this is the one from the richest of them all, therefore referred to as “King Carter”. The 12th generation of the family still lives upstairs, but graciously, they open the ground floor of the mansion and the gardens for tourists like us. It’s a spectacular place, but to be honest, we prefer our condo on Maui or our little box on wheels.

The Virginia State Capitol - the capital was moved from Williamsburg to Richmond during the revolution to be more defendable. The original building is designed by no other than Thomas Jefferson himself. We had been here in 2008, but the tour guide made the return visit well worth it. I love it when guides are equal parts historian and entertainer. 

Inside Virginia's State Capitol

Stratford Hall - home of the Lee family. This includes two signers of the Declaration of Independence (who helped founding the United States) and one general (who fought against the United States just 85 years later).

Washington’s Birthplace - Nothing remains of the house in which George Washington was born. Historians are not even sure where it stood exactly, so there is really nothing original to see here, other than an obelisk one tenth the size of the one in DC, a house that was built in the 1930’s pretending to be his birthplace and one of those films so old that it comes with a disclaimer before it starts. BUT this is a National Park Service site and we got our own private tour by a park ranger and that was interesting and intriguing as always.

Our own private National Park Ranger

Gunston Hall - This is the home of George Mason, one of the most important thinkers during the American Revolution. Most of the founding fathers claimed that they’d rather just be a farmer than a general or a president. It is said that George Mason is the only one who meant it, That’s probably why he is not as well known, but you can’t avoid the guy if you spend eight days at Colonial Williamsburg. It was actually George Mason himself telling us about Gunston Hall. We missed him when we got there, but there’s a great little museum and we got another private tour of his home.

I spare you another picture of
another brick building, but
George Mason was a big advocate
 for our Bill of Rights, so
they had this in the museum...

Woodlawn & Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighy House - two spectacularly different homes that have nothing in common other than being next to each other and are managed by the National Trust. Woodlawn was the plantation home of Washington’s nephew and granddaughter in law, who received this land as a wedding gift from George Washington. It had a colorful history, including a period when the Quakers owned it and ran it as an experiment to prove that a plantation can be successful without using slave labor. It worked great, but did not catch on, apparently it was still more lucrative to own the workers and not pay them anything.

Next door is the Pope-Leighy House, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian homes. Those were meant to affordable, yet stylish and distinctly American homes for the middle class. They are unique, beautiful and timeless, like almost anything FLW has built. Every one of the dozen people on this tour had been to multiple Frank Lloyd Wright sites. As revered as he is, this house was supposed to be torn down in 1960’s to make room for a highway. To save it, the owners donated the house to the National Trust. The house that cost only $7,000 in 1941 was moved. By the time it was settled in the current location, it cost over a million dollars to move it. Obviously, we are not the only ones who love Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighy House

Mount Vernon - remember those five guys named George we met in Williamsburg? This is the home of one of them. Despite being the home of the most famous George, by the 1850’s it had fallen into disrepair. The “Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association” was formed to save the home “since the men won’t do it”. They bought the land, they restored the mansion, outbuildings, gardens and part of the farm at great effort and great expense…but only about 100 million people have come to visit since…

Since our last visit they have also added a top notch museum and painted the mansion. We actually took three tours at Mount Vernon: The very crowded mansion tour, a tour specifically dedicated to the Hamilton musical and a fascinating living history tour by an actor portraying Tobias Lear. He was Washington’s personal secretary after the war and the tutor of Martha Washington’s grandchildren. 

Our tour guide Tobias Lear at Mount Vernon

Sorry for the length of this blog post. And I did not even mention all the disc golf courses, breweries and distilleries we went to. I am humbled if anyone made it this far. Life ist just too full on the road to pack three weeks into a tweet.

Prost from the Cedar Run Brewery,
Nokesville's oldest brewery, est. 2019

And that’s the news from Virginia’s Historic Heptadecagon, where all the buildings are old, all the men were declared equal, but some were definitely more equal than average.

Chris & Sandra