The Night I Drove Down To Old Dixie (Part One)

A week ago I started my Southern Tour of presidential homes with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. It was my most ambitious trip, consisting of the most average miles traveled per day. 

Fortunately, I had both my parents with me to help with the driving. Saints that they are, they came with me to each of the sites. This turned out to be a bigger commitment than originally intended; I only planned on visiting 11 presidential homes, but we ended up seeing 15. 

Amazingly, 7 of those visits were completed on the first day, thanks to a few last minute additions. The first of these impromptu stops was at Montpelier, the home of James Madison, which I noticed was only 40 miles out of our way. It was already closed, but we could walk the grounds. Our only company was a pair of deer, which added to the serene beauty of the place. It was certainly worth a detour.

We are spotted by the Montpelier deer

Montpelier, home of James Madison

On our way back to the main road, we came within a few miles of Ash Lawn-Highland, home of president Monroe, which I had no pictures of. We decided to make a stop there to get some exterior shots of the house since it was already late evening. However, when we got there, the parking lot was full. Turns out, a wedding reception was being held on the grounds. Not to be deterred, we snuck around, avoiding the wedding guests while we snapped a few pictures. Mission accomplished.

Shortly after this picture was taken, we were chased off
the property by enraged newlyweds

The next day, we visited Poplar Forest, the country retreat of Thomas Jefferson. While on the tour, we discovered that Jefferson had purchased a natural bridge for five dollars that still existed. We decided to stop by and check it out when we realized it was right on our route into Tennessee. As we got off the highway, we probably should have picked up on the warning signs that The Natural Bridge was not what we were expecting; namely, the billboards for a dinosaur theme park and Foamhenge, a replica of Stonehenge presumably made of foamboard.

When we finally arrived at the Natural Bridge, we had to walk into a large complex about the size of an elementary school that turned out to be a combination Visitors Center/Gift Shop (with emphasis on the Gift Shop). We briefly convened to discuss what would be an acceptable price to view the bridge. I maintained five dollars would be ideal, since that was how much Jefferson paid for the bridge, but we eventually settled on ten. Imagine our surprise when we learned that it cost $19 per person to see the natural rock formation. We were also informed that we could choose to either walk or take a shuttle to see it, despite the fact that it was less than a quarter mile away. In the end, we opted out of shelling out 60 bucks to see a rock and got some ice cream instead.

I only view rock formations for free

To be continued...