August 8, 2025–Charlottesville, Virginia to Erie, Pennsylvania 

Tonight we are camping at Lampe Campground and Marina in Erie, Pennsylvania on the shore of Lake Erie.  The first picture is how it looks when you are lolling in a lounge chair by Vanna. The second picture is if you get up and walk over to the ugly chain link fence and look at the view.

We just came from Charlottesville, where we stayed for a couple of nights in a new hotel that is pretty much in the middle of the campus of University of Virginia.  In case you are wondering, we didn’t really know that our hotel was located on the campus.  We mostly look for hotels that aren’t right downtown because we have to consider Vanna’s size.  But the UVA campus was stunning, so it was a nice place to be.  

Yesterday we visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s historic home.  We went on a tour of the house with our guide Elliot, who was a loud, fast talker.  Elliot raced through his spiel in an almost robotic manner.   It was kind of like being verbally assaulted for 45 minutes.  I won’t bore you with all of the details, but Jefferson began the building the house in 1768 and finished the final version in 1809.  Yes, that’s a 41 years long project.  

Another factoid is that the house is made to look like a one story structure, but it’s actually three stories.  Jefferson thought this style would be both more aesthetically pleasing and more in keeping with its natural surroundings.  This made the inside of the house kind of puzzling, if I may be so bold as to comment on such a historic and illustrious house.  Super high ceilings on the first floor, low to the floor windows on the second floor and mostly skylights on the third floor.  It has been reported that Jefferson never went upstairs, so there are two steep, treacherous staircases hidden in alcoves on each side of the house.  I guess he just didn’t want to remember that the house had an upstairs. The first picture is of the front of the house. Notice the tall windows with the smaller stacked windows above. Those are the second story windows. The second picture is a bedroom on the second floor with said low windows. The third picture is of the back of the house, which is actually prettier than the front. The fourth picture is of Jefferson’s study.

So I did end up boring you with the details after all.