Virginia - Days 30 & 31

Fancy Gap KOA
Saturday, 30 and Sunday, 31 March 2019

I've spent most of the last 2 days catching up on a week's worth of blog entries.  I find I get really tired about 4:00 or so, and my brain doesn't want to work very well.  Since I've never been what you might call skilled with computers, a slow brain doesn't make blogging easy.  When I keep going and seeing new things every day, it creates a backlog.

This campground is built on the side of a mountain so all walks with the dogs involve uphill and downhill.  Undoubtedly good for us.  Lots of wild rhododendrons all over.  We've had mostly sun, and on Saturday I put the dogs outside for a couple of hours.  (Gracie dug a hole to lie in; good thing I've got this nice new folding shovel.)  Overnight, a cold front started moving in, along with some pretty strong winds, so today we've mostly stayed indoors.

Friday night this campground filled almost completely up.  I couldn't believe it.  Yes, it was a weekend and yes, it's gettin' on for spring, but I don't think I'd've picked this weekend to go camping.  But they gradually left and by Sunday afternoon there were only about 5 of us left, aside from the seasonals.  I guess everybody else was just passing through.  As I will be tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately, there's a freeze predicted for tonight and tomorrow's route takes me over the mountains into West Virginia.  I know there're several rivers to cross, and we all know bridges freeze before roadways, so I think I'll wait until later in the morning to start.  Theoretically, it's only about an hour drive from this campground to the next, so I've got some spare time.

Because of tonight's predicted freeze, I've already drained and put my water hose away.  When it's cold, the hose is really stiff and hard to deal with.  Having luckily been educated soon after WWII, I still had the benefits of some classics in my schooling.  Every time I wrestle with a stiff water hose, I think of this statue.

Death of Laocoön

It's one of the most famous ancient sculptures - excavated in 1506 - now at the Vatican.  Laocoön was a Trojan priest of Apollo who warned Troy about the Greek's present of the Trojan Horse (and was apparently ignored).  He and his sons were killed by 2 sea serpents, as this sculpture depicts.  Yep.  Water hose wrestling.

I think I've figured out how to produce photos of my travel route maps that aren't so fuzzy you can't really tell what they're of.  It's only taken me a year, but I've finally discovered some of the editing aids for photographs that my computer has.  The map photos I take from a ways back, when I'm trying to take in a lot of map - like with Friday's map - are much clearer than when I take a close-up of a smaller area.  So I think if I take the photo of even a short distance from farther back, and then use the photo editing tools to get it closer, the maps might be legible.  I haven't tried it yet, so we'll find out tomorrow.

On Saturday I saw a Hairy Woodpecker (it isn't hairy) here.  To me they look exactly like the Downy Woodpecker (it isn't downy), except there's a 2½" difference in size - enough to be noticeable.

Hairy Woodpecker

They're the smallest of the woodpeckers so it's easy to know that's what I'm looking at.  Cute, huh?

I talked for a while with a man whose wife died 3 years ago, and he's now sold everything and moved with his 2 small dogs into a pretty large 5th wheel.  But he doesn't have any kind of plan for what to do next.  He said he and his wife had planned to retire and buy an RV and travel around, but it sounds like without her he's only got as far as the retire and move into an RV part.  Losing one's spouse ... one of the hardest things life can throw at you.

Being beyond question in the South now, I hear southern accents all around me and my accent is seriously coming back.  A few days ago, I heard myself say I was "fixin' to" do something and I thought yep, you're back in the South.

Virginia - Day 29 - Appomattox and the Blue Ridge

Fancy Gap/Blue Ridge Parkway KOA
Friday, 29 March 2019

today's route

My campground was just a few miles west of the National Park.

Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.
The town of Appomattox Court House, originally known as Clover Hill until a courthouse was built in 1845, included 60 buildings in 1860 and was formed around a tavern that was built at a crossroads of the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road.  Hostilities of the Civil War largely bypassed the town until April 1865.

From June 1884 to March 1886, Grant's army waged trench warfare against Lee's army, with trenches stretching from the edge of Richmond (the capital) 30 miles to the edge of Petersburg (a railroad hub).  In April Lee finally abandoned defense of both cities and moved his army south to Appomattox, intending to pick up supplies there and meet Gen. Johnston's army in North Carolina.

Grant's army was not only on Lee's tail but also trying to cut him off from reaching the railroad at Appomattox Station.  On April 8th, Union soldiers succeeded in capturing trainloads of supplies, including food that the Confederates badly needed.  I've never had a very high regard for George Custer, but this marker informed me that his history is not as simple as I'd thought.

On April 9th, Grant was able to attack Lee from above and superior Union numbers kept Lee from effectively retaliating.  Lee had been trying to break through the Union line to take the Stage Road down to Appomattox Station.  But with his men poorly fed, the railroads in Petersburg cut off, and now the Union troops around him, Lee had run out of options.  One of his aides suggested just letting his men scatter, and Pres. Jefferson Davis had called for guerrilla warfare, but Lee realized that could mean chaos in the country and decided surrender was preferable.

Grant suggested he choose a meeting place for them, and the front parlor of the McLean family house was chosen.  Here are 3 views of that meeting.
Two of them include George Custer, though one doesn't, despite all 3 being the same picture.  However, the National Portrait Gallery says none of them is accurate and offers yet another view.  npg.si.edu

Still the National Park Service is using these other pictures to go by and has furnished the parlor in today's McLean House to match.


Whatever the parlor looked like, the meeting between Lee and Grant lasted about an hour and a half.  Grant wrote a short statement of the terms of surrender, which were charity itself, considering these men had been fighting and losing men to each other for nearly a year.  Grant's primary stipulation was that Lee's men agree not to take up arms again against the Union.  He also asked that they forfeit their flags and weapons.  He agreed, however, that the officers could keep their sidearms and that those who had horses could keep them.

Once they'd agreed, Grant ordered his men to stop their wild celebrations, because he wanted to leave the southerners with some dignity and not be humiliated.  He also ordered that they be fed with the Union's supplies.  His actions raised a sense of gratitude among most of Lee's men.

Grant then sent a short note to Washington, DC, that could hardly have been more simple.

Less than 5 years later, he was sworn in as president.

Our history lessons tend to ignore that this day was by no means the end of the Civil War.  Lee surrendered only the Army of Northern Virginia.  There were other armies that were still fighting and, in fact, the final surrender of the war didn't come until November.  This link describes them all, with an interesting reference to Coca-Cola.  wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil-War-Conclusion

Two days after Appomattox Court House, Pres. Lincoln gave a speech about what he believed the future would look like for the country, including voting rights for black people.  His primary concern was to bring about reconciliation and reestablish a real union, not just one in name.  However, John Wilkes Booth was in the audience and was so inflamed by the speech that he decided to kill Lincoln.  On April 14th, he did exactly that and, in my opinion, is one of the direct causes for the disaster that we know as Reconstruction.

Lincoln was our first president to be assassinated.  Coming so close on the heels of the surrender, many southerners feared northern retribution.

The exterior of the McLean House today is much like it was in 1865, thanks to a failed business venture.  In 1898, a man bought the house, intending to move it to Washington, DC, and open it as a war museum.  He got as far as having it disassembled when the crash of 1898 happened and all his funds dried up.  For the next 30 years, the pile of house parts lay unattended and were likely scavenged by the neighbors.  But in 1933 the National Park Service took control.  With the help of archaeologists and researchers, they figured out where the original foundation was and what it should look like.  Today, much of the front of the house is built of the original bricks.

I saw a pair of Bluebirds in the front yard.  True.

... and now

McLean House then ..

The drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains
We had a beautiful blue sky for much of the day, though the temperature wasn't as warm as they'd forecast.

Throughout this month I've been seeing signs by the side of the road saying: Open Air Fires Unlawful Before 4 PM.  That seemed so odd to me that finally, today, I looked it up.  Turns out they're an attempt by the Virginia Dept. of Forestry is trying to minimize forest fires.  During the winter months, forest fuels cure (they say) and result in high fire danger in the early spring before the new growth appears.  I'd never thought about it.  The ban runs every year from Feb. 15th to April 30th.

But speaking of new growth, today I started to see those neon green leaves that you get in the early spring on some bushes.  Very hopeful.

more signs of spring

Interstate 81 runs down the Shenandoah Valley as far as I can tell, and I had mountains on both my right and my left.  Very pretty.

I passed a sign for the town of Grahams Forge, so I looked it up, and I'm glad I did.  I can't see that there's much of a town there, but there must have been once and there's still a mansion that's haunted.  They swear.  And you can read about it here.   majorgrahammansion.com  They include a lot of exclamation marks!

This campground is at Fancy Gap, and I have no idea where the name came from.  I've thought of about 5 explanations so far and haven't wanted to look it up in case it's just something ordinary, like a person's name.

Virginia - Day 28 - friends and Booker T. Washington

Paradise Lake Family Campground, Spout Spring (near Appomattox)
Thursday, 28 March 2019

today's route

In the campground this morning I saw an RV that came in after we went to bed last night, and this is what it looked like.

It's a Travato by Winnebago, and that red is really red.  All other RVs are white or brown or beige or maybe blue or even black, but none of them has any real color to them.  So this thing was really noticeable.  I guess it's a Class B and isn't very big, yet these folks were pulling a Kia behind it.  Don't know why they wouldn't want to just stick with the one vehicle that's smaller than mine, but everybody thinks differently.

Today I headed toward southwestern Virginia, aiming first to meet friends and visit the Booker T. Washington National Monument, and then head over near Appomattox.  If I'd looked at a map when I was making these plans, I'd have planned a different route that reversed the agendas for today and tomorrow.  But I didn't, so I ended up driving the same road several times.  A waste of gas, but otherwise not a hardship.

Speaking of gas, I've been noticing that gas prices have gone up steadily during this month.  When I first came to Virginia, I was paying $2.20-$2.30/gallon in the northeast.  That went up to the mid-$2.30s when I went down to the Norfolk area and continued in that range until last week.  By the time I left Richmond and came west, the price had gone up into the $2.40s in many places.  And by today, it's hard to find anywhere that offers gas for less than that.  I don't know if this is due to some international event that I missed hearing about or is just related to Virginia taxing laws.  But a 20¢/gallon difference in price makes a real difference to me when I'm buying in quantities of 30-40 gallons.

There was frost on the road this morning, so I drove carefully until I was sure the roads were okay.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and I thought the sun wouldn't be a problem as I was heading mostly south.  But trees lined the roadway and the sun shining through the trunks had a strobe effect for me.  The flickering light pouring in continuously for miles at the side of my eyes - I had trouble concentrating on the road and finally had to drive with my hand shielding the side of my face.  The visor is too short for the angle.  This is by no means the first time that's happened and is something I'd never have expected.

The road ran around the eastern edge of Lynchburg (named for its founder John Lynch and chartered in 1786), population 71,000+.  It's the home of the University of Lynchburg, but the main thing you see when you drive down the highway is Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell, who has a stretch of the road named after him (Jerry Falwell Parkway).  Liberty University, with 45,000 students, is the largest private non-profit university in the US and one of the world's largest Christian universities.  The buildings for this school stretch quite a way along the highway and made me hope the students had bicycles to get around campus.

I saw a pond south of town with 6 swans a-swimming (I think it was 6, not 7).  The bird book says some swans might winter in eastern VA, which this isn't, but it's late March so I'm guessing they were wild.

The road took me through what I'm sure are the foothills east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which in turn are part of the Appalachian Mountain Range.  It's really pretty country.

Except for the occasional billboards advertising Doomsday Tactical Supply.  I looked them up and they sell a large variety of firearms, apparel and other outdoor supplies.  But what a depressing name.

I went first to a community by Smith Mountain Lake to meet the granddaughter of our long-time family friends from Waco, Mr. and Mrs. Goebel.  Faith brought 4 of her children with her and we had a very nice visit over a late breakfast.  I was sorry not to have been able to time my visit so I could meet her husband and other daughter, but it was nice to talk with them.

Jesse, Eliza, Faith, Os(wald) and Silas

A few miles down the road from there is the Booker T. Washington National Monument.  I'd always had a vague idea that the "T" didn't stand for anything (like Harry "S" Truman), but it stands for Taliafero, who historians believe was his father.

He never knew for sure where or when he was born or who his father was.  The exhibits said he was likely born 1858 or 1859, but a bust at the entrance lists the date as 1856.  They really don't know.

Modern researchers have figured out for us that he was born at this site of what was once the Burroughs plantation, because they've found documents cataloging the Burroughs' property, with a list of slaves including an 8-year-old "Bowker," valued at $400.  78% of the Burroughs' wealth was in slaves, and this was true of many farm owners dependent on slavery.

1860 map of Virginia showing percentages of blacks in each county - over 70% in some.  It's easy to see why West Virginia separated from Virginia during the war.

It was illegal then to educate enslaved people, and young Booker was envious of the Burroughs children who got to go to school.  After the Emancipation Proclamation, he moved with his mother and siblings to West Virginia where his stepfather lived; the male family members worked long hours in the Kanawha Salt Co. mine, but at least they got paid for it.  And Booker spent his off-work time trying to learn to read and write.

From somewhere he heard about the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute for African-Americans in coastal Virginia and walked most of the 500 miles to get to the school.  On the left is his earliest known photograph, believed to have been taken when he was at Hampton.  On the first day he noticed that all the students had at least 2 names, but he'd never been called anything but Booker.  By the time his turn came, he decided his name was Booker Washington.

He paid his tuition at Hampton by working as a janitor there, and came to value labor both for its financial rewards and for the independence it brought.  He graduated with honors and returned to West Virginia to teach.

In 1881 he was hired to start a school in Tuskegee, Alabama.  That was an era of vigilantes who burned schools, so Washington had the first class of 30 student build a kiln and make bricks.  They used these to erect school buildings that would be hard to burn and, 7 years later, the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers had 400 students.  Over time, the school became known for its skills-based curriculum, designed to help students achieve economic success and pass their knowledge on to others.

Other blacks disagreed with this focus, rather than aiming for political gain, but Washington had grown up never getting enough to eat and believed economic opportunities would help blacks achieve success in life.

He used to give speeches to help raise money for the school, and these speeches raised his public profile so much that he was eventually advising presidents and other decision-makers.  He always promoted economic opportunities for blacks, but he also privately financed challenges to the Jim Crow laws.  If you want to get some basics on where these laws came from and what they did, this link offers a primer.  www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month

the lesson he learned from hard work

the lesson he learned about helping others

at the entrance - a quote to inspire us all

After leaving the monument, we retraced the road toward Lynchburg and branched off east for the Appomattox area.

From online comments about this campground, I'd expected a run-down kind of place that wasn't very comfortable, and that's not at all what I found.  They mostly had seasonal campers there, and most of those weren't spending this night in the campground, so we had lots of company in the form of RVs but not much in the way of people.  The office upgraded us to a really nice site by the lake, and I put the dogs out on long leashes and let them nap in the sun for a few hours.  A pleasant, peaceful stay.

Virginia - Day 27 - Charlottesville

Charlottesville KOA
Wednesday, 27 March 2019

today's route

At first, today seemed like a day that would require massive problem-solving.

I've been finding I have almost no phone access in this campground - only a very weak signal if I go outside, and it disappears if I move a few inches the wrong way.  Makes getting campground reservations and conducting financial business much harder.  I decided this morning I'd need to go into town for this reason alone.

I've been trying for days to decide where to stay for my last few days in Virginia and the first week or so in West Virginia.  The trouble is that I've reached mountains again.  Mountains run all along Virginia's western border, and West Virginia doesn't seem to have any flat land in it at all, based on the maps I've been looking at.  I know it's been a full year since I first drove in this same mountain range in southern Pennsylvania, but that hasn't been long enough for me to forget my terror at 12% grades and DANGER signs at the tops of mountains (where they do no good at all - why they aren't at the bottom is beyond me).

In fact, my fear has nearly paralyzed my decision-making ability and I've been dithering about how far I should expect myself to drive in a day and how remote can a campground be before I'm not willing to stay at it.  But reality says I have to have a place to stay tomorrow night and the 3 nights after that, and that requires making a decision and making some phone calls.

And then this morning when I was doing yet another search online for routes that might not be packed with switchbacks and so forth, my computer froze.  This time it wasn't taken over by scammers.  It just froze.  But I remembered the lessons my brother taught me the last time.  Of course, what he said was turn it off, but that's for scammers apparently because I couldn't turn it off.  Nothing on the screen worked at all.  Pushing the on/off button had no effect.  Pushing other buttons didn't work either.  Nothing for it but that I have to take the battery out again.

Experience is good.  I now know where the battery is - behind 9 tiny screws.  At which point I learned one of the 9 is almost stripped.  And neither of the screwdrivers I have that fit would work.  So, since I couldn't look it up myself, I asked at the office where there's an Ace Hardware (figuring the big box stores wouldn't give me the personal attention I wanted for this problem), and instead the manager asked her husband to come and bring his tools.  It took him almost a half hour to arrive, and the reason turned out to be he had to get 3 little kids dressed and stuffed in the golf cart lookalike.  And he had the same screwdriver I do but showed me how the head on mine is worn, for some reason, which is why it didn't work.  I got the back off, got the battery out, got the battery back in, got the back back on, and sure enough, got my computer back.

Then there's the problem that I'm almost out of cash and Chase bank has no branches in the entire state of Virginia.  Actually, it might have one in Alexandria, or it might just be an ATM.  It's got a bunch of branches in both Maryland and West Virginia, which makes me wonder a lot about banking laws in Virginia.  Anyway, I have to be careful about spending the little cash I have left until I can get to a West Virginia bank.

On the other hand, yesterday I got a package from David and Anna with bills (yuck) and Yea! more Pecan Bread from the Corsicana bakery.  Pecan bread can make all kinds of problems seem solvable.

Before I lost computer access I'd worked out a route for today that I hoped would take me on several errands as well as a brief tour of downtown Charlottesville.  But by the time we left the campground, it was so late in the morning and took longer than I thought to get into town that I ended up going straight to the laundromat I'd located.  Good laundromat but a little odd - they seem to do so much laundry for other people that it's hard to find an empty machine.  But all the machines worked and there was some room to walk the dogs in the back, so it worked out.

And while I was parked there I made reservations for campgrounds for the rest of March, which was a relief to get settled, and took care of some other business I didn't want to do online (banking and so forth).

I was a little north of town, and to get to downtown and the University of Virginia campus tried to stay on regular roads instead of the interstate.  And almost immediately got caught in an enormous traffic jam.  Cars were backed up for as far as I could see and we were inching along, when we were moving at all.  So I ducked over to the interstate, and then left it when I found an exit for town.  But that didn't put me on a road I knew so I just drove in the general direction until it started to make sense. 

And that's when I suddenly found myself driving by the Rotunda at UVA, which I'd wanted to see but thought I wouldn't be able to get to.

This is an online photo - traffic was still thick where I was and I couldn't stop anywhere.  Jefferson designed it and supervised its construction through his telescope at Monticello.  (Remember I said Monticello is on top of a steep hill?)

Town wasn't laid out quite like I'd thought, but I managed to find the right roads with no problem and took care of some more errands before heading back to the campground.  So despite morning frustrations, I ended up having a productive day.  We got back to the campground in time for the dogs to have some more lie-outside-in-the-sun time.

Virginia - Day 26 - James Monroe's Highland

Charlottesville KOA
Tuesday, 26 March 2019

today's route

I chose the road less traveled to get to James Monroe's home - a long road full of s-curves and vineyards.  Lots of vineyards, including one belonging to our current president (Virginia's largest, it proclaims).  From this point on is another history lesson.  Skip to tomorrow if you're not interested

James Monroe, our 5th president, was born near the birthplaces of Washington and Madison.  You may remember when I visited the site a week ago I was a little frustrated that it left so many questions unanswered.  Today I got some of those answers.

Monroe and his wife Elizabeth met when Monroe was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1783 and were married for 42 years.  They moved here to Highland Plantation in 1799 and raised their 3 children here. 

Jefferson was born near here at Shadwell.  (I passed the historical marker as I was driving to the campground a couple of days ago, and found this photo of the historical marker online.)  Jefferson loved the area and talked his good friends into moving closer to him.  This house isn't far from Madison's Montpelier, and it's only a 20-minute horse ride to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

Although Monroe later had a falling out with Madison, he stayed friends with Jefferson until their deaths - Jefferson in 1826 and Monroe in 1831 (both on July 4th).  Incidentally, John Adams died the same day Jefferson did.

One of the odd things about Monroe's house is that, until just a few years ago, everyone was convinced that the house that's still on this site was Monroe's house.  It wasn't and, in fact, wasn't built until more than 40 years after his death. 

The College of William and Mary owns Highland and, not long ago, they hired as Highland's executive director the woman who had been archaeologist at Monticello.  She took a good look at the house - the yellow one in these 2 photos - and thought something was off.  She had scientific tests done of the rafters and whatnot and learned it had been built in the 1870s.  (Monroe died in 1831.)  After more tests, she conducted an archaeological dig in 2015-16 and found what they've confirmed to be the foundation for the original house. 

The outline of that foundation is marked in these photos by the paving stones.  The scientists re-covered the dig site to preserve the remains until they are able to conduct a full dig.  The problem is that, as far as they can tell, a wing of the original house is underneath that yellow house which, as a part of the history of this place, they don't want to get rid of, but it's not easy or cheap to move an historic building.  They're working on plans to do that now.

Behind the yellow house and attached to it is the original Guest House that

Guest House

Monroe built in 1818.  It is now believed, based on the archaeological findings, that the original main house burned down in the 1830s, some years after the Monroes sold it.  The new owners moved into the Guest House and, in the 1850s, added a wing.  When later owners moved in, they built a house (the yellow one) attached to the 1850s wing.  Apparently, they believed the Guest House had been Monroe's house, and that's the story passed down.  No one questioned it until the current executive director brought her scientific training to bear on the site.  (And I can't help wondering what other mangled history is still sitting out there, waiting for people to literally uncover the truth.)

Okay, that's his house.  Now about Monroe himself.

At his birthsite, markers said he left home at age 16 but didn't say why.  Today I was told it was because both his parents died, so he went off to William and Mary.  Although he'd been well-educated, he was just a farm boy and wasn't nearly as well prepared for college as the other students.  For example, John Marshall, later Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, was one of his classmates.  He spent the next summer studying to try to catch up and, by the fall term, his professors were very impressed.  Monroe interrupted his education to serve in the Revolutionary War.

Remember this painting?  The young man standing behind Washington, holding the flag, is an 18-year-old Lt. James Monroe.  In the subsequent Battle of Trenton, which was a turning point in the war, a musket ball hit an artery in Monroe's chest.  He would have bled to death almost instantly if it weren't for a doctor, who had just volunteered the previous day, sticking his finger in the hole onto the artery and stopping the bleeding.  That bullet stayed in Monroe's chest for the rest of his life.

After the war, Monroe went back to college and later studied law under Thomas Jefferson, having met him during the war.  And like Jefferson, Monroe would later serve as the governor of Virginia.

Incidentally, while he was whiling away the winter in Valley Forge, Monroe struck up a friendship with Lafayette and learned French from him.  This came in handy when Pres. Washington sent him to France as the US ambassador, one of 3 ambassador posts Monroe would hold.

It came in handy again when Pres. Jefferson sent him back to France to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase.  Jefferson had previously sent a man named Robert Livingston with orders to try to buy the Port of New Orleans to guarantee access to the Mississippi River.  France, needing money at the time, offered instead to sell the entire LA Territory for an additional amount.  Livingston refused, insisting all the US needed was the Port, and negotiations were stalled.  When Monroe arrived, he quickly said sure, we'll take the whole thing, and got an agreement within hours.  And we now have a whole lot more US than we did.

During the War of 1812, Monroe served as Secretary of War and Secretary of State at the same time.  In the presidential election a few years later, he won in the Electoral College by a margin of 6-1.  He was unopposed in the election for his second term.  He served as president 1817-1825.

He's said to have been easy to like, to have the ability to put people at ease, to have a good sense of humor and the ability to laugh at himself.  His time as president was known even then as the Era of Good Feelings.  (Which leads to the obvious question: where's James Monroe when his country really needs him?)

Monroe is, of course, best known for the Monroe Doctrine.  He had been ambassador to Spain, and early in his presidency he acquired Florida from Spain, but he was concerned with the newly independent Latin American colonies in the rest of our hemisphere.  In 1823, he issued the Monroe Doctrine, putting Europe on notice that the US wouldn't interfere with existing European colonies or with the European countries themselves, but would regard it as a hostile act if Europe didn't do the same in Latin America.  It signaled the US as a geopolitical power.  This statue now standing on the grounds of Highland was commissioned in his memory by Venezuela in the 1890s.

Madison believed black people and white people would and should never mix.  Jefferson believed slavery was a problem for the next generation to solve.  Monroe had a more conflicted attitude.  He believed throughout his life that slavery was a blight on the country, yet he owned enslaved people himself and didn't interfere when the overseers of his plantation treated them harshly.  Yet Monroe supported colonizing Africa with freed slaves and helped send thousands to Liberia.  Monrovia, Liberia's capital, is named for Monroe.

At Madison's and Jefferson's homes it's possible to see how slavery was part of the plantation life, but not at Monroe's.  This is partly because none of the buildings survived, but mostly because Monroe eventually sold those people to a plantation in Florida (once the US acquired it) and historians believed there were no descendants living in the Highland area.  However, recent efforts involving thousands of hours of research, have begun to locate them.  They've even found an entire community a few hours away that's known as Monroeville, made up almost entirely of descendants of the former enslaved people from Highland.  As more information is unearthed, a fuller picture of life on the plantation will surely become clear.

This is an avenue of ash trees that leads from the road up to the house.  I wish I could see it when there're leaves on those trees - it must be magnificent.  I'm told the trees are inoculated every 2 years for emerald ash borer, which is a pest from Asia that has wiped out many millions of ash in the US.  (Amazing what you learn when you ask.)

The Monroes were the first First Family to own a set of White House china - and that set can be seen at Highland.  Their 3rd child Maria was the first president's child to be married inside the White House.  Highway 40, created during Monroe's presidency, was the first federally-funded interstate road.  Monroe, like Madison and Jefferson, faced old age deeply in debt; unlike the other two, Monroe sold most of his possessions, including Highland, and paid off the debts before he died.

And that's what I learned at Highland.

A different road back to the campground took me by Monticello, but it's on top of a hill that rises so steeply from the road I couldn't see anything up there.  I decided not to visit Monticello for 2 reasons: one is that the 30-minute tour (which seems pretty dadgummed short for somebody like Jefferson) is mainly focused on daily life there, while I'm more interested in his mind and creativity; the other reason is that they charge $30 for that 30-minutes, which includes only the 1st floor of the house!  I paid $21 at Montpelier for an hour-long tour that was packed with information about the things I'm interested in, and $14 at Highland for ditto.  In comparison, Monticello just didn't seem like a good use of my time or money.  Maybe later after I win the lottery.

Virginia - Day 25

Charlottesville KOA
Monday, 25 March 2019

I spent this day catching up on my blog (writing about my visits to the Civil War Museum and to Madison's home took a lot of time and energy, for some reason), and walking the dogs.

Apparently to compensate for its lack of size, this campground has not only a doggie play pen but also what they call a nature walk.  This actually consists of a trek uphill and downhill and uphill and downhill (keep repeating) on a barely discernable track through the surrounding woods.  The dogs loved it.  I kept telling myself the exercise was good for all of us.  And it is nice to tromp around in dead leaves.  They're Gracie's favorite thing - I don't think there's anything she likes as much as rolling around in a pile of dead leaves.

The sun wasn't out much and it was pretty chilly most of the day, but it was still pleasant.

As in most campgrounds, this one had a lot of people leaving today.  Wednesdays have the fewest number of campers at any time of year, with Tuesday and Monday next in order.  As a full-timer, I look forward to the first few days of the week.

Virginia - Day 24

Charlottesville KOA
Sunday, 24 March 20

today's route

I took an interesting drive along the back roads, again avoiding the interstate as much as I could.  I was changing campgrounds and doing a little shopping on the way.

I passed the former site of Boswell's Tavern where a number of historical figures once hung out.  (You didn't know they hung out, did you?  Actually, history describes it as a "frequent meeting place for notable figures [of the day]."  I like my way better.)

Yesterday afternoon I cleaned the RV's windows for the first time in ages.  Actually, I was forced into cleaning them because there were so many doggy nose prints on the side windows I had trouble seeing out of them.  Today I was stunned at what a little clarity can do.

It was a beautiful day - got up to the mid-60s - and I put the dogs outside the RV on long leashes for a while after we got to the new place.

This is a very small campground by KOA standards.  There're only 55 RV spaces and a dozen or so tent spaces.  And in the late afternoon I discovered that the entire campground owns one or more dogs - they all seemed to walk them at the same time.  I'll just have to dodge them.

Virginia - Day 23 - James Madison's Montpelier

Small Country Campground
Saturday, 23 March 2019

today's route

Madison's home is 25 miles north of Charlottesville and made for a pleasant drive on a sunny Saturday morning.

The weeping willows are budding now - that gorgeous green that comes in the spring.  So pretty.

The drive picked up a wonderful view of bucolic fields bounded by the blue Blue Ridge Mountains.  Such beauty.

Pres. Zachary Taylor
On the way I passed a historical marker in front of the home where Pres. Zachary Taylor was born.  He grew up in Kentucky and that's where he's buried.  I found several online references that say he's the only president from Louisiana and is in the LA Hall of Fame, but I have no idea why.  I can't see that he ever lived there, though he was stationed there during military campaigns.  Weird.

He earned hero status during his 40 years in the military, and forgettable status during his 15 months in the presidency.

He was apparently a principled man for, despite his thoroughly southern background, he opposed the expansion of slavery to the west, saying it wasn't needed because they weren't growing labor-intensive crops like cotton there.  It's speculated he'd have vetoed the Compromise of 1850 for that reason.  But he died suddenly at age 65 and it was only when his body was exhumed in the 1980s on suspicion of poisoning that they learned he likely died from being over-treated by 1850s medical methods.  He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.

Pres. James Madison

He was actually born near Port Conway at Belle Grove Plantation, near Washington's and Monroe's birthplaces.  But except for his first few weeks, he spent his entire life here at Montpelier. 

They offer several different tours here, from very different points of view.  I chose the one that focused on Madison's influence on the US Constitution.  It lasted only an hour and I'll bet every one of us wished it had been longer.  The guide said it was originally a 2 hour tour, and was shortened to 90 minutes, and then to 1 hour - and he crammed 2 hours of information into that hour.

looking up at Montpelier

the Blue Ridge Mtns. from the front porch

Again, if early American history isn't your interest, skip over all of today, because that's what I learned about.

•  Madison was born in 1751.  At that time, the Blue Ridge Mountains were the equivalent of the state's border, and you can see how close the family lived to them.  They were essentially on the frontier.  
• By the time he was 10, Madison had already read his father's entire library.  He was sent to a boarding school and then to what became Princeton.  In those days, Princeton was like 1960s Berkeley as being in the forefront of radical thinking, and Madison enjoyed it.  Meanwhile, he learned 7 languages and got a traditional education in the classics.  He was taught to make up his own mind about things and to use reason above all.
• In the 1700s Virginia had a state religion (Anglican) and citizens were required to pay taxes to support the church.  Members of other denominations had to register as dissenters.  In 1774-75, Madison witnessed the arrest of some Baptists, and he was so upset about it that it influenced him into becoming political.
• At the age of 25, he was elected from this area to help write the Virginia Constitution.  At first the other delegates weren't impressed with him (too young), but George Mason quickly recognized his brilliant mind and put him in charge of writing the part about religion.  Mason wanted it to say the government is "tolerant of all religions."  Madison disagreed, seeing this as implying government could be intolerant of religion (he should have been an lawyer).  He left out all mention of religion.
• George Washington said he never saw so much mind in so little matter: Madison's supporters said he was 5'6" and his detractors said he was 5'2" - our nation's shortest president.
• Madison was sickly much of his life and often was forced to retreat to Montpelier for rest.  During one of these periods, he wrote to Jefferson in France asking him to find some books that he didn't have.  Jefferson ignored him for months and then finally sent him hundreds - all in their original languages.  (But, no problem for the man who knows 7 of them.)  Madison used those books to formulate the plan for government that is eventually written into our Constituion.  He had 4,000 books when he died, a library second only to Jefferson's.

These photos are Madison's library, where he spent a year learning about the world's governments and political philosophies.  It was here he formulated what became the Virginia Plan.

The Constitutional Convention, summer of 1787:

• Most delegates arrived thinking they were there to try to improve the Articles of Confederation.  They were quite surprised to discover that Madison and Hamilton and others wanted to discuss an entirely new system.
• This summer was the hottest on record up to that point.  The delegates' first decision was to nail all the windows shut and post armed guards at the doors.  They were serious about security.
• Their second decision was to elect George Washington as president of the convention.  He made a speech on the first day and then didn't say another word until the very last day.
• Madison had written what was known as the Virginia Plan, which became the framework for the Constitution.  It included a bicameral congress with representation in the House based on population, and senators elected by the House.  He included no president.
• Hamilton preferred the British system, and wanted a king that would be elected and serve for life.
• There was the bicameral Connecticut Plan with House membership based on population and 1 senator/state.  They compromised on 2/state.
• The southern states wanted to count the enslaved people as property and therefore not taxed as citizens, but also to count as people for purposes of determining seats in the House.  That's where the 3/5 of a person compromise came from.
• Each day Madison took copious notes.  His reading had taught him that when other governments had been formed, no record had been kept explaining how they were formed.  He wanted ours to be documented, though he kept them under tight secrecty at the time.  His notes are now in the Library of Congress.

When the delegates had finally come up with a finished plan, not everyone was happy with it and many were hesitant to sign it.

• Benjamin Franklin was 81 and not in good health.  He could no longer walk and was taken to the meetings every day in a sedan chair carried by prisoners from the nearby jail.  He also could no longer speak and wrote what he had to say for another delegate to read aloud.  On the last day, he wrote that he'd wanted a unicameral body, but he realized he wouldn't be able to have his choice.  Still, he said, he thought they'd come up with a framework that would work, said he was willing to sign it and encouraged others to do the same.
• At this point, George Washington spoke for the 2nd time and asked the delegates to sign it as a personal favor to him.  That tipped the scales.  He was revered by all of them.

Of course, it still had to be approved by the various state legislatures, which was another set of battles.  To achieve this, Madison and Hamilton and John Jay together wrote what were essentially letters to the editor, and were published in newspapers.  They became known as the Federalist Papers and were designed to convince the public that this was a good plan.

The biggest hurdle they ran into was the lack of a Bill of Rights.  Madison and Hamilton didn't want one, but when it became clear the Constitution wouldn't be adopted without one, Madison gave his word he'd come up with one.  His word was apparently considered good and it convinced Virginia to adopt it, with a margin of 10 votes.  I think New York's margin was only 3 votes.  Rogue Island (as it was called) didn't bother to vote and came in later.

Ours is the first written constitution in the history of the world that's been sustained over a long period of time.

All of this happened before he married Dolley, in 1794.  The tour I chose didn't include a lot of information about her or their marriage or their daily lives.  She was very likely instrumental in helping get him elected president, as she was very well-liked and gave legendary dinner parties.  She was 17 years younger than he.

The guide knew a whole lot more than he had time to tell us and could answer a whole range of questions from Dolley's favorite color (red) and Madison's opinion on slavery (unshakeable, even by earnest arguments from his friend Lafayette) to the reason Madison and Hamilton had such a falling out (I didn't know they did, but maybe the tour member who asked had been to see Hamilton) (it was because Madison thought Hamilton was trying to establish an oligarchy).

I didn't stay to look around the grounds and other exhibits.  We could wander or take one of the other tours for more in-depth information.  I did enjoy the signs of spring, though.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the forsythia seemed so exuberant.

Virginia - Day 22 - Richmond

Small Country Campground, Louisa
Friday, 22 March 2019

There were 2 very small campers in the campground last night.  One had a Washington state license plate and the brand name Little Guy.  I looked it up online but didn't find what I had seen.  It wasn't one of the teardrop types - it was much smaller than that.  It was closer to what's shown as a MyPod, but it didn't say that on the camper I saw.  This one was more like a little cocoon and looked like there was room only for 1 person, and only for that person to sit on the floor or lie down.  If I'd ever seen the owner I'd have asked about it.

The other had an Oregon license plate and was called an Arrowhead Chalet.  Their website boasts a 30-second set-up time, and I believe it.  It was pouring rain when they pulled in, and I saw the couple get out and scramble around in the rain, and almost instantly their a-frame top was set up and they were inside.  The only thing faster is my little guy, because I don't actually have to do anything at all, except maybe plug in the electric cord.  Of course, there were half a dozen huge bus-type RVs in the campground too.

today's route

We drove down to Richmond for several hours before heading to our next campground near Charlottesville.

Capitol grounds
I wasn't sure how close I could get to the capitol building itself, because I saw there were a lot of one-way streets downtown and didn't know how narrow the streets would be.  But I got lucky.  As I was driving up 9th St., I got a side view of a huge white building with lots of pillars (the Capitol) and was busy saying Wow several times when I saw an enormous glittering statue and quickly turned into what I thought was a side street to get closer.

Turned out I was turning into the capitol grounds and a uniformed officer came out to check out a vehicle that was clearly not the usual capitol visitor.  I've found many times it really helps to be an older white female because I look so unintimidating to most people and can usually elicit help.  Which was the case here.  I apologized for stumbling in where I didn't belong and told him I'd been trying to figure out how to get to the front of the capitol and was saying wow and then saw the statue and said wow several more times, and then over his shoulder I saw another amazing building and interrupted myself to say Wow again.  Here's what I was seeing.

Washington Monument

Old City Hall

Neither of these is my photo.  You can't imagine the impact of these places, even if these photos were blown up.  I think the figures on that statue are life-sized, which may give you an idea of how big it is.  Each man is labeled - George Mason, John Marshall, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry - folks like that.  And this photo doesn't really show it, but the figures gleamed in the sunlight.  The Old City Hall is in the next block to the capitol grounds and towers above the trees, just as you see here.  It's a stunning sight.

The nice officer gave me directions for how to get a good front view of the capitol, and told me to ignore the obstructions in the street when I got there.  Turns out what he meant was that the road was under construction and closed to through traffic.  But I followed instructions and did indeed get a good view.

Virginia's capitol

This is my photo, so you see I did get right in front.  It's up on a hill and must have looked far more imposing before the era of tall buildings.

Thomas Jefferson helped design it, based on the Maison Carrée in Nîmes (built about 2 AD, one of the best preserved Roman temples and in continuous use since the 11th century).

Maison Carrée

The Virginia version was built in 1785-88 and houses Virginia's General Assembly, the oldest elected legislative body in North America (originally the House of Burgesses, first meeting in 1619).

Across the street is the courthouse for the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

American Civil War Museum
I'd read online that this is the best one of these to go to, because it tries hard to present the viewpoints of all sides - isn't slanted for one or the other but aims instead at giving the facts.  That turns out to be true.  They charged me $10 (senior citizen price) and it was worth a great deal more than that.  I stayed 2 hours and that was time only to cover the events from the first American settlements through 1863.  I missed the entire 2nd floor, which covered the rest of the war and Reconstruction, which I really hated to miss.

There's so much information there and, despite it being our own history and me having heard almost all of it before, it still took time to comprehend how all the pieces fitted together and (my opinion) made the Civil War inevitable.  Most of the information I'm writing here is pre-war (a word that sounds more accurate to me than "antebellum").  Speaking of accuracy, the museum uses the phrase "enslaved African-Americans" or "enslaved people" rather than "slaves."  And then I realized that using the noun "slave" suggests slavery is inherent in that person, whereas the adjective "enslaved" makes clear that slavery was imposed on that person and not a part of him like eye color.

The next huge part is what I learned about the events precipitating the Civil War.  If you're not very interested, skip way down to the next part.

• In 1775, the Royal Governor of England granted freedom to all enslaved men who joined the royal forces; 300 joined what was called the "Ethiopian Regiment."  As a result, the colonists restricted slaves from gathering together, fearing insurrection.
• By 1776, all 13 colonies included enslaved people.  Also that year, the Continental Congress temporarily stopped the slave trade, aiming to shut down British trading.
• In 1778, George Washington granted freedom to all African-Americans who were willing to serve in the army.
• In 1780, an escaped slave named Col. Tye supported the British by creating the "Black Brigade" of 800 men.
• In 1783, the Virginia Assembly gave freedom to the enslaved men who served in the Continental Army.
• By the end of the war, 100,000 previously enslaved people had been killed or become fugitives.
• By 1790, 93% of the enslaved lived in the southern states.
• In 1793, Congress passed the 1st Fugitive Slave Act, which they said implemented the Constitution's Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3.  (And they were right; I had no idea it was written into the Constitution, but it was.  The 13th Amendment ended it.)
• In 1794, Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, which increased the need for more cotton to meet the increased ability to process it.  As a result, between 1790 and 1810, the number of enslaved people doubled.

So here we are, a brand new nation, and already feelings are starting to seethe and sides are forming.

This graphic shows that before 1800 the states were already talking about "states' rights," helped along by the Sedition Act of 1798, which criminalized false statements critical of the federal government.  (Think of how that would play today.)  It not only raised the issue of freedom of speech, but also gave rise to the idea that a state could nullify an act of Congress - one of the issues involved in the Civil War.

The graphic also shows that as early as 1802, Congress agreed to appease the southern states by limiting statehood based on an applicant's position on slavery.

• As Supreme Court Chief Justice from 1801-1835, John Marshall declared that Court to have the authority to decide what the Constitution says and to enforce it.  To that end, he nullified 13 state statutes by declaring them unconstitutional.
• The 1820 Missouri Compromise: each time a slave state was granted statehood, a free state would also be admitted; and slavery would be prohibited in any territory north of 36°30', except in Missouri which was being admitted as a slave state (Maine joined at the same time as a free state).  wikipedia.org/MissouriCompromise 
• The 1825 completion of the Erie Canal allowed northern states to exert more dominance over the Midwest and Great Lakes areas than the southern states, arriving faster and in greater numbers.

There were also economic issues coming up at this time:

• An 1828 tariff on English imports was supported by New England and the western states; the South hated it because England became unable to afford to buy their cotton and threatened to look elsewhere for a supplier.
• In 1832 South Carolina voted to nullify (there's the nullification idea again) US tariffs and raise an army and secede.  Pres. Andrew Jackson said both nullification of US law and secession meant war.
• The 1833 Force Act said it was okay for the president to use the military to stop a resistance in the country.  Congress came up with a compromise tariff act to settle tempers.

By this time, the turmoil over "states' rights" and slavery had spread throughout the populace.

• In 1831, Nat Turner's Rebellion killed 60 white people in Virginia.  In response, southern states restricted education and other activities for all black people, free or enslaved.  This hardened southern attitudes.
• In 1839, arguing in favor of the mutineers of the Amistad, former president John Adams convinced the Supreme Court to free them, with the decision that, because they had been kidnapped, they were never really slaves and all human beings have the right to resist oppression.  For more details about this fascinating case, you can start here.  www.archives.gov/amistad  This case hardened northern attitudes. 
• In 1836 Congress passed a gag rule to stop discussion of slavery in the House; by 1838 abolitionists had sent them 400,000+ signatures on anti-slavery petitions.
• In 1842, the Supreme Court overturned a Pennsylvania law that said people couldn't return escaped slaves, ruling the state was interfering in a federal duty.
• In 1844 and 1845, the Methodists and Baptists respectively split over slavery into north and south divisions.  (And that's where the Southern Baptists started.)

It had never occurred to me that the California gold rush had anything to do with the Civil War, but it did.  So many people moved to California that it was able to meet the population requirement for statehood.

But California straddled the 36°30' line, yet wanted to enter as one free state.  Southerners wanted to split it into 2 and designate the southern part a slave state.

The Compromise of 1850 allowed California to enter with its present boundaries as a free state.  And it limited the boundaries of Texas to their present configuration.  And it settled several other disputes.  As with any compromise, no one was really happy.  I think it just bought time.  You may want to look at this article, if for no other reason than the interesting maps.   wikipedia.org/Compromise_of_1850 

The compromise raised economic questions once again.  

• The southern plantation owners saw the compromise as a continuing attack on their way of life, where slaves were a big financial investment.  To them, land and slaves = wealth and security and power.  They saw expanding into new territory as essential to maintain Southern growth and influence.  They claimed the Constitution guaranteed the right to own slaves.
• The northerners saw slavery as unfair job competition and didn't want slaves in the western territories.  Craftsmen and small farmers didn't like competing with wealthy slave owners for western land.  They saw limiting slavery as ending Southern dominance of US politics.
• African-Americans lived in constant fear of being sold and being split from their families.  With good reason: by 1860, more than 1.2 million had been traded in the US.  They saw the compromise as trading their freedom to preserve the Union.
• The pre-war South produced about 10% of the US's manufactured goods, but it supplied 75% of the world's cotton.
• The North's economy was diversified, which encouraged immigration because many different types of skills were needed and jobs were to be had.  The South's economy focused on agriculture and slave labor.  In 1861, 57% of South Carolina's population was enslaved, the highest percentage of any state.

In 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin sold 400,000 copies.  Instantly, southern writers turned out 30+ books extolling the contented life that enslaved people led, compared to the terrible life of African-Americans in the north.

The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act effectively repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise because it allowed both states to enter the Union and decide for themselves whether they wanted to be free or slave.

And then there was the Dred Scott decision in 1857.  At this point, things really started to unravel.  This decision negated the hard-fought Compromise of 1850.  And it declared that a slave wasn't a human being, but instead was property that had no rights.

The decision was followed by the 1859 raid at Harper's Ferry by John Brown and his followers.  The north saw Brown as a martyr.  The south saw proof that they were being attacked.

The 1860 election found voters in an atmosphere of fear and distrust.  Although Lincoln hadn't campaigned on freeing slaves, the southern states believed he would.  Three days after he was elected president, the South Carolina legislature passed a resolution to declare secession.  In December, SC voted to secede.  Religious leaders said those against slavery were against Christianity.

In 1861:

• In January, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas seceded.  Union troops in SC had withdrawn to Fort Sumter and ships came in to resupply the fort.  Cadets from The Citadel fired on the ship, which retreated to New York.
• In February and March, the Confederate States of America was formed.
• April 12th, Southern soldiers attacked Ft. Sumter because it was held by a "foreign presence."
• April 15th, Lincoln called for 75,000 militia to put down the "insurrection."
• April 20th, this act pushed Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina to secede.
• SC, MS, GA and TX all issued declarations explaining why they were seceding.  All referred to Constitutional rights.  And all cited threats to slavery as the primary cause of the secession.
• In May, the CSA sent ambassadors to England and Europe expecting they would be allies; instead those countries declared neutrality, not wanting to lose trade with the North if the South wasn't able to pull this off.
• In June, the western part of Virginia declared its loyalty to the Union.  Kentucky and Missouri sent representatives to the Confederate Congress.
• In July, the first battle at Manassas showed both sides that this war wasn't going to be what they'd expected.  Both sides thought the war would last only a few months and looked on combat as a way to prove their courage.  Manassas taught them otherwise.

In August, one of Lincoln's generals thought it'd be a master stroke to free the slaves where he was.  Lincoln was livid: he'd spent months saying the war was to preserve the Union, not to free the slaves; he was afraid something like this would push the border states to the South.

Meanwhile, abolitionists had been claiming it was the Union's moral obligation to end slavery.  And African-Americans tried to fight for the Union and were told to stay out - this was a white man's war.

Also in August, Congress enacted the 1st federal income tax.

In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  It deprived the South of labor by giving enslaved people an incentive to escape.  It deterred England and France, both of which had abolished slavery, from helping the South.  It outraged white Northerners who thought blacks wouldn't be effective soldiers and felt betrayed because they'd been fighting to save the Union, not free the slaves.  And it confirmed the South's worst fears.

Both sides had been running into trouble recruiting enough soldiers, and both sides instituted the draft.  Those on neither side were happy.

the view from the South

the view from the North

Like I said, I only got to see the museum's first floor.  Next time I go, I want to see how the story comes out.

The drive to Louisa
A wind advisory was issued today, and I really felt the effects of it on the drive.  I chose a state route rather than the interstate, so I could see more clearly what's in this part of the state.

And what's there are lots of horses and cows and goats and a pile of hogs (literally) and chickens and some kind of fowl that I thought should be called peahens but don't look like the online photos.  I saw lots of hills and farms and scattered farmhouses and small communities.

I drove through the town of Cuckoo, which is unincorporated so doesn't have an official population (tiny), but it's the site of the Cuckoo Tavern, which I'd never heard of but has a surprising history.  The name Cuckoo, I'm told, comes from the cuckoo clock at the tavern - one of the first in the colonies.  (Not as colorful a reason as I'd hoped for.)

In 1781, the British were advancing on Charlottesville where the government had moved after Benedict Arnold attacked Richmond.  John Jouett at the Cuckoo Tavern noticed unusual British troop movements and figured out what was going on.  He grabbed his best horse and rode 40 miles on back country roads and warned Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and several signers of the Declaration of Independence, including Benjamin Harrison, preventing them from being captured.  (Wouldn't the British have loved that haul.)

I've been on the 21st century's version of those back roads, and I agree it was a real feat he accomplished.  Virginians have said ever since that Jouett's feat was just as important as Paul Revere's and the only difference was that it wasn't celebrated by as distinguished a poet as Longfellow to immortalize it.  (There's never a distinguished poet around when you need one.)