Howdy campers.Today Molly and I buzzed down to Charlottesville to see Greg Swope, a long-time friend. It was meant to be a buzz, but road construction slowed us to a crawl at first. Once we were really underway, it was a nice backwoods drive through central Virginia. (We took a different route than the one proposed by MapQuest - Greg suggested and we went down 15...)
One not fun thing about this trip is that I am, apparently, allergic to one of the host cats. I have two cats at home and no known reaction, but here it's been getting slowly worse all week. Last night it took me several hours to get to sleep because of the sneezing. Claritan isn't helping now. Once I'm out of the house I'm fine. I was thinking about getting a room for the last few nights but have decided to ride it out.Tomorrow is a driving trip into DC. Georgetown U., Ford's Theater and the Smithsonian American History Museum. And the ThinkGeek party!
(Sort of a tangent, I noticed on this drive that gas was about 10% cheaper inland - $2.75 was the cheapest I'd seen. In the urban area I'm staying the cost is similar to what we pay in Sacramento, 3.05 - 3.10.And for no particular reason, about a week before I left I noticed the 'grocery store' price of cigarettes . Cigs are half the cost here. We're in tobaccy country. And, heaven help me, you can smoke in restaurants. Our co-guests from Dublin tell me that Ireland is smoke-free, so they're as disappointed as we are.)After spending a few minutes at Greg's house, where the pictures were taken, we headed into Charlottesville proper. Greg is actually about a half-hour east. This is Greg's commute - each day he passes by Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia.Charlottesville is probably best known for the University of Virgina. UVa is one of Thomas Jefferson's accomplishments that he is most proud. (it's one of three that is listed on his gravestone.)So, the Mugster and I walked around downtown Charlottesville and poked around the original parts of UVa. We saw Edgar Allen Poe's room while he was a student there. The rooms on either side are still in use, but his has been set aside and reconstructed to reflect how it probably looked at the time. Apparently, living in these nearly 200 year old rooms is quite a coup, even though the bathrooms are down the hall (outside).Spending the time with Greg, and later his kids, was great. It was nice to catch up a bit and have some face time.
One not fun thing about this trip is that I am, apparently, allergic to one of the host cats. I have two cats at home and no known reaction, but here it's been getting slowly worse all week. Last night it took me several hours to get to sleep because of the sneezing. Claritan isn't helping now. Once I'm out of the house I'm fine. I was thinking about getting a room for the last few nights but have decided to ride it out.Tomorrow is a driving trip into DC. Georgetown U., Ford's Theater and the Smithsonian American History Museum. And the ThinkGeek party!
