Monticello and Ash Lawn

The Great Plotnik sits in a NO PARKING 9:30-11:30 zone in DC. It's 10:45 and the places are filling up fast with people sitting in their cars, waiting for the alternate side of the street parking times to be legal. It brings him back to living in NYC with a car, a really really stupid thing to have done. How could anyone accumulate $6,000 in parking tickets? Easy. Good thing the Statute of Limitations expired before Plottie had to pay. Remind him to tell you this story.

Anyway, that was then and this is now, and now it's 11:30 and Plot leaves his car, only to notice ANOTHER sign down the block which says NO PARKING ALL DAY TUESDAYS. Many growls. But Duckie finds a legal spot nearby, and all is well.



Yesterday Plot and Duck saw Monticello (picture 1), the home of Thomas Jefferson, and Ash Lawn, the home of James Monroe (picture 3) The homes of the third and fifth Presidents are fascinating to history buffs like Plot and Duck. Monticello is as interesting as Jefferson was fascinating, but Monroe's house is equally the measure of the man -- where Jefferson was the Renaissance Man who came from money, Monroe was the Military Genius whose father had been an indentured servant.

Both men went broke as President, and their executors ended up selling their properties and everything in them to pay off their creditors. Can you imagine a politician losing money these days?

The Plots also visited the University of Virginia (picture 2), designed by Thomas Jefferson. They have renovated the old town, but it's not much. The school is gorgeous, though.

Eastern cities and parking. Jeez, what a lot of energy you end up wasting. It's warm and breezy, perfect Spring weather. Flowering azaleas and peonies are everywhere.