It's June 4...but I'm writing about May 21st

After a much needed nit's rest, we awakened refreshed? for another day's adventure. It began with breakfast with Peggy at an IHOP and then while wandering through Willaimsburg returning Peggy home, she remembered of some sort of new Presidential Exhibit that would pass on our return...So, we stopped and after paying the admission entered. It was a display in a type of park-like facility with asphalt walkways circulating through it of huge busts of every President from Washington through George W. that were molded in concrete, each being about 10 feet tall!...They were excellent likenesses and the descriptive material explaining thier individual historical value was priceless...to me!...It included biographical informational as well as their accomplishments in furthering the development of the United States and it's role in global history! We spent about 2 hours there and in the accompanying small museum/bookstore taking pictures and many notes...It was well worth the time spent... We drove Peggy home...bid a fond adieu and left for Fredeicksburg, Va. There we were able to locates the first log csabin school George Washington attended, next to Martha Washington's Home that George had purchased for her, in which she resided to her death some 17 years later.
The next stop was a law office used by James Monroe for a few years. When entering we were able to see some of his original furniture, including his chair, desk and some cabinets. There were also pictures of he and his wife, Elizabeth and 2 of his daughters.
It was then approaching dinner time so a motel was located nearby and dinner and to bed...

May 22nd
We awakened to a beautiful sunny, somewhat cooler day and set the GPS for Orange, Virginia. It was about an hour and a half distant and was Montpelier, the home of President James Madison. It was adjacent to the exact location of his birth at Mount Pleasant. The drive was exhilirating...we drove thru the various battlefields of the Civil War, including the Wilderness Battlefield. It was now obviously very fertile ground and provided a scene of beautiful rolling farmland. When we reached the information booth at the gates to the entrance, we were given directions to drive to the Museum/Admission office. The drive was along very impressive manicured lawns and alongside a full scale Thoroughbred Horse racing track, where we saw several horses being exercise by riders! We later were informed that the house and all it's acreage had been purchased at about 1900 by the extremely affluent Dupont family... Later it was resold several times to various owners until the Mellon Foundation assumed it and the challenge to attempt to restore the entire place as true as possible to the original appearance of Madison's ownership. It was esrimated that ti will cost about $30,000,000 to do so...and a like amount to build the completed Museum! As we drove to the parking lot, that fact became obvious...The museum/gift shop and admission office was very substantial and contemporary in style...and it appeared that every necessity for function and comfort was more than adequately provided. We entered their very nice Theater for a Power-Point biographical presentation of Monroe as well as an explanation of all the proposed Restoration being accomlished.. The man who did the narration, then became our guide for the inspection tour. In our way we passed several crews of archeologists doing excavation and then climbed temporary walkways and stairs to enter the house....The original construction and the new restorati0n was demonstrated. It was very similar to the demonstrations we witnessed at Poplar Foreast. ( Thomas Jefferson's retirement home).
The tour and narration took more than an hour and included 2 levels and about 8 of it's roomsa nd halls. It was a great presentation and was well received by all.
Interesting was the fact that one of the rooms in Montpelier was referred to as "The Jefferson Room", since he evidently was a frequent visitor and guest and primarily occupied that particular room!.. He and Madison, although separated in age by several years were great friends. The saga of James Madison was told and it was shown that despite being a small man (5 feet and 120 pounds ), and that he spoke in small, weak voice...and being so generally sickly, that he had performed admirably in his performaance to help make this country great! His contribution to the writing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights attest to that!
We returned to the main lobby where i read many more facts of the role he played and then we decided to leave. However, I inquired as to his burial and was dirested where to drive and then walk to the small isolated cemetery on the grounds. It was a small plot of ground surrounded by a low brick wall and ther found the stones identifying all the members of the family. James, his wife, Dolley, his daughter and other associated relatives. The largest and tallest monument was his, and we were informed that he had originally been buried with a small tombstone which was subsequently replaced by a larger one...so large in fact, that it necessitated that Dolley's be squeezed into a compromized space....

It was time to leave so the GPS was set for Colonial Beach, Virginia near George Washington's Birthplace. It was another pleasant drive, this time in low rolling farmland and being much less forested. The drive appeared to going thru more and more rural areas, although there were the occasional few tiny settlements. When the site was reached, we found it to be a very tall obelisk shaped monument in the center of a small circular roadway, and adjacent to a gated entranceway to the park. A National Park guide was just in the process of closing the gates, since it was 5PM, and we were advised by him that there was nmot much visible within for us to inspect other than some possible foundations of the probable site of the actual house in which he was born! His attitude reflected that " we would not be missing too much"!...so we left.

A few miles away, directly on the water's edge we found the one and only Motel...and settled in. It wasa at the junction of the Potomac and Chesepeake...and there was a suitable combination restaurant and Para=mutual horserace gambling facility right next to it that provided us with a shrimp, oyster and crabcake dinner....and then we once more literally PLOPPED into bed!