Our Holiday Inn Express is a bit wanting. Due to staffing shortages, there will be no daily room make-up or linen changes, although we can request things at the front desk if needed. The hot breakfast would be better if there weren’t two complete college track teams staying here for a track meet. Those young athletes can really clog up and clean out a morning breakfast room in a flash - fast is there operational mode. We managed to find some leftover bacon and sausage patties, and Deb braved her way back through the throng when fresh scrambled eggs arrived.
The other couple of guests from Lincoln arrived last night and joined us for the coffee. It was good to catch up with Paula and Dan before the rush of the wedding gets to us all. Deb and Mark headed out this morning to explore the UVA campus so Mark could re-live his college years here (or was it re-imagine?). After a 30 minute drive in heavy traffic, we arrived at the campus and then spent ANOTHER 30 minutes searching for a parking spot.
The original part of the campus (designed and founded by Thomas Jefferson) remains a stunning architectural achievement. The Rotunda, modeled after the Pantheon in Rome has been restored and looks amazing. The grounds and the lawn look as ever, crawling with students. When Mark attended, this was an all-male institution and they were required to wear a coat and tie to class. Today it is co-educational, and it seems there are more women than men wandering around. Searching for restrooms, we found Fralin Hall Art Museum and spent the better part of an hour looking at the exhibits. There was a wonderful exhibit of works by Emilio Sanchez, a Cuban born American artist; some of his works on paper from his studio in New York.
Last week, In Omaha, we spent a number of hours at the Joslyn Museum, looking at the wonderful Karl Bodmer collection of drawings of Native Americans done during his trip up the Missouri in the 1830’s. We were lucky to have been accompanied by our good friends Marsha Gallagher and Ted James, both retirees from the Joslyn Museum. Marsha was the Native American Curator for the Museum and catalogued the Bodmer collection, together with a number of their native artifacts. We viewed a wonderful beaded jacket that she had acquired for the museum. Lo and behold, here at the Fralin there was also a beautiful beaded Lakota vest, donated by Lady Nancy Astor.
Following our walk around campus, we stopped in at The Virginian Cafe, a campus tradition since 1923. Mark remembers consuming a lot of 3.2% beer at this site. We split a deviled crab patty sandwich with fries and sampled some Virginia Wine. Both were excellent and we scored a pair of tee-shirts after our trip down memory lane.
We drove back to our hotel for a quick freshening before heading back our through Charlottesville towards the small village of Ivy, west of town,. Our destination was the home of Sandy and Janice Wilcox, Mark’s cousin. We were greeted there by our two hosts, their young Boston Terrier named Stella, and Sandy’s brother Greg and his wife Sue, who also live in Charlottesville. Sandy’s son Scott arrived, bearing a pair of pizzas from Dr. Ho’s and some wonderful wine from Blenheim Estates. Scott manages this vineyard and lives on site in a large home of the winery. The owner of the establishment is Dave Matthews of Dave Matthews Band fame. (Abigail is now bouncing on her chair in excitement as she reads this - a huge fan.)
We had a wonderful visit with the family, trying to erase 20 plus years of time as the three “boys” relived their adventures and mis-adventures from their time in Charlottesville, Fredericksburg and Tetotum Virginia as youngsters. The Wilcoxs lived in Charlottesville, Mark and his family would motor east every summer to spend two months at the Mt. Moriah farm on the shores of the Potomac river in King George County together with the other Covert kids from Fredericksburg. Three Omaha Covert kids, four Wilcox kids and three Fredericksburg Covert kids -10 little Indians up to no good running all over 800 acres of crop, pasture, woodlands and river shore, mostly unsupervised as their parents sat on the bluff enjoying their leisure, or driving into Colonial Beach to spend time at the casinos, on the piers. The Potomac river is the boundary between Virginia and Maryland. The state line was delineated as 15 feet past low tide. Virginia entrepreneurs built large buildings on piers that extended into the river, effectively in Maryland. This avoided the stringent liquor control laws of Virginia and, as Maryland allowed slot machines and gambling, they turned the structures into casinos. Hence the draw for the adults.
Enough history. Following our visit to the Wilcox abode (a wonderful home set on picturesque hillsides surrounded by Blue Ridge hills, we journeyed back towards our hotel, and on past it a few miles to the Guildford Farm Winery and Venue. Here we joined the after party from the rehearsal dinner for Saturday’s big event. We visited with Glenda and Jeff, were briefly acknowledged by the bride and groom (they had more important things to do) and capped off our busy day with some more wine and conversation. We finally headed back to our Holiday Inn falling into bed at 11:30, exhausted but happy with all we had accomplished on our first day in Virginia.
