Jefferson's Virginia.(Going Places)

0 Comments | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), October, 2003 | by Rodeghier, Kathy

Byline: Kathy Rodeghier Daily Herald Travel Editor CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -Thomas Jefferson was a visionary, but even he might be surprised by how his world has changed in the last 200 years. Strangers troop through his bedroom at Monticello and peek into the parlors of the homes of his friends and neighbors, James Monroe and James Madison.

The vineyard he failed to cultivate now thrives, as do those at more than 80 wineries in Virginia's burgeoning wine country. Lewis and Clark's expedition, which he dreamed up in his study here, opened the West, spreading his philosophy of government way beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains he loved to gaze upon from his portico. But then again, Jefferson might have foreseen this future. Inventor, scientist, architect,...