Monticello

Dear Readers, Independence Day has come and gone, but America’s semiquincentennial year continues! Famed Virginian Thomas Jefferson was pivotal to the colonies breaking away from England, and today I’m writing about his mountaintop home, Monticello. I’ve been there many times over the past couple of decades and it’s always a fun and interesting experience. The first time Rick took me to see Monticello, I remember he deliberately paid for our tickets in cash. That meant he was given back change, and part of his change was a two-dollar bill! How often do you see that? He promptly handed it over to me as a little souvenir of my visit, and I admired TJ’s portrait on the front of the bill. I thought it was so cool that Monticello did that. Of course, instead the twodollar bill, Monticello could give back 40 nickels, which sport a likeness of Monticello on their reverse side. But that would be much heavier and bulky!