Virginia, the State of Elizabeth

Cory asked me two weeks ago if I wanted to go with him to a concert in Charlottesville, VA. I said yes for one reason: The drive from DC to Charlottesville is very, very pretty. I know this because Cory is a big fan of the Dave Matthews Band. This is an understatement. I have no words to describe how much he enjoys DMB. He's like those crazy people who follow The Dead (sorry Becky!). Cory has been to over 200 shows and, because of his fervor, I myself have been to five DMB concerts.

Here's a photo of Cory and I at a Dave concert in London, my first one:


A year ago, we went to a DMB concert in Charlottesville. It's Dave's hometown and he plays there a lot. It's cute; his Mom usually shows up and he chats with her from the stage. The last time we went we rented a car for the trek. This was a wonder, as Cory and I have lived without a car for years. Having a car makes us feel drunk with power. More to the point, I was enamored with the DC-to-Charlottesville drive. It's chock full of pretty scenery. And so, I agreed last minute to this adventure across the state.

One of the best parts of the drive is a stretch called Constitution Highway. I don't know why that's its name, it should really be referred to as Civil War Way. There are all sorts of spots related to battles and homes of Confederate leaders. As you drive along you pass signs describing what significant occurrence happened at that site. I'd like to point out that the sign below, titled Stewart-Lee House, refers to a Stewart man who was of Scottish origin. I come from a family of Stewarts and in this post I talked about how I'm convinced I'm related to the old Stewart-Scottish monarch, Mary, Queen of Scots. The sign describes how this particular Stewart helped out Robert E. Lee. Obviously, he's the black sheep of the family.


Constitution Highway also has leftover canons from some of the battles, just hanging out by the side of the road. I imagine they are unloaded.


Leaving Constitution Hgwy you enter some country roads snaking through Louisa, VA. This area is incredibly beautiful. It's filled with old barns, working farms and plenty of vineyards. In fact, Dave Matthews designed the label for a vineyard here, called Bleinham. We've had a bottle of the vineyard's wine before and, if I remember correctly, I found it tasty. All of this scenery is set against a backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I discovered I love the mountains during a trip to Tennessee, first written about here. I was delighted to discover I could enjoy mountain vistas a bit closer to home, as well.



Here's Cory and I, sitting in the lovely sunshine and waiting for the concert to start:

And now a series of videos I took trying to capture the majesty of the Virginia mountains. It comes off more as me being impressed by green stuff. Indeed, it's a testament to how city-brainwashed Cory and I have become. We were enthralled with all we could do with a car, most important being a trip to a Virginia Wal-Mart. I mentioned in this Utah post how I like to visit WM when I can, as I'm starved for budget shopping in DC. We wandered the aisles of the Charlottesville Wal-Mart, imagining all we could do if we had space for things like hammocks, grills and dining tables. We dream big.

You'll notice in this video that Cory takes a moment to point out some "hard woods." We received a bit of real estate advice from a Louisa cabbie on our trip, informing us that we needed to buy property in Virginia...and that we needed to look for land with hard woods, not pines. We still have no idea what the distinction is, but Cory feels he's now an experienced Virginia tobacco man.

And here I am again, trying uselessly to video the pretty mountains. Oh well. At least professional videographers the world over can rest easy that their jobs are secure.