As you an see, we are out gallivanting once again, on our way to Bristol. It’s a very long drive, and I like to break up the trip by stopping at least one way of the journey, and this time, I set up a stop in Lexington.
The town is famous for the memorial to Stonewall Jackson, who lived here for many years of his life while he was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute.
One interesting fact about Jackson. He apparently was a horrid teacher! We toured the Stonewall Jackson House, where he lived while teaching here, and learned all kinds of interesting facts about the man,. He would spend hours during the day memorizing his lesson plans so that he could recite them rote to the class. However, ask him to explain something….and he was useless.
His real talent would shine when he quickly raised to the rank of General during the Civil War. He may not have been able to teach, but he certainly had a knack for leading.
Lexington is a lovely little town of apparently 7000 people, and my B&B proprietor tells us that it was voted one of the top 25 small towns by Smithsonian Institute.
Walking around, it certainly isn’t too difficult to see why. Not only is it a beautiful place to wonder around, the people are just downright friendly, even striking up conversation with us as we found ourselves enjoying dinner at the bar in a local restaurant because the tables were booked for the evening.
Let me just give you a quick tour, as my time is a bit short here.
We drove into town and headed right to the information center, which happens to be located a block away from the Stonewall Jackson House. Luckily, we arrived just 5 minutes before the first private tour.
Here is the walkway to the entrance, lined with blooming peonies. The fragrance was awesome.
This shot was taken from the back of the house. Jackson was a huge fan of gardening, and this photo features asparagus loftily growing. The house once stood as a hospital after the Civil war, which explains the porch on the back of the building. That would not have been there in Jackson's Day.
The front entrance to the house stands high above street level, simply because the town decided to lower the streets 7 feet, after this house was built.
I have no idea what this fellow is supposed to represent, but it certainly did make an interesting photo.
Washington and Lee college grounds.
Lee Chapel, which held an awesome museum with many of Lee's personal artifacts.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time as the place was closing. Of course,the chapel holds the famous painting that we are all familiar with.
And a memorial that features a sculpture of Lee which was made to show him laying on the battlefield.
Our B&B is delightful. We have the Washington Room. Could you guess?
We headed into town and I took some shots of the exterior.
As you can see, the town is just beautiful, and it certainly helped that the blue skies.
After dinner, we walked to the Virginia Military Institute
Pretty spectacular, don't you think?
On the way back to our B&B,we passed the Stonewall Jackson Memorial in the cemetery.
Once inside, I had to marvel at the table set up for breakfast.
Then we watched the sunset over the mountains from the porch outside our room.
Lovely day, lovely evening, and now....I have to run because that table is calling my name!
