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On the Road
May 22, 2002
Greetings from Richmond, Virginia!
We're enjoying the beautiful, cool weather ("cool" will be but a memory back home in Texas) while exploring Virginia. Now we're in Richmond, though it's too late in the afternoon to do much exploring. We did enjoy the drive down Monument Avenue, though I'm sure there are now plenty of area drivers who are cursing that silly woman with the Texas license plates who tried to maneuver through traffic and look at both the monuments and the beautiful houses, all at the same time.
I had a frustrating experience that many other would-be amateur photographers have: I missed the perfect shot. After supper this evening, we were driving down a lovely street when I glanced down a side street and saw that we must have been traveling parallel to Monument Avenue, because I got a fleeting glimpse of one of the statues. I cut over one block and sure enough, we were back on Monument Ave. The next statue we passed was that of Robert E. Lee, and I am certain that even the sculptor couldn't have envisioned a more beautiful setting. The sunset glow lit the Lee monument so gloriously, and the warmth of the sunlight with the brilliance of the bronze made it one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments. I turned the car around at the next cross street, parked as quickly as I could, dug out the camera and ran to take the picture.... and it was too late! The sun had slipped behind the trees.
Whether one admires the individuals memorialized on Monument Avenue or not, I think it would have been hard not to have been moved by the beauty of that sunset on the bronze figures. I am sure that the statues of Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Arthur Ashe, glowed with equal glory.
At least I think I got some cute pictures of the kids!
With luck, I'll get to visit the Library of Virginia tomorrow, where the kids will settle in with their homeschool assignments while I hunt for ancestors. We'll see...
Knocking on wood from the La Quinta Inn in Richmond, Virginia,
Barbara
Happy Hunting!