“Can you tell me where Dolley Madison’s dogs are buried?” asked the very direct woman at the Montpelier visitors’ desk. This is one of the strangest questions I have ever heard on a Nerd Trip, and it is part of why I enjoy them – you meet some kooky characters along the way. Who would know that Dolley Madison’s dogs are buried at Montpelier?

We concluded the Ultimate Nerd Trip at Montpelier, home of our fourth president James Madison. Montpelier is located in Orange, Virginia, about 30 minutes from Charlottesville. Compared to the flowery gardens of Monticello, Montpelier did look a little plain, but we enjoyed the visit and learned a lot!

Happy Birthday to James Madison, born March 16, 1751 in Port Conway, Virginia. Here are some not-so-random facts about our fourth president.

I had never heard of Paul Jennings until we encountered him on a Nerd Trip to Montpelier, home to our fourth president James Madison. Jennings was a slave who served as Madison’s personal assistant during the White House years and afterward. Jennings is a fascinating witness to history, writing the first White House memoir, called “A Colored Man’s Reminiscence of James Madison,” published in 1865. I bought a copy at the Montpelier gift shop.

We started our trip heading to Charlottesville and the campus of the University of Virginia, historic in itself, but our real purpose was food, specifically bread ends and House Dressing, a specialty of the Cheese Shop in Williamsburg, Virginia where I went to college. I knew a sandwich shop near the UVA campus, the Take It Away Sandwich Shop, also had this “delicacy,” a tangy tub of mayonnaise and bread. After securing our tub of mayonaissey goodness, Julie and I proceeded UVA’s famous lawn (in the shadow of Mr. Jefferson’s Rotunda) for a picnic and preparation for our three days of “nerdvana.”