Charlottesville | Trevor Dickerson

Tracing The Three Notched Trail

May 28, 2008 By Trevor Dickerson

I’ve always been fascinated with local history, but nothing has intrigued me more than Three Chopt Road. Hundreds of years ago, it was an Indian trail, and was then improved in 1730 as a more substantial roadway between Richmond and Charlottesville. Route 250 (Broad Street) replaced the road in the 1930s, but it’s still one of the oldest roads still in service today in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson frequented the road, going between his home in Monticello and the Capitol in Richmond quite often. Many, many other notable individuals have also traversed this roadway.

I’m about to undertake a huge project. I’m going to single-handedly document the entire road from its origin near Powhatan Hill east of Richmond, all the way to Augusta County in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Why? It’s one of the most historic roadways in America, and yet little has ever been done to completely document everything on this rapidly-deteriorating (because of replacement roadways) trail.

I’m going to set out to document interesting buildings and houses, landmarks, and other features of the road, beginning near the city, sometime in the next two or three weeks. Armed with just my GPS, camera, and camcorder, I’ll document anything interesting I see. I hope to somehow export geodata about where videos and pictures were taken onto a custom Google map as the project progresses. Check back on the website I bought for the project, www.threechopt.org, soon. I’m ready to do this!

Am I crazy? Maybe. But this is my passion! Plus, a lot of people I’ve talked to out at the local history exhibition I put on every Fall always ask about the road and its history. Heck, it even runs right through Short Pump, although most of the original portions in this area have been realigned to make way for developments, such as West Broad Village.

Stay tuned, there are many more updates to come! If you or someone you know would like to get involved, I’d love to hear from you.

Filed Under: history Tagged With: Augusta County, Blue Ridge Mountains, Broad Street, camcorder, camera, car, Charlottesville, city, country, document, documentation, GPS, historic, history, Monticello, passion, Powhatan Hill, Powhatan's Village, Richmond, Route 250, technology, Thomas Jefferson, Three Chopt Road, Three Notched Trail, Three Notches, Virginia, West Broad Village

Considering My College Options

February 5, 2008 By Trevor Dickerson

When I was up in Charlottesville this weekend, I started thinking more seriously about exploring my options for next Fall. While VCU is a great school for doing anything with the arts, I don’t know that I’m getting the full college experience I once envisioned. I love Charlottesville and hope to one day live around that area, so I’ll definitely be giving UVA a closer look. I realize it may be a lofty goal, and that some of the demographic could be comparable to a larger body of the Deep Run type population, if you get my drift, but I’m going to consider it.

I also plan on visiting JMU (I also loved the campus there). According to our family friend, Sue, who we visited in Charlottesville this weekend, there’s more of a diverse mix of students as opposed to UVA’s demographic. Finally, I’m going to take a look at Virginia Tech. As you can see, I really want to go to one of the “mountain” schools. But all of these schools are just a maybe. I may very well stay at VCU, but I just want to explore other opportunities. I’ll keep everyone posted.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Blacksburg, Charlottesville, college, demographics, goals, Harrisonburg, JMU, life, opportunities, Richmond, school, Tech, UVA, VA Tech, VCU, Virginia

Untraceable – Review

February 3, 2008 By Trevor Dickerson

WARNING: Spoiler Review! If you haven’t seen this movie and plan on it, you’ve been warned.

I went to Charlottesville for the night last night and ended up going to see Untraceable at the Downtown Mall movie theater after dinner. I went in expecting to see a thriller, but I got more than I bargained for.

Diane Lane stars as FBI Special Agent Jennifer Marsh, who works in a field office dealing with internet crimes. A tipster alerts the unit that someone has posted a website that streams live video showing innocent people getting tortured to death. The more people log onto the website, the faster the victim dies.

The first victim is a kitten stuck to a sticky mouse trap. The killer then moves on to people he’s kidnapped. The first person is drained of his blood, the second is burned to death with heat lamps, and the third is bathed in battery acid. Each time, the victim dies more quickly than the last because the number of people on the site keeps growing, just out of the public’s sheer curiosity. Marsh is the fourth and final kidnapped individual, and is hung upside down over a garden tiller and lowered more rapidly as viewership increases. Just before she is lowered to her death, she starts swinging herself back and fourth enough to grab onto a rafter and free herself. She proceeds to shoot her captor, and the FBI, recognizing her house on the streaming web video, comes to her rescue, only to find she’s already killed him.

We later learn that the unnamed killer started the site because the local news station aired his father’s suicide, caught on a traffic copter over a major bridge, repeatedly and he wanted revenge. All of the victims are tied to either the news station or FBI.

Overall, the movie was very well done. It somewhat portrays the FBI as lazy people who sit around and stare at computers all day, but for the most part, it was an excellent portrayal of a terrible situation that could very much be reality with all the internet technologies we have today. I found the storyline to be compelling and action-driven, with no dull points or erroneous material. If you’re looking for a fist-clincher that keeps you right on the edge of your seat, and can deal with a few scenes of intense gore and blood, check out Untraceable.

Overall Rating:

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Charlottesville, crime, Diane Lane, FBI, horror, Internet, movie reviews, reviews, suspense, technology, thriller, Untraceable

The Police

November 7, 2007 By Trevor Dickerson

I went to see The Police in concert last night at John Paul Jones Arena at UVA in Charlottesville last night with Melissa. I have no other way to describe it than to say it should have been a pretty bad night because of how lost we got and something else that happened on the road (happened again- if you know me well you’ll enough know exactly what it is). Chances are I’ll tell you if I talk to you on a regular basis, but I’m just not gonna post it for the world to see. But it actually turned out to be an awesome night.

Anyway, the concert was amazing. Twenty years after releasing their last album, The Police sounded even better than ever. Sting is a great performer, but the whole band had a great stage presence. We were pretty high up, but I think we still had decent seats. That’s about the only non-blurry picture (to the left) I managed to snap on my iPhone.

They say half the fun of doing anything is how you get there, and I can attest to that. I haven’t had that much fun since probably this summer, and that was just in the car. We were singing our favorite mid-90s alternative rock songs at the top of our lungs all the way back. It was great. Maybe we were just hyped up on our coffee/hot chocolate, but I had the most awesome time, and all with someone who I’ve only so much as casually talked to in class before last night. We’ve got a lot in common. I think I’ve found a great friend.