Thursday, July 29, 2010

OUR COUNTRY’S CAPITAL…D.C.

Wednesday, July 28Let the touring begin!!! Well, we took on the heat in DC and I'm not really sure we won.....LOL! It was a HOT day to say the least.

We drove into Springfield to catch the Metro to Washington, DC. We purchased “Fast Passes” which give us unlimited Metro riding for a week. We parked free at a neighboring mall and walked a couple blocks to the Metro Station.

This is one of the trains leaving. The place is so clean!

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This is looking down on the roof of one train arriving and one leaving.

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The ride in on the subway/train was very nice. We exited the train at Foggy Bottom/GW University station. We didn’t spend much time in Georgetown, but it looks just like what Marsha said she thought it would look like. You be the judge.

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On our way to our first stop, we passed the Department of Navy. WOW…they are serious when they say NO TRASPASSING!

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Our first stop was the Lincoln Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial stands at the west end of the National Mall. It is surrounded by a peristyle of 38 fluted Doric columns, one for each of the thirty six states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's death.

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President Lincoln is Marsha’s favorite President. She was so excited to get her picture taken with him.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd by the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 .

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Paul is showing me where he stood when the speech was given. Right on the edge of the water.

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This far away.

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Now if you believe that….

Korean War Monument was very impressive. From 1950 to 1953, the United States joined with the United Nations forces in Korea to take a stand against what was deemed a threat to democratic nations worldwide.They had a ceremony the day before our visit, that’s the reason for all the flowers.   The wall had different scenes from the war etched in the stone wall.

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Vietnam War Memorial (The Wall) was bigger than we both imaged. The 58,191 names are inscribed in chronological order of the date of the casualty, showing the war as a series of individual human sacrifices and giving each name a special place in history. It is a pretty amazing Memorial.

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There are several books available with all the names listed, what wall they are on and the line number.

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World War II Memorial honors the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the U.S., the more than 400,000 who died, and all who supported the war effort from home.

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There are scenes depicting the war surrounding the Memorial.

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The Washington Monument  is shaped like an Egyptian obelisk, stands 555’ 5 1/8” tall, and offers views in excess of thirty miles. The Reflecting Pool 167 feet wide, 2029 feet long, 18 inches deep on sides - 30 inches in center and has approximately 6,750,000 gallons of water.

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This was taken from the WW II Memorial.

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The Mall, The Ellipse, The White House, The Vistors Center, Smithsonian Castle, and finally the National Air and Space Museum. Those pictures will come in the next blog.

We caught the Metro at L'Enfant Plaza for the relaxing ride home. We were BUSHED (no pun intended using a former President’s name to describe our condition).

Paul liked the Lincoln Memorial the best, with seeing the Washington Monument a close second. Marsha rated the Lincoln Memorial number one and the Korean War Memorial number two. All the famous monuments are worth seeing......it's going to take quite a few exhausting days to see most of them.....stay tuned to see if we survive!

From the Frying Pan into the Skillet = HOT IN DC !!! Day 2 started out much like Day 1 ended.....HOT ! We awoke to 82 HUMID degrees....eeeeek!

I don't know if it's due to poor wiring in the campground or brownouts due to the heat, but we can't run our AC in the motor home without tripping our EMS (electrical management system). Actually, we can't run much of anything.....aaargh. Paul's about ready to die from the heat. He spoke with the campground management, but it appears there is little they can do about the problem????

We have our White House tour this morning. We headed out for the subway/train at 7:30 a.m. At least the subway has AC. You are not permitted to take ANYTHING other than you money (LOL) and ID on the tour. No storage lockers are available in downtown DC either. Must be a post 911 precaution – which there are numerous. So, we had to leave camera, etc... in the car and will need to return there after the tour.

Well, so much for our White House tour......Cancelled....no explanation given. Sounded a little weird. They actually called us on the cell at about 9:30 to tell us it was canceled. They will try to reschedule if possible.

The good news is we moved to another camp site. After failing to get power in site 99 they moved us to site 73, a full hook-up site (no additional charge). Now we have 50 amps, water, and sewer. We also decided to extend our stay here an additional four days. That way we can slow our sightseeing pace down and get some relief from the heat. We decided to just relax at camp for the rest of the day!!!

New site…so much room!

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Down the road.

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Just as Marsha was getting the pictures ready for the blog, she received an email telling us we are rescheduled for the White House Tour for Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m…..YIPEE!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all real soon.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

WE’RE OFF!!!…WASHINGTON DC

Monday, July 26 – We had a little send off party at Rick & Chris’ house Sunday evening.  Rick prepared an old family favorite….Fried Bologna Sandwiches.

Look at that bologna sizzle!

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Too many cooks in the kitchen.

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Craig, Keith and Rick

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Rick, Laura and Chris

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Dad, Marsha and Paul

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No dodging the heat for us…..LOL  Most of the nation is sweltering in heat anyway, so we might as well take it on in our nation’s capital…..WE’RE OFF TO WASHINGTON, DC

After enjoying family and friends in Canton, Ohio for four weeks, we pulled out of Rick’s driveway and headed down I-77.  A HUGE thank you to Rick and Chris for allowing us to “camp” in their driveway…it was an AWESOME visit!  There sons, Keith & Craig can have their parking spaces back now.  Thanks also to Marsha’s daad for letting us sit in his air conditioning, and Marsha using the tub for her “wonderful” bath time. We really enjoyed our stay and our frequent talks with you and dad.  See you all very soon!!!

Lots of corn growing on our ride.

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Very scenic drive.

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Crossing the Ohio River.

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Very windy roads.  We got into some pretty good mountains with some hefty grades.

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Here’s are campsite for the first night…..

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WALMART in Cumberland, MD

Tuesday, July 27 - We hit the road again. We were on the scenic highway.

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Can you make out our motor home in the back of this truck?

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Now for DC traffic…and we are at least an hour out side the city!

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Our next morning heading to Pohick State Park in VA. We’re less than 30 miles from DC and will ride the train/subway in for sightseeing.  This is a very nice park with paved roads and gravel sights.  We are in site 99.

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Tons of room.

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Looking down our street.

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Picnic table, fire ring and grill.

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They have a HGUE pool and water park called Pirates Cove and Water Park. Yes, that is a pirate on the top.

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There is a ton to do here. It is a great place to bring the family. They have miniature golf, Disc golf, a really big playground area, canoe & kayaks for rent and fishing.

Whoa….what’s that!!  We just had a deer visit our site….lol  Lucky for that deer, Bella, our cat wasn’t prowling around outside.  She was napping in the motor home.

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Squirrels are every where.

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Heading to DC on Wednesday. Catch you up on what’s happening there in our next blog.

Thanks for stopping by. See y’all real soon.