We were able to score a week near Washington DC at Cherry Hill RV Park through the 4th of July! It is the iconic place to be for America during that time. The RV park is by no means cheap but it does provide a very family oriented location. The huge selling point is the ease to get to DC itself. A DCMetro bus actually stops at the entry to the park to take you to the DCMetro rail line. You have to pay for each direction but it is simple to figure out and MUCH better than taking my truck to the city.
We toured the city for 4 of the days we were there. We walked SO much! It was hot and humid to the point of oppressive. There were people everywhere. There were fences for crowd control. The traffic was horrendous. Prices for drinks rivaled amusement parks. In short, we loved it! Come on! This is Washington DC! How could we pass this up?
We saw museums, monuments, memorials, oh my! We did not get to see it all but here are some of what we saw.
Our first stop was the Air and Space Museum, it was closest to the Metro and we figured to hit the museums first. Here is Glamorous Glennis:
Then the next spot that we wanted to see the most was the Lincoln Memorial (looks like no one else was there):
We could see the Washington Memorial and the Capitol from there. Notice the fencing, this was due to the fireworks being staged and then fired from either side of the reflecting pool:
We saw the Jefferson memorial which was pertinent since we were just in his ‘area’ (Williamsburg):
The most surprising memorial was for Martin Luther King Jr. It was amazing. On either side were quotes from him during the years. I have included my favorite.
These were the closest shots we could get to the White House, naturally. The Capitol was being setup for the concert on the 4th so access was restricted:
We went to the Vietnam Memorial, I took a picture of a serviceman that is the brother of a friend of mine. A picture of the actual monument does not convey the emotion of it. I won’t even try. Here are some pictures of the WWII memorial and one of the Washington Memorial. Regarding the picture of all the stars. There are 4048 stars on the memorial and each one represents 100 American military deaths. Wow.
The 4th came and we thought about going down to DC again to watch but ultimately did not. We didn’t want to fight the crowds and it was amazingly hot and humid. We went up on a hill in the RV park and were able to see about 4 displays going on around in different cities. But what did we actually DO on the 4th? We went to the local Ikea, I also did a trailer modification.
We have been noticing a holding tank smell when traveling but not while we are stopped. It is more noticeable in our closet as that is where the vent pipes travel. My thinking was the tank roof vents were not working when towing. It seemed that instead of letting the tanks vent it was actually pushing air down the vent pipe into the tank and out the sink drains. Or at least that is what I told myself. The types of vent tops were like this:
These things have the vent pipe underneath the cap but it is like cupping your hand over it. Very little airflow, probably even less during turbulence around it. When we stopped off at Airstream of Virginia I noticed the new trailers were now coming with this:
The Lippert 360 Vent. I had been looking at these and was going to get them. So I did and had them delivered to the RV park. Now to put them on.
I need a ladder to put them up and I DO carry one with me but it is packed with everything else in the truck. Here are some shots about where the ladder is stored and everything that needed to be removed.
At least we could look in all the bins again!
We had a very enjoyable time in DC, a city unlike any other. We will probably be back sometime in the future but it is time to move on again.
