Monthly Archives: July 2017

DC for the Fourth!

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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.

America’s Historic Triangle

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As we left our ‘moochdocking’ in NC we headed north to stop in Williamsburg.  We wanted to see “America’s Historic Triangle”, this would be Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown.  We found a location north of town a bit that took Passport America for 2 nights and a Good Sam discount for the other nights.  It was the Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center.  Here was our spot:

The first day we went to the Williamsburg visitor center to figure out what we might do.  They had a 7-day pass but we determined we would get a 3-day pass to the Historic Williamsburg area and do the other two locations separately.  The second day,  we decided to go to Yorktown and visit the American Revolution Museum.  It was a very nice museum with many interesting displays with a multimedia theater that was amazing.  They also had a ‘camp’ that was recreated extremely authentically (a precursor to what we will see in Williamsburg).  Roxie even got to sit down with George Washington:

We got to the NPS area of Yorktown after it closed but were able to do the Auto Tour to see different areas of the final revolutionary battle.

The next day we went to Historic Williamsburg on the first day of the three-day pass.  Historic Williamsburg is the historic part of Williamsburg that has been completely restored to around 1780 even along with all the residents who man the stores and walk the streets.  It is very well done.  Here are some street shots:

One of the tours we were able to take was that of the Governor’s Palace (the other shots are swords on the walls inside):

One of the best parts of the entire experience were the reenactments/plays that were performed to give you a feeling of what times were then.  Here is a shot of George Wythe and Thomas Jefferson (right) during one of the performances:

We went to the town on the first and third day of our 3-day pass.  We missed the middle day (more on that later) but each of the two days we were there we ate at a restaurant on site that was also set in that time period.  Since there is only two of us we were told that if we were willing to share our table we could get seated sooner.  Fine with us, we love to meet new people.  The first day a teacher sat down with us, she was here for an educational seminar and was actually staying in the town!  Very nice to meet her.

The third day we were seated with a wonderful couple where we found out that we had many similarities and realized that there are very strong people in this world.  This couple is definitely in that group!  They even took time at the end to pray for Roxie and her back.  Very thankful to meet them!

So what happened to our ‘middle’ day at Williamsburg.  We were contacted by Steve and Angelique to see if we wanted to go to Busch Gardens at Williamsburg as they have a season pass and can get friends in free in June.  OK!  We went to Busch Gardens.  Roxie and I remember going to Busch Gardens in Southern California.  It was primarily a beer tasting venue (which my Dad loved) and a lot of lush greenery and birds/animals/etc on display.  This Busch Gardens was a full on amusement park with rides and shows.  It was a very enjoyable time but a lot of walking!  Plus it was hot and humid.  Many thanks, again, to Steve and Angelique.

The final day of our touring we were in Jamestown.  This was the first settlement of Colonists in the New World.  There was a very nice museum, like in Yorktown, Jamestown Settlement.  They also had a representative town set in that time.  Here are a few shots:

The NPS had an area also that was where the original Jamestown was located.  It was surreal to walk around the old town and see what they had to endure.  Here are some pictures of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, plus a memorial obelisk:

After almost a week it is time to move on.  We are still being slammed by weird weather and a lot of humidity.

Where will we go for the 4th of July?