October 22, 2007 - Myrtle Beach, SC - Well, we made it to
Myrtle Beach and what a surprise. Myrtle Beach is like Galveston Island on
steroids! The only redeeming feature is the beaches. The rest of the city
is just tourist TRAP. There must be 30 large, miniature golf
courses. The rest is just very large t-shirt and souvenir shops. We
did enjoy a show at the Palace Theater called Le Grande Cirque. The past
two days we have driven the 90 miles to Charleston and have greatly enjoyed it.
Charleston is just what you think of when you think of an grand, old southern
city. The historical section is a great place to walk and enjoy the tree
lined streets and the beautiful homes and churches. The city market is a
fun place to visit and runs for about three blocks. There are several
stalls here where the sweetgrass woven baskets are sold and woven. These
are a specialty of the area. We would like to visit there again.
Tomorrow we are off to Georgia and start heading west to Texas.
October 19, 2007 - Jacksonville, NC - We need to get
everyone caught up on our travels. Tonight we are in Jacksonville, headed
for Myrtle Beach, SC tomorrow.
We left Washington and decided to head east to get to
Texas. Since RVer like to fill in the US maps that we display in various
locations on our RVs, we decided to pick up the state of Delaware. In
order for us to put a state on our map, we must spend the night there. We
just figured we might not be back that way so off we went. This state is a
well kept secret. It is beautiful. We only stayed one night in
Delaware Seashore State Park, but we would like to go back and spend a few more
days. After we left the park, we enjoyed the drive through more of the
state as well. The seashore is like the rest of the coast in North and
South Carolina and would be well worth visiting.
We then headed for the Outer Banks (islands) of North
Carolina. These are not a secret but would also be well worth the trip.
Our plan is to spend at least a week here next fall on our way out of Maine.
The first parts of the island are very touristy but the further out on the
island you get the less this is true. We spent three nights on Hatteras
Island and just loved it. It is laid back and a perfect place to get away
and relax. Just don't try that in the summer as it would be a zoo.
The beaches are spectacular and the water blue. The sand is soft and white
and even KC loved running in it. We enjoyed our visit to Hatteras
Lighthouse. We had no idea that they had actually moved the lighthouse 2900 feet
to save it from falling into the ocean. We saw a film on how they did it
and makes you appreciate how far engineering has come and what can be done.
We pretty much fell in love.
Getting onto the island is not difficult especially if you
are coming from the north, but getting off can be tricky if you don't want to go
back the way you came. We decided to take the ferry over to Ocracoke
Island which is a long narrow island with not much more than a lighthouse and a
village. This ferry took only 40 minutes. Then we boarded a second
ferry that took us back to the mainland and took 2.5 hours. Later that
day, we had to cross the Chesapeake Bay bridge and tunnels. This was
interesting as you drive on a bridge for a while, then pass into a tunnel, then
back onto the bridge and then back into a tunnel. Finally you end up on
the last part of the bridge. What an unusual engineering idea!
October 13, 2007 – The Washington National Cathedral -
Today we went to see the Washington National Cathedral aka The National
Cathedral. This was probably one of the most enjoyable tours we have taken in
DC. The cathedral is beautiful in the gothic style of architecture and the
second largest cathedral in the US. They have several different tours including
a behind the scenes tour on certain days which takes you all the way to the
roof. We just took the regular tour and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The
cathedral was started in 1907 and took 83 years to complete. Most of it was
constructed using Indiana limestone but we were delighted to find that the most
lustrous piece in the entire cathedral and the centerpiece of the main altar is
made of Texas limestone.
One of the prettiest stained glass windows is the Space Window which contains a
piece of rock from the moon in the focal point of the window. The flags down
each side of the main aisle are flags from each of the states and territories of
the US. One of the pictures is of the top of a column. Even though you may not
be able to see it very well, it is in tribute to the first chimpanzee in space –
Ham. It is a chimp holding tight to a rocket. His back is too you with his hands
and feet rapped tightly around the rocket. I guess since it took so long to
build, they could incorporate many things of national importance into the
structure.
Although the cathedral belongs to the Episcopal Church, it is considered a place
of prayer for all people. If you are ever in Washington, don’t miss visiting
here. It is just beautiful to miss.
October 12, 2007 - Washington, D.C. - We have spent the
past week seeing the nation's capital-at least what parts of it you can still
see. Our first day was spent in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. What a
place. We spent four hours and saw about half. Since the American History Museum
is closed for renovations, some of the more popular exhibits are housed in a
corner of the Air and Space museum. There is so much walking involved in seeing
anything here that you really have to pace yourself.
The second day we were going to tour the Capitol and did eventually. We got
there at about 11:30 AM and were given tickets to return at 2:45 PM. Obviously
we had time to kill so we spent a little time in the National Botanic Gardens.
You could spend days in there but we got hungry and asked a guard there where we
could get something to eat. He directed us to the National Native American
Museum. We had seen this new museum but had decided to skip it. Since it was the
closest one we decided to go have lunch there. We expected the same food court
as in the Air and Space i.e. McDonald’s, Boston Market and pizza....BOY were we
surprised on two counts. The cafeteria was an offering of Native American dishes
from four different regions and was delicious. Jerry had a tamale and I had a
paselito filled with chicken, potatoes, and corn. I also had the most wonderful
squash dish I have ever eaten. It was yellow and green squash with spicy
peppers. The second surprise was the museum itself. It was beautifully done and
very interesting. It was NOT your typical native American museum with just
artifacts everywhere, but individual rooms on varying themes with video display.
If you are ever here don't make the mistake we almost did and miss this museum.
We did tour the Capitol and it is beautiful. You don't see much but what you do
see is great. We were privileged to see the Old Senate Chamber which is rarely
available. I guess it was our lucky day.
Wednesday we were just too tired to do any more walking and still go see
Washington by night so we spent the day cleaning house, etc. That evening, we
went on a Gray Line tour of the city by night. It was an excellent tour and we
did see the Lincoln Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial and the
Korean Conflict Memorial up close and personal. We very much enjoyed this tour
and would recommend it if you are here. We got home about midnight tired from
MORE WALKING!!
Yesterday, we drove out to Mt. Vernon and really enjoyed the day seeing the
place that George and Martha Washington called home. You can easily spend an
entire day just walking around the estate and being "in the country". We had an
adventure coming home by getting sort of lost...well at least turned
around...well I don't know what you would call it. You see, I decided I didn't
want to be bothered with taking the computer and GPS along and the trip home was
rather interesting. We did have a map printed out of Streets and Trips so that
helped. We left Mt Vernon via a different road than the one we came in on and
somehow ended up in the middle of Alexandria (lovely town I might add). We found
our way to a place where we thought we could pick up the road we needed but
never saw a sign for it. Somehow we ended up on it anyway...have yet to figure
out how. Obviously, we did make it home. So I guess we can still use a map.
Today, we had to have some work done on the car so we are just taking the day
off again. We are going tomorrow to the National Cathedral and leaving on
Sunday. What we didn't see we will catch in the spring on the way back to Maine.
I hope you enjoy the pictures....I took a bunch...but there is a bunch to see.
October 4, 2007 - Kinzer, PA - On the Road AGAIN!!!
Yesterday was the first day on the road back to Texas and it was a really good
day. We drove out of Maine across parts of New Hampshire, Connecticut, New
York and right into the Pocono's in Pennsylvania. I had always heard of the
Pocono's but really had no idea where they were and I guess had never been
curious enough to look it up. It was a beautiful drive and you could definitely
tell we were no longer around the coast.
Last night, we decided to stay in a Wal-Mart parking lot as
many RVers do when they are just overnighting. Jerry had done it before,
but I hadn't. It was quite an experience. First we went in to ask
where they would allow us to park. Unfortunately, the girl at the Customer
Service counter had difficulty with English so the directions were not clear.
We went where we thought was ok but very quickly the security guard was there
telling us that we had to move. We moved and settled in for the night.
We opened the windows and realized that even though it was
still in the 70s, that was 30 degrees WARMER than we were used to. Since
there was no electricity to run a fan, the first part of the night was a little
warm. We finally got to sleep and at about 3 AM were awakened to someone
in the parking lot playing gangster rap music very loudly. That lasted for
about 15-20 minutes and when it was over, we settled down again. THEN at
about 5 AM they decided to sweep the parking lot with a street sweeper. We
managed to sleep a little after that and gave up about 7:30. I told Jerry
that he was welcome to sleep in Wal-Marts anytime he wanted to but me and the
dog would take the car and find a nearby hotel!!
Today was supposed to be a short drive but was made much
longer by road work and a really bad accident along the way. We ended up
near Lancaster, PA right in the heart of Amish country. We drove around
and saw a number of them working their farms. We also went and took a ride
in an Amish wagon and took a little tour of a farm. It was quite
interesting. It seems that while the Amish do not have electricity
anywhere, they do not hesitate to use some mechanical devices requiring
gasoline. We saw them harvesting corn with a 4 horse team pulling a device
with a motor on it. Since their main source of income is from selling milk
to Hershey's Candy Company, they raise the corn to feed the cows. It seems
that they must use commercial milking equipment so they power that using
compressed air. There were many more facts but they are too numerous to
put here.
We will be leaving tomorrow to join our friends Paul and
Gayle and watch their son’s race cars on a dirt track. We will spend most
of the weekend with them and then will be off to Washington D. C.
October 1, 2007 - Phippsburg, Me -
New Naval Destroyer
Today we had a unique experience. We were able to see
a brand new Navy destroyer sail out to sea. A friend had told us that Bath
Iron Works had just completed a destroyer and the Navy would be taking
possession and sailing it out to sea on Monday, October 1. All we had to
do was find out the time of high tide and then go down to Fort Popham.
High tide was at 4:06 PM so we headed down to Popham with Lorraine and Jonesy.
The Sea and Anchor Detail sailors were lined along the edges of the ship in
their dress blue uniforms. It was really a spectacular site. We are really
happy that we had the opportunity to see it and hope you enjoy the pictures.
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