Goin' South

From the DC area, we made our way south in time to take care of a few chores and going on to Auburn. The ride through the Shenandoah Valley was nice and the volitle weather provided some really nice late afternoon sunlight scenery.  The photos here just don't do justice to the view.

Beautiful skies welcomed us back to the south.

Wayne is due for blood work and a visit to the doctor, who has been watching the cholesterol level for a while. There's even been talk of taking medication...  The walks we take in the evening along with the improved diet (and reduced pizza) might be paying off as the cholesterol level is down and so is his weight. No talk of medications this time. That's good.

Our next chore was to have the satellite people install the upgrade to our system that will allow easier location of the Directv signal when we're traveling. We'll take the coach to Cullum Maxey for a few repairs too, including the ice maker and the tow plate we broke when turning around at the wrong entry to Wheel-In Campground at Indiana, Pennsylvania and having the inverter checked and possibly repaired.  There is a short list of other, smaller repairs we ask about...

We stayed two nights at Two Rivers Campground on Music Valley Drive.  When they filled for the weekend (we were day-at-a-time) we moved up to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground where we got a better site and a better rate.

The whole Cullum Maxey experience was a bad one and we left Nashville a full week later with nothing repaired except the tow plate. Our bill was over $300 -- we mark through them as a repair location.  Fortunately we did manage to take care of several other projects while we were there.

Washington D.C., Arlington Cemetery and War Memorials

The return from Annapolis took us into Washington DC where there were still more monuments for us to find and photograph.  Driving and parking in our nations capitol is not for the faint of heart -- but we are persistent. 

Sometimes I wonder how we got around before the days of GPS -- we located our intended destinations and flew around, parking where we could, eating in the car and walking the sites quickly so we could see everything on our list.

Being in Washington reminded me how much I dislike large cities.  They're good for young people, but the older I get, the more I like small towns. 

Here's what we saw...

Wayne saw President Grant ... more dead generals.



Me in front of the capitol building --
yes, it's cold



At the Lincoln Memorial. 
No, we did not walk up all those steps to see Mr. Lincoln in that chair.

I was eating when Wayne took this one of me along the Mall corridor. 
Notice all the trash everywhere. The protesters are trashy, I suppose.

The Jefferson Memorial is getting a repair

From "political wonderland" we drove across the Potomac River to see Arlington National Cemetery. We saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of  The Unknown Soldier.  We also saw the graves of  John, Robert and Ted Kennedy, Joe Louis (the boxer), Military hero, Audie Murphy, the Mast of The Maine, Monuments to the Astronauts of the Challenger and the Columbia Space Shuttles, and others. 

Guarding the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier

Mast of the Maine



Grave of Audie Murphy



Tombstone of Heavyweight Champion, Joe Louis

Monuments to Astronauts who died in service

John F. Kennedy grave

Grave of Robert Kennedy

Grave of Ted Kennedy. 
Arlington, home of General Robert E. Lee, is in the background.
The farm was taken by the federal government, at the insistence of General Meigs,
after the end of the Civil War. A mere $92 in taxes were owed to the new government.
The land was made into a national cemetery so it could never be repurchased by the Lee family.
Confederate dead were not allowed to be buried here.

Later we saw the memorials to the Korean and Vietnam war dead.  This was particularly special to us both.

The Korean War Memorial -- eerie.
They look like ghosts in the photograph.

The Vietnam War Memorial

Bub at the Vietnam Wall.
This was our first time to see the wall.

The Vietnam War Wall is in the background.
The Vietnam War Memorial statues to his left.

Old Glory

Annapolis and the U.S. Naval Academy

Neither of us has ever visited Annapolis, Maryland or the Naval Academy that's there. Wayne has wanted to see it for a long time. Especiall since he's visited West Point two times now.  Members on both sides of his family served in the Navy, but he, being different of course, joined the Army.

Our base campground, Greenville Farm Campground, is in tiny Haymarket, very near Manasas, Virginia.  It's only 30 miles into Washington, D.C., but twice that distance to Annapolis.  We left early Sunday morning, October 3rd for a full day of touring.

Annapolis is much different that I'd expected. The city is very old, with narrow cobblestone streets. I can't say it's like anyplace I've been, but it's very nice. The buildings in the downtown capitol area are small, old and well preserved.  Cars are a liability here as parking spaces are few and far between.   Because we couldn't find a parking space, I really couldn't capture any good photos, but the capitol building was picturesque and we would have like to have spent some time looking around...

The Annapolis, Maryland State Capitol Building Dome

We did find a parking space within a block of the Academy entry gate. 

On campus

Living life outside the military realm, as I did, its easy to forget how the Navy touches other parts of life.  Like Astronauts whose names are familiar and major battles of WWII upon which movies are based.

I had forgotten all about John Paul Jones saying, "Give me liberty or give me death" -- His crypt is in the lower level of the chapel at the Naval Academy.  I was reminded of such things as we walked over the campus. 

The buildings are beautiful and stately -- as were those at West Point. 

The Academy Chapel. 
John Paul Jones is buried here.

 Fear the goat.

Wayne was particularly eager to have his picture taken with "the goat" -- Chad would like this one.

You never know when you're gona' need to make reference to this, eh?

I just knew he was going to buy something here in the gift shop...
There's absolutely NO more space in Mona.

The photographer finally gets in a picture