The Rest of DC

So late Saturday morning we drove into DC. Found a parking garage with a weekend rate to park, $15 for the day, as opposed to $25 an hour on weekdays. Grabbed a bite to eat at The Purple Turtle, beats the street venders. And headed off to the National Mall.

We watched a kickball tournament for awhile. I don't think I've ever seen an all adult kickball game but it was fun to watch the antics. Then we walked all the monuments. The lines at the Washington monument were pretty long so we just roamed around. The WWII Memorial was really cool.

On a map the Mall doesn't look that big but when you walk to every one it gets bigger. Plus it was hot and the boys had a tough time keeping interested. We persevered and made to all of them. Plus a couple of less visited ones. We trudged back to the car, who in the heck parked it so far away, and headed home.

We decided to stay at the campground Sunday. Let the boys swim & play. They quickly made friends & disappeared for the majority of the day. Jackie & Rita did the laundry. We basically recharged our batteries....

Monday we took the Metro into DC, and did our Congressional tours. We did the Library of Congress in the morning. Now that was nice. If we go back, we need more time. Got lunch at a nice little restaurant near the Library, then walked to Congressman Enyart's office. When we got there we were warmly greeted by the staff, they knew who we were and we were shown around the office. Obligatory pictures sitting at his desk were taken.

Then we got the deluxe tour of the Capital by one of the Congressman's aides. Seamus McNamara, has been awesome. He has been in contact with me since we decided to visit DC, (if you plan on coming here, make sure you contact your Congressman). Any way we took the tunnel to the Capital Building zipped through all the lines & went straight in. Seamus was a wealth of knowledge & trivia. We got into areas that the public tours don't touch. We made it into the House Chambers, no cameras allowed though and the boys learned how sessions worked.

Seamus took time with the boys answering questions & chatting with them. Overall a great visit.

Metro'd back to the campsite & the boys vanished to find their new friends.

Here's the Country Coach part of the story. Parked directly across from us are two Country Coaches. It was two couples who are full-timers. They were very friendly. They invited us over & gave us tours of their coaches. The guys could hardly wait to get into our Founder's Edition. They have spent a lot of time modifying their coaches. It looks like mine came with many of those modifications right off the assembly line. Nice...

These guys began to tell me everything I needed to do to get CC "dialed in". My head was spinning. I started taking notes. Some of the things I need to do have already been done, a couple are on my to do list & a few are in the near future. That means after I stock pile some cash. Overall they validated our purchase. That made us feel good.

I spent the rest of the day pouring over my manuals & coach records to see what I should do next.

Anyway, we began to prep CC for leaving. Tuesday we have a White House tour at 8am & need to meet Congressman Enyart's & his wife Judge Eckert at the gate at 7:30. After the tour we need to scoot back to the campsite & check out by 11.

 

 

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DC

Day 1 is all about the military. It's who we are. My dad was a WWII veteran, serving with the Army Air Corp in North Africa. I served in the Army in the late '70s, in then, West Germany. And my daughter, Jackie, served in the US Marines. Serving one tour in Iraq. So military day it is.

We went to Arlington National Cemetery and decided to walk the grounds at our own pace. We stopped and enjoyed the reverence this place has. We visited the Tomb of the Unkowns and watched the changing of the guard.

Then since we were so close and watched the movie "To Hell and Back" in anticipation of our visit, we stopped at the grave site of Medal of Honor winner Audy Murphy.

After that worked our way to the "Lee"' (that's Robert E Lee) mansion for a tour and the view of the city.

Then down the hill to the Kennedy gravesite.

We thought we'd spend an hour at Arlington. But almost 4 hours later we found it was a day well spent. We left the cemetery and stopped at the Iwo Jima Memorial, of course...(pictures later). The Iwo Jima Memorial is dedicated to the Marine Corps, listing all their conflicts the served in.

We had a quick stop at the Bureau of Engraving. It's pretty cool how they make our money. After that we headed for the highlight of the day.

Jackie had a Marine buddy stationed in the DC area and he got us great seats for "The Evening Parade" at Eighth and I, the headquarters of the Marine Corps. (Eighth & I are the street names of where it is located, so that's how it is referred to.) The parade is held regularly, every Friday, and includes 2 companies stationed here: the Silent Drill Platoon, the President's Own (the Marine Band) & the Commandant's Own (the Marine Drum & Bugle Corps). It doesn't start until 9pm but you need to get there early, it's packed. You have to remember, it's not a parade like we see at home where they walk down the street. These are units marching onto the big parade grounds (about the size of a football field), and the rituals & traditions just set the tone for the evening.

Well the Marines know how to put on a parade. They control the lighting with spots & colors. They march in precision and the musical units seemed to be in competition. Plus the Commandant of the British Royal Marines was the guest of honor along with a contingent of Royal Marines training with our Marines. Wow, what a show.....

The Silent Drill Team was impressive and the music and the marching were perfect. The night ended with the Commandants Own playing a song highlighted by a battery of 155mm cannon fire. Cool....

It was a long day but worth it...

 

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Moving Day

Packing up & heading to Washington D.C.. After we get CC all set to leave Jackie & the boys head to Jamestown Settlement to use our rain checks.

Rita & I are taking CC to Cherry Hill RV park in College Park, MD. It's a 166 mile drive and should take two & half hours. Without towing Rita's car these should be a piece of cake. Are you sensing something???

Wouldn't be "The Adventures of CC & Me" without adventures. We have a new GPS device for CC. It's pretty cool, it knows our height, weight and how much propane & diesel we carry. It uses this info to route us around restrictions. So what happened was we were routed around DC. Unfortunately we got delayed by a bad traffic accident. Well we never saw the accident. It was way ahead of us. But I'm driving a 43 foot coach in bumper to bumper traffic covering about a mile every hour.

We decided to take a risk & leave the Interstate and see if we could drive around the accident. It seems simple enough. We've done it before, in the Midwest. It's not quite the same here.

We slowly negotiated to an outside lane then finally took an exit. Whoopee. Now we're in downtown Bethesda, then Chevy Chase, then the next charming freaking town. All with narrow roads & traffic. See this 2 1/2 hour ride is nearing 4 hours. You know what that means? Let's throw rush hour traffic into the mix. Did I say whoopee!

Holy crap. We were sort of committed to driving in this, umm, I'm trying to think of something polite to say.

I was pretty tense. We went through some very narrow streets, winding through towns. But we persevered, And popped out on the interstate one mile past the traffic jam from hell.

Turns out we had about six miles to go & we were at the resort. Instead of a short quick drive we had a five hour ordeal.

We had called Jackie and gave her a heads up. I thought she might beat us to the resort. But her & the boys spent most of the day in Williamsburg sightseeing & Geo Cacheing.

The park is great. It's huge!!

After we got set up & opened up some well deserved wine, I walked over to some neighbors to say hi. And I walk into side by side Country Coaches. They were occupied by two couples who are full timer RVers from California.

We toured each other coaches and they started telling me everything I needed to do to "dial CC in". Because once she's dialed in, there isn't a better coach in the world. They talked & talked & talked. Jackie & the boys showed up & they talked & talked.........

So I need to figure all this out. Maybe a call to the previous owner to see what he has done under the hood.

A lot to learn & understand.

At least I'm over the ride up, whew.....

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Busch Gardens

What's a visit to Williamsburg with out hitting Busch Gardens. Part of the deal is we took our girls on this trip when they were the boys age, so Jackie is reliving some of this. And the roller coasters here are things remembered.

Conveniently Jackie forgot her credit card so guess who paid? No biggie. It was kind of an overcast day, remnants from last night. But that was good for us the place was almost empty. NO LINES!!!

Right off the bat we did a water ride, not sure if we thought that out well. Nothing better than starting off a day at a theme park with wet clothes. After we finished the ride Jackie & the boys rode it again.

Quick stop in the restrooms to wring out our clothes and off to a roller coaster. One of five. I rode the first one, then tactfully declined the rest of them. Hunter & Jackie rode them all. We also did all the water rides and a bunch of the other rides as well. We covered the entire park in 8 hours. The crowds never got very big so we were able to get on rides with almost no wait all day long.....

The highlight and ending of the day was Jackie & Hunter riding The Griffin.

 

 

 

Really glad I didn't ride this one.....

 

But still with a short nights sleep and a full day at Busch Gardens, I was exhausted. We got home pretty late fixed dinner and zonked out....

 

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Williamsburg & Jamestown.

We came here to see some history. Can't get much more than the first settlement in America, Jamestown!

We went to the original Jamestown settlement first. This is an active archeological dig. They have some of the fort rebuilt & were digging up other building/foundations as we visited. The history of Jamestown was really interesting and the boys seemed to enjoy it.

Here was the statue of Captain John Smith looking out over the James River.

We roamed around the dig for awhile and then headed towards the Jamestown Museum.

Prior to finding the original settlement, historians thought the fort was under water and wanted to create a place where people could visit & learn so they built a museum called the Jamestown Settlement. They recreated a Powhatan Indian settlement & the fort. They have actors in them and they recreate the living conditions of the time, a living museum. It's really pretty neat. Plus they have recreations of the the boats the English came over on.

Unfortunately for us a thunderstorm rolled in & they closed the displays & kicked us out. (Rita got rain checks & Jackie took the boys back Thursday)

We hit the glass blowing area on the way out, it wasn't closing & we watched them make wine bottles. They were very informative here & explained every step.

Now to find the filler!!!

We pretty much gave up on the rest of the day & headed back to CC. We stopped for groceries on the way for restocking.

Evening was a washout to so I decided to do laundry. Washout....washing? I'm killing myself here....

Jackie was supposed to fly into Richmond around 10pm. But no shocker here her flight out of St Louis was delayed. Checking connecting flights she was just going to make her connection, but..... That one was delayed too. So she got her around midnight. Just let me say, it was a long day.

 

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Monticello

We had a couple of issues this trip. No surprises there. The Direct TV hasn't worked this trip & tech support doesn't work weekends. I called them this morning & they talked me through a couple of things (something about region changes) & shazam satellite TV. So now it's finally up and running. Boys are happy. Of course I-64 is tree lined so lost the signal a lot while driving. But what do I care, I'm driving & can't see it.....

Next CC was creaking when we opened her last night. But it must have been the site we were staying at. No problems this morning.

Woke up this morning. Had a nice hot breakfast & broke camp. Quick 20 minute drive to....

First stop, Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. The road up the mountain was interesting. Let's just say very narrow and curving up the mountain side. I'm surprised Rita's Honda Fit, we're towing behind CC, didn't clip somebody or something on the way up.

Monticello's website said RV friendly, but I'm not so sure..... Wound up parking CC in a downhill pull in slot (not a pull through) & had to disconnect the Fit.

While on the shuttle, we arrived at the top of the mountain & the walkway to Monticello, the recording on the shuttle said we are approaching "little mountain". Hunter said "I thought we were going to Monticello?" The gal in front of him turned around, she was an off duty tour guide, and said "Monticello is Italian for little mountain". Hunter just gave her a smile. It kind of took the wind out of his comment...(if this doesn't make sense, it might have been a "need to be there" moment.)

Monticello was beautiful. We got the official tour then roamed the gardens. Watched some archaeologists working at the old Joiners shop. Looked like a hot & tedious job. The Joiner's Shop was where they made and fixed furniture.

I never realized that the back of a Jefferson nickel was a picture of Monticello. I never really thought about it. After the house tour we wound up on the back lawn & the tour guide pointed it out. I said " so this was the nickel tour?" The guide just kind of looked at me....

I decided to take a picture:

It might not be the back of a nickel, but you might notice my two Nickle-Heads sitting on the steps ..... Nickel head, knucklehead? Get it?

We walked down the mountain, stopping at Thomas Jefferson's grave in the family cemetery, then decide to drive the car to have a late lunch at Michie Tavern. Nice old tavern (since 1784), they had delicious fried chicken.

We got directions to the parking lot....

Then drove back up to the RV parking lot. It was way easier in the Honda. We tried to hook up Rita's car on the mountain but the parking lot was pretty steep & it was next to impossible. Lesson learned. We decided to drive separately down to the flats & hook up there.

It probably was a good thing. There was a lot more traffic on the narrow winding road. It was one less thing for me to worry about. Got to the bottom, hooked up and on our way to Williamsburg.

Nice part about this leg of the trip, it's all down hill..... Our campsite, American Heritage is real nice. Boys are thrilled, it has a Hippo Slide. It's an inflatable water slide.

Boys did this for an hour. I was exhausted just watching them run back to the steps to do it again, and again, and again...

Back to CC and dinner waiting for us. (Downer..dishwasher isn't working, but I'll figure it out. Maybe)

Tomorrow Jamestown.

 

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Still getting there...

We're in no real hurry to get anywhere. I had talked to a bunch of RVer's before and they all mentioned the same thing. Slow down and enjoy the ride. Plus don't drive too much in one day, it can be exhausting. It's not like driving your car at 70 plus mph and trying to log a gazzilion miles in one day to get where ever your going. Driving this 43 foot, 45,000 pound house on wheels is challenging enough without wearing yourself out.

We need to get fuel, diesel of course. But we have a plan. We are members of a big camping club,"Good Sam" and get a 3 cent discount per gallon at Flying J stations. Plus we got a Flying J credit card and get another 3 cent discount, every penny counts when you have a 100 gallon tank.

To explain what we have going on, I have to explain CC. She has a 453 cubic inch Cummins Diesel engine, cranking out 435 horsepower. Plus she has a 10kw diesel generator completely powering the "house". I'm not completely sure what all that means but the people that I have talked to that know about such stuff say it's really good.

We are driving in the summer so the generator is enough power to run everything on board, including the 3 roof air conditioners. Seriously we are traveling in style....

So just 10 miles east of our campground we stopped for diesel. The boys "recon" the lot for those elusive license plates and I fill up.

6.5 miles per gallon.....ouch.

But we remember we didn't buy her for the fuel economy, or lack there of. It's the adventure. And having our home with us. No more hotels, CC is nicer than most hotels we've stayed at anyway. Plus no more restaurants. Unless we want to treat ourselves.....

The views on the trip really improved. Hitting the mountains of West Virginia & Virginia was awesome. Plus we have an perfect place to see it all. About six feet above all the cars. The boys take turns sitting up front, looking at the mountains & valleys, plus tracking down those pesky license plates. (Everytime we stop they recon the parking lot)

Same routine though drive half way, then Rest Stop for lunch. Pretty nice, clean restroom, on board. Good looking waitress for my lunch, I'm negotiating the payment..... Perfect day.

The driving is a little more involved. I mentioned to Hunter what it's like to drive across Kansas. Straight, flat & ineventful. I mentioned you could probably wedge the steering wheel against your legs and take a nap while cruising at 70mph.

The Virginia's not so much. Uphill, downhill, curves. Our GPS keeps telling me to "slow down for dangerous curves ahead". So I'm cruising at 62mph. But I spend most of my time engaging the Jake Brakes down the hills. Then slip into a tight turn and back up the next mountain. More than once on the downside of a 7% grade CC tried to sneak into the mid 70's, that's a little scary. So it's speed up, slow down, repeat.

Poor o' CC is laboring up the mountains. She's not overly struggling, but cranking out the power to get up. I'm still passing 18 wheelers and other campers..... I'm curious what the MPG will be next time....

The hill behind the boys is a typical example of what we're driving up....

Anyway we are spending the night at Misty Mountain campground. We just drove 310 miles today and are staging 18 miles east of our first real stop, Monticello. Thomas Jefferson's home. www.monticello.org

Oh yeah. License plate count is 39.

 

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Here we go!

The big vacation is finally here. Monticello, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Washington, D.C., Gettysburg and home......

Saturday morning I had to help at the Academy give a POWER test, (physical fitness test) to potential recruits. I took CC into work and Rita brought the boys, Hunter, (13) & AJ (11) out to school around 10am.

She had Rita's car all hooked up by the time I walked out of the office and we were on the road by 10:20.

This easy an easy trip to plan. Hop on I-64 and go east. That's it, one highway all the way to Williamsburg.

The boys had a bunch of "homework" to do on the way and games to play. One of the games was the License Plate game. So we were looking for and calling out plates all morning.

We drove for about 3 and a half hours then pulled into a Rest Area for lunch. The boys went on a "recon" mission looking for license plates while Rita made some sandwiches. Had a nice lunch and hopped back on 64....

Our first overnight was outside of Ashland, KY. Checked in about 5:40 CDT. Cranked off 427 miles today. Not to bad of a day. Kept the cruise just under 65 mph. I'm pretty certain that the bug population is seriously depleted.

We stayed at a KOA campground. Not bad, but not glamorous either. The boys helped us hook up CC and seemed to enjoy the work.

One of the first things you have to do is clean off the bugs from the windshield and the front of CC.

This is what the whole front of her looked like.

Best part of the campsite is they had a nice pool and it was the perfect temperature.

 

After swimming and throwing the boys around we headed back to CC to grill some steaks and relax. We prowled the campground after dark looking for license plates. We were getting fanatical. We got 32 so far and were worried about some of the obviously hard one like Alaska & Hawaii. After walking around with flashlight like a bunch of bungling burglars we only found one extra license plate.

So here we are, sitting around a fire that Hunter had carefully built, showing off his Boy Scouting skills, when a late arrival showed up. We sat there & watched them hook up right in front of us. When AJ noticed that they had Alaska plates, woo hoo!

Thought about making s'mores but our butts were dragging so we called it a day.

 

 

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Mulberry Grove

Well this is the last weekend trip / shakedown cruise before the big summer trip.

We couldn't get a good slot at Carlyle Lake. Part of the problem is you can reserve camp sites six months in advance. So all the regular campers jumped ahead of us & reserved the good sites. It didn't even cross our minds that we would have a RV, much less be thinking about camp sites.

So we're a little behind the curve on camping sites, but catching up quick. We're are booked up with weekends through September.

Anyway, we chose Cedarbrook RV Park in Mulberry Grove, IL. It's not to far, easy to get to, and has an awesome golf course nearby that I haven't played in years.

We did the new routine, I took CC to work & Rita met there around 4:30. The weather was turning ugly, of course. But we got on the road with out getting wet. As we headed northeast the clouds were dark & ominous, fortunately we just had light rain.

When we got to Cedarbrook they said they were HAMMERED by a storm & had no power, but Ameren was on the way. We hooked up, but left the generator running. Power was restored in about 45 minutes.

Cedarbrook was a nice park. It's mostly seasonal campers. Some of the campers had decks built up to their campers, so they weren't going anywhere. The campsite we had was on the end of the pull-thrus with a big grassy area. Perfect!

There was an older couple watching us pull in & hook up. The guy commented on how Rita & I communicated as we parked CC in her spot, we had to do some maneuvering because we had a tight turn to get her in. He said we did great with our hand signs, normally he watched as couple bickered at each other. Not us. Quick recon, pick the spot where we want her & bam, put her there. (I hope I'm not getting over confidant).

Grilled some steaks and sat outside watching the post rain sunset.

Saturday we prowled around Cedarbrook. Found the perfect chair for Rita by the playground.

Might be a little big, she looks like Edith Ann, not Rita Ann.

Then we played golf at Indian Springs Golf Course. It's in the middle of nowhere. But it's in great shape. A hidden gem in Southern Illinois. After golf we explored the area, found another camp ground. It was a lot like Cedarbrook. A lot of seasonal campers it's real nice. Cool playgrounds.

Explored Mulberry Grove, didn't take long it's a small town. Found a liquor store, stocked up on beer & back to CC.

Slept in Sunday, then did some research & paperwork for our DC trip, then headed home. A perfect weekend.

CC isn't going anywhere 4th of July weekend. We're staying put & playing golf with friends at Annbriar.

 

 

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