Not having had enough of D.C. yesterday, we repeated our commute, rail trip and endurance hiking to visit the Smithsonian Castle and the Air & Space Museum. During our trudge from the Metro station to the Smithsonian, we happened to pop into the close-by Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian. Both galleries had some paintings of ugly people but also ancient pottery and gold items, sculptures, coins and other artifacts which were great to see. We ducked into these two galleries in hope of finding a dry way through to the Smithsonian Castle because it was raining. Although unsuccessful at finding a dry path, we did enjoy the terrific exhibits in these two galleries. The Sackler has a big exhibit about an American artist named Whistler who seemed somewhat creative but suffered from being an incurable deadbeat who shirked debt, screwed folks out of promised works and was generally an asshole according to his dearest former friend and shafted patron with the last name of Leyland.
We exited these galleries and took the very wet hike to the Smithsonian Castle which we found out was only a visitor center for folks who want to visit the dozen or so other museums all collected under the name. The visitor center had a gift shop with stuff like bobble-head Einsteins and expensive earrings, a restaurant we elected to forgo and lots of screaming children anxious to go curse the visitors to the museums. From this unmuseumlike place we emerged into a pretty substantial rainstorm, headed for the Air & Space Museum a few furlongs away. Fortunately for us, we were able to enjoy the benefits of Federal security precautions by being forced to stand for quite a while in the rain outside the museum while dutiful security personnel made sure none of the citizens entering the museum had any nasty things hidden in their backpacks, enormous purses or shopping bags full of D.C. memorabilia which had been carefully crafted by the best Chinese artisans. Needless to say, we were damp when we finally made it into the museum but the place is definitely worth it. There are exhibits which range from stuff about drag and lift, ancient Leonardo De Vinci flying machines which would absolutely not fly, the Wright Brothers, early bi- and tri-planes, early propeller airplanes, jets, rockets and spacecraft including a big section on the unmanned Viking program my Dad worked on at Jet Propulsion Labs. We were in here for hours and we still did not see it all. They also have a McDonald’s restaurant inside the building where you can get a very thin hamburger for about $10.
We finally left the Air & Space Museum and took a damp stroll to the light rail system for a ride to the other end of the Mall to see the White House. Of course the train delivered us to a station that was only about a half mile from the edge of the Ellipse in front of the White House. From there it is several long blocks to where you can get a glimpse of the Executive Mansion and that is about all. Security forces have the taxpayers fenced off from the White House such that if you get in just the right place, you can see a little segment of the front of the building. For us to get a picture here was difficult because the little postage stamp sized area where you could see Barack’s current digs was infested with impolite foreign visitors who would not step aside long enough for citizens to take a photo of their President’s pad. After some bullying by me, I was able to get some of the ferners dislodged from their camping spots long enough to snap a few shots of the White House and a selfie of Peg and me standing in front of the distant building. After giving the newly relocated foreign language speakers an All American leer, I grabbed Peg and we skulked off from the area in search of a Metro stop so we could board the light rail for the ride home. After about a mile or so, we arrived at McPherson Square where there was supposed to be a Metro Station. Unfortunately for us, only locals can find the Metro Station in this area because it is cleverly concealed inside the basement of a building which is near but not in McPherson Square.
We hustled down the escalator which was not functioning and entered the catacombs of the Metro. After a few minutes, we realized D.C. signage is designed by the same persons who create the mystifying Virginia signage because we were directed to the correct train but it was going in the wrong direction. After figuring out how to traverse the underground construction within the tombs of the Metro, we made it to the portion of the station where we needed to be to get back to the Franconia station. We were just in time because as soon as we got there, the Blue Line we needed to board was snafued by tunnel trolls and broke down due to undetermined voodoo. Some time later, a Blue Line train heading our way arrived but since there were delays in the system, all the folks upline who had also been waiting were already aboard the train but we were able to squish ourselves in for a long, stop-and-go stand-up ride back to Franconia. At arrival, we hobbled to the parking structure where the massive number of departing rail travelers promptly clogged up the exit lanes from the structure so everybody was treated to a protracted delay while idling and inhaling exhaust fumes. Several rail users found they had insufficient value on their not-so-smart transit cards to allow them to get through the exit gates and were flummoxed by having the gate refuse to allow them to exit and being equally screwed by being unable to back up and get out of the way due to the mass of idling cars behind them trapped by the volume of clever rail commuters. There is no provision for human interference since the system is unmanned to maintain cost-effectiveness. Machines to allow you to purchase sufficient value to get the gates to allow egress are cleverly located back in the rail station.
After a moderate delay, we were finally able to leave the parking structure for another 16 mile 40 minute commute back to the Invader. This experience has clearly shown me the benefits of metropolitan mass transit, particularly the form where meddlesome human interference is eliminated along with practicality and efficiency. Perhaps the intent of this system is to eliminate system delays through the murder of the fellow urban users.

5/20/15 Today we took another wonderful ride on I-95’s bombed out surface to the Franconia, VA, Metro light rail station for a ride into Washington D.C. After some fiddling around at the station, we were parted with $65 to cover the cost of parking and light rail rides into D.C. for 2 days. We hopped on something called the Blue Line for a ride to an underground station at the Pentagon where we changed to the Yellow Line for the continuation of the ride into the capitol. We disembarked at a stop called Archives and emerged from the subway catacombs directly north of the National Archives building. We heard a rumor that stuff like the Declaration of Independence are stored here but we didn’t go in so we really don’t know what’s inside. Archives, I presume.
After a stroll of about 1/3 of a mile, we entered the National Sculpture Garden which, unsurprisingly, has exterior sculptures strewn around a big round concrete fountain which doubles as a skating rink in winter. There is a sculpture of a large, life-size shiny stainless steel leafless tree which I thought was pretty spectacular but the rest of the stuff is pretty modern, a style which I do not have the talent to enjoy. The garden is still pretty neat even if morons like me lack the sophistication to appreciate it.
From there we wandered another quarter mile to the entrance to the National Museum of Natural History. Here is a museum that I can appreciate. The variety of natural history exhibits in the museum is quite extensive and I could easily have spent at least a full day or maybe two to see all the stuff if my feet didn’t hurt so much. Our experience in Washington taught us that there is a lot of mass transit, but no matter where the train drops you off, you will be required to take a long hike to get where you want to go and seating in the museums is very scarce. Also, at some museums there are long lines outside because everything in D.C. has overabundant security measures in place in order to inconvenience the tourists, give unemployables a job and make sure nobody brings a nail clipper into Federal buildings to commit terrorist acts, like farting in public.
From the Natural History Museum, we took another trek to the National Museum of Art – West where we scoped out a whole bunch of paintings, some of which I recognized but most of which I couldn’t. Numerous artists I have never heard of have scads of paintings stuck up on the walls and Peggy loved this place. We strolled through areas where French painters had pictures of ugly people, fruit and country scenes to areas where Dutch painters had pictures of ugly people, fruit and country scenes and on into areas where American painters had pictures of ugly people, fruit and country scenes. There were also some paintings of city scenes. A few interior sculptures are also showcased in the museum and I really liked one of a female and her gorgeous dog but there were quite a few of ugly people but no fruit or country scenes.
With my feet almost ablaze with agony, we then walked into the Mall where I took pictures of the Capitol Building which is covered with scaffolding such that it is almost entirely hidden from view. The middle section of the Mall is also very busy with excavation equipment which limits your view west to large Caterpillar and Mitsubishi excavation equipment busily obscuring the view. We could see the Washington Monument which is quite spectacular, even if the bottom part of it was hidden behind enormous piles of dirt. From our vantage point we could also see the National Air & Space Museum and the Smithsonian Castle which is a gorgeous structure.
Having endured about as much fun as we could stand in one day, we hobbled over to a Metro station where we boarded the light rail system for the ride back to Franconia, the parking lot and a one hour, 16 mile commute back to the Invader on the cleverly malformed I-95.

We departed Colonial Beach TT and drove up I-95 to Prince William Forest Park about 25 miles south of Washington, D.C. Again we were punished by the terrible Virginia interstate system roads due to their awful paving technology. Yawning gaps in the road surface at paving joints, potholes that are apparently repaired by being filled with mud and placed such that they are unavoidable and uneven surfaces between lanes are abundant and widespread.
However, once we left the interstate, the roads improved such that they are actually identifiable as roads although better roads are easily found in Mexico, Viet Nam and Mongolia. Prince William Forest Park is part of the National Forest system but, for some peculiar reason, our Federal access pass was useless here so we had to pay their rather expensive camping fees of about $45 a night. Proximity to D.C. must be the reason for the high fees because the RV camping area is nothing special although it does have pretty good wi-fi. TV reception sucks but all the utilities were good. The RV spaces are apparently measured by some mysterious Federal system because our 34′ trailer extends out both ends of a 40′ site. Maybe a Federal foot is only 9.5” long.
Our drive today only took a bit over an hour so when we got to the park and set up, we had most of the afternoon to explore the surrounding area. Manassas & Bull Run Civil War battlefields are close so we took a driving tour of the area which has pretty good interpretive displays and, weirdly, the burial spot of Stonewall Jackson’s arm. Although Jackson was a Confederate General, he was wounded in the left arm when shot by some nameless and careless Confederate sharpshooter. The Confederates hauled him to a local house, which is still standing, where his arm was amputated and subsequently buried in the back yard. The armless Jackson was then hauled over a long, circuitous road to another house about 25 miles away where he croaked a few days later from pneumonia, of all things.
The driving tour of the battlefield areas around Manassas is pretty interesting but some of the spots are hard to find due to the cleverly designed Virginia signage which only tells you where to turn after you have missed the opportunity to do so. The countryside is gorgeous here so even if you get lost the views are still very nice. Despite the beauty of the area it is a place where about 15,000 Americans were killed in two campaigns in the area and that weighs on you some.

Day of dread for your rotund author – time to do the laundry. We used the park’s washers and dryers and they worked perfectly, unlike many units we have encountered on this trip.
The temperature today is about 95 and the humidity in the morning was about 92% so we did not do too much exploring. We drove into Colonial Beach and bought diesel for tomorrow’s driving duties where I encountered a guy filling up who had a gorgeous 11-month old chocolate Lab. I was busy schmoozing with the pup when Peg returned from the interior of the 7-11 and discreetly notified me that other folks wanted to purchase fuel and my vehicle was blocking the pumps. We skedaddled away with some nasty glares directed at our tailgate.
We are delighted that the Invader has good air conditioning because without it today we would have been miserable. Stepping outside the Invader, even just to walk 25 feet to Charlotte, was a sweat-inducing event.

Started out the day with a total lack of planning and ended up wandering into Maryland from Virginia over the Potomac River Bridge on Highway 301. We really had no agenda for Maryland so we went to the Visitor Center at the border, putzed around a few rural highways and chickened out by going back to Virginia. We are certain of one thing about Maryland – they charge you $6 to take a two-axle vehicle across the Potomac Bridge back to Virginia. Now we can say we have been in Maryland albeit for about an hour. Peg drove almost all the way resulting in our being able to find our way home to Colonial Beach.
Not surprisingly, the north bank of the Potomac in Maryland looks quite similar to the south bank of the Potomac in Virginia except Virginia has discount cigarettes as soon as you leave Maryland.

My day to drive today so I elected to explore some Civil War battlefields west of Fredricksburg, VA. There were not less than two U.S. Grant campaigns through this area and those that occurred in 1863 were pretty substantial failures for the miserable Union soldiers as some 36,000 were either wounded or killed at the battlefields (Chancellorsville, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania) during Grant’s first pass through the area. General Lee lost some 24,000 soldiers giving the South a 3:2 advantage in the killing. Unfortunately for Lee, Grant could call up replacements and Lee could not. This problem ultimately spelled doom to the South. Lee started with over 100,000 men in the Army of Northern Virginia but ended up surrendering in 1865 with only 13,000 survivors.
The area is absolutely beautiful. It must have horrified the Virginia soldiers to watch this part of the state torn apart by no quarter battles with artillery fire, tons of blood and tremendous reductions in the number of men left at the end of the war. At Spotsylvania, the armies fought in heavily wooded terrain which caught fire during the battle, incinerating all the wounded and dead. A truly bleak period in American history. I’m glad I was not there.

Caramba! Another travel day as we left TT Williamsburg and headed for Colonial Beach TT in, amazingly, Colonial Beach, VA. Just like our first travel day in Virginia, this second day again reminded us that the roads in Virginia are either paved by the blind or the citizens of this great state have learned to accept substandard paving. We initially got on the road by traveling NW on I-64, transitioned to I-295 which joined up with northbound I-95 north of Richmond. Virtually all of these nice Federal highways are pockmarked with corduroy pavement, lumpy bridge approaches and assorted other pavement nightmares that makes one wonder if he were traveling on a primary highway or driving a Matchbox toy car around on the Elephant Man’s potholed head. I feared for my dental work.
Finally we escaped the interstate highway and drove east across the northern neck of VA to Colonial Beach TT which is a spacious campground. It is very quiet, the Potomac is only about 200 yards away and the surrounding countryside is very scenic with loads of birds and animals. It also has no wi-fi and poor phone reception with our crummy Sprint provider. We can do w/o phone and wi-fi for a few days.
5/15/15 Today was Peggy’s day at the helm of Charlotte the Pickup so she elected to go to Stafford Hall, the birthplace of Robert E. Lee, famous Confederate General and genuinely sharp strategist. As we have found at numerous places we have visited on our journeys, claims made can sometimes be carefully crafted to make stupid tourists, like us, to think more of a place than it warrants. In this case, General Lee was indeed born here but moved away when he was four years old, substantially before he became famous for creating strategies geared to rubbing out thousands of Union soldiers who were commanded by lesser officers. The estate, mostly occupied by other, not-so-famous Lees, is very nice but they will not allow paying guests to take pictures inside the plantation house. The outside or more photographic parts of the house are quite nice but this is no Biltmore Estate. The walls of the house are 2 foot thick brick construction which may be a reason the building is still standing.
There is a gravel road through the estate which leads to a gorgeous overlook of the Potomac River and Maryland across the river in addition to a grist mill powered by a big water wheel. The road to the mill is a bit steep but was no problem for Charlotte.
Altogether, I really admired the plantation grounds but was underwhelmed by the house. From Stafford Hall we went just a couple miles to where George Washington was born. Same story as Stafford Hall – George may have popped out here but ultimately set up his estate at Mount Vernon, a good distance north up by Washington, D.C. Maybe we will get a look at that place when we go towards Washington.

We had some very vague plans to do something today but were unable to muster up enough energy to go anywhere. Instead, we made reservations for campgrounds for the remainder of our time in Virginia and some sites in Pennsylvania, the next state to be cursed with our presence. We also made some reservations for the 4th of July weekend in Maine since getting reservations anywhere on holiday weekends we have found to be problematic. Unfortunately, we were forced to drink more Guinness to assist us in our endeavors. It seems Guinness is very good for this kind of effort.

Started out the day with another trip to see Colonial Williamsburg since our $50 passes we bought the first day there are good through the end of the year. We initially went to the Governor’s Palace which is substantially more elegant than all the other buildings in town. It was only about 95 degrees and the humidity was only 92% so after visiting the palace we were able to find a great 17th century tavern, Chowning’s, that served very good flights of ale. After a bit of ale, we wandered around a bit more before chickening out due to tough environmental conditions. Williamsburg is pretty neat to see if you have any interest in history.
We then took another trip into the Jamestown area, including another pass down the 8 mile loop drive, before we headed across the free ferry operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation. It leaves the north side of the James River near Jamestown and drops you off on the south side of the river at a spot called Scotland.
We meandered around the south side of the river going first to Nathaniel Bacon’s Castle in a town called, surprisingly, Bacon’s Castle. The castle, formerly occupied by the arsonist Bacon, is an impressive brick, multi-story building with a number of outbuildings for farming stuff. From Bacon’s Castle we headed to a place called Chippoke Plantation which was not named for the tenants who went by the name of Powell or something. This plantation of some 1400 acres has operated continuously for some 400 years. The house is another large brick residence with abundant outbuildings, one of which housed some beautiful carriages. This was probably a very nice place to live but when we were there, we encountered some of the most aggressive biting flies we can remember. No amount of arm waving, spastic flailing or whirling could drive off these dedicated pests so after about 10 or 15 minutes we retreated to the nice air-conditioned refuge of Charlotte’s cab.
We gladly withdrew from this fly-infested hell and drove back to Scotland, crossed back to the north side of the river and headed home to drink some Guinness.

Back to exploring today. We drove Charlotte to a part of Colonial National Historical Park, specifically, Jamestown. They have a nice visitor center where they extracted $5 from each of us for Preservation Virginia. We have no idea what Preservation Virginia might be but we narrowed it down to two options: the state is collecting fees above the national park fees (which we avoided by using our National Park access pass) or Preservation Virginia is the name of the folks doing the archeological excavations in Jamestown township site. Since it rained while we were here, we did not go see whether any excavations were in progress, leaving us stumped on Preservation Virginia. Folks without the access pass get soaked for $14.
Beyond the tourist center is a very nice loop drive of 8 miles that takes you through Jamestown Island. This area was settled in 1609 or so and was burned to the ground by Nathaniel Bacon over a dispute regarding protection of settlers from those pesky Indians who pretty much got the short end of the stick after English whitey arrived. Most of the island is heavily wooded with deciduous hardwood trees with loads of animals sneaking about in the brush. We spotted 3 bald eagles in this part of the state.
From the park we drove up State Highway 5 which is also labeled the Colonial Parkway until we reached Shirley Plantation. On this drive we spotted a pretty big turtle hanging out in the middle of a gravel road and a big ground hog in addition to loads of birds. The flora near the roads here is gorgeous and seeing a bunch of animals only makes it better.
On the way back to the Invader we stopped in a town called West Point (not the one with a military academy) to engage in some mundane shopping for RV 12 volt light bulbs. During our trip back to the Invader from the light bulb store, we encountered a restaurant called Captain George’s which offered regular menu items or an enormous seafood buffet for $32. We both selected the buffet which ultimately left us almost painfully overstuffed on 3 kinds of fish, scallops, a couple versions of shrimp, fried oysters, Oysters Rockefeller, crab legs, clam chowder, chicken tortellini, prime rib and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t have space for before capping off with a variety of desserts including eclairs, chocolate chip cookies, baklava, and carrot cake. I am ashamed at how much of this food I was able to devour before I couldn’t. However, I have been able to recover from my remorse.