USA Coast to Coast, The Ultimate Road Trip. Part 2

4th - 8th July 2014

It was the 4th of July and we were within spitting distance of the capital. Just a two hour drive and we’d be in the heart of Washington DC and what a place to be for the party of the nation. Two days earlier we hadn’t held out much hope for finding  any accommodation with in cooee of the city. Then Liam suggested using his Hyatt reward points that were doing nothing but gathering dust. After a short phone call we had a room booked on the 10th floor, just a five minute walk from the National Mall. How lucky was that.

 

Driving to DC on the freeway was easy, the hard part was negotiating all the streets that were blocked off when we arrived. Jennifer, the voice of our i pad's map app, did a fabulous job of constantly re-routing us. She’s a clever girl and never gets the shits no matter what gets thrown her way.

 

After check-in we hot footed it down to Constitution Ave and secured a good spot to watch the  parade. There were thousands of people out  and about and just about as many law enforcement officers which included out of state police, national guard, air force, army, secret service, metro and city police, K9 divisions and the list went on.

       

Cops were on foot, on bicycles, in hum vies and in the air.  Streets leading to the city centre, high target buildings,memorials and the National Mall were barricaded with police vehicles and buses.Nothing and no one was going to take down DC that day.

 

The parade went off without a hitch, There were dozens of marching bands both military and civilian, floats with all sorts of themes, troops of homegrown performers and ethnic groups in traditional costumes.

        

There were flag bearers, baton throwers, gymnasts and roller skaters It was a real melting pot of culture and history and everyone involved was proud to call themselves an American.

   

      

 

 

   

After the parade we mooched down the National Mall for a look see and were surprised that people were already staking their claim on the vast lawn area around the Washington Monument and on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Remember Planet of the Apes? Abe’s memorial played a prominent roll in the movie.

It was a pretty hot day and it would be a long wait until the fireworks later in the evening, but these folks came well equipped with sun tents, deck chairs, coolers and whatever else they needed to enjoy Washington’s biggest outdoor party.

 

Then of course there was that other party just one block away on the lawns of The White House. But that was for invitation and Dept of of  Homeland Security approved guests only.

 

All you had to do was show up in your Sunday best. And best of all it was a BYO nothing at that little gig. As our invites had obviously got lost in the mail we adjourned  back to the Hyatt. It had been a long time since either of us had put our feet up in such fancy digs, and we were going to enjoy it while we could. 

      

 

 

At 9pm the sky above Washington exploded into colour. We joined the throngs who were camped out on the grass and had a great view. Although it only lasted 17 minutes, an odd number we thought, it was excellent  but not a patch on Sydney’s NYE spectacular over the harbour. I guess we have been spoilt over the years. The crowds all day long had been extremly orderly and polite, no pushing or shoving. We had great time being part of the carnival atmosphere that engulfed the city that day. And now we can say “been there, done that”.

                

      

		4th of July VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Whilst still in the neighbourhood we drove back into Virginia on the other side of the Potomac River to visit the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. This site honors the 184 people whose lives were lost at the Pentagon and on board American Airlines Flight 77 at 9.37am on that tragic day in 2001. Each victims name has been inscribed onto a stainless steel plaque on their memorial unit, a cantilevered bench with a lighted pool of flowing water beneath.

       

The park is quite lovely with Crepe Myrtle trees planted around each memorial and it is clear that a lot of thought went into the design. Each unit is positioned to distinguish where the person was at the time of the attack. For those on board AA 77 as you read the persons name on the elevated end of the bench you are also looking in the direction from which the plane approached the Pentagon and for those who were inside the building, reading their name gives you a view of the Pentagon.   God rest their souls.

       

 

Our next stop was out near Dulles Airport at the Steven F Udvar Hazy Centre which is an annex of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. It’s a huge complex which houses many many fabulous exhibits of air and spacecraft that are way too large for the DC museum. Oh and these aren’t mock ups they’re the real McCoy. Included in the inventory was the Enola Gay, the B52 Super fortress that on August 6th 1945 dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan. For those of you out there with a passion for anything to do with flight put this place on your list. We spent hours checking it out. Call us kids but we love that kind of stuff.

                  

Leaving the museum just as the doors closed we took the freeway up to Germantown, Maryland. Rush hour traffic was in full swing and we were pretty glad that we made it to our hotel in one piece. Time for some R&R.

 

Up and at ‘em next morning we were off to Pennsylvania Dutch Country to visit the Amish. Ever since watching the Harrison Ford movie Witness many moons ago I’ve always wanted to see how these people live. Not too sure if Liam did, but then he really didn’t have much of a choice. So off we went.

A fairly large concentration of Amish families live in the farmlands to the east of the town of Lacncaster PA. Spread out through 28 states the largest population is in Iowa. Known collectively as the ‘plain people” the Brethren, Mennonite and Amish are all part of the Anabaptist sects who were persecuted in their homeland of Switzerland and settled in this area in the 1700’s. Speaking German dialects, they became known as Dutch from the word Deutsch but they are not Dutch at all as the name implies.

We quickly learnt that there are many different beliefs within the Amish community. Some families live by the traditional rules of their sect whist others like the Mennonites and some Brethren learn toward a more modern style of living which means having electricity, televisions and cars.

But we were more interested in getting amongst the horse and buggy types. The smaller towns of Bird in Hand and Intercourse, interesting name for a town we thought, seemed to be the centre of Amish activity in these parts.

            

Our first big clue that we were in the right place were the tell tail dollops of horse poo dotting the sides of the roads.

And the second, well that had to be the bearded men  in straw hats and the dark clothed bonnet headed women, many of whom walked rather than rode in buggies.

The Amish as a general rule are very reserved, private people who don’t mix with those outside their sect. Some are happy to smile and wave for the cameras, but most are not and hide their faces.

Because of their separation from the modern world they have become a big tourist attraction. These days there are van tours of Amish working farms, shops selling Amish made goodies especially quilts and furniture, as well as buggy rides and even home stays. For someone it has become quite a lucrative business.

 

We, just like other curious “English”, that’s what non Amish are known as, jumped on the bandwagon and signed up with an authentic looking outfit named Aaron and Jessica’s buggy rides for an hour long toddle through the countryside.

 

As we trotted along our Amish guide openly chatted about the ins and outs of Amish life. He touched on religion, home life, schooling, taxes and where and how their make ends meet. There are two main sources of income. One being corn growing, the majority of which is sold for stock feed with only a small amount harvested for human consumption. The other is the dairy industry and it’s associated products. He explained that Amish farms are worked in the traditional way.

The crops he said were sown by man, horse and plough and of course, being strict in their ways, they had no electricity as the grid is directly connected to the outside world. But on the other hand they are permitted to have a kick arse generator, solar panels and gas for heating, cooking, lighting and refrigerators. Freezers are not permitted as they are a tad too close to modern living and may have a roll on effect to wanting more electrical appliances.

Another unexpected surprise were the modern homes, with nice big BBQ’s straight out of the Home Depot catalogue. These places would be hard pressed not to blend into any middle class American suburb.The Amish may have traditional values but traditional living? Who are they kidding! Where were the wood choppers and the woodchoppers sons? In our minds their lifestyle seemed a little contradictory to say the least.

We left the buggy tour quite disillusioned and headed down the road in search of an Amish auction we’d been told of that also served a good take away lunch

 

And wow was the place pumping, especially the parking lot. It was wall to wall horses and buggies. The auctioneer was going hell for leather, he could could have easily got a job at Southerby’s, and the buyers were buying. Wicker baskets and wooden mailboxes were walking out the door. We gave lunch a miss, instead investing in a.few home made pastries which looked delicious.

           

      

From here we decided to take the back roads through the corn fields in the hope of snapping a few Kodak moments and we weren’t disappointed.

                       

		Amish PA VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

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Info : Steven F Udvar –Hazy Air & Space Centre. Location: Chantilly VA, (near Dulles airport). Ph 703 572 4118. Open daily 10am – 5.30pm , except Xmas day . Admission FREE.  Parking $15, 10am – 4pm (after 4pm  Free). GuidedTours: FREE, Mon- Sat, inquire at welcome desk.   Imax Theatre $6 for seniors  Other : Gift shop , McDonalds, Coffee shop.

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USA Coast to Coast. The Ultimate Road Trip.  Part 1

June 25th – 3rd July 2014

With GWTW home alone at Nana Juana Marina in the Rio Dulce Guatemala, but under the watchful eyes of our good friends on the Aussie boat Muneera, we climbed aboard the Litegua bus bound for Guatemala City, a six hour ride inland. Through listening to the cruisers’ bush telegraph we’d organized a room for the night at the hotel Los Torros. It was a good deal, clean and comfy but definitely no Taj Mahal. More the type of place you check in and then go find something else to do until bed time.

Next morning we boarded our Delta Airlines flight for the USA. Ahead of us lay an a eight week one way trip from Richmond Virginia on the eastern seaboard to Portland Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. Were we exited? You bet.

In years gone by we have done our fair share of travel in the US of A but we’d never travelled across the continent. So this would be a whole new experience. Of course they were a few “must sees” on our list which included Niagara Falls, Yellowstone National Park and Mt Rushmore. Other than that, the plan was to just get out the maps and make it up as went along.

Cruising friends Donny and Judy picked us up at Richmond airport and whisked us away for some fun filled days staying at both their residential home near Richmond and their holiday place on the waterfront in Deltaville.

 

We had a ball catching up with their family and friends. BBQ’s overlooking the pool, lazy afternoons on their sundrenched deck and cooling off at a shallow beach are known to locals as “the sandbar’'.Our time with all of them made for some great memories. We could easily have stayed longer as they are such good hosts, but the rest of America was calling. It was time to pick up our Ford Explorer and hit the road.

We’d made an advanced   reservation with Budget for a long term one way rental and the cost came in at an excellent price. The bonus was that our contract also came with unlimited millage, which turned out to be a very good thing, considering we racked up over 9,000 miles!

 

From Richmond we headed west 170 miles. Meandering along the roads less travelled by the masses took us through farm lands and sleepy towns ending up in the small city of Roanoke at the base of the “Blue Ridge Parkway”. Having already done our homework for a place to lay our heads we checked into the ‘Extended Stay America” hotel which came with a kitchenette complete with stove top, microwave, utensils and household fridge. So with a quick trip down the road to Wal-Mart, we had dinner sorted for our first “on the road” home cooked meal and settled in for a relaxing night in front of our big screen TV.

Next morning we headed up on to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It extends 469 miles along the crests of the southern Appalachian Mountains and forms a link between the Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. The southern end of the parkway begins just north of Bryson City, in the Cherokee Indian Reservation, North Carolina while the northern end starts at mile 0 in Waynesboro Virginia. We joined the route at mile 120 and would be travelling north. The scenery was just as we’d imagined. Beautiful.

 

The road was excellent but quite winding and took a lot of concentration. Even though the speed limit was only 45 mph you still had to be on the ball.

Commercial traffic is prohibited  on the parkway but being summer this route is popular with holiday makers and is most definitely a motorcycle riders delight and there were plenty of them about.

As we drove along taking it all in, the sweeping views over the valleys below,  the peaceful golden meadows and shady lakes made for slow going at times as we’d pull over to get a better look.

There seemed to be unlimited photo opportunities at every turn.

 

   

Along the parkway, the NPS provides well maintained hiking trails, picnic areas, overlooks (lookouts for those not from the USA) and many public campgrounds. We made plenty of use of the picnic areas and also some of the shorter trails.

With vista overload our first day was done and dusted we turned off the Parkway toward the small town of Strauton. It’s an understatement to it was a very quite little place though there were a few interesting homes in the main street, along with a couple of nice  cafés.

 

  

The following day back up the on the ridge we went to continue north from where we’d left off. This time we’d be driving through Shenandoah National Park. Is that John Denver I hear singing?

Established in 1935, before high rise buildings and air travel were commonplace the105 mile scenic roadway know as the “Skyline Drive”  follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains.The park was a planned wilderness area that utilises the recourses of natural forests, fields, orchards and parcels of private lands and homes.

“Mountain tops have always beckoned humans. To stand at the top, to see as far as the eye allows, to take in the vastness of our world – is to be awed and humbled and inspired all at once “ This quote certainly sums up Shenandoah.

Once again there were many beautiful vistas with pretty wildflowers lining the edges of the narrow road. The park has 75 overlooks, that’s a lot, and over 500 miles of trails spanning a myriad of fitness levels, there were even some for people like us.

        

 

Apart from the scenery there were heaps of animal signs, especially for deer and bears.

         

We thought for a while there that the animals must have been on summer vacation too, but just as we rounded a bend, there on the side of the road, we spotted our first black bear.

We were so close to him. He was standing tall and pretty focused on munching down something very yummy, paying no attention to us at all. That was until Liam got out of the car for a close up pic. Then he was off  like a rocket and all we got was a great shot of his bum!

 

The brochure that Ranger Smith (not her real name) had given us at the park entrance stressed that the weather up here can change at the drop of a hat and to be prepared for cold, rain and fog and whatever else mother nature can throw at you. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, we thought as we left the air conditioned comfort of our SUV and headed down a trail for a bit of a leg stretcher. The sky was blue, the sun was shinning and you don’t get better days than this up here in the Blue Ridge Mountains we figured. Wrong. As we toddled along the trail, just past the point of no return, we looked at each other and said “was that thunder?” Then we heard it again. The clouds came rolling up over the ridge from the valley below and then the rain started, mental note: take heade of what the experts write next time. Luckily we made it back to the car before the heavens opened fully.

It was all downhill after that, the weather that is.The temperature dropped and the fog rolled in. It was downright chilly even in the car, so we turned the seat warmers on. Aahh luxury. I suggested to Liam he put on the steering wheel warmer too, but he bucked at that idea. He’s tough.

We felt for the bikers and hikers who were still out there but unlike us they probably read the brochure AND took the necessary precautions. After rumaging in our suitcase for jeans and wooly jackets, hastely munching down our sandwiches, 3535 ft up in the fog, we were off again.

The roads were starting to get very dicey and sometimes the visibility was non existent which wasn’t good considering how many deer call this park home. Last thing we wanted was to hit cute little bambie or his mum on day three of our trip.

We spotted a hiker looking very bedraggled thumbing a ride, so we moved a bit of stuff from the back seat and he squeezed in wet, cold and very grateful for the lift. He  was a big fella and sure didn’t look like a hiker to us, but then looks can be deceiving.

Striking up a conversation as you do, he told us he was hiking part of the Appalachian Trail which is just over 2,000 miles long, It crosses six national parks, eight national forests, spans fourteen states and is the the holy grail for many hikers.Now that is one long footpath. Anyway to cut to the chase, he was hiking alone, (is that sensible?) and had left his car several days ago in a car park some miles further up the road.

Being a chatty sort of guy he also told us about his adventures camping out under the stars and of his close encounters with big bears along the trail. He walked roughly 12 miles a day and was well equipped with food, clothing and bedding and of course bear spray!. Apparently, so he informed us, over the years many of the parks’ animals have cottoned on that it is way easier to walk along the man made trail than lope through the woods and fight their way through the undergrowth. Makes sense when you think about it. Plus, for the bears there’s always the chance of getting a fresh take-away meal. Now that doesn’t bear thinking about does it.

We dropped off our passenger and were once again on our way. I for one was thankful that he was a just a hiker and not a chainsaw murder. You just never know about hitchikers. Still that was our good deed for the day.

With the weather not looking like it was going to improve any time soon we called it quits and headed out of the park and down to our room at the Ramada hotel in Strasburg. After a hard day in the saddle it was good to be somewhere warm and cozy for the night.

We absolutely enjoyed our few days of driving the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Skyline Drive and would highly recommended it if you are travelling in the North Carolina or Virginia area.

 

             You see some interesting signposts in this country

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INFO :Airconditioned Litegua buses run several times daily. Rio Dulce (Fronteras) to Guatemala City, 5 – 6hrs, Q80 pp one way = $11 usd

Accommodation: Guatemala City : Los Torros Hotel, Q 28 per room, two persons. Private shower, fan, TV. NO breakfast.

Taxi: Los Torres hotel to Airport: 15 mins, Q60 – 80

Shenandoah National Park entrance fee : $ 15 usd, $10 for seniors.

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September 15th 2014

Hang in there , new postings coming soon!