White House

Jefferson Memorial

Petrified Wood at the Smithsonian

SpaceShipOne at Air and Space Museum

Gemini

Apollo

Spirit of Saint Louis

Lunar Lander

Lunar Rover

Eastern Airlines DC3

Panorama

Lincoln's Hat

Scarecrow from The Wizard of OZ

C3PO and R2D2

ENIAC (First Computer)

Mary Lincoln's Dress

George Washington's Uniform

Mr. Rogers Sweater

First Dell Computer

Jaqueline Kennedy's Cape

Train Station

The Subway Queens

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

I got up at 6:30 AM. My ankle is still red, but looks less swollen this morning. We left camp on the bus at about 10:15 and rode to the Metro subway station for the trip to Washington. We rode it to 7th street, then walked to the Holocaust Museum. We spent several hours there and it just broke my heart to see all the pain, death, and suffering that was inflicted on the Jewish people. The museum was huge and although we toured it, we didn't see everything. We weren't allowed to take any pictures and Dave said it was one of the few places he had ever been where they searched you going in and coming out. We ate lunch there and left about 4:30 PM. We walked back to the subway station and rode into Virginia. It had started raining, so we found a nice deli and had our supper. We then went back to the subway station and rode on a huge, long escalator. Because of the rain, we decided to go back to the RV and watch the fireworks on the TV. We got back to camp about 7:30. I showered, washed my hair, and we watched the grand fireworks display on TV until bedtime. We didn't know at the time but we saw more of the celebration on the local TV station than if we had been there.

Holocaust Museum

The Longest Escalator we have ever seen!!

Thursday, July 5, 2007

We are to meet with Dave's friend, Heather Cates at 10:00AM for breakfast. Heather and her husband Don lived in the same apartment building and Dave worked with Don at the NASA station at Tananarive Madagascar. Don and Dave also flew together in Madagascar. We left camp at 9:15 AM and drove to Baltimore and went through a tunnel under the river. Heather called and said we were in the wrong part of town and were going the wrong way. We had to turn around and go back through the tunnel. Heather directed us on what exits to take to reach Catonville, MD. Thank God for cell phones! We finally found the Double T diner and had a really good time visiting and eating a big breakfast with her. We even got to try scrapple, which is famous in that part of the country. She is a really sweet lady and acted like she had known Deanna and I all our lives. We hated to leave so soon but she had another appointment to meet. We left at 12:15 PM and drove back to the RV Park to catch a bus to the subway. We got there about 1:45 and took the subway to Virginia and visited the Iwo Jima Memorial. It is a really moving piece of sculpture and a lot bigger than we had imagined. We got back on the subway and rode to Arlington, VA to visit the Arlington Cemetery. We took a tour bus and saw John F. Kennedy's grave; Audie Murphy's grave; and watched the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We saw Robert E. Lee's home place and slave quarters. We rode back to the visitor's center, then walked to the subway. We got back to camp about 9:00 PM and had our supper. Then Dave and Deanna went to get gas and groceries. I stayed in the RV and did dishes then rested till they came back.

Heather Cates

JFK Headstone

Audie Murphy

Friday, July 6, 2007

We will be going to the Korean Memorial this morning and maybe to Gettysburg this afternoon. We left camp at 9:15 AM and stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for some good donuts and coffee. We came back to the RV Park and caught our bus to the Metro and planned to see the Ford Theater and museum. We got off at Federal Triangle station so we could walk to the Ford theater but found a couple of interesting things on the way. Federal Triangle is a beautiful area with a great visitors center. We found more things to look at accidentally than we planned on purpose! The Ford Museum was in the basement of the Ford theater and had lots and lots of memorabilia from that era.  On the way to the Spy museum and Smithsonian we found a monument to the Navy that was really well done. There was a large map of the planet on the floor surrounded by a beautiful fountain area. We went to the Spy Museum (where we were not allowed to take pictures), then got back on the subway and went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We saw the Hope diamond, the Tiffany Bird on a Rock, Marie Antoinette's earrings, a huge quartz from Crystal Springs, Arkansas  and many minerals from Colorado, as well as other states and foreign countries. We got back on the subway and rode to College Park to catch our bus home. We got there just in time and didn't have to wait as we had before. We got back to the RV about 6:15 PM. Deanna fixed spaghetti and garlic bread for supper. Yum Yum!!! We decided to move to Gettysburg tomorrow and stay a couple of days.

The Subway Queens

Visitors Center

Federal Triangle

The Presidential Box

Lincolns coat and door to Presidential box

The assassins gun

The boarding house where Lincoln died

We got a kick out of the Segway tourists

Navy memorial

There's my girl!

The Hope Diamond

Bird on a Rock

Saturday, July 7, 2007

After breakfast, we started getting the RV ready to leave Cherry Hill. We left at 8:45 AM and stopped at a scenic overlook about 10:00 and saw Frederick, MD in the valley. Very pretty scenery. We entered Pennsylvania about 10:40 and drove on to Gettysburg. We reached the Artillery Ridge Campground and got set up, then we discovered we had no water in the outside faucet. Deanna called the office and they came and fixed the problem. We ate lunch then left for the Gettysburg Visitor's Center. Just after we left the camp ground we had to stop and wait for a horse back tour to go by.  At the Visitors Center we saw an "electric map" and watched a program directed by one of the Park Rangers explaining the battle at Gettysburg. We visited the museum and gift shop where Dave bought a CD road tour and we took it all around the battlefield. The CD told us what stops to take and all about the battle that was fought there. We saw split rail and rock fences, memorial statues, Devil's Den, cemeteries, and many battle sites. Deanna and I even climbed up in an observation tower and it was awesome. The whole experience at Gettysburg was a moving experience with many heart wrenching stories. One that got Dave's attention was a soldier in the thick of battle stopping to put a bird nest back in a tree it had fallen from. There was a barn with the cannon hole still in the brickwork. We also got a picture of President Eisenhower's farm which was located alongside the Gettysburg park. We got back to camp about 7:00 PM and had supper, then Dave and Deanna went to get gas in the truck. Deanna and I did laundry when they returned and got to bed about 11:30 PM

Leaving Cherry Hill

Electric Map

Eisenhower's Farm

The bird nest

Cannon ball hole

Reenactor Union Camp

Sunday, July 8, 2007

I got up early, had my breakfast and washed the dishes. We went back to the Gettysburg Visitor's Center after breakfast and Deanna bought our tickets for the Gettysburg reenactment. We went out to the field about 9:00 AM and watched the reenactment of the battle. It was really hot and we were glad we had decided on the morning program instead of the afternoon one. The battle was complete with muskets and cannons firing and cavalry with swords drawn! Those days during the civil war must have been horrible! When we left, we headed for Hershey, PA and went to Chocolate World. We toured the factory in a little train and saw how the chocolate is made. We bought some candy, too. We ate lunch in their deli section then left around 2:15 PM. We stopped at Gateway Theater to see and photograph the Clydesdale horses outside Gettysburg. We watched them wash down the horses and petted the Dalmatian that goes with them. We went on back to the RV and Dave and Deanna went to Wal-Mart to shop for groceries. I stayed in the RV and rested. After supper, we decided to drive around and see some of the sites we had bypassed the day before. We saw lots of original rock walls and memorial statues. We got back to the RV and had some ice cream before going to bed.

A fat guy checking out one of the cannons

Monday, July 9, 2007

We left Artillery Ridge RV Park this morning and started our journey back toward home. We left camp at 9:05 AM and traveled through Gettysburg, PA headed for Maryland. We got to Maryland about 10:10, drove through part of the Appalachian Mountains and got our first warning signs about bears. Bears!? In Maryland?  We stopped at the Visitor's Center and saw a big gap that was carved through the mountains named Sideling Hill. We could see Sideling a long time before we got there. We took pictures, got maps, and had a rest room break. We left there and crossed the Continental Divide about 12:30 PM and saw lots of prisoners working on the road. We drove over some really steep grades in the mountains and entered West Virginia about 1:00 PM. West Virginia ate up our originally planned timeline putting us behind almost half a day. But the scenery was really hard to beat. We stopped at the Visitor's Center for maps and ate lunch in the RV. After leaving there, we stopped for gas and then at a rest area to go over the map to find a place to camp for the night. We encountered more road work and reached Charleston about 5:00 PM. We crossed the Kanawha River; it is so big!! There was a nuclear power plant with three towers at Nitro, W. VA. We had to stop at Hurricane for gas and it was up to $3.05 a gallon. Deanna started driving again and we entered Kentucky at 6:30 PM. We stopped at the Welcome Center at 6:50 and left at 7:10 with Dave at the wheel. Deanna called the Valley Breeze RV Park and they have room for us. We got there and checked in about 7:30. This is the smallest RV park we have ever stayed at but it is really nice. After supper, we went to Kmart for groceries, then to bed early as we had a long day of driving from Gettysburg, PA to Grayson, Kentucky.

Artillery Ridge

Sideling Hill

The view from Sideling Hill

BEARS!?

Tuesday, July 10,2007

I slept in a little this morning and didn't get up till 7:00 AM. (Did you catch that? Slept in a little. 7:00am) We left camp at 9:25 and headed west. We passed by Lexington and stopped at a rest area for a break at 10:20. We ran into a detour in Louisville and took a loop around to stay on 64 highway. Dave caught Jenetta napping in the back seat and shot a picture.  We crossed the Ohio River on a big picturesque bridge, which put us in Indiana. We encountered intermittent showers and stopped at the Welcome Center to lunch in the RV. We stopped for gas outside Santa Claus, Indiana at 1:30 PM, then entered Illinois and crossed the Wabash River . We drove on and crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri at 5:00 PM. We arrived at our St. Louis RV Park after driving down the most bumpy in Saint Louis and set up camp. We had never seen and RV park that was wall to wall asphalt. We got a call from Denise and went to Applebee's to meet them for supper. We had a good visit and supper then went back to the RV.

Valley Breeze

There's my girl again!

Wednesday, July 11,2007

(Happy Birthday, Billy) I got up at 7:15 this morning. I am getting awfully tired and am anxious to get home. After breakfast, we prepared to leave St. Louis. As we drove out the front gate we noticed a police station right across the street and wondered why were kept awake part of the night with boom boxes running! We decided to visit the arch before we left, so drove there. None of us could justify getting in those little bitty elevators to go to the top of the Arch so we passed the opportunity up. We went to the museum under the arch and spent quite a while there. It was so interesting. When we got back to the RV, Dave and Deanna decided to stop at Treasure Lake in Branson and not try to drive home all in one day. We left camp at 10:00 AM and headed west. We stopped at Marshfield for gas and rest room break. Gas is up to $3.19 a gallon! We got to Branson at 3:45, set up camp, then went to McFarlain's at the IMAX for supper. Dave and Deanna had fried green tomatoes. Yummy! I bought a new fanny pack while there and called Sam and Barbara after we got back to the RV. Dave and Deanna did computer work, then we went to bed early.

Thursday, July 12,2007

I got up at 7:00 AM and made coffee. We had a breakfast of pancakes and bacon, then broke camp and headed for home. Storms and flash floods are predicted for Kansas and Oklahoma. We'll have to be very careful driving home. We stopped for gas outside Springfield and it has started to rain. It is 71 degrees which isn't bad. We stopped in Joplin for a rest room break. We are almost home. We saw a lot of flooding around Nowata, but reached Bartlesville safely and parked the RV in Dave and Deanna's yard about 2:50 PM. I packed up all my things, stopped at Braums for milk and bread and got home about 4:00 PM. Home looked so good, and there were no leaks in the new roof. That is great!!!