ATLANTIC COAST W/THE STOCKS 2010

November 5, 2010                      Day 5                      College Park, MD (Washington, DC)

We drove into DC in a surprisingly short 30 minutes.  We were to meet our nephew, who works in DC, at the International Spy Museum.  We got there about an hour early (anticipating terrible traffic), so we dallied at the Spy Cafe next door.  They have a great Monday Special for $4.95, but we'd already eaten, so we just had coffee.  Admission to the Spy Museum was $18.  They had many interesting exhibits, short films, and interactive features.  Parking was $20 at a garage a couple of blocks away (with an on-line coupon).  Danny found a spot in the street  right in front where he could feet a meter for 2 hours.  He didn't get a ticket, though we were there for about 3 hours.

Then, Danny went to work, and Dean and I went on to the US Capitol (picture 1). Be sure to look at the distant & tiny Statue of Freedom at the top of the dome.  Parking could be a pain in the foot, but we have a Handicapped placard so we were able to park only about 2 blocks away.  If you are able, definitely take the Metro to this site. The Metrobus takes you right to the main entrance.  We could see the dome from afar (Picture 1).  It is made of cast iron and weighs 9 million pounds.

You have to have reservations through your senator if you want to see the Senate/House in session.  You usually have to make an appointment even for the Capitol Tour (free), but this is their low season, so we just walked right in.  If only our government ran as efficiently as the Visitor Center tours of the Capitol.  The tour lasted about 45 minutes and was outstanding.

The Interior of the dome was very high up (picture 2). The circle of people is George Washington, a figure representing victory and liberty, and ladies representing the 13 states.  Washington has a sword representing strength and a book representing knowledge. 

Lower on the dome was an amazing circular painting, which really looked like a 3-D carving.  It shows 400 years of American history, starting with Christopher Columbus (Picture 3).  The man who painted most of it was 74 years old, and he had a heart attack when he was working on it alone in the room.  He fell off a ladder, and the shock of the fall killed him.  It took 2 more painters 200 years to finish it up.

Picture 4 is a painting of Pocohontas being baptized, which was considered being "civilized."  She had to be baptized before she was eligible to marry Captain John Rolfe.  Her father gave Rolfe half of Virginia for marrying her (dowry?).  Ladies & Native Americans, we've come a long way.

They made a prototype of the Statue of Freedom before they made the real thing, and this is the original prototype (picture 5).  It enabled us to see details of the real one that appears so tiny, even when you get as close to the dome as possible.

Each state has two statues of famous people in the capitol.  They are made of either marble or bronze.  The guide wasn't with us to give answers when we saw the statue representing Hawaii (pictures 6 & 7), but it looks to me like it broke the rule.

Stayed at Cherry Hill RV Resort.
Weather:  COLD, especially in the morning

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I was browsing the pics before I read the narrative. Looked at one and thought "Dang, that looks like the statue of King Kamehameha in Honolulu!" Thought you'd mixed up your pictures and included one from Hawaii. Then I read the narrative and learned that it was in DC. Wonder if the same sculptor made both statutes?

Don't forget a White House tour. And you'll need to find my favorite statute in DC...Albert Einstein. Very cool statute.

You do have an NPS Passport book, don't you? You can stamp your brains out in D.C.

Enjoy
Wendy
Bolsa Chica State Beach

    Take in as many of the Smithsonian Museums as you can, as they are awesome.

Ed

PS:BTW it's Nov 3, not the 5th

Linda

If you get to Charleston,SC..... Make sure you go to Ft. Sumpter it was one of my favorites.

Terry A. Brewer said:

Linda

If you get to Charleston,SC..... Make sure you go to Ft. Sumpter it was one of my favorites.

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Will do--it's on our list.  It is cold and raining here--we're ready to head south--Virginia here we come tomorrow!  South Carolina won't be too much longer after that.

Hfx_Cdn said:

    Take in as many of the Smithsonian Museums as you can, as they are awesome.

Ed

PS:BTW it's Nov 3, not the 5th

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Date was a brain burp, and it was only the 2nd when I wrote it--so it's an even worse goof.  We spent a week at the Smithsonian when we were here 25 years ago, and I agree they are fabulous.  They will be part of our next trip back here, but the weather and flying dates off the calendar are driving us southward.  I really appreciate the suggestions!

Wendy said:

I was browsing the pics before I read the narrative. Looked at one and thought "Dang, that looks like the statue of King Kamehameha in Honolulu!" Thought you'd mixed up your pictures and included one from Hawaii. Then I read the narrative and learned that it was in DC. Wonder if the same sculptor made both statutes?

Don't forget a White House tour. And you'll need to find my favorite statute in DC...Albert Einstein. Very cool statute.

You do have an NPS Passport book, don't you? You can stamp your brains out in D.C.

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We did the White House Tour about 25 years ago, and it was wonderful. If we'd had more time, we definitely would have done that.  We'll add Albert Einstein to our list of places to go, but where is he? 

The NPS Passport is great for most people, but I have an aversion to having to remember to take along one more thing--probably born from years of unnecessary forms and paperwork baloney in the school system (sorry, Betty....all your forms were meaningful).  We had the passports, but kept forgetting to get them stamped--they were in the RV, we were at the stamping station.  So, I decided to tax my brain less and just relax and enjoy.

BTW, you're frying at 95?, and I'm wearing Nanook daily (Wendy named my heavy Alaska jacket).

November 3, 2010          Day 6      Dover, DE

We spent $39 in tolls going from College Park, MD, to Wilmington, DE, just to see the Hagley Museum. The people at the museum had lots of answers and were very nice.  Admission was $9 each.  Hagley is the original DuPont powder mills, estate, and gardens.  DuPont built his home near the powder mills because the workers' homes were near them, and he felt that he should be in as much danger as his workers were.  The VC is an old stone cotton-spinning mill.  There were lots of interactive displays demonstrating gears and the use of water to generate power to drive machines.  They also do demonstrations of how things were done.  DuPont was the exclusive provider of gunpowder to the US Armed Forces until the 1920's, when the anti-trust laws were enacted.  DuPont's scientists came up with so many new uses of polymers.  They invented the materials used for the astronaut's spacesuits, and it was interesting to see and feel the 8 different layers of material that make up the spacesuits.  They also invented rayon and the fire-resistant material used for Jeff Gordon's racing clothes.  The DuPont family has really contributed to the greatness of the US.  The mansion is open for visits, and they have an organic cafe which had a nice menu.  It listed a ham sandwich--are there free-range pigs???  Dean said the Hagley was "OK", AAA rated it a gem, and I'm not really interested in physics, gears, how to make gunpowder, and machines.  We had loved DuPont's residence at Longwood Gardens--we spent all day there--and I thought this might be great, too.  As I left, a great blue heron flew along the Brandywine River (headed south), and for me that was the highlight of the day.  I think he has the right idea!

Boondocked at Dover Downs Casino, which has a free dump station and potable water.

Linda, hope this catches you in time. While you are in Wilmington, be sure and check out Winterthur:  http://www.winterthur.org/. This is a great collection of colonial America life.

Chet18013

Chet18013 said:

Linda, hope this catches you in time. While you are in Wilmington, be sure and check out Winterthur:  http://www.winterthur.org/. This is a great collection of colonial America life.

Chet18013

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It was on my list, and we'll see it next time.  I wish I'd known it was so good.  I've decided to add a line to my posts saying where we are heading, so if people have suggestions that I don't know about or can tell me that something is really good, I can make sure we get there.

Today we are headed to Richmond after we see the state capitol at Dover.  I doubt that we'll make it all the way today.  I think we get to go through an amazing series of connected and tunnel and bridges.  I talked with them and they say RVs are great--no height or width concerns.  However, it does cost $28, but that's less than the tolls we paid to get here from MD. 

November 4, 2010 Day 7 Dover, DE

Rain pounded our roof all night and morning.  We waited a couple of hours, hoping it would let up.  It didn?t.  So we braved the cold rain and set off for the elusive State Capitol Building.  We could not find an address anywhere, but we knew its boundary streets thanks to Google.  When we found Legislative Square there were lots of buildings of similar architecture.  We found the old State Capitol, Supreme Court, and lots of buildings with people?s names, but no capitol.  We found a Visitor Center, and they pointed out the ?Legislative Hall? right across the street.  They are removing asbestos and painting, and there is no sign saying what it is (Picture 1) .  Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution, and they take pride in being the first state.

After we passed through security, we discovered that the tour guide had gone home, even though it was only about 12:30..  It is ?Returns Day?, a special festive day in a nearby town where all the candidates, winners and losers, come and participate in a parade.  Each race?s winner and loser ride together in the same car, and they are supposed to ?bury the hatchet.? There?s a whole protocol of who gets in the car first and who exits first, and this has been happening for a long time.  The Capitol police turned on some lights and said we should feel free to look around.  We had questions, so I asked a lady who was walking down the hallway if she had answers.  She turned out to be  the journal clerk, who records the legislation from the House of Representatives named Gail.  She gave us the most wonderful tour!

Delaware has a Senate (picture 4) and House (picture 2).  They only meet for 45 days a year, starting on January 2.  They meet at 2:00 on Tues., Wed., and Thurs. and stop for the day between 5 PM and midnight?whenever they are done.  Both houses are painted buff and colonial blue?the color of colonial regiments.  I asked Gail why they would call green (which is how I saw it) colonial blue.  She asked if I had cataracts.  I do, but the opthamologist says they are small.  Dean and I have disagreed on what color things are for at least 10 years.  I thought he was ?color dumb? and just didn?t ever have one of those big 128-crayon boxes as a kid.  Well, it wasn?t him that was wrong; it was me.

In each of the houses, there is a red carpet down the middle, separating the Republicans and Democrats.  Notice the nameplates that have already been removed, just 2 days since the election (Picture 3), and the desks will be moved to the opposite side of the room.  The party with the majority gets to sit nearest the windows (probably for cooler air in the days before AC).  One house has red drapes, the other blue, but they are down now because of the painting.  Everyone makes about $45,000/year, and most have other jobs.  The pictures in the Senate are of lower Delaware because the Senate is in the southern wing of the capitol, and the pictures in the House are of upper Delaware.

The President Pro Tempore is elected by the Senators.  He sets the legislative agenda, after conferring with the Majority Leader (currently a Democrat).  The Speaker of the House leads the house.  After the opening, they go into their separate caucauses.  The Democrats (majority party) have this pretty room on the second floor with lots of light and comfortable furniture (Picture 5).  The minority party meets in a bare-bones room in the BASEMENT!!!  Gail wouldn?t even let us see that one.  However, they are proud that they do things ?The Delaware Way?, which is discuss and compromise.  They also always have a balanced budget?if only that were the case in California, where we hail from.  Delaware only has 1 US representative.  Delaware and Hawaii are the only states that have more Democrats after Tuesday?s election.

Both Gail and I are former teachers.  She told us that they will be doing their end-of-the-year standardized testing via computers.  The children will read a passage and then they will be asked to answer vocabulary and comprehension questions.  Depending on how well they do on the first passage, they will be given an easier reading, another reading at the same level, or a harder one.  They keep reading higher or lower paragraphs until they have an accurate reading level for each child.  They compare score with age, and a difference of one day in age makes a difference in their score.

Over two hours later, we concluded our tour.  I had very low expectations for our visit to the Capitol.  I had asked over a dozen people how far it was to the Capitol, and not one person even knew where it was. When we were going around Legislative Square, we asked a worker at the Supreme Court Building, and he pointed in a direction he ?thought? it might be.  I was amazed that it turned out to be a very interesting day!

It was late and still raining, so we decided to do our traveling tomorrow.

Weather:  High of 52? and rain, rain, and more rain.
Headed to Richmond

Linda - You may have lucked out and gotten a better tour than the normal one.  ;D

ArdraF

November 5, 2010 Day 8 Glen Allen (outside Richmond, VA)

We drove south along the Atlantic Coast from Delaware until we came to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which is actually 3 bridges and 2 tunnels. There are manmade islands, each about 5.25 acres in size,  at each end of the two tunnels. It cost $28 for our motorhome and Jeep.  The lanes in the tunnel were pretty narrow.  Known as one of the Seven Wonders of Engineering, it is 20 miles long!  I knew Chesapeake was a large bay, but I didn't realize how enormous it is.  I was amazed that we didn't see the ocean as we went along Virginia Eastern Shore until we got to the first bridge.  We then turned north, and are about 8 miles outside Richmond.

Camped at Wal-Mart
High of  54?      Low--35?  BRRR!    Winds 5-10 mph
Headed toward Durham, NC; Raleigh, NC; Columbia, SC

November 6, 2010 Day 9 Glen Allen (outside Richmond)

Today we drove into Richmond to see the capitol.  When the colonists decided that keeping the state capitol in Jamestown was risky, they decided to built a new capitol in Richmond. It was complete in 1804 and is still standing and in use today.  At the turn of the century, the population of Virginia had grown so much that they needed more space, so they added a wing on each side of the original building, one wing for the House of Representatives and another for the Senate.  In 2000, they needed to retrofit the capitol.  They scraped through all the layers of paint and made it just like it had been originally.  They needed more space again, and they wanted to preserve the original building, so they made a basement that is 3-stories low.  That part is all limestone and modern and very pretty.  The original building filled me with awe--primarily because of the people who have been there and its history.

As we entered, we were greeted by George Washington (picture 1).  This is the only statue he ever posed for.  He wanted to be seen primarily as a civilian, and the statue was filled with symbolism.  Notice that the sword has been set aside and there is a column that has 13 alcoves, each representing a state.  Notice how his jacket and pants are really tight?  Like most of us, as he got older, he got heavier, and he was wearing the uniform jacket and pants from years before when he was a general.

The statue of Lee is in the very spot where he stood and accepted his commission as commander of the CSA army.  He was offered the same position in the Union Army, and he wrote of his lifelong love of the Union and how torn he was, but he loved his state most of all.

Picture 3 is where the Senate meets today in the new building.  it is far more opulent than the other New England congresses we have seen.  The senators sit with their respective parties--on different sides of the aisle, but if there unequal numbers, the majority party is also seated on the other side--no moving of desks and aisles like in Delaware.  They get to choose their seats within the party based on seniority.

There were many beautiful paintings--by far the highest quality of art we've seen in capitols.  Picture 4 is of Virginia legislators in the late 1600's; it looks very European to me, not at all like other art I've seen of the same period.

Richmond is so rich in history that I could spend 2 weeks here, and we will return when it is WARMER!!  BRRR!

Stayed at Kosmo Village, $30, FHU, 50 amps, bare bones, run-down, only place open.

November 7, 2010 Day 10 Glen Allen, VA (outside Richmond)

I looked forward to visiting the Museum of the Confederacy and the Confederate White House.  I had taken a college class  on the Civil War just for fun, and the teacher was dynamic.  Unfortunately, the Confederate White House was no handicapped accessible at all, so i couldn't go.  However, the Museum of the Confederacy (AAA gem-rated) was very interesting.  Everything was from the viewpoint of the Confederacy, but it was factual, not editorialized.  We really saw what it was like to live in those years.  Many stories of sacrifice, irony, horror, and compassion were told through artifacts like clothing, swords, equipment, and signage.

i was amazed to learn that the fourth article of the U. S. Constitution states, "No person held to service or labor in one State...escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."  I didn''t realize that the 1860 presidential election was a four-way race between republican Abraham Lincoln, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, Northern Democratic candidate Stephen Douglas, and Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, who was VP of the US.  The split in the Democratic party allowed Lincoln to win the election with a minority of the popular vote and without even being  on the ballot in Southern States.  I was surprised that it took so long for some states to secede (picture 1).  Even though Kentucky and Missouri seceded, they still were represented in the U. S. Congress also,  because they were under federal control most of the time.  Each of the states had their own flags and regiments; they didn't mix as they do today.  Some of the officers brought their slaves with them.  Virginia has been so much more elegant, ornate, and sophisticated, that i got a chuckle that their nickname for their soldiers was "Tobacco Worms" (picture 2).

Virginians are very nice.  We had a good lunch at the River City Diner (a 50's spot with a jukebox), and the people next to us told us to be sure and see Monument Avenue.  They have very large, detailed statues in the center of 6 intersections honoring JEB Stuart, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall jackson, Matthew F. Maury, and Arthur Ashe.  I would have enjoyed reading the inscriptions.

When we got home at 7:30, it was 37?!  And the "breeze", though only 5-10 mph, makes it even colder.

Stayed at Kosmo Village

November 8, 2010 Day 11 Durham, NC (outside Raleigh)

We traveled from Glen Allen, VA to Durham, NC on interstate with pretty scenery.  I love their center medians that have lots of trees. 

We had a delicious Bar-B-Q dinner at The Pit in Raleigh.  I had read somewhere that "legendary pitmaster Ed Mitchell presides over this restored downtown spot.  He uses whole free-range North Carolina-raised pigs, pit-cooks them overnight using charcoal and wood in the only open pit bar-b-q in a restaurant in the US, then chops us the meat.  The result is barbecue nirvana."  I read this and had to try it, and the brisket, chopped meat, and pulled pork were wonderful!  I don't usually like or eat hush puppies, but I was really hungry, so I tried one.  Oh, my!  It was great!  Dean ordered their carrot cake, which is served warm with ice cream.  On top of it was roasted cinnamon pecans.  It was moist and wonderful.

The RV park in Durham charges $32 for 50 amps, FHU.  However, they were sold out of those and offered us 30 amps and water only for the same $32.  I felt like we were being taken, so we are spending the night at Walmart.

Thanks for the history lesson, Linda.  Although I started school in the South, I was too young then to know any of that and I'm not sure I would have gotten the same information in my Northern schools when I was older.  Guess we'll have to make more stops in that area.    Like you, I find the state nicknames interesting.

ArdraF

ArdraF said:

Thanks for the history lesson, Linda.  Although I started school in the South, I was too young then to know any of that and I'm not sure I would have gotten the same information in my Northern schools when I was older.  Guess we'll have to make more stops in that area.    Like you, I find the state nicknames interesting.

ArdraF

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I'm finding that history comes alive when I'm in the real place where exciting things happened.  Another RVForum reader tells me that the South does a much better job of preserving the sites of famous Confederate victories than it does of Union victories (they get made into shopping malls).  I think there's still some bias on both sides.  My father was born and raised in Virginia, and he was distraught that I married Dean, who spent the first 13 years of his life in West Virginia (that rebellious state that broke off from Virginia, which did its own rebelling against the Union).  While I was not a fan of Rodney King who set off the LA riots,  (I think that was the guy's name), I echo his sentiments of "Why can't we all just get along???"

Linda, you should be a tour guide or write about your journeys.  You have this way about telling your stories that you give a pictorial without the pictures.  I love hearing about your travels and you make me interested in things that I never would have thought I would be interested in so that is great!  Keep posting.

workingtorv said:

Linda, you should be a tour guide or write about your journeys.  You have this way about telling your stories that you give a pictorial without the pictures.  I love hearing about your travels and you make me interested in things that I never would have thought I would be interested in so that is great!  Keep posting.

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I agree with workingtorv!  You have a true gift for bringing your travel adventures alive for all of us to share.  Thanks so much, Linda, for the time and effort you put into your forum posts.  I look forward to reading them each day.

Margi