Day 43 Tuesday 30th September, Around Washington DC.

The "woodpecker" (jack hammers) in the basement started at a much more reasonable hour this morning - at 9am . By this time we were up and ready to go anyway - so not too bad.

We couldn't help ourselves and sneaked a peek in the old fire house next door and discovered a treasure and one of the fireies invited us inside to take a closer look.....

Guess what - just next door in Fire house number 3, is a 1905 La France Steam pumper, horse drawn vehicle, which was decommissioned in 1925 still sits pride of place in the fire house.  The modern fire truck and paramedics van are a tight squeeze in the remaining section of the firehouse. 

Leaving the fire station, a short brisk walk took us to Union Station for the early bus which took us to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. What an amazing collection, even more impressive is that they tell you which articles are original (like the Wright Brothers Flyer and the Spirit of St Louis) and which are replicas (the Wright Brothers test kites), or exhibits which could have been used but weren’t (such as the Lunar Lander which was the second test vehicle but the first worked so well they didn’t need it) through to the Hubble Telescope from which NASA recently took back the solar panels as the ones on the actual telescope in space had a problem and had to be replaced. Incidentally the Hubble Telescope was the last Space vehicle which NASA built two off, prototyping is so good now they only build one and if there is a problem they can use computer modelling to fix the problem before building a second.

Original Wright Flyer, the fabric has been replaced (twice) since it actually flew, much to the curator's disgust....

Picture of the original flight, taken on the day by a professional photographer
told to press the button as soon as it took off.

Original "Spirit of St Louis"

As part of the contract under which the plane was given to the museum the door must remain open at all times, annually a team of lawyers visit every year to ensure this is so otherwise the plane can be withdrawn.

We also did a guided tour which was very informative. All the Smithsonian’s are free although we did pay to go in the IMax and watch a movie on Hidden Space which was excellent.  Interestingly the film was partially sponored by the Victorian Government and Swinburne University.

Part of the display includes spaceship one, all the big planes are now at an annex at Dulles Airport,
will have to visit there next visit.

Apollo 11 Lunar Lander test vehicle that wasn't used.

Although we could have easily spent all day in the Museum, and several others, we decided to get on the bus again and do the tour which went to Arlington. On the way back we were once again delayed by traffic and the bus had to make several detours.

Apparently an Indian Diplomat was getting a guided tour by the US president and according to the Bus Tour guide, several monuments had been closed over the day to allow secure private access. The manpower expended to closing roads and re-directing traffic - it was quite amazing to watch.

After this we made our way back to the hotel to tackle the daunting task of packing.

Guess who and where

US president and Indian Diplomat stop Washington

WWII Monument

Part of Arlington National Cemetery

Wild Canadian Geese enjoy one of the many lawns in Washington

Day 42 Monday 29th September, Around Washington D.C.

Today we were rudely awoken by noise that Dale describes as an enormous woodpecker in the Hotel basement.  It started at just after 8am. I flew out of bed and rang reception to query the racket which was explained off as jack hammers and some hotel "garage renovations".  We let them know we were not impressed (at all).

Today we were taking the car back. The return office was located at Union Station which was only a few blocks away. The GPS took us to the address but it all seemed a bit confusing outside this massive station with no sign of the "National Car Hire Office" to be seen. With very few options we  followed a lane-way up a ramp that seemed to go into the back of the station and much to our surprise there were all the rental car companies.  A bit of confusion then occurred with about twice as many cars trying to fit in the required space but eventually we managed to hand the keys back after some very close inspection and we escaped back into the station.  A very impressive building built in the early to mid 1700's which now has in excess of 17 million visitors a year.

Union Station, Washington DC

Inside view of part of Union Station

We then got on the Hop On/ Hop Off tour bus which had been recommended by the Hotel. This proved to be an excellent tour and although we ran out of time we managed to tour around a lot of Washington and take a lot of photo’s. We still have tomorrow. Our tickets also included a Cruise on the Potomac River but the boat was booked so we had to miss that. Near the end of the day we also got caught in a traffic jam when a Motorcade closed several intersections, suspicions are that President Obama was going home for dinner.

Capitol Building

Traffic Jam when Motorcade went to the White House

Einstein' Statue, if you look closely you can see his polished nose, apparently it is good luck to rub his nose and the practice is encouraged

We had so much fun we decided to do the night tour as well which apart from seeing the city at night, took us to the Martin Luther King, Franklyn Roosevelt, Lincoln, Korean War, Vietnam War and Iwo Jima (Marine Corps) Memorials.

White House - South Lawn view

Original lock on the canal in Georgetown

Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial by night

White House at night

Day 41 Sunday 28th September, Washington D.C. and Maryland

Today Dale finally got to do his first "real car thing" for this trip - the route 66 car museum doesn't really count.  We organised to meet fellow local Alvis enthusiast Jim Sprague at the St Michael's Concourse being held just outside Washington at the Hyatt Regency in "Cambridge".  A lot of places in this part of the world have adapted familiar English names.

After a few small mistakes getting out of Washington, one of which left us in a (derelict) car park which was being reconstructed and required negotiating a 5 way intersection from a road that didn't exist according to the traffic lights.  (Dale picked his chance and floored it! - fortunately we survived).

Interesting street sculpture

Eventually on the right track, we followed I50 north towards the enormous Bay Bridge which goes across Chesapeake Bay and reaches a height of just on 200ft according to Madame GPS. We thought at first the $6 toll was a bit serious until we realised it was only charged one way.  The I50 then turned south to Cambridge following the bay.

View across from Bay Bridge

Yacht enjoys the serene Chesapeake Bay

The drive took us over several more bridges and around several inlets until we arrived at the Hyatt Regency where the event was being held.  The site was spectacular, the cars lined up on one of the golf course fairways with the bay in the background.  The day was very sunny and quite hot unless you found a tree to grab some shade.

Part of the Concourse field with the Hyatt in the background.

Maritta's favourite (a veteran American Underslung), after Jim's Alvis of course

Jim Sprague receives the Presidents Award for his Offord bodied Speed 25 Alvis.

Jim was awarded the Presidents prize for his Speed 25 Offord bodied Alvis and was a very popular choice. A wide variety of cars attended with everything  from 1912 National Indianapolis race car to a 1938 Morgan Plus 4 prototype, American Underslung (Maritta’s favourite), and an extremely original 1916 Simplex Crane (a very expensive car in its time) which had never been restored.

After the cars left the field we made our way back to Washington for the night - expecting to fight considerable traffic although it was not too bad.  Being such a lovely day most people were out and about - given their late fall early winter is just around the corner.

Section of the Bay Bridge stretching back to the main land.

Day 40 Saturday 27th September, Lynchburg to Washington D.C.

Today is an easier run with only about 160 miles to Washington.  Being a Saturday we are hoping the roads are not too busy.  It is really a transport leg again today but we did get to stop a few times

On the advice from our Host we followed Route 29 which is quite scenic and becomes (of and on) Route 66 (the new one not the old one which never went anywhere near Washington DC).

Very scenic drive along route 29

Its Saturday, everything is for sale - yard sales every where4!

Another roadside flea market

The first confusion came when we tried to put the address in for our overnight stay. This was on Capitol Hill in Washington which shouldn’t have been that hard to find, or so we thought......  Stopped in Culpeper at the Welcome Centre who provided us with free maps of Maryland, Washington DC and several brochures (and rest rooms!)

Culpepper, Garden Sculpture opposite the Welcome Centre

Even close to Washington there is still a lot of farming

The GPS has been great up until now......BUT no New Jersey Ave to be found.  It took some time to work out that you can have Washington DC in Virginia, you can have Washington DC in Maryland or you can have Washington in DC (District of Columbia) as a separate province, guess where New Jersey Ave is, the last one which we didn’t think of for quite some time.

Then, of course, you can have Route 29 entering from the North West (where we were) or you can have it entering from the North (or that is what it appears), looked easy on the map. Fortunately, when we found the address "Miss GPS" took over otherwise we could have ended up anywhere. Actually found the Hotel quite easily although the last 16 miles took us nearly 1.5 hours due to traffic. And of course, there is a construction zone right outside the hotel and after 6 weeks of travelling our baggage is a little dis-organised - it was a right pain unloading the car.

Anyway with a little help from the bell boy, we made it.

Crossing the Potomac River in Washington DC

Day 39 Friday 26th September, Georgetown to Lynchburg Virginia

We started the day quite early leaving the B&B at 9 am as it was going to be quite a long drive today.  It was a long day as we managed to visit 4 states, Kentucky, Ohio (briefly but we did stay long enough to buy fuel), West Virginia and then Virginia.

Interesting Bridge into Ohio

Our day started by following I 64 east past Mt Sterling and the edge of the Daniel Boone National Forest, past Carter Caves to Ashland, where we had a brief foray into Ohio, passing along the “Banks of the Ohio" River for a few miles.

Ohio River, there are some very big rivers here.

We then continued on I64 via Huntington to Charleston. Highway 77 seemed like a better option at this point and provided a very scenic drive to Beckley. Then rural highway 64 again for a while to which took us through some quite mountainous, pretty scenery to Virginia.

Typical of the quite grand houses in this area

Yesterday was the first day of "Fall" and the leaves are starting to turn.

Another Welcome Centre provided a map for Virginia and with the help of the GPS we managed to find our way along some very scenic roads to Lynchburg for the night.

Very few people seem to have fences,
keeping in mind we are on a single lane road with a speed limit of 55mph!

Lynchburg comes into view very quickly, it is very hilly here, an old industrial town.

Federal Crest B&B - a period house was our home for the night

There is still a pipe foundry in Lynchburg, which was first accessed by canal and river boat, then steam train and now modern rail.  We had a lovely dinner in the old Railway Building but had to battle with a large number of children and their parents following the annual children's quarter mile fun run with a large part of the main road blocked off.  The 10 mile adults run is scheduled for tomorrow.