Bill’s parents visited Washington DC with us in 2016 and we saw what we thought was a lot of the city, but decided to visit again for the Fourth of July celebration. As it turned out, there were plenty of things on our to do list that we did not see the first time BUT we discovered on arrival that we needed timed tickets to get inside almost everything and guess what…no tickets available (thank you COVID). We don’t usually do museums, but the only thing we were able to get passes for was the National Gallery of Art. I should really plan ahead better, but I can’t seem to get my brain to expect all the new restrictions. In spite of the awful heat wave frying the east coast we drove in and got on our bikes to explore. There was plenty to see and we rode to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Smithsonian Castle and stumbled upon other stuff along the way. Our clothes were soaked with sweat and we just about had heat stroke, but enjoyed DC. It feels a bit like Europe with all the amazing old architecture.
Fortunately, the temp dropped to about 80 on the fourth and not knowing what to expect we headed into town at about 3:00 where Bill strapped on our lawn chairs and a cooler and we rode our bikes to the Mall (I was worried about finding a place to park. Parking garages are a non-starter for the F350 Dually so we needed to find street level parking which is limited near the Mall. I figured the 4th celebration would bring a big crowd so wanted to get there early. I was wrong, the lot was almost empty when we arrived). The afternoon weather was very nice and we enjoyed reading our Kindles and people watching while waiting for the fireworks to start at 9:15. I expected patriotic music and the best fireworks I had ever seen, but no music at all and only about 20 minutes of fireworks. It was definitely not as fantastic as I expected. We have seen better displays at Boom Town in Addison and even in Frisco. Maybe it was scaled back due to COVID, lots of things seem to be and the parade was also cancelled.
We took a day trip to Annapolis, the capitol of Maryland, on Chesapeake Bay. It is home to the Naval Academy which educates officers for the Navy and Marines. Candidates for admission generally must both apply directly to the academy and receive a nomination, usually from a member of Congress. Luckily, the 338-acre campus opened to visitors on July 1st, so we got to see the USNA Chapel and the crypt of John Paul Jones, who played an important part in the Revolutionary War. He never lost a naval engagement and his crypt was crazy ornate. It is found below the chapel, weighs 21 tons, and is surrounded by marble columns and held up by bronze dolphins.
The Academy museum holds artifacts dating from the 1700’s and an entire floor of more than 70 historically accurate navy ship models (many were built by the ship builders themselves at the time of the original ship construction and provide the only historical record of some of these ship designs). Did you know?…the “heads” on old ships were located at the bow just behind the mast head, and were called “seats of ease”. They were just boxes with holes that were open to the ocean below (seems stupid to have them at the front of the ship until you remember that the captain’s cabin was at the stern/rear).
On our last day in DC, we went to see the Washington National Cathedral. It is about 14 miles from downtown, so most visitors probably don’t venture that far. We wouldn’t have gone either, but they had an amazing installation of 2000 origami doves that I wanted to see and as it turned out, buying tickets to the “Les Colombes” exhibit was the only way to get inside the Cathedral. It is beautiful and cavernous. It was completed in 1912, and is modeled on the English Gothic style, with buttresses, pinnacles, arches and vaulting that push against each other to keep the building intact and upright. It suffered $34 Million in damage in an earthquake in 2011 (didn’t know DC had earthquakes) and the repairs are still underway 10 years later (some of the repairs are not 100% historically accurate. They added a Darth Vader gargoyle to one of the towers). The church, gardens and the “Les Colombes” dove exhibit were beautiful and we were glad we went.
As we approached Philadelphia we started to notice the haze created by smoke from the California wildfires. According to the weather report, we had one day with clear skies, so even though the ‘feels like’ temp was over 100, we drove into town. Bill had read there was nowhere to park a big truck downtown, so we parked on the far side of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and rode our bikes across. This allowed us to take photos of downtown but it was super hazy, so not great. There was plenty to see, like the Liberty Bell, the Rocky Steps at the entrance to the Philly Museum of Art (where Bill ran up to the top and gave “the champion pose “like every other tourist”), City Hall, and more. In the Reading Terminal Market we tried the cheesesteak and found Beiler’s Bakery. Thrilled to find Amish sweets, we bought a dozen assorted fancy donuts (the best I’ve ever had), a pan of sticky buns, apple tarts, and ¼ of a coconut cake. It was so hot we had to cut our day short or have a heat stroke, but we came back a couple of days later and this time the sky was clear, so we got better bridge pics.
After a week in Philly we had been gone for two months, with two more to go, so we flew home for a one week visit. It was super hectic, seeing everyone as much as we could, and while we were home we took everybody to the Mesquite Rodeo. The kids loved the show, as well as playing around together and their parents bought them all cowboy hats. So cute!
Uber was only $30 to get to the Philly airport, but when we returned from Dallas at 10PM we learned it was $90 to Uber back to the RV. That was a dirty trick! We had planned to drive to Albany, New York the next day which also was not a great plan. We should have taken a day to recover, unpack, and restock. We only had a couple of days in Albany, and ended up not feeling like sightseeing and opted for a motorcycle ride. We stopped for lunch at a Saturday market in one of the towns we rode through. After ordering our pizza at a booth that did not sell drinks, we went in search of diet cokes and found that none of the vendors sold any soda. That seemed strange but we settled on cider (non-alcoholic for Bill of course).
Burlington, Vermont was a cute little town, and we actually got to stay in a state park campground. This never happens because they hardly ever have spots made for rigs our size. The site was plenty big, but so out of level we had to move the trailer several times to find a spot that was flat enough. The park was right in town, which is also rare, so we were able to hop on bicycles and ride into town. There were a few sites to see, and then we picked a restaurant for lunch. Again…no soda sold here, just tea. Are these people anti soda? What is going on? Another motorcycle ride took us to the Ben and Jerry’s factory where we stood in line for at least half an hour to get our scoops, and saw the Flavor Graveyard where discontinued ice creams are laid to rest.
While we were in Vermont, Canada finally announced they would open the border on August 9th. We had not seen Bill’s parents since January 2020 and this east coast route was planned with hopes that we would get to visit them. Now that we had a date, we had to figure out where to stay until the 9th, which meant finding RV sites and arranging the Kitchener RV park(s) to fit the dates. We spent a few days in Lake Placid, where we went for a cold, wet motorcycle ride. Then a few days in Alexandria Bay (the plan was for us to enter Canada from here on Aug 1st so I had to find sites for an extra week), a mile from the Canadian border, where we took a boat out to see Boldt Castle on Heart Island. Construction of the six story, 120 room Rhineland style castles was started in 1900, by millionaire George Boldt, as a symbol of love for his wife Louise. Just before it was completed in 1904 Louise died and George stopped the 300 workers from finishing the job. He never returned to Heart Island, and the castle, complete with tunnels, a powerhouse, Italian gardens, a drawbridge, alster tower (children’s playhouse) and a dove cote was left to ruin for 73 years. The property was acquired by Thousand Islands Bridge Authority in 1977 and they have been doing a great job of restoring it ever since. After that, the only RV site we could find for the full, first week of August was near Rochester, NY, (apparently the Thousand Island boat show that was going on over the weekend, and is a much bigger deal than you might have thought) so we drove in the wrong direction 150 miles south and spent a week just killing time.
Crossing the border was uneventful, Bill made sure we had followed all rules, which included a PCR test, quarantine plan and keeping a record of all close contacts. He downloaded apps for both of us, and completed all info prior to our approach, so we got in the line for people that were pre-documented thru the app. Guess which line went the slowest? Yep…our line. What is the point? There never seems to be any benefit to being more prepared. Oh well, it only took about an hour, so we were glad to be able to cross at last.
It had been 20 months since we had seen Bill’s parents when they visited us in Florida in early 2020, and the last time we saw any of the rest of the family was three years ago. You just never know what life has in store for you. We were obviously so happy to see everyone and two weeks flew by in a flurry of visiting, dinners, golf and game nights, as well the long-delayed wedding of his niece Dana. Crossing back into the US was much easier, no test required, no proof of vaccination. Canadians were still not allowed to drive into the US, so the lines were short. The guy in front of us seemed to have pissed the border agent off big time, so he was very unfriendly, but he waved us through fairly quickly.
Our three week drive home started with a stop in Cleveland, Ohio. We didn’t feel much like sightseeing, and the premier thing to do – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – seemed to have about 50% of their displays closed. Instead we played some golf and hiked around Brandywine Falls in Cuyahoga National Park. After our hike we drove into Peninsula for lunch at The Blue Door, where we had the Ohio Farmhouse Skillet and the Seasonal Peach Bourbon and Bacon French Toast. It was fabulous!! We had another great meal at the home of the Marquart’s (great job on the Salmon, Mike), a friend of Bill’s from Cisco. We liked the KOA we stayed at, had a nice spot with a good view, and were able to get satellite TV reception at last. We had spent the last month with no TV reception because of tall trees and poor cell reception (which meant no streaming either) as well. Torture!! So, we have several good reasons to come back to the area.
In Cincinnati, known as Cincy to the locals, we were back to no satellite but at least had a nice spot. The weather was rainy most days, but on a partly clear day we went to Findlay Market. It was small but made for a good lunch stop before we took out the bikes to ride around to see some of the street art and significant buildings. Popular Cincy foods did not sound particularly appealing (they had a few restaurant chains dedicated to the signature soupy chili – pass) but we did try Graeter’s Ice Cream. It is made in French pots, 2.5 gallons at a time, which explains the price. I don’t know what a French Pot is but it makes very good ice cream. Giving up on a sunny day we went to the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park for flower and butterfly photo ops. Our last day the sun came out and we rode the motorcycles into Kentucky for a lovely day of cruising the curvy roads.
Louisville, Kentucky is where you find Churchill Downs the home of the Kentucky Derby and other races but there was nothing scheduled while we were there. We went there anyway in the hope we could get inside, but that was only allowed as part of a tour and neither of us were that interested. Bill is never deterred easily and after wandering the gift shop, he did find the headstones of five of the derby winners. Did you know they only bury the head, hooves and heart of horses? The Head signifies the horse’s intelligence, the heart its spirit and the hooves its speed. The rest of the body is usually cremated. There have been exceptions to this approach for horses like Secretariat. From the Downs, we rode our bikes to see the Louisville Slugger museum, the Muhammed Ali Center (closed due to Covid) and the Big Four Bridge park. The weather is finally nice, when it’s not raining and we enjoyed the day of sightseeing.
Mammoth Cave National Park was ninety minutes south of Louisville, so we did the three hour roundtrip to take the tour. The Domes and Dripstones Tour was only 3/4 of a mile long but took 2 hours and included 500 stairs. Mammoth is the worlds longest known cave system and really was an impressive cave. You can’t imagine how deep it is or how cavernous some of the domes were without seeing it for yourself. The tour ends in a dripstone domed section know as Frozen Niagara.
Our final stop was Hot Springs, Arkansas for a day of motorcycle riding on the curvy rural roads and a hike in the National Park (the park includes Bathhouse Row in town). It just happened to be the weekend of the Hot Springs Bike Rally, but it was the smallest rally we have ever seen (so small that although we saw a large increase in motorcyclists, we didn’t find any real rally venues).
We headed home a few weeks early to watch our grandsons while their parents celebrated their 10th anniversary with a trip to Mexico. Both boys are in school now, 2nd grade and kindergarten, and the daily routine of play, homework, dinner, shower, story time was a reminder of how much work it was to raise kids. We had lots of fun, including a trip to Medieval Times, but after eight days we were super glad that their parents returned home. We enjoyed a fun Hallowe’en with Bill dressed as Capitan Phantasm, the boys as Mandalorian’s and Elderly as Cat Noir. We went ice skating with all three kids pushing buckets around the rink to help with balance. Since then the boys have signed up to begin hockey ‘careers’ (it’s great to watch kids learn how to skate and the boys are so excited about getting equipment and playing this fantastic sport). Bill got them “ice” for the garage floor and their progress is amazing.
In November, we took ten days and drove to both of the Texas National Parks, Big Bend and Guadalupe. It was five days of driving across the ugly Texas landscape, but it was pretty mind blowing to see actual mountains in Texas. We arrived in Terlingua on Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and went to the local cemetery to celebrate with the locals. This was my first Day of the Dead experience and I didn’t really know what to expect. There were people dressed up, a campfire circle, guitarists and singing, and altars were erected with candles and photos of the dead. There was a great sunset and I think next year we will go to the celebration in San Antonio. We rode motorcycles into the Big Bend National Park where Bill had a big buck run across the road in front of him and out to see the Hoodoo’s (not impressive at all if you’ve been to Bryce Canyon in Utah), but the road was so great we did the ride twice. We went back the next day to hike the Lost Mine. It was only five miles but with 1200 feet of elevation gain it was still a pretty good workout and the views at the top were excellent (but the mine is still lost because we never found it). There were mountain ridges as far as we could see. The area around town was desert and like a dust bowl and the mountains looked like bare rocks, but when we got to them there was lots of vegetation and I would guess it is very pretty when the cacti bloom. Guadalupe was very similar, just on a smaller scale, Big Bend is 800,000+ acres and Guadalupe is only 76,000+ acres. Another five-mile hike to McKittrick Canyon and we were on our way home. We drove a total of 1,412 miles to see these parks, but they were never going to be on the way to anything else. (Unfortunately, this is true for most of the National parks that we have yet to visit so we have some long side trips in our future).
Sami hosted the family again for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, and again on Christmas Eve but without Mom who is now in memory care. Unfortunately, Bill woke up sick at 3am on Christmas Day, so Santa did not get to go deliver his gifts. We were so bummed out, but as you might imagine…Covid tests were impossible to find with all the people traveling and gathering, so we could not get tested till three days later. Thankfully the test was negative and Bill was feeling better by that time so we were able to do Christmas with the kids on our last two days in Texas and leave for Florida on schedule.
Now we looking forward to lying by the pool and getting back to the gym that we don’t seem to find time for when we are home. We also plan to play golf a couple of times a week (Dessa is making huge improvements and I’m so lucky she wants to play this game with me). For spring we want to rebook the European trip that was planned for 2020, but COVID just keeps rearing its ugly head every time we start looking to pull the trigger (we’re both fully vaccinated but don’t really want to travel if the things to see and do aren’t going to be open). Next summer will take us to the Pacific Northwest and some time in Canada on Vancouver Island (and of course a few more National parks)
That’s it for now. Hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
