Washington DC: Monday 19th Feb

All visits to Washington must include a photo of the Capitol and the White House. So that’s the Capitol above, and a very beautiful, large, impressive building it is. The cornerstone was laid in 1793 by George Washington, and the original structure has been modified and extended several times since, also surviving a British attempt to burn it down in 1814 that was foiled by a rainstorm. And here’s the White House:

Our pal Barack wasn’t available, so you’ll have to make do with us in the foreground. Unusually for notable buildings, we didn’t find it that impressive. It looked like a slightly down-market version of Joe Bugner the boxer’s house opposite Hartford Marina. In fact, we couldn’t find it until we spotted a group of Japanese tourists snapping away at something just out of our line of sight.

The Lincoln Memorial above holds a statue of Abraham Lincoln and the text of two of his famous addresses. It is an elegant structure in its own right, but it’s usually remembered as the focal point for anti-Vietnam war protests in the 60’s and as the venue for Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech in 1963. It’s always a moving experience to be at a spot where significant events actually took place.
Now for something a bit more cookie- a message inspired by Yoko…

The buildings so far described, and many others, lay in or on either side of a quarter mile by two-mile parkland: grass, gardens and ornamental lakes. The whole thing is known as the National Mall. It includes memorials, monuments, museums and art galleries, and this is where Yoko comes in. Yoko’s Wish Tree is outside the Hirshhorn Museum, an art gallery. Of course, you’ll want to see the wish tree itself.

The wish tree appears to be gripping the chap on the left in a headlock. No prizes for guessing what his wife put on the wish label! It would be wonderful to think that somewhere these wishes were being processed, evaluated and actioned. However, me being me, I could imagine writing a wish, and then going back some months later and writing another one. This second wish would be wishing that I hadn’t wasted my time making the first wish, because nothing had happened. Anyway, we wish Yoko every success with the project.

Family Visiting

It’s a long time since we’ve seen Claire, Scott, Mathew & Katie. Got to stop yourself from saying what whiskery great aunt Maude used to say, “My, haven’t you grown”. They hate it today as much as you did. So let the photo speak for itself. Left to right: Colin, Jane, Mathew, Katie, Claire & Scott.

Their home is in a pretty wooded area, part of a small community but not far (10 miles) from a town the size of Huntingdon with a full range of shopping. There's much more space everywhere, even in a relatively populated state like Virginia.

Claire’s still got English roots deep down, and the photo of Claire’s car below is the evidence! Scott is able to do anything with cars and even had his own bodyshop/car conversion business at one time. I believed him when he said the roof took him ages.

Bloggin’ USA: September/October 2011

Departure: Wed Sept 14th

Our Virgin Atlantic flight took off from Heathrow for Washington Dulles airport at 11.40am after a slight delay. The 8 hour flight landed on time. Then through immigration, but after that we can’t find the hotel courtesy coach pick-up point. So let’s phone the hotel. No phone signal- but here comes the coach, and we get to the hotel for around 5.30 pm US time (UK 10.30 pm). Check in, meal in restaurant up the road, bed.

What is remarkable for such a long, busy day is how smoothly it all went. So a rather pedestrian start to the blog, with nothing horrendous or unusual to report. Thankfully.

Day 2 is motorhome pickup time. I’ll refer to it by the American name from here on: it’s an rv, short for recreational vehicle. We’ll perhaps call it Harvey (ar-vee). Here it is parked in our first campsite.

As you can see, it comes with lurid graphics, but the hand-over was very efficient and included a 20 minute video on how to maintain its vital functions. Get the husbandry wrong and, like a neglected pet, it becomes sick or even dies. The systems in general are the same as our caravan, but the details are all different, even the terminology. The electric hook-up cable, for example, is a “shore line”. Perhaps the rv’s amphibious? The internal heater is a “furnace”, for that extra power in case you’ve brought the horse along and need to shoe it. It’s a pretty standard layout, as the photo below shows, and comes complete with maid called Jane.

Driving the vehicle also takes some getting used to, not so much the 25 foot length or 8 foot 6 inches width, but the spongy suspension. It’s like steering a motorised space hopper. Take your eye of the road for a second and it’s lumbered into the next lane. The technique appears to be total concentration and continuous steering adjustment. American drivers are fortunately very tolerant and proof of that is the absence so far of bullet holes in the rv bodywork.