Washington, DC and Gettysburg, PA

We left West Grove Monday morning (Oct 13^th) after Aunt Bev washed the truck with windex and a roll of paper towels!  It was cleaner than when we left Calgary!!

Lovely wildflowers still in bloom in the field across from Julie's

Queen Anne's lace, my late Uncle Herb's favorite...

Sam and Tawny walking the road near Julie & Todd's house

After leaving West Grove, we drove south and west through Maryland to Washington, DC and then west to Virginia.  The problem with travelling in this part of the world is that when you drive 25 miles in any direction, you need 3 different state maps.  The Bitch (our GPS) took us RIGHT through Washington, DC (with the trailer!) when we thought we were doing a by-pass route.  I thought John was going to pass out.  We went by the Lincoln memorial and we could see the Washington memorial from the overpass.  It was really cool (for me; not so much for John as traffic was weaving in and out around us on the 10-lane freeway!!).  John enjoyed his rather large glass of wine when we got landed and set up for the night...

We stayed in a lovely recreation area called Pohick Bay, near Lorton, VA.  It has a lot of woods but not the kind where we lose Sammy.  We can see amongst the trees and bushes and there are a lot of leaves on the ground, which makes it smell and look very autumn-like.  It is WARM here!  The warmest weather we have had the entire trip has been here in Virginia.  We sleep with the windows open and the covers off, and it has been absolutely lovely.

Monday night we drove back into Washington, DC and picked up my Uncle Jim (who we normally see in El Dorado Hills in northern California) who is here on business this week.  We drove him out to our campground and made a lovely (slightly late) birthday meal for him – his b’day was Oct 10^th.  It was so very nice to have occasion to see him in this part of the country.  We had a wonderful visit and evening with Jim.

 Tuesday, we headed north, back up through Virginia (we made sure we took Route 66 for 10 miles or so as neither of us has ever been on it) then into Maryland and Pennsylvania, where we stopped at Gettysburg.  There is so much to see and do there from a historical perspective.  We toured the visitor’s centre and museum, though we had to jog through the last part of it as it is VAST and they were closing the galleries.  We were in there 3 hours and we didn’t get through it!  I particularly enjoyed the gallery that housed Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, and there was a Cyclorama, which is a 360 deg oil painting on canvas – 42 ft x 12 ft high – depicting Pickett’s charge on the 3^rd day of battle at Gettysburg.  The gallery that houses it is sloped so the painting flows into a 3-D foreground that furthers the picture.  It is amazing to see – I could hardly tell where the foreground ends and the painting begins.  The entire museum is really something to see – just allow more than 3 hours to do it properly.

John & Dawn with Abe Lincoln!!

Part of the Cyclorama - note the fence in the foreground

That smoke looks like it's really coming off the canvas.

We drove inter-states all the way back home as it was dark and over 2 hrs to get back to Virginia.  The kitties were surprisingly laid back after spending all day indoors by themselves.  That worked out well!

This morning we had a nice long walk with the kitties, down a path to the Pirates’ Cove waterpark.  It is very humid here and both cats had to stop and have a power rest every so often.  They’re not used to the humid heat and of course they’re wearing fur coats!

Tawny-Girl, walking the path to the Pirates' Cove waterpark

Tawny in the foreground, having a Power Rest

Sam - surveying the landscape

We’re headed to the Shenandoah Valley today, to spend several days touring and hopefully getting some hikes in. Virginia is a gorgeous state, and though there are not a lot of deep colours, the fall yellows and oranges are very beautiful and we’re enjoying our stay here.