sight seeing on 2 wheels

Thursday morning we headed back into DC to visit some more sights. Our first stop was the US Navy Memorial. They have a really neat fountain surrounded by plaques. Inside the visitors center were more displays and a listing of Navy Veterans. Rudee looked up the name of her Uncle and found not only his information but also his photo. During WWII Uncle Harry was on the USS Gendreau off the coast of Okinawa when the ship was hit by artillery shells. Harry and another sailor were both killed in the attack. Harry was Rudee's Mom's brother, we took some photos of the listing as well as the Memorial to share with her.
Our next stop was the National Law Enforcement Memorial where the names of police officers killed in the line of duty are listed in the same manner as the veterans are listed at Viet Nam Memorial.
I found the names of two friends listed there. Mike Greene was a State Trooper assigned to our county and was shot and killed during a traffic stop one afternoon. I was working that day and had talked to Mike less than 2 hours before he died :-(.
Gary Dudley was another State Trooper who was killed during a fund raising bicycle ride. He worked in the Indianapolis area but since we were so close (and so nice) he would sneak up our way to share a meal with us. :-)
I was pretty disappointed in the Memorial overall. There is a water fall type feature in the middle that was almost empty of water and the whole place looked unkempt and dreary. There was a sign that showed a visitors center was located nearby but when we went to the intersection all we found was a Subway restaurant :-(.
We walked back towards the Capitol Building and then visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History before calling it a day.

Friday, starting out a little later in the day, we rode the subway to Arlington Cemetery and viewed the changing of the guard. Quite an impressive ceremony as well as a very solemn place. If you ever start taking your freedom for granted just visit this place and see all the grave stones of the men and women who sacrificed for all of us.

I wanted to see the sights of DC at night so we booked an evening Segway tour. This is Rudee getting some training on how to "drive" one of these things.

They work by sensing your shifting weight. Lean forward and you go forward, back and you go backwards. The hard part is finding the "happy medium" when stopping. We had about 10 minutes of instruction and practice before our tour "hit the streets". There were 9 of us including our guide Grace, whose parents had moved to Avon, Indiana  where my brother is a fireman. Small world moments are pretty cool! :-)
We scooted along doing our best to stay out of the way of traffic and ended up at our first stop.

Now, in order to get off a Segway and it not keep going you have to pull it into a curb (or similar) to "chock" the wheels. Once you are stopped you step off quickly. Getting back on is just the reverse of parking except backing up is a little more difficult plus you have to make a turn. We both got parked just fine and took some photos. Grace even took our photo with the White House in the background.

Now comes the hard part, getting back on. Rudee did fantastic, me not so good :-(. I'm sure the Secret Service got a good laugh when that little scooter threw me off and I ended up on my big old butt right in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue! :-) I ended up with a bloody knee and scraped elbow not to mention a huge bruise to my ego! Oh well, gracefull I'm not! :-)

We made stops at the Capitol building, Washington Monument, Martin Luther King Memorial and Lincoln Memorial. I did manage to get off and back on safely the rest of the evening but I noticed everybody else kept their distance every time I tried. :-)
Here are a few more photos of our day.

We enjoyed our time in DC and would like to return since there is so much to do in the area. We are heading to Pennsylvania for our sons wedding next week. I'll keep you posted.

overdosing on history

Monday was a day off for us and we headed into DC to see some of the sights. I knew from listening to others that DC has a good mass transit system and parking downtown is almost impossible so we decided to take the subway, a first for us. I'm sure it was pretty easy to spot us as tourist just by the look of confusion in our eyes as we tried to buy our tickets and find the right train heading the right direction. :-)

The subway is actually really easy to get around on and we both enjoyed the experience.
We visited the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and the WWII Memorial.

We even had a flyover by Marine 1, not sure if the "prez" was on board or not but it was pretty cool to see it in person since we had seen them flying on TV.

Plus we got a nice view of The White House as we toured the area.

Both of us were pretty  bushed from all the walking but we had a great day.

We are not the only roving managers working for our company, there is another couple who have been doing this for almost a year now. We have talked to John and Gaetana a couple of times and were really hoping to meet them in person sometime. Turns out they were just finishing up an assignment in Maryland and hoped to get the chance to drive over and meet us before they got their next location. I called Gaetana Tuesday morning to let them know we would be moving to the storage lot today and hoped they were still in the area so we could meet. She told me they were not only in the area but the company wanted them to relax for the next week and they would be our relief on the 6th when we had to leave. Cool! I asked where they would be camping and she said they had arrived in the area late Sunday and were at some farm in Northern Virginia. Now, what's the chance??!! I asked if they were at Greenville Family Farm Campground and she said "yes", I told her "so are we"! Turns out they were on site #10 and we were on #18. Too funny!
We had to pack up and leave but did get to meet them before leaving and made arrangements to have dinner together that night.

We made the short drive to the storage lot and got parked fairly easily, a lot easier than last time for sure! We are hooked up to 50 amp electric and water. The sewer is close enough so that I can dump the grey water continuously through a garden hose and will use our new macerator pump for the black tank when we need to empty it.
We bought the macerator (think garbage disposal for sewage, ewwww) at Camping World in Detroit last week. The pump grinds up the "stuff" and pumps it through a garden hose allowing you to empty your tanks into a septic tank, sewer clean out or even a normal toilet up to several hundred feet away. The company is even reimbursing us for the $250 cost of the pump. I did buy new hose which is a very different color than our drinking water hoses. Sure don't want to get those mixed up! :-)

Wednesday was a work day for us and we went over everything we needed to know to run the "store" while the existing managers were gone. We are both a little nervous since this will be our first time alone but we have to start somewhere!

Thursday we headed back into DC. Our first stop was the Holocost Museum. We spent a couple of hours here before heading to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum where we grabbed a quick lunch.

We spent the rest of the day going through the several buildings that make up the Smithsonian. Wow, turned into another long walking day! :-)
Rudee talked to one of the security guards at the American History Museum and he directed us to a nearby restaurant for supper.
Aria's is a casual dining grille right in the heart of downtown. We selected a table outside and enjoyed a leisurely meal while people watching. They even had live music in the courtyard and it didn't cost us an arm and a leg! We shared an appetizer of chips with 3 different dipping sauces and an entree' of Chicken Parmesan, all for under $20!

Today we caught up on some errands and got ready for Saturday, our first day on our own :-o. I'll keep you posted.