Meetup With Dad

October 3-9, 2017

My dad flew helicopters for the Air Force and is a member of a Pilots' Association that has periodic reunions.  I had never been to one but couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to this one and hang with Dad for a week.  The reunion was in DC, home of boatloads of history and the hotel was nice enough to let my park my rig in their lot for the duration of the reunion.  As I have said previously, I am very introverted and was a bit uneasy about being around 200 people I didn't know, but these were some of the nicest people I've met in a long time.  After the first day I felt comfortable and not at all stressed out about the crowd.

Plus they offer plenty of social lubricant.

I went on three of the daytrips to the Holocaust Museum, Arlington Cemetery and Mount Vernon (a boat trip).  All were super and even though I ditched Dad at the museum so I could take a quick trip through the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, it was great to talk with him.

Dad

Difficult to see but that's the Capitol Building and Washington Monument in the background

Too close to get good shots of the soldiers leaving after the changing of the guard, but I guess their butts look good too.  And you can see the path their shoes have marked in the stone walkway

Not our boat for the journey down the Potomac, but pretty

Our boat and the crowd getting on

Dad

Pirate Cruiser

Sorry about the thumb. Fort Washington

Mount Vernon

View from Mount Vernon.  That's Piscataway National Park, preserved as a view shed (new phrase to me) showing what Washington saw from his porch.

Harpers Ferry

September 29, 2017

The only reason I went to Harpers Ferry was because a guy at Pinchot told me about it.  It wasn't on my list of things I really want to see and I didn't notice it while perusing the National Parks page but I am really glad I went.  It's a mix of lovely scenery, historic buildings and lots of hiking trails.  You can park at the Park office and take a bus down to avoid the limited parking in the steep, old town.

I think this is the Potomac but I guess it could have been the Shenandoah

Hikers are about halfway there, whichever side they started from.

Railroad trestle has collapsed

Downtown street

Dissolving stairs

Downtown from the other direction

The old church from three different viewpoints.

The map shows a trail going back up to the parking area with some ruins along the way.  The rivers have flooded several times and everything near the banks is foundation only

This was a cotton mill that used the power of the river to run the plant. It's on Virginius Island (no longer an island, really, in the Shenandoah River.

Along the Shenandoah

Pond on the way back to the visitor center.

The path back to the visitor center is slightly sloping until you get to the very end, then it's really uphill.  Guess I should have done the hike down and the bus back up.  Got to learn to plan better.

All around a very cool place and with many more hiking trails than I took the time to explore.

I'm meeting my dad in DC in a few days so I'll mosey along, taking short hops between towns.

Twelve Score and One Year Ago

September 21 - 22, 2017

I know nothing about history but I'm finding that visiting the parks is giving me incentive to learn.  The National Battlefields and Military Parks have been amazing in that they work very hard at presenting a non-slanted viewpoint, emphasizing the good and bad things done by both sides.  Gettysburg is more focused on the North but I think that's because the army's were in a collected area while Southern troops were spread around the Northern horseshoe.

I never saw this guy but his license plate is from Washington State. Not sure if he's on a big summer adventure or living in his Scamp.

Veterans from many wars are buried at Gettysburg.

Civil War soldiers are marked by strips of concrete. Many have names, many are just numbers. All are Union soldiers, the Rebels are buried all over the area.

I guess this guy's regiment was known so he got a place with his compatriots.

I did one Ranger talk and went to the cemetery but couldn't muster the energy for much more than that.  Pennsylvania was about 15 degrees hotter than normal and there is no shade anywhere near the parking areas.  I took the sweaty kitties back to Walmart and parked in the shade provided by a giant RV in the lot.  

All good things come to an end, even batteries. I thought maybe I was parked in the shade too long and the battery couldn't charge enough to manage the refrigerator overnight but no, even getting the battery up to full charge didn't provide enough juice to keep things cold.

Oh well.Thankfully Walmart has all kinds of batteries and the lovely gentlemen were kind enough to hoist that heavy thing into the compartment for me and hook it up.  Everything seemed to work after the operation and I'm assuming we are good to go.