"The Stars and Stripes Forever"

I've not been updating the Blog due to having too much fun in Washington and bad Internet connection in New York and not being too well. This Blog will cover the last two days in Washington.

Of all the places we've stayed, I think I could live here in "The Shirlington Village", everything one needs is here, just a nice feel about the place.

One of the locals

We've really enjoyed staying here

Best coffee & hot chocolate so far

This place almost carries everything one would need....

We needed to get to the centre of Washington to drop the car back (Union Station), easier said than done.... It would have helped if I had programmed the route correctly, instead of from the station to the Hotel !!! Washington is one big one way system, well got there in the end. Some major road reconstruction going on around the station.

The station is having a little facelift inside as well, its big with over 50 eating places inside, and no I didn't try all of them....just had an ice cream. We have good look around as we will catching a train out of here for our last leg of the trip to New York.

A larger copy of the liberty bell without the crack and it rings hourly.

The first landmark you spot on exiting the station is the US Capitol building, so it's the first place we visit.

They have a visitors centre here and we spend a little time here, you can book your guided tours here but we opt not to take one. The security here is pretty heavy, just like the airport, remove belts and all bags and jackets X-rayed.

"Freedom" a bronze of this statue is on top of the dome of the Capitol building. The displays and films are very informative on the US political system works and the history of Washington from the time they kicked us Brit's out.

The Washington Monument from the steps of the Capitol

The Supreme Court

Another view of the Washington monument.

You need to see this to get the feel of the sense of lose, dedicated to those that went and those that did not come back from Korea. Over 54,000 US troops lost their lives but the UN lost well over 600,000 but these figures do vary depending where you look.

This such an iconic statue, totally awesome.

A lot of construction work going here and at Union Station, should be a reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, would like to have seen this, another iconic view.

The Second World War memorial.

Another local...

And finally, I think someone famous lives here.... needed the zoom to get this shot...

By all accounts this what FDR wanted as a memorial, a slab of stone the size of his desk in front of the national archive, and here it is...

One of my favourite pieces of art, Michael Lantz's "Man Controlling Trade", and so many Art Deco buildings, could spend a lot more time here just wandering, but we got to move on to New York now.

"That's How They Do It In Dixie"

I keep on forgetting to include the daily map....here is the one for Friday 11th

We did 364 miles, spent nearly all of it Travelling across the State of Tennessee And then just popping across the State line of Virginia before we stop for the night.

Last night was the last of the Motels, though clean and comfortable can be hit & miss, last nights was a miss, AC / Heater working overtime and so loud, had too unplug it in the end just to think. The sink plug had to be removed by finger nails has the mechanical mechanism is missing. +'s shower good and the towels a little more fluffy than normal.

The temperature has been dropping the further East we go, down to 5 C when we stop. Overnight we had a hard frost, -2 C this morning.

Need to get a coffee, its only been a few min's on I 40 when we see sign for a Starbucks, not seen too many of these along the way outside of major cities...

All refreshed, should allow us to knock out a few miles before we need another top up. Ali's having a bit of a nightmare with navigating today, taking in too much of the scenery, all she needs to do is keep the Blue dot on the Blue line....
We make it to the first port of call, The Walton's Museum, the drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains was akin to to very narrow country lanes back in the UK but the scenery is stunning.

The school closed down in 1991, so now purely dedicated to the Walton's, but it is the same school the author, Earl Hamner Jr. went to. There are a fair few people here !!!, the displays are of the History of the School and the author, they have various scene set ups from the program. The Walton's was based on Earl Hamner (John-boy) experiences growing up in Blue Ridge mountains, his family and the people that he grew up with, the actual filming of the program was done in California. The following pictures are of the set over 3,000 miles away....

The actual house that author grew up in does look similar but smaller, and majority of the houses up here are of a similar build, the school is the only brick building I can see around here.

A pretty church near the school

As I said they have number of scenes from the program recreated, so here is a Walton's fest... Above John-boy's bedroom.

His desk...

His type writer...

This is an actual still that was confiscated and is now being used in the display depicting a scene where the Baldwin sisters made fathers Recipe.

Took many photo's but don't want to put you to sleep...

On the road again, well a road..., Ali is still having a problem with that Blue dot, just a few extra miles added to the journey.... I'm pleased with the Data package we got from AT&T, have only used a small amount of the 2 Gigs data purchased, helped by the free WiFi at most places we stay and some retail outlets.

Nearly there just less than 50 miles to go before Washington and I can hand the car back to Alamo, darn.... what's that, Blue flashing lights (to go with the Blue dot and the Thin Blue line....), "Afternoon Officers...How fast !!!"
Paranoid about the speed limit now for the rest of the journey, and that one of their mates might jump out from a bush with a cheesy grin on his face (Enos or Cletus from the Duke's)....

City limits now, and normal city driving going on by the locals, this is the part Ali's hates, keeps her eyes down on the iPad and that Blue dot.
We are staying just on the outskirts of Washington, in Arlington, near the Alexandria area (one of Bill's recommendations) at the Hilton - Garden Inn, and what an excellent choice.

It's a bit of culture shock, we spent most of the last couple of weeks coming across the usual fast chain networks and struggling to find independent restaurants and then eating at various diners, there not been a wealth of choice so far.
This is such a nice area, with plenty of different shops. This is residential and not your normal city place to stay, young family's and a large number of young couples with dogs... Its got a cosmopolitan feel about it, with a lots of outside seating which is being used due to the warm weather we are experiencing.

We book in and again another nice room with excellent WiFi, :-)

We eat at a Lebanese, a little different to what you get the UK but very nice. We around the evening of with a hot chocolate, a dark one for me and a white one for Ali, one of the best hot chocolates I had since Venice.... This coffee house is new to me...

PS - I did get little telling off for "A few of my favourite things..." so here is my favourite of all time...

Under the influence of a few Hurricanes.....

"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine"

I'm afraid not many photo's were taken today, we getting to the stage that the landscape is not changing that much, once you've seen one tree in fall, well enough said....

We are now into a routine and are on the road about 09:00, no planed stops on the way today so decide to go via the new Grand Ole Opry in Opryland. This is on the outskirts of Nashville but by all accounts well worth a look, like most things we've found on this trip they've not done things by halves, its huge....
Can't do this on an empty stomach, so decide to try a Cracker Barrel, seen plenty of these on our trip so far but never been tempted.
First impressions, a Western styled Little Chef on speed, seated very quickly, coffee and water as we are sitting down. The only downside is the selection of food, not to our taste, Biscuit, Gravy, Grits, patty sausage and casseroled Hash Browns !!! Only the eggs were to our liking.
Though the other day, we did see one women have fruit for breakfast, not bad but she also ordered a glass of red wine !!! We saw her later on in the Country Music Museum having a late lunch, you guessed it with a glass of Red wine, everyone to there own...
We met with two couples from the UK in the Cracker Barrel who had brought their own Tea bags with them and trying to get boiling water from the waitress. She said she could get hot water, I would have stuck with coffee, everyone knows you need boiling water to scald the leafs to get a good cup of tea, but they were happy with hot water....
They are staying at the Opry Hotel, and say we would need to give it at least an hour to take in a small part of it. We decide we haven't got time by time we finished breakfast and chatting, we will catch it on our next visit, but on a positive, we come across another TV favourite....

A 1969 Dodge Charger "The General Lee"

The actor who played Cooter (Ben Jones) has opened a shop / museum to them "Good Ole Boys", what a find...

As I said, not many photo's taken today, so are few of my favourite things...

A Pig (Honda CX 500), those teenage years...

Ali will probably tell me off now...

Those from Didcot will understand this one.

We stop at another first for us, a Ruby Tuesday's, excellent salad, we have missed this on our trip, will be be coming to one of these again...

Well a little reflection, tomorrow we will drive into Washington, not quite on the east coast but close enough, and the end of our driving part of the trip, estimate we will have traveled just short of 4,000 miles in 15 days. We will have a few days in Washington before catching a train to New York, a couple of days there before flying home.