Marietta to Washinton D.C.
MARIETTA to WASHINGTON D.C.
Seen on a card at Coco Greens, a Nashville vegan store:
"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."
When I found myself on my own again last April, the comfortable thing would have been to launch S/V Welkin and run down the coast to California, but moving back on my boat would just be regressing to something that I have done for years, the path of least resistance, so I sold the boat, packed my Pontiac Vibe with two hundred pounds of stuff and drove across the country. I had talked a few times with Patricia on the telephone last May, but between my hearing aids and her accent, we couldn't communicate much until I visited her, in Marietta, Georgia.
Now, picking up on where I left off in my previous blog link
http://bobmagi.blogspot.com/2017/10/my-cross-country-road-trip.html#more
We drove from Marietta through Atlanta, and passed cotton fields on the way to Savannah, continued further to a beachfront hotel on Tybee Island, after driving about 20 miles over wetland areas next to the Savannah River.
I went swimming for the first time in the Atlantic, the water was warm thanks to the Gulf Current, but had been cold the previous afternoon, probably because the ebb tide brought out the colder water from the river and extensive wetlands. Patricia and I drove to Savannah for the day, took the bus tour of the beautiful plazas and old homes, and then the river tour on a sternwheeler replica, learned that it is the 4th busiest port in the U.S..
A few days later I drove Northeast through the Carolinas to Yorktown, Virginia, where grandaughter Tabitha graduated as a Bosun's Mate at the USGC center.
She qualified to operate the twin outboard 38 and the twin jet drive 45 foot boats, will get her certification to skipper a 47 foot motor lifeboat at her next duty station, in New Jersey.
Below, Yorktown earthworks from the revolutionary war, and the view from my hotel room. The 100 foot steel 3 masted schooner "Alliance" does 2 hour sailing tours of the bay, was about to about to sail to Panama for a winter of week long cruises.
After driving to the Arlington area South of Washington D.C., I was happy to be on my Dahon folding bike, and saved my legs for walking the great National Air and Space Museum, below, the Spirit of St Louis and a Saturn V rocket engine that developed 750 tons of thrust.
Just East is the The National Museum of the American Indian.
The Museum food court offers traditional foods of the tribes
of many regions of the Americas, with lots of squash, potato, beans and
corn, as well as animal products.
http://nmai.si.edu/visit/washington/mitsitam-cafe/
On the fourth floor is an exhibit of the many broken treaties between Indians and we Europeans, even the recent oil pipeline struggle at Standing Rock in South Dakota. The short story of the Dakota Access pipeline is that the white folks didn't want it in their own back yard.
I visited the Senate Chamber for a few minutes after getting a ticket from Senator Patty Murray's office, still want to see the House chamber, the Supreme Court and the White House. Below image is a protest tent across the street from the W.H. that exists because the Park Service forgot to put an expiration date on the protest permit.
The Lincoln Memorial was very popular and impressive, and the nearby Vietnam War Memorial, the 'wall,' left a very big impression, especially how long and tall it is to contain 58,318 names in half inch high letters, of the US military people who died. It makes more of an impression after watching the recent PBS TV documentary by Burns and Novick
I took the Metro rail several miles Northwest to Friendship Heights to the vegan advocate Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,
http://www.pcrm.org/
was interested in the cooking class, but it was full. Lots of nutrition info at the above link.
Visited the massive Episcopalian National Cathedral, then rode my bike down Massachusetts Ave past many Embassies, liked this statue of the deity of "Knowledge" in front of the Indonesian Embassy
Many thanks to cheerful locals who answered my questions. My folding bike works well on the Metro, and if there is a crowd, I fold it up out of the way, because the train is full at rush hour, and the government would come to a standstill if everybody tried to drive their car to D.C. There are also some great bikepaths, one of which is just a block from the Ballston Comfort Inn, which is a little cheaper but only three miles from downtown
I noticed that the police don't have a problem with pedestrians jaywalking and bikes riding on the sidewalk, but the sirens wail and echo off the walls of the multi-storied buildings much too much, like the boy who cried wolf.
I have had many pleasant interactions with locals here, in stores and restaurants, folks seem to have a good attitude even with Trump occupying the White House. Washington D.C. is a wonderful place to visit, I plan to be here for another week at least. :-)
Bob Maginnis November 7
Seen on a card at Coco Greens, a Nashville vegan store:
"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."
When I found myself on my own again last April, the comfortable thing would have been to launch S/V Welkin and run down the coast to California, but moving back on my boat would just be regressing to something that I have done for years, the path of least resistance, so I sold the boat, packed my Pontiac Vibe with two hundred pounds of stuff and drove across the country. I had talked a few times with Patricia on the telephone last May, but between my hearing aids and her accent, we couldn't communicate much until I visited her, in Marietta, Georgia.
Now, picking up on where I left off in my previous blog link
http://bobmagi.blogspot.com/2017/10/my-cross-country-road-trip.html#more
We drove from Marietta through Atlanta, and passed cotton fields on the way to Savannah, continued further to a beachfront hotel on Tybee Island, after driving about 20 miles over wetland areas next to the Savannah River.
I went swimming for the first time in the Atlantic, the water was warm thanks to the Gulf Current, but had been cold the previous afternoon, probably because the ebb tide brought out the colder water from the river and extensive wetlands. Patricia and I drove to Savannah for the day, took the bus tour of the beautiful plazas and old homes, and then the river tour on a sternwheeler replica, learned that it is the 4th busiest port in the U.S..
A few days later I drove Northeast through the Carolinas to Yorktown, Virginia, where grandaughter Tabitha graduated as a Bosun's Mate at the USGC center.
She qualified to operate the twin outboard 38 and the twin jet drive 45 foot boats, will get her certification to skipper a 47 foot motor lifeboat at her next duty station, in New Jersey.
Below, Yorktown earthworks from the revolutionary war, and the view from my hotel room. The 100 foot steel 3 masted schooner "Alliance" does 2 hour sailing tours of the bay, was about to about to sail to Panama for a winter of week long cruises.
After driving to the Arlington area South of Washington D.C., I was happy to be on my Dahon folding bike, and saved my legs for walking the great National Air and Space Museum, below, the Spirit of St Louis and a Saturn V rocket engine that developed 750 tons of thrust.
 |
http://nmai.si.edu/visit/washington/mitsitam-cafe/
On the fourth floor is an exhibit of the many broken treaties between Indians and we Europeans, even the recent oil pipeline struggle at Standing Rock in South Dakota. The short story of the Dakota Access pipeline is that the white folks didn't want it in their own back yard.
I visited the Senate Chamber for a few minutes after getting a ticket from Senator Patty Murray's office, still want to see the House chamber, the Supreme Court and the White House. Below image is a protest tent across the street from the W.H. that exists because the Park Service forgot to put an expiration date on the protest permit.
The Lincoln Memorial was very popular and impressive, and the nearby Vietnam War Memorial, the 'wall,' left a very big impression, especially how long and tall it is to contain 58,318 names in half inch high letters, of the US military people who died. It makes more of an impression after watching the recent PBS TV documentary by Burns and Novick
I took the Metro rail several miles Northwest to Friendship Heights to the vegan advocate Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,
http://www.pcrm.org/
was interested in the cooking class, but it was full. Lots of nutrition info at the above link.
Visited the massive Episcopalian National Cathedral, then rode my bike down Massachusetts Ave past many Embassies, liked this statue of the deity of "Knowledge" in front of the Indonesian Embassy
Many thanks to cheerful locals who answered my questions. My folding bike works well on the Metro, and if there is a crowd, I fold it up out of the way, because the train is full at rush hour, and the government would come to a standstill if everybody tried to drive their car to D.C. There are also some great bikepaths, one of which is just a block from the Ballston Comfort Inn, which is a little cheaper but only three miles from downtown
I noticed that the police don't have a problem with pedestrians jaywalking and bikes riding on the sidewalk, but the sirens wail and echo off the walls of the multi-storied buildings much too much, like the boy who cried wolf.
I have had many pleasant interactions with locals here, in stores and restaurants, folks seem to have a good attitude even with Trump occupying the White House. Washington D.C. is a wonderful place to visit, I plan to be here for another week at least. :-)
Bob Maginnis November 7
