Virginia, Alexandria - Tuesday, September 20, 2016 - Pohick Regional Park

We are on our own today, Maddie has swim lessons after school so they won’t be out tonight.  Last night we had dinner with Robyn and Maddie while Jason went to a ballgame with his dad in Baltimore.  I learned a new version of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” – the Maddie version.  In this version she gets to wait a few seconds after you have made your choice so she can figure out how to beat you before she makes her choice.  Another option to this game comes into play when you won’t go along with her waiting.  If you have “paper” and she has “rock”, paper doesn’t cover rock, rock gets to sit on paper and trap it until a big, big breeze comes along and sweeps up the paper.  She is pretty good at working things around until she wins – politics must be in the future.

After breakfast this morning we walked around the park to get some exercise and some pictures.  This is us in site 75.  With trees like this all around us TV reception is a no go.

This is one of two modern cabins they have just put in.  They look very nice and they are handicap accessible.

This is the back view.  I could live here, no problem.

It looks like they are trying to make some nice improvements to the sites here.  We noticed our site has a brand new grill and some of the others do also.  This deck has been added to one of the sites accessible for a smaller rv.

These are the older cabins that are available to rent.  We don’t think these have indoor plumbing because there is a pretty worn path to the facilities.

There are two comfort stations like this one in the park that have restrooms, showers and laundry facilities.

Back home again, this is the view from my desk as I write this blog.

And this is the view from the dining area.  I’m enjoying this.  Maddie pretty well summed it up last night.  Her mom told her they had to get home to get to bed because little girls Maddie’s age had to go to school and people mommy’s age had to go to work.  Maddie asked what we (Papaw and I) do.  Robyn said, “they are retired, they don’t have to go to school or work”.  Maddie said, “I want to do what they do”.

Virginia, Alexandria - Sunday, September 18, 2016 - Mt. Vernon Tour

The weather for Sunday looked good until late evening so we decided to take a tour of Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s home.

Maddie and Papaw Greg taking a break before we start our walking tour of the grounds.

In the museum Maddie had to check out the Washington family, including their noses and ears in great detail.

This is a beautiful miniature version of the house.  I would have paid more attention to getting the details in some good pictures if I had realized you can’t take pictures inside the house itself.  The house has a lot of original paintings that belonged to Washington and I think the flash from cameras would harm them and they probably don’t want people taking pictures and duplicating them.

Dinah Oldham this picture is for you.  Beautiful stained glass history timeline.

These Washington quotes made me feel really good about the man who was picked to be our first President.  I wish I could say the same about all of those who followed him.

Maddie managed to keep up with all of the walking we had to do.  It had been a while since Greg and I had been walking for any distance but we found we didn’t have a problem.

The market featuring vendors from Washington’s time in period clothing was special this weekend.  I understand that it isn’t here all the time.  I had to feel for the folks in all of those long dresses, long sleeved shirts and vests.  We were getting pretty warm in our shorts and t-shirts.  They had all kinds of vendors – bakers, soap makers, pottery, gourd bowls, fabric stenciling and more.  The “doctor” selling his elixir to cure all your aches and pains was fun to listen to.

The puppeteer was a favorite of the little kids.

On the path to tour the house we came across the “necessary”.  A real step up from most outhouses of the time.

This is a back view of the house and kitchen (the small building to the right).  There was a game of cricket going on in the large yard in the rear of the house.

I always thought the house was made out of stone.  In fact it is made of wood covered in a procedure called “rustication”.  Pine boards were grooved and beveled to create the appearance of masonry.  The boards were then varnished and painted and fine sand was thrown onto the wet paint.

This is the front of the house overlooking the Potomac River.  If I lived here I wouldn’t get anything done, I’d be sitting on this porch all day.

Not much going up and down the river today.

In the carriage house we didn’t find Washington’s carriage but one just like he would have used – pretty ornate.

From the carriage house we walked back to Washington’s tomb.  Washington is on the right, Martha is on the left.  Beyond the black door in the middle 25 other family members are buried.  This is a really narrow, deep building.

A lot of restraint is going on here to keep from running up and petting the horse.

The gardens are huge and still looking good.

There is a variety of livestock on the farm.  We saw cows, pigs and sheep in addition to the horses.

We stopped at the Mt. Vernon Inn for lunch.  A few of the pictures I took today were a little blurry.  I kept putting the camera in the bag with the cold water bottles and the lens would fog up when I took it out.

I had sparkling apple cider with my sandwich of fried green tomato, bacon, spinach, and gruyere cheese on wheat toast – really good!  It was supposed to have over easy eggs on it but since I don’t like eggs I got them on the side and Greg enjoyed them with his club sandwich.  Robyn was brave and tried the peanut soup they are known for.  It looked a lot like watered down peanut butter which didn’t seem really appealing to me so I didn’t try it.  She said it was “different” and didn’t finish the cup.  It must be an acquired taste.

Sunday brunch has “first come, first served” seating.  We got in with just a few minutes waiting.  This room is available for those who have to wait a bit longer to be seated.

This was a really great way to spend Sunday afternoon – Thanks Jason and Robyn!

Virginia, Lexington - Sunday, May 31, 2015 - Natural Bridge/Lexington KOA

We are here in Natural Bridge/Lexington KOA site 74 for the night.  We normally don’t use KOAs but there wasn’t much else to choose from that was decent.  The good campgrounds in Virginia must be nearer the coast J.  Since we are just passing through this will work out just fine.

 

 

We are having the same trouble finding a good campground around Harrisburg, PA which is where we plan to be tomorrow night.  The last time we were in Harrisburg we stayed at Harrisburg East RV Park, it was ok and I think it was the only thing we could find then.  We’ll probably be staying there again tomorrow night because we can’t seem to find anything else – we are open to suggestions if anyone has stayed somewhere else.

Greg was pretty certain he wouldn’t be watching TV this evening but the Dish locked onto a satellite through a hole in all of the leaves.

 

 

After we left the rally site this morning we had to stop for our monthly grocery shopping.  I put away all of the things that had to go in the freezer and fridge while we were in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  This is what still needed to be put away this evening.  I did find a place for everything.  I’m glad we only do this once a month, wears us out.  Pulling into Wal-Mart with the coach keeps us from having to do really large shopping trips on the motorcycle.

 

 

 

The scenery through North Carolina and into Virginia was really pretty until we ran into some rain.

 

And then some other vehicles ran into each other creating this 3-mile back up in front of us.  I guess it went back behind us several more miles.  When we got to the accident site it looked rather minor to have created all this mess.

 

 

Site 74 was the only site available that we could fit into.  In fact we had to pull through the site behind us in order to get into this one.  Later in the day another couple that was at the RV Dreams rally pulled into it, we were glad they were running late.  At $60 a night it is more than we usually spend on overnight stays.  It is more expensive because it has a large deck.  Everything looks pretty new except for the fire pit, it has had some hard use. 

The swing looks brand new and was real comfy until the wind and rain came in.

If you are big into checkers, this is the place to come.

Virginia, Alexandria - Saturday, August 30, 2014 - Maddie's Birthday

We got to attend a pirate princess birthday party today.

 

 

This is the pirate princess.

She had some special decorations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A special cake.

 

And some “pirate” food for her guests.

 

 

Papaw Greg built a couple of pirate boats that mama had painted.

 

 

There were lots of little pirates in attendance.

 

And they brought gifts for the princess.  All of the little pirates were really excited now.

 

 

In return they were anxious to get some cake – just what they needed – sugar!