On the Downhill Grade

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH
Here we are in Deming, New Mexico – a day away from home. YEAH!! But looking back at our blog updates, we still have 10 days of travels to catch you up on. The last update got us as far as Gettysburg, PA. We left there enroute to Virginia on September 12^th and spent 6 days in Dumfries, VA where we did sightseeing around Washington, DC and Mount Vernon, VA. On September 18^th, we moved on to Williamsburg, VA where we stayed until September 22^nd so we could spend some time seeing Colonial Williamsburg and the Jamestown Historic Settlement. 

As we do in all our stops we took A LOT of pictures – so I have waded through all of them and hope to share with you the highlights, in order for you to get an idea of what we experienced while in these places. If you have some time, pour yourself a drink of your choice, put your feet up and read on-

Usually I write about our travels in chronological order – but this time I am going to start with our first day-trip into Washington, DC where we spent the entire day at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, jump a few days to our day trip to George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon, then finish up with our last four days in Williamsburg and Jamestown. (Just to clarify for all you “concrete/sequential folks” – if we are in an area 4 days, for example, that means we really have 3 days of sightseeing since the first day is our arrival and set up day. In the case of the four days we spent in Williamsburg, we only did our sightseeing for 2 days – the third was used for laundry and grocery shopping.) I'm hoping the last blog update will be forthcoming a few days after we get home and will cover all the rest of our sightseeing in and around DC.

HOW DO YOU GET INTO WASHINGTON DC?

For us the answer to this question was obvious….DON’T drive anywhere near the DC metro area. Traffic is brutal and parking is almost non-existent. So, that left us one of two options – either pay for a day long tour bus that would pick us up at the campground in Dumfries or take the commuter train on our own into DC proper. We chose the second choice for both days that we went into DC. It gave us more flexibility of coming and going and we could choose how long and where we wanted to sightsee. (Even the National Park Service recommends that visitors take the train.)

The nearest train station was a 16 mile drive on the freeway from the campground to the Franconia Station. We made sure we went in after the major morning commute and got back before the bulk of the evening commute, so those 16 miles were no problem. Once at the station, we parked in the covered parking garage (cost was $4.50 for the day) and caught the commuter train at a cost of $3 per person one way to the Capitol Mall Station. The first day trip in was on a couple of tickets given to us by a man we met at an RV park in Maine, so we had no idea how much money was on them. But we did just fine and they got us there and back with a few cents on each to spare. 

The second trip was a different story. We had the new experience of buying two tickets from the machine at the Franconia Station. They don’t have “real people” selling the tickets (like they did in Boston) so we bumbled with the ticket machine and finally figured out how to purchase two tickets with $6.00 on each. According to the sign on the machine, this amount was the lower fare that covers travel after 9am and before 4pm. But a word to the wise - keep an eye on your watch! The second day, when leaving DC we got on the return train at 4:03. (To explain to anyone who is a country bumpkin just like us - when you get on the train, you run your ticket through the gate machine, it stamps a date and time on it and the gate opens to let you in. Then, wherever you exit the train, you run the ticket through the gate again and it reads where and when you got on, subtracts that amount from the ticket and opens the gate to let you out.) If we had put more than $6 on each ticket, we would have been just fine. But….OH NO…..those three minutes cost us an additional $1.25 each. We were “trapped” in the train station until we went to another machine inside the gate area and added the additional amount needed to open the gate and let us out. It was just a momentary panic attack – and what came to our minds was the old Kingston Trio song “The M.T.A.” about Charlie, the guy who couldn’t get off the train because he didn’t have “one more nickel”….Did he ever return? No he never returned, and his fate is still unlearned. He will ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston. He’s the man who never returned.

 

Despite this little glitch – the ride into DC on both days was a treat. Our first day we rode to the Capitol Mall Station and came up from the underground train where it was just a short walk to the Capitol Mall. Again, for those folks who have never been to Washington DC, (especially my shop-a-holic granddaughter) “The Mall” is NOT a shopping Mall. Rows of stately elms line the three block wide greenbelt with footpaths, bikeways and information kiosks. It stretches 1.9 miles between the steps of the US Capitol Building and the Washington Monument.  Bordering the Mall are the Department of Agriculture, the National Gallery of Art and several of the Smithsonian Institution museums.

Helen standing on The Mall with the Capitol Building far behind her

View of the Washington Monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with the Capitol building in the background. The reflecting pool was under repair.

                           Looking at the Washington Monument toward the Lincoln Memorial

Once we exited the train, we headed for a day at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. 

We had been told “The Smithsonian” was large – but we had no idea until we actually got there. The Natural History building is just one of nine of the Smithsonian Institute museums that sit along the Mall. We never made it to the other eight.

Across the street from the Natural History museum is the central Smithsonian Institution building and Visitors' Center

 The Natural History Museum building houses hundreds of exhibits on three floors and it took an entire day for us to see just a portion of them.

Ocean Hall exhibits

 

Part of the Human Origins section. Not sure we agree with some of this.

Mammals Hall - Some spectacular exhibits

A big ol' moose and the exhibit too!

Dinosaurs

We thought these were as beautiful as the Hope

From the Gems and Minerals Exhibits

Arkansas Quartz. Three huge slabs of quartz came to the museum in 1940 from a pocket in a mine near Hot Springs Arkansas. The largest slab weighs about 880 pounds and contains about a thousand crystals.

One of our other day trips was a drive to Mt. Vernon, home of George Washington.

The Washington Family statues in the Orientation Center - George, Martha and their two grandchildren that they raised at Mt. Vernon

The day we visited Mt. Vernon, there was a Colonial fair taking place on the grounds. Several craftsmen and artist and re-enactors were there. It added to the reality of the tour.

READY......

AIM......

FIRE!

The grounds, gardens and the mansion are lovely. We were not allowed to take photos inside the mansion.

The greenhouse

 

Washington acquired Mt. Vernon in 1754. During the next 45 years he greatly expanded his home to reflect his status as a Virginia gentleman, personally overseeing every detail of design, construction and decoration. The estate encompassed 8,000 acres and was a working farm and plantation. Even though he is known as President and Commander in Chief, Washington thought of himself first and foremost as a farmer. He pioneered many farming innovative methods.

The interior has been meticulously restored based on a 1799 inventory taken at the time of Washington's death. The rooms were furnished with many interesting period pieces and art work.

A view of the Potomac from the rear of the mansion.

We had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Washington. This woman who plays Mrs. Washington was superb! About a half dozen visitors were allowed into her "parlor" and she actually visited with us. Her knowledge of even the minutest detail of the time period was astounding. By the time we left, I felt like I had actually met and visited with the real Martha Washington.

 

 These last pictures confirm to me that Washington was not (as some would have us believe) a Deist - but he was a true believing Christian-

Washington died in his bedchamber at Mount Vernon on December 14, 1799. He is buried at Mt. Vernon. His remains along with Martha and other family members are in this tomb. A plaque at the back of the tomb quotes the Holy Scripture - "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord. He that believeth in Me, even though he is dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." John 11:25-26

After leaving Dumfries, we drove about 130 miles to Williamsburg and spent one day at Colonial Williamsburg and another day touring the Jamestown History Museum.

Colonial Williamsburg
The preserved and restored former colonial capitol of Virginia has residences, public buildings and art museums. Daily programs highlight the journey of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Washington and other famous and not-so-famous Virginians from British colonists to America's first citizens.

The state capitol building

Inside the capitol building - this "Virginia citizen" tells us about what is happening in 1776, as Virginia's patriots vote for independence and write a new state constitution.

Inside the courthouse - Courts provided local justice in both civil and criminal cases. Here these children learn how the court trial proceeded. It was a great "hands-on" learning experience for these kids.

After Jane Vobe opened the King's Arms Tavern in 1772, it became one of the town's most genteel establishments. We had a hearty 18th century style lunch here.

The shop keepers explain what they sell or make and how their establishment is run. This woman runs the apothecary.

The gunsmith

The proprietor of the general store

A residence

NEVER try to take away a citizen's right to bear arms!

Punishment for disagreeing with your wife!

Jamestown Settlement - Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement. In 1607, thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, a group of 104 English men and boys made a four-and-a-half-month voyage to the banks of the James River to form a settlement in Virginia. Their goal was to make a profit from the resources of the New World for the Virginia Company's shareholders in London. But this quickly took a backseat to pure survival as they confronted the harsh realities of life in America.

This is an expansive living-history museum with gallery exhibits and the outdoor full scale re-creation of the fort and the Powhatan Indian village plus replicas of the three English ships that brought these settlers to the New World.

The gallery offers a film - "A Nation Takes Root" that gives an overview of the first two decades of America's first permanent colony. The 30,000 square foot exhibit space walks a visitor through what was happening in all aspects of this venture and houses hundreds of artifacts from the period.

 

The outdoor recreated Indian village, fort and life sized replicas of the ships tie it all together with the help of the historic costumed interrupters available to demonstrate, tell the story and answer questions.

Several hands-on locations help the visitor to understand how some things were done. Here Helen is working hard at scraping the hair off this hide so she can make Jim a new suit!

The larger of the three - The Susan Constant

Can you imagine 54 passengers and 17 crew living down here for four and a half months?

Crew members shared a bunk and rotated shifts. While your bunk partner was working, you were sleeping.

The Captain's cabin - not much bigger than a small closet

The other two ships. It must have been horrible to be on either of these in rough seas.

These (and so many other places) will forever be in our memories. As we are coming to an end of this year of our Great Adventure, we still marvel at how blessed we are. We will cover some of our absolute favorites in the final blog update that should come to you in a few days after we “land” in Sun City and get our feet back on the ground. Until then – we hope you are enjoying these blog updates.