Touristas 2

In case you didn't know it, look on the right side of the page and you will see where I posted other day's blogs.

14 Oct 09—My plan today was to see and tour both the Capital and the Supreme Court, but we didn’t even finish touring the Capital in one day. We saw the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress across from the Capital, but we will have to do that tour another day. We didn’t even finish with the Capital today…have to go back tomorrow. I am totally amazed at the beauty of these buildings. This is a picture of me talking to "my fellow Americans". This 1st picture is the view you see of the Capital when they are swearing in the President.

You see these buildings on TV, but nothing quite prepares you for seeing them in person. In addition to the Lincoln Memorial, these buildings are incredibly big. They look like a lot of the buildings I saw overseas when I was in Greece and Rome. Majestic is the only word I can think of to describe them! And I had no idea that you could literally walk from the Capital to the Supreme Court in about 5 minutes.

When Cathy and I came up First Street and I had the Capital on my left and the Court on my left, I must admit that I actually started crying a little. Of course Cathy doesn’t get it (haha), but what these institutions represent really overwhelms me. I would honestly give my right arm to work here!

Anyway, we had signed up for the Capital tour the night before, so we got in with no problem, straight into Emancipation Hall...this is Sojourner Truth.

(Sorry, I didn't turn this picture before I uploaded it)

and then our tour guide took us to the Rotunda, Statuary Hall, and the Crypt area of the building. The Rotunda you have seen on TV a hundred times…that is where someone lies in state when they die (like Ronald Reagan and Rosa Parks). The painting at the top is called the Apotheosis of George Washington, which actually means the glorification of George Washington.

He is surrounded by 13 women that represent the original 13 states, and then 2 more women, one with a horn and another with a piece of paper, that represent Victory and Liberty, respectively. Below that there are 3D paintings representing 400 years of history…what a room!!! Statuary Hall is what it sounds like…a bunch of statues of famous Americans…actually every state can have 2 statues representing them at any one time…so the ones that don’t fit here are strewn throughout different rooms of the Capital.

Finally, we went to the Crypt, below which is an empty tomb, originally built to house the remains of George Washington. The tomb is empty though, because George said in his will that he wanted to remain at Mt Vernon.

Cathy and I didn’t have tickets to go to the House or Senate galleries to hear the politicians giving their speeches, so we were directed outside to the Senate office buildings. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s office (she is one of the 2 Texas senators) was in the Russell Senate Office Building, so we went in there to her office and got tickets to both the Senate and House galleries on another day. I couldn’t believe that we were able to walk all around this building once we got in. We saw the offices of quite a few senators…John Kerry, John McCain, and Lindsay Graham just to name a few. We are going to go back to the Capital again tomorrow to sit in the galleries…I hope we get on TV!!! If anyone is watching C-Span let me know. Haha This is me outside McCain's office.

So Cathy and I so far are having a ball! I should say that Cathy is having a good time, and I am having the time of my life!!! Today was really quite emotional for me…God bless America!!!

Touristas!!!

13 Oct 09—The Washington DC Metro is a great subway system. And they have a great map that they pass out explaining not only how to use it but what station to get off to see what tourist site/sites. Cathy and I drove to the Metro parking lot, (only about 4 miles from the base), got on the train with little to no trouble, and headed straight to the Mall where the Washington Monument/Lincoln Memorial etc., are. We started at the Washington Monument, and spent the day walking all over the area (I am sure we got our 10,000 steps in today), and taking pictures. That is me holding up the monument. (I think if you click on any of the pictures, you can enlarge them.)

Although you don’t necessarily see them right away, on either side of the reflecting pool is the Korean War, Vietnam War, WW I and WWII Memorials.

We didn’t have tickets to go up into the Monument, but I did get a website to access to secure tickets. They say that if you come during tourist season you would have to order tickets 1-2 months in advance, but we can go on-line and hopefully get them for the next day. The next few days are supposed to be raining, so I hope we have time next week to go again and go to the top of it before we leave.

I was most impressed by the Lincoln memorial and the WWII Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial is absolutely majestic!

The seated Lincoln is 19 ft high and 19 feet wide, and made of 28 marble blocks.

To the left of where he is sitting, the Gettysburg Address is etched into the wall, and to the right is his 2nd Inaugural Address. The 36 columns around the memorial represent the 36 states in the Union at that time of his presidency and I don’t know if you will be able to see it in the picture, but above him there is a band of etched names of the 48 states that were part of the country at the time the memorial was dedicated (1922). Interestingly, Massachusetts is dead center over his head.

The WWII Memorial is also quite impressive. (I had amovie of it on my camera, but I can't upload it for some reason.) I guess we are all more familiar with the Vietnam Memorial because it has been there longer, but I was more impressed with the grandeur of the WII Memorial… it was only dedicated in 2004. The memorial has large columns left and right depicting the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of operation, the names of all the states and territories that took part in the war, a large pool with waterfall at the center that you walk down to, and all along the walls are carvings of events that were prominent at that time, like people selling war bonds, boys selling newspapers, soldiers lining up to do something, etc. When we were there a large tour group of WWII vets were there, most in wheelchairs, and I found myself quite moved. It seems a disgrace that it took us so long to build this.

From Hanscom to DC

11-12 Oct 09—We left Massachusetts Sunday morning around 10 AM heading south, ultimately thru parts of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and into Maryland. And everything was going smoothly until we hit the Bronx in NY…we had to get off an exit previous to the one we planned because of a detour, and the detour took us onto the small streets of the Bronx! Until you have driven in a 40 ft RV on the tiny streets of these old cities with all their traffic you don’t really know what stress is. We had to take a turn at one point that we barely made without hitting a pole…I thought we were going to have to unhitch the car to back up…and you all know how that would have gone over with the neighborly New Yorkers. Fortunately, Cathy made the turn with only inches to spare, and we averted a potential slugfest.

Back on the road again, everything was going fine until we had to pay the toll to get off the New Jersey turnpike…how about $25.00!!!??? And that was followed shortly by the $16.00 toll to get over the Delaware Memorial Bridge….followed by the $7.00 toll for a short section of the Delaware Turnpike, and finally the $9.00 toll to get thru the Ft McHenry Tunnel in Maryland. Cathy has vowed she is never coming to this part of the Northeast again! We will have to find another route, because she means it! haha

We pulled into Andrews AFB early Monday afternoon, were escorted by the Security Forces people to the armory to store our gun, then escorted to the Famcamp where we set up for the next 2 weeks. This Famcamp is a little “woodsier” than the one in Massachusetts, but it is right next to one of the three golf courses they have here, so it is in a nice area. For those of you not familiar with the area, this is where the president flies out of on Air Force One, thus the 3 golf courses! Anyway, we got some tourism flyers and handouts from the Famcamp office, and spent the evening figuring out what to do for our first venture into DC on Tuesday.

Where have I been for 7 weeks?

22 Aug 09—We finally arrive in Massachusetts! At Hanscom AFB in Bedford, MA to be exact. Marie and her kids and their kids, and Ellen and a couple of her kids come to see the RV. Little Jack has been waiting to see the RV and absolutely loves “the house on wheels” as he calls it. As everyone is standing outside, I have Cathy blow the air horn and scare everyone to death! Haha…To Jack this just means he loves the RV even more.

3 Aug to 6 Sep 09—Cathy and I spent 2 weeks up in Wells, ME, right on the ocean, at an Outdoor World campsite that my sister Ellen belongs to. It was a great area, and seeing as it was free, we couldn’t have been happier! Haha My sister Marie came up to visit for 2 days and we went to Moody Beach both days, but only got in the water the 1st day because after that it was even too cold for Marie to go into. The 1st day had some pretty good waves going, I guess from the storm that had just passed thru there before we got there. Cathy, of course, didn’t even go in the water the 1st day…not even her feet! So she took some pictures for us. We also drove up to Kennebunkport, where he Bush family “summers”, to see their house. The area is really nice, with lots of pretty big, old money houses. I went there with my brother Brian a couple years ago and was surprised at how close you can actually get to the Bush home.

Ellen and her daughter Maggie followed Marie up to Maine for 3 days with us…they have gone up tot this area for years…it mostly was either cloudy or raining while they were there, so we mostly played cards or watched movies.

On the 30th of August most of us gathered at my brother Brian’s cottage (his place was about 20 minutes from where Cathy and I were staying) for a family re-union…2 of my aunts, my sisters and brothers, and most of my nieces/nephews, grandnieces/nephew were able to come. I must admit that I really love being around the little kids, and the more I am around them the more I realize how much I missed by not being around when the older ones were growing up. It was a great day!

So the whole 1st week in Maine was taken up visiting with family, while the 2nd week was mostly taken up going to Lowes, Walmart, Target, etc., looking for area rugs, an outdoor grill, lawn chairs, etc. We also spent an inordinate amount of time talking on the phone to people trying to figure out how we were supposed to get our satellite TV to work. Everyone was telling us that to get service in an RV was not easy, and that was an understatement. Just to get local channels, never mind satellite stations, we had to buy a converter box because of the whole digital thing. Needless to say we left Maine and still had no satellite TV, so I was well into my 3rd week of travel with no CNN! I was not happy about this! (It wouldn’t actually be until 25 Sep that we got satellite…but I will tell you about that later.)

On 4 Sep Cathy and I actually got to go bike riding for the 1st time…this day was our 3 week anniversary of selling the house, so we were happy to finally have time to just take a leisurely ride to Ogunquit, ME, about 2 miles from Wells where we were staying. Ogunquit is very touristy, very pretty, and had a great area called the “Marginal Road” that is a one mile man-made road along the ocean with great views of the beaches and the hotels/houses in the area. Cathy and I just tied our bikes up to a street pole, walked the road and then had lunch at the end. Up to this point this was a great, relaxing day…and exactly how I envisioned my RVing time to be spent.

Of course at the end of the day my back brake on my bike broke, I had to leave it at a fix-it shop, and then I had to walk a mile back to the RV. Not that a mile was bad…but not how envisioned the end of my otherwise perfect day!

On the night of 4 Sep, Cathy and I rode down to the beach to see the fireworks they were shooting off in celebration of Labor Day weekend…tried to take some pictures on the cell phone, but they didn’t come out…it will be about 5 more weeks before we actually buy a decent camera!

On 6 Sep we travel back to Hanscom AFB, and on 8 Sep we decide to concentrate on getting satellite TV service. We know we need a satellite receiver box, and we are specifically trying to get Dish Network TV service, so Cathy ascertains after much research that the only Dish Network dealer is in the Somerville area of Boston. We drive to Somerville, probably a half hour from where we are staying, and using the GPS that Hallie got us, we determine that the address the dealer gave to Cathy on the phone is in reality a liquor store. We walk up and down the street, double-checking all the addresses, and then return to the liquor store. Not knowing what is going on, and because we don’t really know what else to do, we go into the liquor store and ask the older man and woman working there if the address we are looking for is indeed their address. These 2 people are either Indian or Pakistani, not really sure, but I say that because there was a little bit of a language barrier. Anyway, they say it is their address, and ask us who we are looking for…when we tell them they say they don’t know who that is…and with that Cathy walks outside to call the number to the dealer. As I wait inside, the older guy asks me what product I am looking for, and when I tell him both he and his wife start laughing, saying “Oh, oh, that is our son!” The guy gives me a business card with the liquor store on one side and the son’s “dealership” on the other. At this point Cathy is walking in the store as I am trying to walk out…she tells me that the son said he was on his way…that he had the receiver we wanted to buy in his truck and would be right there. So now Cathy and I are out on the street, waiting for some type of truck to pull up to the curb, and we are starting to wonder out loud if we should really be buying this from this guy. As we are wondering and laughing, out from inside the store comes the son with the receiver in his arms (he came in thru the back)…no box, just in a plastic bag…and he beckons us to the back of the store. I had to pass a delivery guy there and I told him under my breath that I felt like I was taking part in an illicit drug deal. Anyway, after much discussion, this guy wants to sell us the box for the price he discussed with Cathy on the phone, but he wanted to charge us separately for the remote controls and the wires we needed. This was just too much at this point, so after another full day of effort, we went home with no receiver. (We finally bought a receiver on-line and got it all hooked up 2 ½ weeks later!)

From 9 Sep till we left Massachusetts on 11 Oct—We went apple picking and for a hayride at the Honey Pot Hill in Stow, MA…thank God for the little kids, cause I really don’t think a bunch of adults would do this otherwise.

Cathy and I went to the JFK Library and Museum, which was very interesting…it seems like a different era, even though we grew up with it…so much innocence was lost! The most interesting thing I saw there was the map of the red states/blue states as to how the Electoral College bbroke down in that election. Notice how "Blue" the south was!!!

We had what I am calling the 1st Annual Byrnes Family 1/2Ball and Bar Championships! We had a ball playing, even though only Maggie and I could throw the 1/2ball…and Maggie needs a lot of practice before we play again! Maggie’s team killed my team, but I attribute that to my superior pitching abilities…her team had good great balls to hit…and did they ever!!! Cathy didn't play because she wasn't feeling well, but Chris played and I think he may have been a fcator at one point, but I can't remember what the circumstance was! haha

Cathy and I went to the Salem Witch Museum in Salem MA…that was pretty cool! And then we went to an old town they have created there to show what it would have been like to live there in 1630. Most of the presenters were well informed, but it really needed to be built up more to make it worth it.

In-between all this, I visited with my old and dear friends Patti, Mia, and Fifi who came to see the RV. Drove the RV to Sr Helen’s house so she and her friends Sr Claire and Sr Dianeta could see it…had my aunt Peg and cousin Mary out to see the RV with Patti, and visited almost daily with the rest of my sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews. We also washed and waxed the RV….exhausting! It took the 2 of us over 7 hours to do it, and I am in no hurry to do it again. We also finally got a travel plan to Florida, and we left Massachusetts on 11 Oct to get our trip started.