We slowly move south

Had this kind of weather for many, many miles

Continuing south we made our way to Virginia Beach.  Most of the 180 miles was in torrential rain.  During one particular heavy downpour visibility dropped to pretty much the vehicle in front of you.  Most vehicles around us sensibly drove to the conditions and we arrived at our destination damp but not stirred.  Weather was fine

but cold the next day as we went scenic driving.  Caught sight of this magnificent set of abs on the Virginia Beach boardwalk – shame it was just a statue.

Drove along, over and through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.  This amazing feat of engineering measures 17.6 miles from shore to shore with Chesapeake Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.  There are 12 miles of trestled roadway, 2 mile-long tunnels, 2 bridges and 2 causeways.  There are also 4 man-made islands, one of which you can stop at, enjoy the view, go fishing off the pier or dine at the restaurant with views of the shore in the distance and ocean-going vessels steaming past.  We had a quick look at all the fresh seafood on the menu and decided to leave our picnic lunch for another day.  We also walked on the pier but, true to form, us softies didn’t last too long out there in the cold weather.

Looking back to the first island, where we had lunch,
about 2 miles out in the bay

The first tunnel goes between these points

We chose down

It just goes and goes

The other place we stopped at that day was a town called Susan.  Why did 

I think the sign is trying
to tell Sue something

we stop there?  You tell me.  Sadly, it’s more of a “tih” than a town.  No town centre, no businesses, no signposts with the name Susan on them … until we spotted this one.  Personally I think it should be the capital for the country but they put that up the road at DC.  Huh!

Next day we hit the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Stopped at Poplar Branch and met the Grave Digger.  Sadly, and we’re gonna hear this a lot now, rides on the monster truck have finished for the season.  That would have been so much fun.  We got to walk around their yard though and check out some of the fun machines.

 

Jean about to get munched by
the angry monster truck

Like our new wheels?

Wright Brothers Memorial

The next stop was Kittyhawk where we visited the memorial to the Wright Brothers which also incorporated the actual site of their first flights and a reproduction of their hangar and living quarters.  Up until now I’ve always been a typical parochial, one-eyed Kiwi who believed Richard Pearse was the first to fly.  In actual fact, the Wright brothers weren’t the first, others were in the air at that time, including Pearse.  What makes them so special is that their flight on 17 December 1903 (I’ve even memorised the date now) was controlled – the other pioneering aviators efforts were more like hops.  Pearse himself didn’t believe he’d mastered flight until 1904 so yep, I’ve conceded that one to the Americans.  It’s a bit like pavlova really.  It doesn’t really matter who was first, what really matters is that is happened.  Mmm, pavlova.

Jean & Sue at Kittyhawk

The granite marker on the left is the lift off point, the four markers
off to the right show the distances of the first four flights
(the furthest being 852')

Leaving this part of Virginia behind, we headed to the mountains.  Not just any mountains but the Blue Ridge Mountains (oh come on, everyone knows the John Denver song).  Scarily though, this meant we were heading in a north west direction, not just west.  At a time when there is freezing weather coming down from the north.  We may be softies but we are intrepid.  We found a campsite at Waynesboro where we stayed for a couple of nights.  Both nights the temperature got into the negatives and we had to disconnect our water hose. 

It was a beautifully sunny, albeit cold, day the first morning.  We were not daunted though as we were going to a Moonshine distillery (looking at the map, it would’ve been easier to visit this distillery when we first left DC but the darn place was closed the day we went past which is why we’ve made the special trip back here).  On the way to the distillery at Culpeper we drove along the Skyline Drive at the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Even at this time of year it’s a beautiful drive but in summer, wow, it would be amazing (I think that’s my word for this trip).  There are a number of scenic overlooks and the views are just stunning.  Not so sure about all this ice we are starting to see though.

Ice ... already ... not too happy about that
(best we get a move on south)

Had a quick tour of the moonshine distillery before our favourite part, the tastings.  Several $$’s later, our freezer is full and we are heading back to the campground.

This copper still was found abandoned in an old barn
and, yay, brought back to life

I'll try that one ... and that one ... and that one ...

We could have continued along the Skyline Drive the next day but with the RV on tow all that would have done is chew through the diesel so we contented ourselves with driving through the Shenandoah Valley and looking up to the mountains.  We did one excursion up into the mountains, at Wytheville.  At the summit of the Big Walker Mountain there is a lookout and a tower.  We just had to climb it.  Fantastic views from the top of the tower.

The lookout for regular folk

The lookout (and swing bridge) for people like Jean & Sue

Angled for a quick getaway

From Wytheville we dropped into North Carolina.  Drove past these 3 churches all in a row.  Every time the congregation outgrew the church they built a new one alongside.  Wonder if they’ll get to a fourth? 

 

Continued down to Asheville where we splashed out for a candle light visit to Biltmore Estate, the country home of George and Edith Vanderbilt.  The estate is presently run by one of their grandsons and every year at Christmas they go out all out with the decorations.  It takes a month to get all the decorations up and looks fantastic.

We started out with a bit of wine tasting



The Banquet Hall is so large it needs 3 fireplaces
(several of the 65 fireplaces are lit for the Candlelight tour)

Love this tree, Santa is sitting at the top and
that's his list scrolling down the tree

P.S.  The Kiwi’s made pavlova first.  It’s a documented fact.

Museum after museum after museum

Another day in DC, another day at the Smithsonian Institute.  First up was the sculpture garden at the Hirshhorn Museum.  Some people have some interesting stuff going on in their heads.  Nice to know it’s not just me. 

Just our luck to find an empty overcoat on a lovely day

Waiting for a bus ... or an RV ... or something

Had a gander inside the Smithsonian Castle and got to meet James Smithson himself... his crypt anyway.  He died back in 1829 and left a small fortune to America to create an institution for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge”.  What an amazing bequest and 10 out of 10 for the way they’ve gone about it.  Just about all the museums are free of charge and there is pretty much something for everyone. 

Spent a couple of hours in the Museum of American History.  Again, a lot of what is there we’ve seen already on our travels but there is enough that is new and different to keep us entertained.  Plus it’s all presented in different and interesting ways.

Just when you thought you'd seen everything - a can opener cook book

When we eventually left that museum we went for a walk down to the White House.  Walking, we are able to get a lot closer than driving and, due to the season, happened across some workers putting up the annual White House Christmas Tree on the area known as The Ellipse. 

One more museum for the day.  The International Spy Museum.  Unlike the Smithsonian museums there is an entrance fee here and quite a pricey one at that.  It is very well done though.  A lot of information on historical spying and codes – going back to the likes of Caesar, Hannibal and the Trojan Horse of Troy.  There is also a large exhibit on the evil-doers that James Bond has encountered over the 50 years of Bond.  Unsurprisingly there were a few bad guys that I’d never heard of.  Guess I’ll have to watch some of the old movies.

Hiding in plain sight - the International Spy Museum

The infamous poison umbrella

Most of Ian Fleming's Bond stories had the Russians as the bad guys

Spent the next day driving around just outside DC which included a drive by of The Pentagon that neither of us were expecting.  Bit of a bonus as we only got the barest of glimpses from across the Potomac River on the trolley a couple of days previous.  Today we still only got the barest of glimpses, just larger and closer.  Darned fences, trees and traffic.

It's the Pentagon ... truly

Saw an interestingly designed house in the burbs of Bethesda known as the Hobbit House.  Looks like it’s been built for regular sized folk though. 

This was followed up by a visit to Union Hardware who have a mural of Van Gogh’s Starry Night on their wall – made completely out of old door knobs and handles.  Pretty cool huh?

Hard to tell the real from the door knobs

We were thinking of having our picnic lunch under this acorn gazebo but it was too cold for us softies so we ate it sitting in the car in Macy’s car park.  We even went into Macy’s – but only to get to the rest rooms in the mall on the other side.  While we were in the area we decided to check out the longest single span escalator in the Western Hemisphere. 

It just goes and goes and goes

It was at a nearby Metro station but on the wrong side of the ticket barrier for us.  The lovely woman employed at the Metro station took my camera and rode the escalator on our behalf taking photos for us.  In fact, the escalator is so long and the ride took so long, we were starting to wonder if she’d done a runner.  Seriously though, we’ve found the employees of the Metro to be just wonderful.  They have all gone out of their way to be helpful to us these past few days and have helped make our visit to DC a pleasant one.  The little things matter.

Had a brief stop at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.  It’s along the same lines as the Mutter Museum in Pennsylvania with a lot of exhibits that make you glad you haven’t just eaten (we had just eaten).  One of the staff members stopped by us and gave us a lot more information about the exhibits. 

Hands off

Old microscope with two eye pieces

From the museum we headed north to Savage where we parked up and walked over the last surviving wrought iron bridge in, I think, the world.  Definitely in America.  The cold weather meant we didn’t linger and we turned around and headed back to the campground.  On the way we had one last stop, on the campus of the University of Maryland where they have honoured one of their alumni, Jim Henson, with a statue of Jim and his beloved home-schooled frog, Kermit.

Take a good look - it's the last one

We hadn’t quite finished with the Smithsonian and spent all of Saturday at the Natural History Museum.  Didn’t quite get to see all of the exhibits before being ushered out at closing time.  What we did see was pretty impressive.  Loved the section on Human development – we were so close to being extinct ourselves at one stage with a population of about 10,000 adults.  Now, with our population of over 7 billion, it looks like we’ll never leave.  The Neanderthals never stood a chance against Homo Sapiens although I’m pretty sure there’s a few of them still out there with their caveman attitudes.

The little mammal that it's believed all mammals descended from

One of the reasons the Passenger Pigeon became extinct

 

We even got to see the Hope Diamond.  What a history that stone has had.  It was stolen during the French Revolution and miraculously turned up in England one day after the statute of limitations expired giving ownership of the gem to whoever had it in their possession.  Nothing dodgy going on there at all.  Harry Winston, a jeweller from New York, brought the diamond in 1949 and gifted it to the Smithsonian Institute in 1958 for the people of America.

Left Maryland and headed to Virginia, stopping at the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico.  You’d think we’d be over museums by now but nope, keep finding good uns all over the place.  As good as this museum is though (and it is) I personally think the Army Museum at Waiouru tops it (just a little bit of bias going on there).

Exited the rear of this helicopter straight into a raging battle

I think we'd make spiffy marines