Washington DC

March 2016

Update from the last post. We tried to leave VT on Jan. 31^st. After weeks of planning and packing, we were finally on the road headed south in search of somewhere warmer than VT.

All set and ready to go Jan. 31, 21006

It was all going well until we were about half-way up the hill out of Strafford on Route 132. The engine tried to downshift and there was a horrible thud. We looked at each other and said “what was that? But kept going. We got almost to the Windsor VT exit of I91 when the engine lost power completely. We were able to pull to the side of the highway and were relieved that we had cell service in that location.

We called AAA where we have an RV plan that is supposed to provide emergency service. They took the information and we waited…and waited… and waited. Calling them back, we learned that they would need to send 2 heavy duty trucks: one for our Dodge Ram 3500 and another one to tow the trailer. It was a Saturday afternoon and all of the tow truck drivers in the Upper Valley were unavailable.

After waiting for a couple of hours, it was starting to get dark. Lee tried the engine again. We could move forward, very slowly in first gear. We knew that we were somewhere north of the Windsor exit so we just started driving, slowly, in first gear. When we reached the exit, we got off, turned around and headed back home, in first gear. It took several more hours to drive the ~30 miles back home.

Skipping the gory details, the truck spend seven weeks in a transmission shop while we waited for the transmission to be fixed.

While we were waiting we took a trip to Washington DC. It’s not a good place to bring the RV or the dogs so this seemed like as good a time as any to go there.

It was certainly warmer than VT. The weather was in the 70s and 80s while we were there. The Cherry Blossoms weren’t out yet but the date for their expected arrival was moved up several weeks due to the unusually warm weather.

While on this trip, I started noticing a pattern of me taking a photo of Lee at the various attractions. It reminded me of the traveling Garden Gnome meme of a decade ago. Check it out here and see if you see any resemblances to anyone we know:

Traveling Garden Gnome

Here are some photos of our favorite Traveling Garden Gnome at some of the landmarks in DC.

World War II Memorial

The Vermont section of the WW II Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

 

Martin Luther King Memorial

Eleanor & Lee

 

FDR Memorial

Capitol Rotunda under construction

The capitol was under restoration while we were there. There is some information about the project here: U.S. Capitol Dome Restoration Project.

I was disappointed that I would not be able to show Brumidi’s work in the dome to Lee. But we were fortunate to be at the Capitol on a day when it wasn’t super crowded. We took the regular tour and the Brumidi Tour. Our tour guide for the Brumidi Tour did not know about the connection to the Morrill Homestead in Strafford VT and was very interested.

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Brumidi Corridor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could write a lot more about Brumidi,  Morrill and the Capitol. I urge you to visit the Homestead in Strafford and the Capitol and see for yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

Washington at Valley Forge

 

View from Arlington Cemetary

 

 

 

Our favorite Gmome at Mount Vernon

 

Gnome Lee visiting the Whitehouse

We took a Segway tour of DC which stopped at Lincoln Memorial