Friday Return home to Hampton

Today was to be our last day. Kips real estate agent called and said there had been paperwork e-mailed to him that needed to be signed and back today.

But Dori found out there was another happy place (REI) close to our route and off we went. Kip didn't buy anything and Dori couldn't buy much because her motorcycle was already packed to the gunnels, almost.

Rode home and once again........you got it......beat the rain. On our whole trip we had one night without rain. And Dori wanted me to put up the tent without the fly..."It will be cooler"...but experience won the day...er night.

Thursday to Baltimore? and beyond

Todays plan is to ride into break camp, ride into Baltimore to see the USS Constellation (a civil war sloop) and then start back south. Once more the plan had some problems.

We found the Constellation thanks to GPS but no parking except for $20 for 2 bikes. We decided that it wasn't worth $60 to see the ship. So decided to swing by it again so Dori could at least look at it but the roads were horrible, actually unsafe for a motorcycle. Their construction/repair practices are bad beyond words. We headed out of town and south. Stopped at a Panda express for lunch and while there I found there was an REI close by. Spent the afternoon at REI, Doris happy place. Then went to a county park camp ground at Burke Lake, VA. A couple on day 1 had told us about it.

We meet Jeff for dinner at an awesome Greek/Italian resteraunt. Lots of good food.

Then we beat the rain back to our tent, but not by much.

Wednesday To DC by strange vehicle

The camp ground runs a shuttle into DC at 9am and picks you up at 5pm. It was packed. We went to the Air & Space museum, American History museum, to see Old Glory.....what an awesome flag. To the Natural History and then to the American Indian museum. We were beat by the end of this. Did I mention the heat? It was HOT. Notice two things in this trip, heat and rain....AAAARRGGGHH.

While at the Smithsonian Mall there was a lot of Police cars, ambulances, fire trucks and helicopters....Later we found out about the security guard being shot. Crazies are everywhere.

Back to the camp site and drove out to Arby's for dinner...to go. The clouds came in, temp dropped and once again we got back just before the rain.

We ate in our tent and were glad that we had brought chairs and that they fit in our tent.

Tuesday onto Maryland Birthday Day

Today was a liesurely jaunt to the KOA camp ground located between Washington, DC and Baltimore. It takes us a couple of hours to load up in the morning. The riding was great. We have been going thru Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland, crossing back and forth.

The plan was to get to the camp ground, setup early and relax. So much for plans. We were there and setup by 3:00. So far, so good. We found a Chinese buffet. Food was ok but the staff sucked big time. As we left the buffet we could hear Thunder. Back to camp as fast as possible. Got there just in time to get our gear in the tent and then the sky opened up on us. Massive lightning and thunder. We were set up among the trees and it sounded like it was hitting close. Dori did some screaming and I saw some strange ball lightning. Did I mention Happy Birthday Dori? Happy Birthday!!

Day 2 Antietam and Harpers Ferry

Looking to get out of the heat. Found the C&O canal on the way to Antietam.
Then to the Antietam Battlefield. Watched a couple of good films on the battle and then drove around the battlefield. It was to hot to walk much.

Burnside Bridge

It was as all battlefiels are, impressive and awe inspiring.

Bloody Lane

After the battlefield we drove to Harpers Ferry to look at the old town. Again it was still to hot to walk around much.

Recognize this from the movie "Gods and Generals" ?

Then we rode to a KOA campground where we stayed the night. The camp ground and the people were nice but the actual tent sites were railroad gravel (very sharp) and they put a hole in our ground cover. It started to rain hard and Dori went out into the rain (to get her rain gear out of the trunk)and stubbed her toe on a railroad tie.

June 2009 Dori's Birthday Trip to DC

Packed and Ready to Go.

Sunday we packed up and headed up past Richmond to Bealton to see the Flying Circus.....alas no more Spads or Triplanes. Now they just fly WWII trainers but still fun. And HOT, HOT and HOT.

Where is my chute?

After the show we went to the George Washington Natl Forest outside of Front Royal to camp for the night. They had the bathrooms locked. Closed for the season the sign said...what season did they plan on opening for? No water either. Didn't pay either. Dori found that it is possible to go thru the night without a glass of water...but it won't happen again. Those pills were hard to swallow.

It didn't rain, this will be shown to be important.