Goin' Road Trippin'

10/23/2022- When you see a picture of something, do you automatically assume it’ll be facing one way or another? I gotta say my brain assumes a direction, and my assumptions have been a hundred percent wrong! For some reason I always thought Lincoln was facing west, he actually faces the east and is straight across from the Washington monument and reflecting pool. We wanted to get to DC to see the sunrise and maybe even be there before anyone else, so we woke up at 5:30.

We found free all day parking! We mapped Harvy to 900 Ohio drive SW just to get to the area to park, but the whole street has free parking.

We hopped on el scooters and road the 1.4 miles to the Lincoln Monument. It was a brisk morning and I wish I would’ve wore gloves. To our surprise, when we arrived there were quite a few people there already with the same idea.

I had a special outfit for the day, but it wasn’t conducive to the weather so I double layered until it was picture time.

Ok, that was fun! Back to our regularly scheduled program.

I was surprised at how close you can get to the White House. There’s secret service no mater the direction you look. It’s located in the city, faces north and across from a park.

We headed East towards the capital, along the way we stopped at a street vendor to get a couple souvenirs. While we were looking at items a man came up to talk to us about our scooters. He said he used steal them, how he’d carry a cutting wheel to cut off the locks. He said cops would call him if they saw something like our scooters to buy off of him for their kids, all he had to do was steal them. So we thanked him for not stealing.

We must keep the faith that good people will continue on the solid foundation we were give. That our world of the 21 century will not regress. To fight the good fight against oppression, ignorance,hate and greed

I finally named my scooter, her name is Nina the ninebot. so I thought it only fitting to get a picture of scooter McGavin and Nina in DC. We gave them some upgrades from Walmart. They each got cup carriers (especially since my experience in New York) and mirrors, and Nina got a basket, now to add sparkles and flowers!!

We wouldn’t have been able to see half of what we did if it wasn’t for our scooters. It made things so much simpler. I’m sure the subway system would’ve worked well for us too, but I’m glad we got to see it the way we did.

10/21/2022- Today we visited Arlington National Cemetery. We arrived around 11 am, and didn’t leave until 4:30pm. When we arrived they directed us to a parking area designed for oversized vehicles.

Once we arrived at the welcome center, we were directed to get into a security line check. After clearing security we went to information for a map.

Our first stop was the museum honoring women in the military.

We headed up behind the women’s memorial towards John F. Kennedy’s gravesite.

We headed next to the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Inside the building is a museum, showing gifts from other countries, metals of valor and photos.

Behind the building is the memorial amphitheater

We decided to go towards the columbarium.

While heading back towards the welcome center there was a service ending and we were able to watch them march back into formation.

There were more places in Arlington to visit, but we ran out of time. We decided to walk, but they do offer a troll car that would take you through the entire cemetery if you chose that route.

10/19/2022 -Before making it to our campground in Maryland, we stopped off to run the Rocky steps in Philadelphia.

We were able to park across the street and walk to the steps. Without having to pay.

There is a statue of Rocky and a plaque on the right side of the art museum before you go up the steps. As we walked towards it, a man offers to take our picture and asks for money. “$10 or $20, I’m homeless I gotta get me something to eat, I do this for a living.” We decide to let him take our pictures, but in the rush of the moment I didn’t get to take one of just Mitch.

There was another guy at the top of the stairs selling Rocky t-shirts, so we bought a couple from him. He then took a bunch of pictures of us at different points of interest. Um yeah, can I get back to taking the pictures and not being in them so much?

They have fountains and falls that run down on both sides as well, but since it’s fall they were shut off for the winter. After visiting the steps we went across the street to see the Washington Monument.

The photos that follow, without captions, are different views of the monument.

After we visited these historical landmarks we decided to find a Philly cheesesteak. I mean while we’re in Philadelphia, get one right? Well, we heard about one place from a local, and mapped our way there. The signs are confusing and we parked in an area up the street from a sign that said pay to park by your license plate, so we thought we were good to go. I see a man under a blanket eating some ruffles, I ask him if he was hungry and would like a sandwich, to which he says, “sure I’d like that.”so I tell him we’ll be back and I’ll bring it to him. We walk up the street for couple blocks, we can’t find the restaurant, then we realize it’s not there anymore and we get back to a $36 parking ticket on our windshield. We couldn’t have been gone for more than 10 minutes! Now, I’m telling ya, that man on the street, that I offered to buy a sandwich for is the only who could’ve told parking enforcement that we were there. I mean in that short amount of time! Do they have some kind of set up where he calls “the man”? Unless he’s parking enforcement, posing as a homeless person? Who knows. Anyway, I tell him “I’m sorry, we didn’t find the restaurant” and he said “that’s ok.” We decided to scrap the whole idea and just hit the road.

We made it to Greenbelt national park campground in Maryland where we’ll be staying for 5 days.

It’s a nice park in the middle of the city of Greenbelt and only 10 minutes from DC. The cars kinda sound like the ocean, squirrels are running about and leaves are falling.

No electricity or water but hey, we got a good internet connection here. Hallelujah, I’ll take that any day, we got a generator.

While I caught up on writing today Mitch mapped out our adventures and sights to see for the next few days. we’ll keep ya posted.