The Last Post

So we left Washington behind and failed to get a decent picture of the Pentagon (too much security), to visit the Air and Space Museum Extension at Dulles Airport (The satnav, "Dashboard Lil" to her friends,  could not keep up with traffic) and Monticello, president Jefferson's home, (an invasion of elderly US patriots in big SUVs stopped us visiting the house). Worst day until...

We then had beautiful drive down the Appalachians, alongside the Shenandoah valley (as in the song!) to Roanoke. We had a very good Indian (Asian that is, not American)meal that evening and then watched a program on PBS (their equivalent of our Beeb) about the Outer banks, a sandbar dozens of miles long that run down the Atlantic coast an few hundred yards out from the mainland. Seemed beautiful - some people like the seaside - we decided to go through there on the last leg of our journey. 

 

 The town we stayed in is Kitty Hawk and it is perched on one of the larger banks and this is where the Wright brothers first managed powered flight of a heavier-than-air machine. The memorial and museum are a national park and extremely well run, as ever in the States. Very interesting talk from one of the rangers, a visit to the hilltop monument followed and then we drove back West towards Tennessee, stopping one night in Salisbury, North Carolina.






The next day we drove from there to Knoxville through the southern Appalachian mountains, known locally as the "Smokeys": beautiful early Autumn colours and the wiggliest section of the interstate road system we ever saw. "Smokeys" because terpenes (Google it!) emitted by the abundant pine trees turn the distant vistas smokey blue - very beautiful. Arrived in time for a haircut (getting rid of a three-month growth that prompted a security man in Washington into enquiring what Father Christmas was doing there in October!).



So now we are staying with our son Philip's family, rejoining Linda who had been there for a week previous.
 Yesterday we went back up into the Smokeys, to an old settlement, now abandoned, called Cades Cove: Autumn-coloured trees, old cabins, farm buildings and churches and three black bears up a tree!



 
That's it for now. In a few days, Peter will put out a further post describing aspects of the trip and the "American Way" of doing roads, toilets (!) and hospitality, etc...



[We must apologise for the ragged appearance of some of our blogs - we have still not worked out how to place pictures within the text with Blogger tools. Ed.]

Peace, history, war, power

 
We left Cape Cod and drove across Massachusetts to visit the Hancock Shaker Village, a beautiful, peaceful place which is just a museum now as there are just a few Shakers left in Maine.  Their way of life meant that they would inevitably die out as they remained celibate and the only children were orphans from the nearby towns.  They were technologically very advanced, planning their buildings so that full advantage of the sun was taken for instance.








Rhode Island was next with (another) computer museum, slightly odd set-up as they have some offices and a warehouse where there is computer equipment stacked almost to the ceiling but they don't currently have the money to develop any further.  They have an educational thread, taking classes in libraries and such like and they rent equipment to film and television producers (Mad Men etc.)




Gettysburg was amazing, the tour guide for the battleground was, as always, very knowledgeable and was so enthusiastic, a quaint town, obviously very proud of its place in American history.  Gettysburg is home to the first US National Cemetery.
Driving from Gettysburg to Washington DC today we crossed the Mason/Dixon line - this is an historical line which separates the North from the South. Around Pennsylvania and Maryland at least.










Took the Metro into (Washington) DC and visited the Washington Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the White House and then across to Arlington National Cemetery.  We were both moved by the Lincoln Memorial and the Gettysburg Address carved into the wall.  Joe Louis and Lee Marvin are both buried at Arlington.  We also watched the Changing of the Guard there - different from Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle but impressive in its simplicity. 











Our second day in Washington we took in some of the Smithsonian museums with Peter visiting the Air & Space Museum and Kath taking in the National Art Gallery and then in the afternoon both visiting the American Indian Museum and viewed Capitol Hill on the way back to the Metro.