According to the internet this was indeed true in 2016. We do see why, with the rich culture, cuisine and historical architecture. We arrived yesterday and immediately went to McLeod Plantation yesterday. Our tour guide was a young student who had a masters in archeology, so her delivery of content was from the aspect of how the landscape and architecture could teach us about the people who once lived on this land. The generations of slaves who lived on this sea island cotton plantation where the Gullah Geechee people.

After the slaves were freed, they were each given 40 acres of land (some of which they had slaved on), and then later forced to return this land to the original plantation and slave owners. This had us moving out of the oppression of physical and emotional abuse to economic oppression of these now freed slaves.

One of the other stories we heard was of the slave children who had to make bricks for building. When these bricks were made, they needed to dry before they could be used. It was the turning of these bricks (which were 3x the weight of a regular brick because they were wet) that were the job of the children. All throughout the south and the U.S you can see finger impressions in the bricks of these slave children. It was quite depressing really, and a story we had never heard before.

On a high note, the trees on the property were just amazing. These pictures do not do them justice. They were HUGE

Next we decided to go for a late lunch/early dinner. One of the locals recommended Gillie’s Seafood.

Gillie’s story: Chef Sean Mendes wanted his guests to feel like they were dining at Grandma’s house…a place full of love, warmth, wisdom and a good meal for your soul! Their food is all made from scratch. We had Soul Rolls to start. These were deep fried egg rolls filled with collard greens, pulled pork, red rice and pimento cheese. Served with a side of Nunya sauce. We then followed with Catfish Charleston which was blackened catfish fillet topped with a shrimp and crawfish cream sauce and served over dirty rice. As well as the Seafood Puloo which was seasoned rice, shrimp, crawfish, oysters, okra, onions and smoked sausage. It was all good ! Here are the pictures:

The restaurant itself was no nonsense and had a whole wall dedicated to Chef’s grandma.

We then went back to the campground, which is fabulous, and did the Christmas light tour around the park. This is an annual event and they have over 700 light displays and over 2 million lights. I will post a few to give you an idea of what this looks like. It was fantastic.

Tomorrow we are off on a Gullah Geechee tour and lunch in Charleston. Stay tuned

Who would have thought that the lineup OFF of Hatteras and onto the ferry heading to Ocracoke would have more Canadians than Americans. We pulled up to find 7 vehicles in front of us all from Canada. In fact we thought they were all travelling together given everyone was out of their vehicles and talking to one another. So we joined them, only to discover that no one had met before and we had all just driven up to the ferry at the same time. Not sure where everyone had been staying as there are not that many places on the Island to park your RV. We represented, BC, Ontario, Quebec. Everyone seemed to be heading in different directions. We are heading south to Savannah, the rest to Florida/Arizona/Jacksonville NC/Texas. Kind of cool to meet up with others on their own journey.

Arriving on the Island of Ocracoke, the first stop was to see the wild ponies.

Ocracoke is a Island aprox. 16 miles long. At the other end of the Island is the town of Ocracoke where we had breakfast at a nice cafe. We also purchased amazing fresh fish/seafood at a local fishery.

We really liked Ocracoke but we were off again on a ferry back to the mainland and towards South Carolina

For those who don’t know about The Outer Banks, it is a sliver of land off South Eastern Virginia, and the East Coast of N Carolina. And by sliver, I mean a sliver of 200 miles of barrier Islands connected by bridges and ferry’s. The 100’s of shipwrecks along the Outer Banks have given the surrounding seas the nickname “The Graveyard of the Atlantic”.

The Wright Brothers took their first flight on Dec 17, 1903 at Kill Devil Hills. The memorial to Orville and Wilber is located in Kill Devil, not far from Kitty Hawk where we arrived to the Outer Banks over the Wright Memorial Bridge.

We are staying in Hatteras at the Hatteras Sands RV Park. I will say this place is crowded!……….with Canadian Geese. We are the ONLY ones here!

While we were already in Virginia on two different days last week, Alexandria and Arlington Cemetary, we really only felt that we arrived in Virginia when we saw the actual Welcome sign.

More war history abounds in the tri-cities of Williamsburg, Yorkton & Jamestown, which was the original capital of Virginia County in 1607. In 1699 the capital was relocated to Middle Plantation about 5 miles inland which was renamed Williamsburg in honour of England’s King William III. Famous political leaders emerged from the College of William and Mary, such as Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler . Today Williamsburg in known as the centre for the preservation and interpretation of American colonial history. Fittingly we stayed at the American Heritage RV Park. We extended our stay to two nights due to wind and rainy weather …a gift from Hurricane Nicole.

Here are pictures of our night tour of Washington. It was an incredible way to see the City. We felt we had the city to ourselves. We also felt very safe wandering around. The monuments we saw during the day look nothing like the spectacular views all lit up at night. This was a PERFECT ending to our stay in this great city!

Yesterday we decided to tour Arlington Cemetery, the African American Museum, and the Holocaust Museum. Heavy content for the most part.

Arlington Cemetery is 640 acres and is an “active” cemetery. Yesterday there were 24 funerals taking place. There are funerals daily except on Sundays and National holidays. Eligibility for in-ground burial at Arlington is the most stringent of all U.S national cemeteries. The only people allowed to be buried underground are military who have served at least 20 years and Presidents (if they choose to do so). However, most veterans who have at least 1 day of active service and an honourable discharge are eligible for above-ground inurnment.

The military being buried underground are ALL brought in on a military carriage with 4 solders (on their horses) and 3 other horses with no rider. Some funeral processions also had a military band leading the way. We heard a lot of gun salutes as well, so we believe they are all provided this. It was very moving. We got a couple of pics from further away as you are not allowed to take pictures of the funeral due to privacy. (Makes sense)

We saw the Tomb of the unknown soldier, which has been guarded 24/7, 365 days a year since 1948!! The soldiers guarding the Tomb are from the 3rd infantry regiment, “The Old Guard”. Guarding the Tomb is considered one of the highest honours. Fewer than 20% of all volunteers are accepted for training and of those only a fraction pass training to become full-fledged Tomb Guards.

Separate pics of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Guard. The Guard has a very specific march and tapping of the shoes, which was very cool. Last picture showing up blurry, sorry about that !

The African American museum was our next stop. It was by far the best museum in Washington in our opinion. There are three floors underground which we were unaware of, and these three floors were incredible. You go down to the last level and work your way slowly up to street level again (no stairs just a gentle slope). These three floors are the history of Slavery, starting at the beginning and ending present day. The above ground floors were dedicated to the accomplishments of Black Americans, like Oprah and the William’s sisters.

There was also a couple of rooms where you could go in individually and record your own story. We were glad they were there, and sad that so many people were sitting waiting to go in. We hope one day we can all live without discrimination and oppression.

Here are the pictures

And now the Holocaust Museum. When you arrive to go in, you are each encouraged to grab a “card”. Each card is the picture and story of someone who lived or died in the Holocaust. My individual had lived, Barb’s had not.

You then get to elevators, which are metal and ominous like going into a large furnace I suppose. When you get off the first picture you see is frankly shocking. We could not bring ourselves to take a picture of it, it was so horrific and sad, so we took a picture of the wall that just said Holocaust. The evolution of this time in history and the voices and stories you heard throughout the museum were sobering. It was really well done and would encourage a visit if you are so inclined to learn more.

I will add that there was one more place where we did not take pictures, as we did not go in. It was a room with a waterfall. This room was for individuals who are overcome with grief, emotion and need a place to recover. There are individuals throughout the museum to help such people to this place of peace.

BIG day for us, at the end we were drained, but so glad we experienced all that we saw. Tomorrow we do Washington at night!

Another RV challenge, but a challenge accepted!

Saturday in preparation of our departure to Alexandria we encountered a “loft malfunction”. There are two beds in this RV. One King in the back bedroom and one Queen loft bed above the drivers/passenger “cockpit”. This loft operates electronically by pushing either an up or down arrow which raises and lowers the bed. On Saturday when raising the bed for the day, the motor started struggling to the point of grinding to a halt. Then the motor no longer worked, period. Given we had a full day planned we resigned ourselves to fixing when we got home.

Coming home from a day in Alexandria we were too tired to “deal” with the issue, so I slept on the couch. Tomorrow will be a new day!

Sunday, got up had a great chat with our great friend ER (3 hours worth), took the fur babies for a walk and bumped into a fellow RVers, R&S from Minnesota, who told us about a night tour of Washington (which is now booked for Tuesday night!). SO with the day starting out with a bang, we decided we were in good shape to tackle the issue!.

What exactly happened? Well it seems that you CANNOT make a loft bed using a flat sheet where the bottom of the bed is on the drivers side of the RV. This is where, we now know, is where the motor and apparatus is to actually move and hold the bed in place safely while sleeping and driving. We had decided a few nights ago to “switch up” the way I was sleeping in the loft. You know, in stead of turning the mattress, why not turn oneself? Seems logical doesn’t it?

NO WHERE in the manual does it say, don’t use flat sheets, don’t have the foot of the bed on that side of the RV. WATCH for loose sheets, watch that nothing gets caught in the motor. ETC!

So, what happened is that we did change for the first time, how we made the bed by switching what was the foot. Day 3 which was the Alexandria morning, was I guess when the flat sheet became loose and it along with the fitted (being nicely pulled in with it) got wrapped up around the metal rod and in between the straps that maneuver the bed up and down and hold it. As this was happening the motor was struggling. I could hear it slowing down, but of course didn’t understand why. And then………it just stopped.

Barb was talking to JL back home and he said that it sounded like something got caught in the motor. Which we discovered was correct when we were trying to remove the sheets for the couch for me to sleep on.

NOW HOW to fix! Before I even get there I do want to point out to all of you, if you were not already aware,, that we ARE BRILLIANT!

We first looked at how bad the carnage was in the mechanisms. We determined that we could not unwrap the sheets ourselves, we determined that we needed the bed to roll down and in turn “unroll” the sheets from the mechanics, and we determined we needed to first get the motor working again.

Step 1: check fuse box for fuse specific to the loft bed. Checked and there is one

Step 2: check to make sure we have 2 of the correct fuses, in case we blow another one, if indeed this was an issue. Checked and we had 2 extra

Step 3: change fuse. Done

Step 4: test if this worked by quickly hitting the down button on the motor to see if we did indeed blow a fuse. Which we did and it WORKED!

Step 5: with Lori holding the sheets up to allow for no slack, and Barb maneuvering the controls, SLOWLY lower the bed

Step 6: once comfortable that this approach is working, move the bed all the way down and RELEASE THE SHEETS !

END RESULT???? See for yourself the progress.

I don’t know where to start as the City of Washington DC is just incredible !!! There is SO much to see! These three days had us touring around with Barb’s 3 friends LP, JM & SP all from Ontario. We did the Hop on Hop off, which frankly is a must do in any city. Then we toured the Memorials, which were amazing. We all had our favourites. We toured the Spy Museum which was eye opening to say the least. We were lucky enough to do the King Tut immersive tour at the National Geographic Museum. We had lunch at The Wharf and in Georgetown, as well as Alexandria. In Alexandria we toured the Torpedo art collective and walked down some historic streets getting a great picture of the skinniest home in the U.S. I will try and get as many pictures uploaded into the Gallery as I can, as well as highlight below with captions of what they are. What we can say is we had such a wonderful time with the ladies, in fact there is now talk about them meeting us in Nashville at the end of March! Woo Hoo !

Barb & I hopped on the bus this morning from our campsite, into Washington. There was a nice young lady on the bus that helped us get off at the right stop. In fact our stop was her stop, go figure.

We then got on the subway line. People watching is fascinating and I will mention one man (who may have been on drugs but who am I to judge) who happened to drop a piece of mail on the floor of the subway car we were on. I mention this as it comes up again in this story.

We got off at our stop and headed off. We wanted to first go into the Air and Space museum but it was a timed entry so we got tickets for a 1pm visit. (Free museum) Having some time on our hands, we got a warm pretzel and headed off to the American Indian Museum. It was interesting as it showed the Indian from many perspectives and from all around the world. Canada was well represented. It took us a couple of hours to go through but well worth it.

Next we went to the Air and Space museum, which is the most visited museum in Washington. It was OK, and frankly we were a little let down with all the hype only to find out that more than 1/2 the museum was under construction so we couldn’t see it. Explains why it only took us an hour vs the 3 hours suggested. We did see a couple of movies in the planetarium that were good, so not all was lost. Below are some pics

We then made it back to the Metro using a different entrance, which was frankly WAY easier to get to our train. Train arrived and we hopped on. It was quite crowded, much different from mid morning. Once the train thinned out, I notice a piece of mail on the floor. We were on the exact same train car, sitting just one row behind where we had sat earlier in the day.

We then got on the bus (after a long wait at the stop) and who gets on in front of us?? The young woman who helped us in the morning. What are the odds??

Tomorrow is Museum of Natural History and maybe the Whitehouse! Wonder what coincidences we will encounter today.

Well you can do a lot of play on words with Sheetz ! In this case it is a large gas station franchise, and currently our favourite.

Sheetz has very high covered gas pumps, important when driving a rig that is tall. It also has a restaurant inside with ”made to order” items. Hamburgers/wraps/sandwiches/hot/cold, you name it. In fact the menu to build your wrap for instance is so extensive it is a little overwhelming, but well worth it!

Gas prices?? We are currently paying 3.99 a gallon which equates to 1.13 Canadian. We are experiencing $1 – $1.10 on average per litre down here which is fabulous considering what we pay back home. Toronto currently 1.90 per litre. Even with the exchange we are coming out on top. Fabulous!