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Saturday, September 11, 2010

Vacation Update!

Hello, everyone!  I wanted to update you on my 2-week vacation that has now turned into a 3-week vacation, which I'm still on!  I was supposed to be home in Mount Juliet tonight, but our truck broke down two days ago.  We had to drive it to a Dodge dealership for repairs yesterday, with it spewing antifreeze all over the engine.  Of course, on a Friday afternoon, there's no chance of them getting to it, but they did order the parts they needed, and they will hopefully be in on Monday morning!  If so, they should have it fixed by Monday afternoon, and we'll be on the road, headed to Kentucky.  Mike has to be at work no later than Wednesday morning at the hospital in Kentucky.  So we'll be going straight there from here.  We had to rent a car, and it looks so small next to the big trailer here in the campground in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.  We went for a ride this afternoon to the Mucheax National Forest, and we found the most beautiful campground, much nicer than the one we are in.  Next time we'll be staying there!
Too big to tow!

On the third day of the trip, we were still at the Putuxant NAS, and we drove up to Washington, DC.  I've never been there, and Mike was about 16 when he was there.  That was a long time ago, so he must really be old!  I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, but it wasn't anything like what we experienced in WDC!  There was so much road construction, and roads that were closed off because they came to close to the Capital Building.  People were walking everywhere, and there were beautiful statues, buildings and museums to see!  We couldn't find anywhere to park except for a 2-hour parking meter, and a quarter gave you 9 minutes, a dime 4 minutes, and a nickel 2 minutes.  We only had enough change for an hour and twenty minutes.  We fed the meter everything we had!  We knew we couldn't go through even one of the Smithsonian museums in that time, and Mike would have had to get change somewhere, and keep running back out to the meter, which was about a city block away.  He went back to put more change in it, and I waited on the steps to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.  I had foot surgery a couple of months ago, and could only wear flip-flops, so I needed to sit for a minute.  Instead of putting more change in, he drove up to the curb, and waved me to the truck.  A guy told him where a parking garage was.  Well, the garage wasn't where the guy said it was, and we asked two more people where it was.  We finally found it, and drove in.  The maximum height of vehicles capable of going into the garage was 6 ft. 6 inches.  Our truck is 6 ft. 2 inches.  There was only 4" of leeway between the ceiling, pipes & fire sprinklers and the roof - when we drove in, it sure looked like we were going to hit!  Well, he did hit a post inside the garage, which flipped the right side mirror towards the door!  Luckily, it is made to do that, just for that purpose.  It scared me though because I wasn't expecting the bang, and it was right at my window!  A garage attendant directed us to a place to park temporarily, and he would move the truck later to a different location in the garage.  We parked behind some cars, which blocked them in, so if the owners came back and wanted to leave, they couldn't!  WHY?  Because someone left the keys in the ignition like the attendant asked, then one of us (and it wasn't me!) hit the lock button and shut the door.   We were both swearing it wasn't ourselves that did it, and the attendant just shook his head.  We called a "rescue" tow company and they sent a guy out in about 45 minutes to unlock the door using his special door-unlocking tools.  While waiting for him to show up, we went upstairs in the air-conditioned elevator and found a little French Bistro where we got a very good lunch.  We took it back down to the stifling heat of the garage.  The big fans didn't help much and it was record heat that day.  $80 later, we were finally in the museum, cooling off, and enjoying the space shuttle.  See the guy in the red shirt?  He's the door locker! 
Door locker!
After the museum, we drove around "the mall" and saw many of the beautiful buildings, the Pentagon, the Washington Monument, and others.  It was very neat to see, and yet at the same time, was so very busy, and crowded, and confusing.  We drove back to Pax NAS to the campground and made dinner. 

So that's now Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC we had been in.  We're now in Pennsylvania, and will go through West Virginia on our way to Kentucky.

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About Me

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Mount Juliet, TN, United States
I am a child of God, wife, mother of three, and gramma of six. I enjoy stamping, scrapbooking, beading, photography, sewing, camping, fishing, hiking and life! I am a retired dog groomer. Denver, Colorado, is where I was born and raised. I miss the snow and drier weather.


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