Day 18 and 19 Video Washington DC

Day 19 Smithsonian

 We left camp in Maryland early and headed in to Washington, DC, leaving Lucy, the RV at camp and going in in the van.  It was going to be a very hot day, 110 degrees factoring in the humidity.  We will be in the museums today, with air conditioning!

 We split up into 2 groups and started exploring.  The kids especially enjoyed the Museum of Natural History!

 Timmy and the dinosaur having a little chat.













There were surprises around every corner.

And the sculpture garden is always interesting.

Day 18 Video Washington DC

Day 17 Video Manasas, VA and Mt. Vernon

Mt Vernon!

Days 15 & 16 Video Williamsburg, VA

Day 16 Williamsburg, VA

A Day at Coloial Williamsburg

The Govenor's Palace

The "Green" in front of the Govenor's Palace

A house along the Main Street

The Stocks:  After checking it out Ben got a kick out of seeing brother Luke in the stocks!

The Govenor's wife on a shopping trip

And the Govenor accompanying her

Lunch like in the old days! - Turkey legs

Not crossed swords, but crossed turkey legs!

 And the Govenor accompanying her.

Colonial transportaiton

A shop keeper

Parliment Building

Day 14 Video Gaffney, GA to Falls Lake, NC

Day 13 Slice of America 2 video

DAY 13 - Chewacla Park, AL to Gaffney KOA, GA

This was a drive day.  We woke up and headed off from Alabama to Georgia.  We made a stop in Union City, Georgia

It felt like home :-)  (Grandma's note: that is because Cathy is from Union City, California so "Union City", GA made them think of home!)

 We asked a man at a gas station where we could find some Georgia peaches....one of our followers got us all hepped up for them so our quest was to find some!  The man asked his dad and they directed us off to the farmer's market down the road. 

  Mmmm good stuff.

 And did we hit the produce jackpot!

 And see!  We found our peaches!

Grandma's note:  It just so happened this was our 50th anniversary.  My dear hubby had arranged for Cathy to get flowers on his behalf and present them to me,   Unfortunately we didn't have a pretty vase for them though.

Somewhere along here we lost Lucy's gas cap.  After we bought a new one I came up with this idea to avoid loosing another one.  VALCRO!  One on the cap and one on the side of the tank...it worked, didn't loose another one!

  Once we arrived at Gaffney KOA, GA, we heard a lot of thunder and asked the manager  if it was going to rain. He said "Oh no, only 20% chance and it always rained over on that side and misses us."  About 15 minutes later...yup, a major downpour.  2 Inches of rain in an hour.  We all hunkered down in Lucy and watch our trip videos and ate dinner...that was fun.

Then it was over and there was a beautiful sunset!

Day 12 Slice of America 2 video

DAY 12 - Shepard St Pk, MS to Chewacla ST PK, AL

Mississippi 

Before leaving Shepard State Park this morning we checked on the Tropical Cyclone Debbie

 to see if it was coming our way or not.  It was!  and we didn't even have hot dogs!  We decided to still go into Florida's Pensicola Beach anyway, but just for an hour.  The waves were really big and strong!  

The kids had fun in the sand and the water. 

We then left and headed up towards Alabama to Chewacla State Park where we camped for the night.

Day 11 Slice of America 2 video

DAY 11 - Sam H.Jones park, LA to Shepard Pk , M

Today we thought we would be spontaneous!  We decided to dip down to New Orleans but before we did that we stopped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a Cajun lunch!

 We stopped off at a wonderful restaurant and had Cajun food.  Mmmm, that was really good.  Luke loved the alligator he ate.  And Grandma's Turtle soup was great!

We then headed to New Orleans to experience the city.

  The outer edges had a lot of boarded up houses, possibly from Hurricane Katrina.  But the area of Bourbon Street was fun!- a lot like Berkeley and Castro District of SF.  We ate Beignets at the famous Cafe Du Monte while enjoying live Orleans Jazz!  Mmmmm

  We finished off the day with the treat of getting to see the 

Worlds Largest Rocking Chair in Gulfport, Mississippi!

George and Lucy!

Day 10 Slice of America 2 video

DAY 10 NASA DAY!

Day 10
 

We packed up and left Brazos Bend State Park with out getting to have a really good look at the park.  That was a bummer, but considering it was known for it's alligators, I was kind of glad to leave without Tim becoming an alligator snack.  

We headed off for Houston, Tx.

We were treated with a real surprise, the Explorer Space Shuttle was being installed at the Johnson Space Center.  It was incredible to be so close.  

In case the need of rescue arises...

Unfortunately at this point, Timothy slipped in some mud and twisted his ankle.  Thank God I had decided to buy a cheap umbrella stroller, "just in case".  It came in real handy.  The people in Texas have been so nice, especially at the Space Center.  They really took good care of helping out Timothy.  Texas gets a big thumbs up! 

 NASA Control Center (the original one)

Grandma's note:  For us older folk that remember the earlier days of space travel,  this is the Command Center where Kris Kraft and his crew monitored all the actions while we watched over his shoulder on TV.

 We took a tram out to see the rockets!

This is a Saturn V rocket and its various stages housed in this HUGE building.

The whole thing from top on down.

This is where the first and second stages connected. There are several stages.

 These are the booster rockets.  Compare them to the size of the people below them!


The space center was really cool.  We were only scheduled to stay for 3 hours but we just couldn't leave so we stayed for 5!

We have to get to our campground so we got back on the road and headed off for an important piece of Americana...

The World's Largest Fire Hydrant!

  We were surprised with a 9-11 memorial  for the fire fighters that had pieces of the rumble in it.  Very touching.  

Since we were now really behind schedule we decided to go out for a Texan BBQ.  Mmmm!

  We got into our camp site rather late, but the morning revealed the beauty of 
Sam Houston Jones State Park, LA

   and just few feet from our camp sight was the Bayou!.  It was incredible!  So beautiful!