We managed to negotiate the 5 O’clock traffic around Washington DC and out to our campsite in West Virginia without too many dramas. Biggest problem was finding the camp. We discovered that the road we had been told to take just 2 hours before was closed and a detour was in place. 
Nothing a few extra miles and a bit of back tracking didn’t fix. We had booked into a basic site but discovered we had electricity and since it was sooooooo muggy we plugged in and let out air con unit do its thing.
The next day we decided to take the bike into DC just to have a look around and get the lay of the land before we made our big assault using the metro which was 10 miles from the camp. Made a slight navigational error which, with a bit of help from a Harley rider, was soon rectified and 40 minutes later we were parked in “The Mall”. This is a huge park like area from which you can walk to all the major tourist attractions like The White House, Capital Hill, and Jefferson
Memorial etc. And the parking was free and plentiful. We decided then that we would not need to use the metro to travel on but could easily use the bike.
We started off by going to The Washington Monument. A huge spire that you can go by elevator to the top for spectacular views. It is free to do but you have to get a timed ticket and all tickets had been issued when we got there so it was not to be. Next stop the White House. You can’t get too close to this and it was nothing fantastic really. Sat and had an ice cream and a drink under a much appreciated oak tree. It was bloody hot. By the end of the day I was wishing that the camera would take out red face rather than red eye.
Refreshed we headed to the Lincoln Memorial and the Pool of Reflection. Bought back memories of the Forest Gump movie. We climbed the stairs to the top and had a look at that famous statue of Abe Lincoln in his huge chair, then sat at the top of the stairs and just enjoyed the view down to Capitol Hill, people watched and melted in the heat. We walked back to the bike and then rode down to Capitol Hill. Again parking was not a problem. Strolled around here for a while then ducked into the Botanical gardens for half an hour before they closed. That finished me off. My already red face became redder and I felt drenched – even the security guard laughed at me as we left. So we didn’t do justice to the gardens it was just too damm hot. We headed back to camp and our air conditioned abode. The days high humidity produced an awesome storm that night.
Day two saw us head to the Smithsonian. This is a huge museum. It was originally created in the 1800’s when an Englishman died and
left his estate to the US to create a free 
museum for the people. It has expanded considerably since then and apparently only about 3% of what they have is ever displayed at one time. We started in the Air and Space section. We spent 5 hours here and never saw it all. We went inside a space orbital workstation. The astronauts don’t have a lot of room in those things. There were rockets, satellites, planes and more on display and they have another museum a little out of town that has the bigger planes in it like a Concord and a Galaxy. We went to an I Max movie there as we had never been to an I Max before and both thought it was a bit ho hum and nothing to rave over.
When that closed we hopped across to the Natural History Museum and spent the next couple of hours there. First stop was the mineral and gem area. Got to have a look at the Hope and Tiffany Diamonds plus numerous other stunning pieces of rock.
Just made it to the American Animal section and saw the elusive Moose display before it closed. It looked like rain as we headed for home but Marty assured me it wouldn’t so we stopped off to grab a pizza for tea. As we left the shop the first blobs of rain start 
to fall. Luckily I had got the guy to put the pizza in a plastic bag as within 2 minutes we were absolutely saturated but the pizza stayed perfectly dry and therefore quite edible when we eventually made it home.
We had a rest from the city next day and just puttered around the area. The camp was situated on the Potomac River but again you can’t swim in it. They did have a huge pool but they were having a bring your dog for a swim in the pool day so we didn’t fancy joining in with that.
Hit the Natural Museum again. I really enjoyed the fossil section and could have easily have spent the whole day there but we had to move along. The dinosaur section was great too. They had the skeleton of a prehistoric fish that had the skeleton of another whole fish inside it.
Scientists concluded that it died shortly after eating or swallowing this meal. If you look closely at the picture you maybe able to see it. Marty was very disappointed not to find a section tracing the evolution of Man. The day disappeared so fast that we never got to any other sites. We got caught in the 5 o’clock traffic leaving the city and I made one small navigation call which sent us in totally the wrong direction but did take us passed Arlington Cemetery where JFK is buried. The gold statues at the entrance were quite impressive but that was as close as I got to going in. I think it is a good thing we don’t have inter com on the bike!!
We enjoyed DC but felt like we had done enough for this visit and needed to move on so had a look at the map and the State Park at Point Lookout on the western side of Chesapeake Bay looked inviting so we headed there. We booked in for one night but ended up staying 4. When Marty rode down to the office to book the extra nights he got pulled up by the park police for not wearing a helmet. $100 fine but when he saw Marty’s NZ license he put his book away and just spoke to him instead. Another lucky escape. Just shows you can’t rely on Harley riders for info as Marty had asked a park employee - Harley owner if it was ok to ride in the park without a helmet and he said it was. Our 2nd camp site was by the water where we could sit and watch Osprey diving for fish and offer ourselves as mosquito bait at the same time. There was a nice swimming beach a couple of miles from our camp which we could use and offer ourselves to the hundreds of blue bottle and numerous other types of jellyfish that occupied the water. I was tempted a couple of times to get in but one look at the numerous mossie bites I 
had already collected made me realize I didn’t really want to add jellyfish stings to them. We went to the fishing pier most nights and chatted to the many people fishing there. Most have a two hour drive each way and one guy does it everyday. During the day there were lots of people crabbing on the smaller jetties with little success. Only the small crabs were foolish enough to climb aboard the chicken necks and be caught.
The area that is now the park was a military strong hold during the Civil War. There were 3 forts here plus a huge POW camp and hospital. Only the moat walls of one fort remain. There is also a lighthouse which is supposedly haunted with the tormented souls of confederate soldiers who died in the camp. It was open one day so we went and had a look. We never saw any ghostly apparitions but when I opened the door into the attic it felt quite busy and reminded me of the movie Beetlejuice so I shut the door and let them get on with what ever it was they were doing. Outside I walked down to the water to watch the pelicans fishing while Marty went into some old derelict buildings that used to be used for making bouys. I gave up the pelican watch when I became live bait for a flock of ferocious biting flies. This camp has everything for the wild life enthusiast!!
I rode my bike to the lighthouse most mornings and the only things on the rode were me, a couple of park rangers and lots of deer. It was magic. Speaking of my bike I discovered that the front brakes work really well after Marty adjusted them. One morning while Marty was on the jetty watching the crabbers I decided to take the rubbish down to the bin. As I turned into the road leading to the bins I remembered that one had an open top so I decided that I could ride past, throw the rubbish in and keep going. About 10 meters away I realized I had the rubbish in the wrong hand so I started swapping it over and then realized I was going to fast to be able to throw it in so I gently applied the front brake which immediately turned the bike into a bucking bronco and threw me over the handlebars onto the road. Luckily the rubbish bag didn’t burst open and I protected the bike by landing first so apart from me sustaining some quite colourful bruising on my legs and a small rip in my bike seat no major damage was done. I got no sympathy from Marty just a “ I wondered how long it would be before that happened” and I’m sure I heard laughter!!
On our last morning there I was out biking at 7am in the morning and the cars were queued up 15 -20 deep at the gate to get in. (you have to pay to use the park). When we pulled out at 11am the park was full, the line of cars coming in was longer and they were all being turned away by the rangers. Imagine if you have just driven 2 hours to come and do a bit of fishing and you get told on your bike sunshine we’re full’’. I would not be happy.
We headed towards North Carolina. As it was labour Day weekend we couldn’t get into the park we wanted at Virginia Beach and by the time we reached the Welcome Centre at Dismal Swamp just inside the North Carolina State Line it was 7pm, we were barely speaking due to the fact that they don’t produce maps with big enough print and I had somehow missed a couple of minor/major turns on the motorway which had added the odd mile or two to the journey.
We parked up for the night in the carpark, had a wee walk by the canal, a coffee and a bite to eat and we were friends again and after a good nights sleep we would be ready to enjoy North Carolina.
(Note: I can sometimes do the navigation thing really well but that makes quite boring writing so please remember that, and that I’m not always a handicap for the driver)
Nothing a few extra miles and a bit of back tracking didn’t fix. We had booked into a basic site but discovered we had electricity and since it was sooooooo muggy we plugged in and let out air con unit do its thing.The next day we decided to take the bike into DC just to have a look around and get the lay of the land before we made our big assault using the metro which was 10 miles from the camp. Made a slight navigational error which, with a bit of help from a Harley rider, was soon rectified and 40 minutes later we were parked in “The Mall”. This is a huge park like area from which you can walk to all the major tourist attractions like The White House, Capital Hill, and Jefferson
Memorial etc. And the parking was free and plentiful. We decided then that we would not need to use the metro to travel on but could easily use the bike.We started off by going to The Washington Monument. A huge spire that you can go by elevator to the top for spectacular views. It is free to do but you have to get a timed ticket and all tickets had been issued when we got there so it was not to be. Next stop the White House. You can’t get too close to this and it was nothing fantastic really. Sat and had an ice cream and a drink under a much appreciated oak tree. It was bloody hot. By the end of the day I was wishing that the camera would take out red face rather than red eye.
Refreshed we headed to the Lincoln Memorial and the Pool of Reflection. Bought back memories of the Forest Gump movie. We climbed the stairs to the top and had a look at that famous statue of Abe Lincoln in his huge chair, then sat at the top of the stairs and just enjoyed the view down to Capitol Hill, people watched and melted in the heat. We walked back to the bike and then rode down to Capitol Hill. Again parking was not a problem. Strolled around here for a while then ducked into the Botanical gardens for half an hour before they closed. That finished me off. My already red face became redder and I felt drenched – even the security guard laughed at me as we left. So we didn’t do justice to the gardens it was just too damm hot. We headed back to camp and our air conditioned abode. The days high humidity produced an awesome storm that night.Day two saw us head to the Smithsonian. This is a huge museum. It was originally created in the 1800’s when an Englishman died and
left his estate to the US to create a free 
museum for the people. It has expanded considerably since then and apparently only about 3% of what they have is ever displayed at one time. We started in the Air and Space section. We spent 5 hours here and never saw it all. We went inside a space orbital workstation. The astronauts don’t have a lot of room in those things. There were rockets, satellites, planes and more on display and they have another museum a little out of town that has the bigger planes in it like a Concord and a Galaxy. We went to an I Max movie there as we had never been to an I Max before and both thought it was a bit ho hum and nothing to rave over.When that closed we hopped across to the Natural History Museum and spent the next couple of hours there. First stop was the mineral and gem area. Got to have a look at the Hope and Tiffany Diamonds plus numerous other stunning pieces of rock.
Just made it to the American Animal section and saw the elusive Moose display before it closed. It looked like rain as we headed for home but Marty assured me it wouldn’t so we stopped off to grab a pizza for tea. As we left the shop the first blobs of rain start 
to fall. Luckily I had got the guy to put the pizza in a plastic bag as within 2 minutes we were absolutely saturated but the pizza stayed perfectly dry and therefore quite edible when we eventually made it home.
We had a rest from the city next day and just puttered around the area. The camp was situated on the Potomac River but again you can’t swim in it. They did have a huge pool but they were having a bring your dog for a swim in the pool day so we didn’t fancy joining in with that.Hit the Natural Museum again. I really enjoyed the fossil section and could have easily have spent the whole day there but we had to move along. The dinosaur section was great too. They had the skeleton of a prehistoric fish that had the skeleton of another whole fish inside it.
Scientists concluded that it died shortly after eating or swallowing this meal. If you look closely at the picture you maybe able to see it. Marty was very disappointed not to find a section tracing the evolution of Man. The day disappeared so fast that we never got to any other sites. We got caught in the 5 o’clock traffic leaving the city and I made one small navigation call which sent us in totally the wrong direction but did take us passed Arlington Cemetery where JFK is buried. The gold statues at the entrance were quite impressive but that was as close as I got to going in. I think it is a good thing we don’t have inter com on the bike!!
We enjoyed DC but felt like we had done enough for this visit and needed to move on so had a look at the map and the State Park at Point Lookout on the western side of Chesapeake Bay looked inviting so we headed there. We booked in for one night but ended up staying 4. When Marty rode down to the office to book the extra nights he got pulled up by the park police for not wearing a helmet. $100 fine but when he saw Marty’s NZ license he put his book away and just spoke to him instead. Another lucky escape. Just shows you can’t rely on Harley riders for info as Marty had asked a park employee - Harley owner if it was ok to ride in the park without a helmet and he said it was. Our 2nd camp site was by the water where we could sit and watch Osprey diving for fish and offer ourselves as mosquito bait at the same time. There was a nice swimming beach a couple of miles from our camp which we could use and offer ourselves to the hundreds of blue bottle and numerous other types of jellyfish that occupied the water. I was tempted a couple of times to get in but one look at the numerous mossie bites I 
had already collected made me realize I didn’t really want to add jellyfish stings to them. We went to the fishing pier most nights and chatted to the many people fishing there. Most have a two hour drive each way and one guy does it everyday. During the day there were lots of people crabbing on the smaller jetties with little success. Only the small crabs were foolish enough to climb aboard the chicken necks and be caught.The area that is now the park was a military strong hold during the Civil War. There were 3 forts here plus a huge POW camp and hospital. Only the moat walls of one fort remain. There is also a lighthouse which is supposedly haunted with the tormented souls of confederate soldiers who died in the camp. It was open one day so we went and had a look. We never saw any ghostly apparitions but when I opened the door into the attic it felt quite busy and reminded me of the movie Beetlejuice so I shut the door and let them get on with what ever it was they were doing. Outside I walked down to the water to watch the pelicans fishing while Marty went into some old derelict buildings that used to be used for making bouys. I gave up the pelican watch when I became live bait for a flock of ferocious biting flies. This camp has everything for the wild life enthusiast!!
I rode my bike to the lighthouse most mornings and the only things on the rode were me, a couple of park rangers and lots of deer. It was magic. Speaking of my bike I discovered that the front brakes work really well after Marty adjusted them. One morning while Marty was on the jetty watching the crabbers I decided to take the rubbish down to the bin. As I turned into the road leading to the bins I remembered that one had an open top so I decided that I could ride past, throw the rubbish in and keep going. About 10 meters away I realized I had the rubbish in the wrong hand so I started swapping it over and then realized I was going to fast to be able to throw it in so I gently applied the front brake which immediately turned the bike into a bucking bronco and threw me over the handlebars onto the road. Luckily the rubbish bag didn’t burst open and I protected the bike by landing first so apart from me sustaining some quite colourful bruising on my legs and a small rip in my bike seat no major damage was done. I got no sympathy from Marty just a “ I wondered how long it would be before that happened” and I’m sure I heard laughter!!On our last morning there I was out biking at 7am in the morning and the cars were queued up 15 -20 deep at the gate to get in. (you have to pay to use the park). When we pulled out at 11am the park was full, the line of cars coming in was longer and they were all being turned away by the rangers. Imagine if you have just driven 2 hours to come and do a bit of fishing and you get told on your bike sunshine we’re full’’. I would not be happy.
We headed towards North Carolina. As it was labour Day weekend we couldn’t get into the park we wanted at Virginia Beach and by the time we reached the Welcome Centre at Dismal Swamp just inside the North Carolina State Line it was 7pm, we were barely speaking due to the fact that they don’t produce maps with big enough print and I had somehow missed a couple of minor/major turns on the motorway which had added the odd mile or two to the journey.
We parked up for the night in the carpark, had a wee walk by the canal, a coffee and a bite to eat and we were friends again and after a good nights sleep we would be ready to enjoy North Carolina.
(Note: I can sometimes do the navigation thing really well but that makes quite boring writing so please remember that, and that I’m not always a handicap for the driver)
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