Tuesday, 9 June (Capitol KOA to Philadelphia]West Chester KOA): We left the Capitol KOA a bit after 8am and along the way to the Philadelphia /West Chester KOA (93 miles), we called the Herrs Snack Food Factory to schedule a tour at 10am. The tour was pretty neat, informative, and free. They make a variety of chips, pretzels, nachos, and popcorn, but only distribute as far south as North Carolina. Near the end of the tour, we all go to try some ruffle-type chips right out of the overn… yum! They also gave us a free bag. It was a great [View Full Entry]

---

---

Monday, 8 June (D.C. Day 2): Again, we took the KOA shuttle into D.C., although it left a bit late this time. The first thing we did was to see about a tour of the Capitol Building. We were having difficulty locating the ticket office when a guy pulled up in a big golf cart with 3 bench seats. After telling him what we were looking for, he told us to climb aboard and he’d take his there. Cool! Unfortunately, when we go there, the line for “walk ups” was quite long. I guess we should have made reservations somehow, maybe [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sunday, 7 June: We woke up in plenty of time for our shuttle, so after the morning necessities, we were on our way to our first day of touring Washington D.C. There were about 12 other KOA folks on the shuttle. We arrived at our drop off point near the Capitol Building and decided to look for coffee before boarding the Tourmobile, but ended up touring the Museum of the American Indian for almost two hours. The place was quite fascinating, to the point that we had to drag ourselves away so we could see other sights. I did get my [View Full Entry]

---

---

Saturday, 6 June After a leisurely packing up in the morning, we left the Virginia Beach KOA headed towards D.C. and the Capitol KOA in Millersville, Maryland, about 215 miles and 3 or 4 hours driving. Along the way, we continued to find eccentric glitches in the GPS program, Street Atlas 2009, where it would either fail to tell us North or South for an upcoming highway change, or lose track of where we were, showing our car driving thru an empty meadow and telling us to turn back, or something equally strange. In spite of the horrendous traffic in and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Friday, 5 June We got up a bit late since it was raining, then took showers and headed to the beach. Parking was a bit of a problem, since this early in the season some of the lots were closed and those that weren't wanted $5.00 for any amount of time. We finally located some metered spots around 23rd Street where you pay 25 cents for 15 minutes. We strolled along the beach for about an hour and a half. Virginia Beach is much more commercialized than Pensacola Beach, with high-rise hotels, souvenir shops, and restaurants everywhere. They do however have [View Full Entry]

---

---

Thursday, 4 June We checked out of the Cherokee KOA around 8am and headed for Virginia Beach. Overall, the Cherokee KOA was well-equiped, clean, and the staff weren't unfriendly, but it was a bit desolate, the WiFi mixup was annoying and coffee isn't free anymore. I'd give it a 7 or 8 overall. The first part of our 8 hour trip was on a very steep, winding, narrow road, with downhill grades up to 9 percent with runaway truck ramps. Once we reached Maggie Valley, the auto speed limit was 55 but for trucks only 35! The rest of the trip [View Full Entry]

---

---

Wednesday, 3 June: We left Serena's around 8:30am, heading for Mason's Mine, near Franklin, N.C. After about 3 hours of driving mostly on small roads, we arrived atg Mason's Ruby & Saphire Mine. I believe this is the only place where you can still dig your own dirt and isn't "seeded". They maintain a board listing all stones found there over 10 carats. There were already quite a few this year, and two were added that day. Unfortunately, neither of them were mine or Manoli's. We spent about 5 hours there and had a good time. It didn't rain and it [View Full Entry]

---

---

Tanya took me to the Greyhound Bus station in Pensacola. When I found out the station itself wasn't even open, I should have known I was in for a weird trip to Greenville, SC. Leaviing at 6:40pm, I arrived in Mobile to await my bus to Atlanta... at 11:35pm! At least this bus station was open, even the snack bar... all night! At this point, I started to discover the, shall we say variety of people that use Greyhound. All ages, sexes, and races, with a larger than normal dose of weird. Between a lady that chatted with me, then asked [View Full Entry]

---

---

Monday, 1 June: My wife and I don't start our real vacation until Wednesday, so I have two days with my grandson Justing, my daughter Serena, and my son-in-law Jeremy. Somehow on the way up from Pensacola, a rather large crack showed up in the Jeep's windshield. After getting the windshield replaced, everyone but Jeremy, who had to work, went to the Greenville Zoo for the day. Although the zoo is fairly small, it did have a nice assortment of animals, including elephants, giraffes, and lions. The place was well-maintained and nicely laid out. After a couple of hours wandering around [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a couple days of rest and meeting family, we went to watch a bullfight in San Lucar de Barrameda, near Chipiona. I had never been to one, so I was anxious to see what it was like. Tickets were a bit more expensive than we expected, at 35 Euros each... for almost the cheapest seats. After a brief wait, during which we watched the horses and bull out back, and move further from the band that was right behind us, it began. First an announcer came out to announce the fight and introduce the judge (I think), then the three [View Full Entry]

---

---