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Published: July 12th 2006
Jeff & Shelly at the Capitol
We detoured to D.C. for the Fourth of July, where we are pictured here that evening in front of the Capitol Dome. 400,000 people were estimated to be on the Mall for the fireworks show that night.
Marshall, N.C. - Washington, D.C.
12,339 miles to date
1,483 miles this leg Because we could, we routed our trip to Washington, D.C., for the Fourth of July.
This was Jeff’s first visit to the nation’s capital; I had made many trips there while in college, but hadn’t visited since 1998. Our first encounter with the city core was after dark on the third of July; our hosts took us on a “lighted monument” tour that included the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the new World War II Memorial (the most rococo of them all, with a showy fountain in the center).
We were privileged to spend the Fourth with longtime friend Angela (she and I were “bosom friends” in 4th grade, when we both were living with our families in Bolivia) and her boyfriend David. David owns a townhouse in Vienna. Va., at the western end of the subway line, where we could not only stay, but could also park Matilda in a safe place and go car-less for two nights in downtown D.C.
Angela and David are both working temporary, but by
Fireworks on the Fourth
Fireworks fizz behind the Washington Monument, from where we watched near the Capitol Building. their standards lucrative, jobs in D.C.’s strong legal sector. As a paralegal, Angela’s fluent Spanish is an asset, as she is currently sifting through documents in an Ecuadorian government suit against her firm’s client, an American oil company. David is an attorney employed directly by an American oil company that has been warned by the U.S. Department of Justice it had better investigate its own affairs or the department would be stepping in to do so. Having previously worked for a big law firm, David says he loves working for an hourly wage, getting paid overtime, occasionally traveling overseas for the job, and having the flexibility to take time off (or quit) whenever he wants to. In fact, he and Angela headed off on a whirlwind driving tour of New England on the fifth, and we moved on to visit friends who live right in the heart of D.C.
Marnie and David live 10 blocks from the Mall and 5 blocks from the White House and paid $30,000(!) for one underground parking space beneath their one-bedroom condo (which Matilda wouldn’t have fit into). Parking tempting vehicles overnight on most D.C. streets is not recommended, which is why we left
Base of Washington Monument
Angela, David and Jeff at the base of the Washington Monument. This is one big obelisk! Matilda in Vienna when we visited this lovely couple.
Marnie is my Smith College classmate and fellow glee clubber. She was an art history major but has shifted careers and is currently in
nursing school at Georgetown University. Husband David is a journalist and currently co-editor of Greenwire, a weekly e-publication that covers energy and the environment as they relate to policies being made at the federal level. Greenwire is accessed by subscription only, but you can link
here to view some of the other offerings of David’s company, including E&ETV. Marnie and David are avid travelers (we saw pix from their recent trip to New Zealand and Tahiti) and have visited us in Port Townsend, so it was great to return the favor. We slept comfortably on an air mattress in their living room and enjoyed eating dinners of Chinese takeout and farmer’s market-fresh salad, plus viewing the taped match of France beating Portugal to advance to the World Cup finals. We’ll try to find a venue where we can watch the title match this Sunday.
The Fourth of July dawned hot and muggy (we’re talking 95 degrees with 50 percent humidity), but a severe thunderstorm that hit
David & Angela
David and Angela (Shelly's best friend from fourth grade in Bolivia) treated us to an after-dark tour of the DC monuments. Here we are at the Lincoln Memorial. at 5 p.m. washed the air clean and cool. We were already in David and Angela’s car on our way downtown to have dinner, then watch the fireworks, and we had to pull over because the driving rain so reduced our visibility. The power was knocked out in the suburbs, so we maneuvered through darkened streetlights and downed trees that blocked streets, but didn’t get wet. In fact, we think we owe our parking spot right next to the capitol building to someone who went home because of the rain. We were glad to have it, and later, with bellies full of Mexican food and celebratory sangria, we wandered the few blocks to the capitol building and joined the 400,000 other people whom the media estimated to be on the Mall that evening. Until it started getting dark we watched the live entertainment that is broadcast nationwide on PBS as “A Capitol Fourth.” Jason Alexander (George from Sienfeld) emceed, some pop star named JoJo sang the national anthem, and yes, we saw Elmo. From the high-pitched cheers that accompanied the muppet’s appearance, Elmo seemed to be the crowd favorite.
Later Stevie Wonder performed, but by then we were already
DC Trash
Too many plastic disposable waterbottles! But despite this dramatic pile, DC is about as clean and safe as any city we've seen. No muggings witnessed. seated on the east end of the Mall lawn, waiting for the first pyrotechnic flashes to appear behind the Washington. Monument. The fireworks show started promptly at 9:10 p.m. and was over at 9:30. We couldn’t see the Reflecting Pool from where we were, and I must say I’m used to watching fireworks over water, but the coolest thing was having the National Symphony Orchestra provide live accompaniment for the “bombs bursting in air.” And just being in our nation’s capital for our 230th birthday was a treat. I can’t exactly say we were patriotically inspired, but then again, what “patriotism” means anyway is an ongoing debate for us. Surely it’s not flag-waving or red-and-white wardrobe coordination. Just as surely, it’s not blind allegiance to our government’s policies or country’s sporting teams. For us, this round-the-country trip is patriotic, because we are learning to love this wide land and its people, and are beginning to understand how and where regional, religious, and social uniquenesses originate. Just the fact that we arranged our itinerary to be in D.C. for the Fourth shows patriotism, I think.
OK, enough of what I think and on with the facts! Over the next four
Flag Wavers
Two enthusiastic flag-wavers near the Capitol Building on the Fourth. days, from the scores of museums to choose from, we visited these:
National Museum of the American Indian. The newest Smithsonian institution, opened in 2004. The sandstone-clad, curved building with a deep overhang above the entry reminded us of the cliff dwellings in the Southwest. The cafeteria serves food inspired by five different Native regions in the Western Hemisphere, like turkey and buffalo from the Plains, salmon and greens from the Coastal Northwest, and cornbread and beans from the Southwest. We dined on South American fare: tamales, fried yucca, and chicken-and-hominy soup. Delicious!
National Building Museum. As soon as Jeff realized there was a museum devoted to architecture and urban planning, we had to go! There is no permanent collection, only rotating exhibits. We enjoyed one on alternate plans for rebuilding New Orleans and one on green design that incorporated a full-scale
Glide House and touchable samples of sustainably produced floor and wall coverings, countertops, and cabinets.
“Annex” of the Air and Space Museum, a.k.a.
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Located near Dulles Airport, this is where all the really big artifacts are put on display, like the Enola Gay (dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima, the aircraft called a Blackbird that holds the speed record of 2,300 mph, and
Capitol Girl
A mini reveler in D.C. on the Fourth. the Endeavor space orbiter. We were able to make the most of this “educational opportunity” by watching a similar orbiter, the space shuttle Discovery, lift off later that afternoon on our hosts’ television set.
National Museum of American History. Jeff spent nearly the whole day in the military history wing. This is also where you can view dresses worn by the First Ladies, the original Kermit the Frog, Ray Charles’ Ray Bans, and the model Abraham Lincoln submitted to the U.S. Patent Office for his idea to float steamboats over river shallows. He is the only U.S. president to hold a patent. Then there are artifacts like the furniture from the room where Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House that we thought might be more meaningful if it was displayed
at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park, which we had visited the week before. I mean, it’s all owned by the federal government, right?
National Portrait Gallery and
American Art Museum. Just reopened July 1 after a six-year renovation. This is where you can view about 30 of the more than 500 famous Indian portraits painted in the 1830’s by
George Caitlin. Plus a current exhibit of Matthew Brady studio photographs of famous folks of
Sparklers
David and Angela get a second portrait, because their Fourth of July sparklers are so sizzly! his day, an exhibit on artists and their studios, and a whole folk art wing! Check out the license-plate art as well in the attached photo.
On our last day, we stopped in to visit the headquarters of
National Public Radio (NPR) and a kind staffer, upon hearing about our trip and our time constraints, got us on a private tour. We are big NPR fans, have long been members of our local station (KUOW), and have been fiddling with the dial to pick up NPR as we drive across the country. It was fascinating to see the place where 600 people work to broadcast some of our favorite programs. We were only allowed to take photographs in Studio 4A, the music recording studio, so you’ll find one of those attached. The highlight was entering the “All Things Considered” studio 20 minutes before the afternoon news show went live and observing the rapid-fire, super-time-sensitive pre-recordings, plus the director juggling dozens of cues. The hosts, separated from us by two doors and a glass wall, were Robert Siegel and Michele Norris. We departed awed by the tightness of their performance and the many-pronged efforts it takes to put a seamless show on
David & Marnie
David and Marnie (Shelly's college classmate) hosted us for two overnights at their downtown DC condo. the air.
There are many more adventures to report pre-D.C., involving music and dancing, battlefields and biodiesel. Here we go…
Back in the hills of western North Carolina, we reconnected with a “music angel” named Lorna who had introduced herself to us at a music festival we’d attended in early June. Upon hearing about our trip and our interest in the mountain music, she gave us her phone number and urged us to attend the Friday night music show at the Marshall Depot near her home. We did on June 23rd and got to hear our friend Hugh perform with his Rocky Creek Band. When we walked in, Hugh introduced us to the audience and put us on the spot by asking if we had any requests. But of course we did: the haunting song “Rank Strangers” that brought him to our attention at the same early June festival (we’ve now learned it; look for us to perform it for you!). Soon we were asked out on the dance floor by music-night regulars to dance the energetic two-step. I had trouble keeping up with a particularly energetic 92-year-old!
We spent that night parked at Lorna’s house in
Noodlemaker
We ordered Chinese take-out from this D.C. restaurant, which employed this noodlemaker. The noodles were delicious! nearby Walnut, N.C., and came back the next evening for a potluck and music jam with her friends. We feel so fortunate to have made the acquaintance of this wonderful person and musician. We made her house ring with Lorna on hammered dulcimer, Gail on autoharp, Nick on guitar, Jeff on banjo, and me on pennywhistle. Others joined in with vocals for favorites like “Rocky Top” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” Thanks to Anthony Abraira for sharing his photo of me and Jeff playing together!
We spent a few more days with our relatives in Hendersonville, N.C., bringing the total nights stayed at their house to 12—the most of any location on our trip to date. On our last Saturday night, we took 8-year-old Leah to her first contra dance. The River Falls Lodge in nearby Marietta, S.C. has hosted dances for most of the last century, and the large hall was designed for maximum ventilation, with wooden halfwalls topped with screens and 3x3’ fans positioned at each doorway. The evening started with a potluck, and the vegetable casserole I created with farmer’s market finds was lapped right up. One odd thing: there was no formal beginner’s lesson
NPR Tour
A highlight of our DC visit was a tour of the headquarters of National Public Radio. This was Studio 4A; we weren't allowed to take pictures as we observed All Things Considered go live on the air. led by the caller; the procedure was for experienced dancers to take aside newcomers into circles of four and teach them the basic moves. Well, we’d already done that with Leah, so when the band, House Red, struck up the first tune, she was primed with anticipation. Jeff and Leah partnered up for the first dance, and I joined the other end of the line. The surprised and joyous look on Leah’s face when my partner and I progressed to her and Jeff’s circle of four was worth the outing. After that first dance, Leah wandered outside to chase lightning bugs, and Jeff and I could only dance a few more before we were sweated out. We left 200 people behind, swirling and stomping on the wooden floor. A soak in the hot tub back at home was the perfect end to that evening. And we are deeply grateful to Leah’s parents, Stephanie and Ken, for providing a “home base” for us in the Appalachians.
June 27th found us near Chapel Hill, N.C., producing a 75-gallon batch of biodiesel with members of the
Piedmont Biofuels Biodiesel Co-op. This was an experience Jeff had lined up after reading a book written
Amy for Coffee
Met Amy for coffee in DC. She's a friend of Shelly's family and for the past year the executive director of Teach for America in DC. Impressive work she's doing! by Piedmont VP Lyle Estill and contacting the company about a tour to learn more about their alternative fuel production. Much more than a tour, we were walked through every step of the small-scale manufacture of biodiesel from waste vegetable oil, and enjoyed talking with the members who were helping out that evening. An employee of
Burt’s Bees, a manufacturer of Earth-friendly personal products, was there to witness the final washing of a 100-gallon batch made with the first shipment of waste oil donated by his company. Now, this wasn’t French fry oil, this was a mixture of coconut, almond, and other tropical oils. The finished product smelled like sunscreen! Members can pump the biodiesel for $3.50/gallon. One license plate on a diesel Jetta was NOPEC (No O.P.E.C.).
Since we’re still in North Carolina, of course all the co-op staff and volunteers were incredible musicians, so we enjoyed one more porch jam late that evening, punctuated by hickory nuts falling at intervals on the tin roof. The next morning we walked through Piedmont’s large-scale biodiesel production plant, which is under construction and will soon be producing 2,000 gallons of biodiesel per day. In a playful gesture, their street in the
License Plate Constitution
Enlarge to read the preamble to the US Constitution as spelled out in license plates at the Museum of American Art in DC. industrial park is called Lorax Avenue.
That evening we drove north to meet my parents for the second time as they continue to hike the Appalachian Trail. We had selected a rendezvous point along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Lynchburg, Va., and even though they had hiked all day (covering 17 miles) and we’d driven all day (traveling about 250 miles), we each arrived only five minutes apart! At that point, Ann and Bill had been hiking 62 days and 770 miles. They’ll reach the halfway point of the trail at the end of July and plan to return another season to hike the second half. With calorie loading foremost on their minds, we repaired to a Chinese buffet and swapped stories from the road/trail. They’re doing fine, still enjoying their trek, but hoping it will stop raining on them soon!
Three Virginia Civil War sites in the next three days: Appomattox Court House, where Lee surrendered to Grant; the battlefield at Petersburg, where the famous “crater” was blown under a Confederate battery in a failed attempt to end what became a 10-month siege; and the bloody battlefield at Fredericksburg, where 13,000 Union troops were cut down with
Marshall Depot Music
Lorna clued us in to the Friday music night at nearby Marshall Depot. We had been previously introduced to the lead singer of this band, Hugh, and he introduced us from the stage and asked if we had any requests. We requested "Rank Strangers," our new favorite mountain song. 5,000 corresponding Confederate casualties—losses the Confederacy could ill afford but the Union could absorb. In the end, the Civil War was a war of attrition, with the Confederacy finally exhausting its resources of men and supplies.
We also visited the Revolutionary War battlefield at Yorktown (this is where we first paid more than $3/gallon for gas, and the trend has stuck) and stopped by
Nauticus: The National Maritime Museum in Norfolk, because with my maritime background I just had to see what it was about. It didn’t quite live up to expectations, but touring the battleship Wisconsin and observing a Navy re-enlistment ceremony at the bow and a Navy retirement ceremony at the stern was interesting. A bit north of there, Matilda got her oil changed at a town called Tappahannock on the Rappahannock River. In an instance of reverse price inflation, we were charged only $10!
Then came what I call “The Triplet Experience.” Our good friend Sierra from Seattle and her mother Alice were visiting relatives near Annapolis, Md., in early July, and Sierra arranged for us to see her (for the second time on this trip - the first was in Phoenix, Az?) and stay at the home of
Walnut Jam Screen Door
We met a woman at a North Carolina music festival who generously invited us to her home in Walnut for a potluck and music jam. She was as charming as her screen door. her first cousins, who have their hands full with 1-1/2-year-old triplets. It was quite the experience to help care for these three little ones, and we really wondered how mom Janet did it by herself! Of course, dad Matt helps out when he can. He’s from Australia and we can already hear the hint of Australian accents in the voices of Paul, Amelia and Lauren, who are just learning to talk.
It was a pleasure to meet some of Sierra’s other relatives, like her mom’s sister Mary and her dad’s brother Henry and his wife Noreen. The day we played with the triplets in the pool at Mary’s house, then were treated to music by Henry, a talented songwriter, was a highlight!
Well, that’s all for now, folks. From our own “road show,” it’s Jeff and Shelly signing off. Be sure to tune in next time!
Postscript: It’s July 11 and we’ve just crossed into Canada for a grand tour of the eastern provinces. We’ve lined up homestays in Kingston and Montreal, but would appreciate any potential host contacts in Ottawa, Quebec City, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, or close to St. John’s
Walnut Jam Trio
Gail on autoharp, Shelly on whistle, Jeff on banjo, at the house of our "music angel" in Walnut. Photo courtesy of Anthony Abraira. in Newfoundland.
Upstate New Yorkers, we might be dipping down across the border to visit you in the next few weeks as well!
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Carol Sword
non-member comment
roadrunners
Shelly and Jeff, just want you to know that I have been travelling with you vicariously by enjoying your blog. It's inspiring that you are spreading your good cheer and trust in friendship across our troubled country. THAT's patriotism !! Love from Carol