Ups and downs

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Day 81- Monday

After spending a great day in Washington, visiting all the classic locations yesterday I left Connie and Nora about 5.30pm to go to the Kennedy Centre. According to my guidebook there are daily free performances there . So... left them at the National Portrait Gallery ( one of 18 parts of the Smithsonian complex) and went to see the great cultural centre. LIke all of Washington...monumental...no expense spared...magnificent with an expansive terrace overlooking the Potomac river. The was indeed a live free performance on at 6pm, A Jazz pianist with guitar, drums and saxophone. As well as playing her own composition on a Steiway she utilised the maain Concert Hall pipe organ. A great treat.

Then my frustration was that the traain I had expected to take to Charleston and Savannah was not running till Friday. Obviously the hearts of the Americans are not in train travel. So... much consternation ....trains not really feasible between Washington and New Orleans ( and I am not totally sure that NO is feasible after the hurricain) but...decided to fly to Savannah. Bus would have taken more time than I could spare. So here I am. Had found a place using Expedia but when my taxi pulled up outside I realised that it was about 10 minutes ride from the main part of town so asked the young man to take me in to town and recommend/ try an interesting and more authentically local place. He brought me to a beautiful 160 year old hotel...and reasonably priced. ...The Marshall House. Beautifully resored and only $120 per night.

So I have two nights here, before flying to New Orleans for (hopefully) two nights then a night in Memphis and on to Minneapolis via Chicago to join up with Connie for a few days before we hit LA via Boulder, Colerado . The end is almost in sight.

I have been reading a new book of Bill Bryson ( actually published in 1989 here but maybe, for an obvious reason not in OZ) ..."The lost continent' ...his travels through small town USA...including Savannah, Charleston, Washington, etc. Waiting at Ronald Reagan Airport this morning I couldn't help laughing out loud whilst holding the book in one hand and eating fruit salad with a fork with the other. On the plane I manage to control the nioise but not the trembling and shaking...sure they must have thought I was taking some kind of illegal medication. That's the trouble.. the more you read the more hysterical you get. Bought his " Notes from a Big Continent" for Connie. She has been killing herself too. Had never even heard of it. But of course totally identifies with it...( Here it is published under the title... "I'm a stranger here myself" ... totally her after an absence in Australia of 30 years! )
I myself am Trying to speed read Bryson and re-read "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" by tomorrow.

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Photos

Mr Lincoln
I felt just like Jimmy Stewart and a few others

Vietnam Memorial
A very moving site... families there taking rubbings of names ...weeping etc.

Washington across the Potomac River from the Kennedy Centre...
Superb!