Sam's awesome zoo pictures.

This is a panda - I got a nice close up shot of it - except it was hard to get a nice shot with 20 people bobbing in and out of my camera view.

Those are pretty darn big teeth!

Here is a nice one I got of him reaching for something.

SUPPER TIME!

Here are some Asian elephants - I got a few good photos of these guys.

This is a picture of a mother, her baby (9 years old) and another unrelated female.

Can you tell which is which?  (I can't)

Can you guess what this is?  I'll give you a hint.  It's small, fuzzy and cute as pie.......

Three guesses - I will post more about this guy at the end of the blog, those of you who want a guessing challenge can email me with three guesses.

Hey, no faces!  This is a sloth bear.  It was about the size of a black bear.  It was hard to get a shot because it was leaning up against the glass.

I really don't remember what this is but it's got pretty nice horns.

One of my favorite birds!!!  Toucan!!!  This guy was really nice for taking pictures because he was just stock still.

 This is a picture of a flamingo's leg.  The picture above this one is a picture of all the flamingos together.  They may look nice but they have one ugly call.

If you have seen a more ugly mug you have got to tell me. This is a vulture we saw.

This is a picture of an elephant named Shanti.  This is a picture of her foot.  Her trainers were making her put up her foot and put it down again.  For Shanti it was just plain exercising but for the trainers it was making sure her feet were okay.

Do not ask me what these ducks were doing!

The sloth

 Tiger.

 'Roar'

 A note from Sue - He did roar - a lot.  The two females had cubs and were separated from him.  He smelled the air (first picture) and then got down and walked up and down roaring.  You could see his steamy breath.  The roars start out pretty impressive but as he got going they got deeper and deeper and seemed to have more vibration with each one.  You could see his sides (diaphragm) working pretty hard. 

The End.

Addendum  - the answer to the quiz

A Red Panda.  Not related to the other panda at all.

Home at last.

Just a brief word to say we drove in the yard at 4:30, 4990 miles from when we left 6 weeks ago.  A warm clean house and a big pot of chicken soup, courtesy David. 

So just a few more words about the trip.

First, Sam.  What an amazing traveling companion.  Better than a lot of adults.  He helped navigate, read directions to campgrounds over and over to me in the dark with a flashlight as I drove.  He called campgrounds and asked for directions.  He was always polite and courteous in public.  He endured odd eating schedules and late arrivals at campgrounds.  He was enthusiastic about just about everything we did.  Ready to get in the front seat and head out each day.

And we couldn't have gone if David hadn't helped out so much at home.  He stayed in our house at night, he helped with chores at both ends of the day, he put on my storm windows and put the vegetable garden to bed.  He helped Mom with many little things and was 'on call' for her all the time.  He dealt with the selling of three of our angus heifers and dealt with the two angus steers and angus bull we had beefed (anyone need beef?).  He watered my plants and fed Sam's fish.  And he let me take Sam away from him for 6 weeks.

Lots of other people helped out with food and company and bookkeeping and mail and delinquent taxes.

A few facts and figures.  We left on 10-10-10.  Arrived home on 11-21-10.  We went through parts of 2 countries and 15 states (other than Vermont).  3 great lakes, 8 noteworthy rivers (at least).  0 flat tires.  1 breakdown.  0 oil burned in the engine.  0 accidents.  5 host families.  29 souvenir lapel pins.  42 nights.  26 in the van.  0 blisters.  About 1325 pictures filed in iphoto.  3 aquariums, 2 zoos, 2 art museums, 3 garages, 1 natural history museum, 1 cave, 1 subway/el, 3 ferries, 9 other VW vans, many wonderful natural sites, number of times we bumped our heads on the inside of the van - too many to count.

And so many other things I didn't blog about.

Like road kill.  Unbelievable quantities of raccoons.  Especially in corn country.  One would think that natural selection would have weeded out the fool hardy road crossers by now.  A fair share of deer, especially on the Taconic Parkway yesterday.  And then when we hit the south it was coons and opossums.  With some skunks mixed in.  Somehow NC roads and VA and PA had way less road kill.  More vultures?  We sure saw tons of black vultures.

Cigarettes.  The south is sure a smoking population still.  And I'll never understand how people that wouldn't throw a paper cup out the window of their car will flick a still glowing filtered cigarette butt out without a second thought.  Seemingly.

Billboards.  Very, very handy for the alphabet game - especially if you're driving.  Very, very ugly otherwise - we are very lucky not to have them.  They are almost everywhere else.

Porpoises!  They were off the coast of the outer banks.  It was hard to tell how many - they were going up and down and moving so my best guess is about a dozen.  Very fun to see, very hard to get a picture.

Fast food.  We stayed away from it pretty successfully.  Lots of options, and different ones in the south.  Bojangles, Po'boy, Krispy Kreme, Arbys, Hardys, among the familiar McDonalds, Burger King, Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut etc.

Food in general.  A real challenge.  For us who have a big garden and our own meat and dairy it was a struggle to know where to go to buy food.  And often it's pretty poor quality.  Thank goodness for what we did bring with us - lots of spaghetti and homemade sauce.  And the hospitality of our hosts.

A southern supermarket chain.

Great accents.  The man on the outer banks that pronounced Fairfield 'Fahrfield'.  The nice Indian or Pakistani lady that said 'Thank you very much' with a strong accent but ended it with 'hon'.

We were called, hon, dearie, sweetie, sugar, and Sam was called 'son' in the south and 'bud' in the north.

Wishing wells in every state and I must admit that on the top of Brasstown Bald Mtn. way down in Georgia, in their gift shop, we found a 2 foot cedar, lovely little wishing well for $25.  We bought it of course and for the rest of the trip it rested on our bedding during the day and sat in the front seat at night.  Just the opposite of us. 

And many, many other things that for years to come we will say, oh, remember when we saw... 

And the little van that could - and did - and wasn't daunted by the giants of the road.

Hopefully Sam will do his zoo blog but this is it from me.  Thanks for following and for all the support along the way!

The Penultimate Post

We are now in Washington D.C.  The Nation's Capitol.  It really is pretty exciting to be here.  A tremendous amount of history happened right under our feet.  Amazing people occupied the same air space that we stand in.  Sound waves that carried the words of amazing speeches bounced off the pillars of the monuments we can touch.

Between the calm of Shiloh, NC and here we visited Colonial Williamsburg.  Another one of our sunny, lovely days that we've been so lucky to get.  This trip would have been entirely different if it had been cold and rainy the whole time.  Williamsburg is huge.  An enormous visitor's center, shuttle buses to take you around the perimeter of Williamsburg and drop you off and pick you up at various locations.  Vast parking lots.  By the way we have been trying to see a license plate from each state and province on this trip.  We have 46 states and 5 or 6 provinces.  We scored a big one by finding Hawaii and Washington in the Williamsburg parking lot!  We are missing Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada.  We are hopeful we might see something here in Washington.

Also in the parking lot - older than ours - in great shape.

So we bought our day pass for around $50 and off on the shuttle we went.  We were told it takes about 2.5 days to see everything so we picked a spot to get off the bus and then slowly walked a loop on the main street that has most of the trades shops.  We visited the blacksmith, the shoe maker, the silversmith, the weaving house (where local weaver Norman Kennedy used to work), the vegetable garden, the milliners shop, and the book binder.  We also went to the magazine/artillery building, the church and the court house where Sam tried out the stocks.  The basket maker wasn't around but we saw lots of baskets made of oak - some for sale (I don't ask enough evidently) and many in use. They were all interesting places but we did have to contend with more people than we have had to most of the trip.  We did get some time alone with the book binder and he showed us his wheels for pressing patterns of gold leaf into the leather covers of books.

One of seven forges in the shop - low light issues. 

Shoe making lasts.

All the people that work there have a patter - based of course on the typical questions they get.  So if you stand around and listen as the crowd cycles through around you after about 10 minutes you hear the questions begin again and the same patter begins again.  Rarely does the conversation dip into more detail or something a little more interesting.  So it's nice to try to get an 'interpreter' alone and find out more about something.  They really do seem to know tons and it's too bad they can't share that more. 

The court house.

The doorman.

The criminal.

Free at last - his mother took pity on him evidently.

I find it hard to be in the setting with people in period costume, some reenactments going on, and be surrounded by strollers, people with cell phones and modern clothing.  It's jarring somehow.  The other jarring thing is how many of the buildings are actually gift shops.  In one shop that was actually an old store they were selling powder horns - you know - made of cow horn.  With a 'made in India' sticker on them.  Am I the only one that thinks that's very funny? 

The best thing we saw was a fife and drum corps of kids reenacting the lead up to a rally that was to inspire more men to join the fight.  They were really good and then a man shouted and yelled to try to rouse the crowd and inspire recruits.  Visitors were the recruits and when they had enough we all marched off to the Town Hall with the recruits learning their first marching steps and the fife and drum corps leading the way.  Other Williamsburg employees in costume and character were mixed up with the crowd of visitors and that actually worked quite well.  We left them working themselves into a frenzy of patriotism.

Again at dusk we headed to our campground.  I called and asked for directions.  A young guy on the phone said - 'Well I know we're only three miles away but I'm not too good with directions.'  So I waited while he got a map.  'Go north on 60.'  'And eventually north on Richmond Ave.'  So off we headed.  And for such a populated area there are quite a few roads that lead off into the boonies immediately.  We did get to 60 fairly quickly - after one of our now famous U turns (no one coming either direction of course) but 60 only went east and west.  Hmmm.  Which way to go.  The wrong way of course.  Back the other way - yay - we found Richmond Ave.  With no markings for north or south or anything in between.  One of those many places where the lanes are for left only or right only and you have to decide before you can see the road signs.  Especially at night.  So left we went.  At least we got to see the College of William and Mary in the dark.  So then I got serious, parked, and got out all my maps - the directions to the campground in my large campground tome (yes, we tried to call but the office had closed) and we figured it out.  Back the other way on Richmond and we found the campground.  He had said to cross a set of train tracks and as we approached the lights were flashing and we had to wait for a 150 car train to go by.  They go down to Newport News with coal.  The campground was fine (rv park) but the map on the wall showing the layout put you in an upside down position for orientation so after driving around the lot we found our site.  Phew - another campground finding experience under our belts.  A bit later we heard another train in the distance - one more campground with a train in the background we thought.  And then the rumble.  And then the roar.  And that train passed about 35 feet behind the van - we hadn't seen the tracks in the dark.  We both felt like diving under the covers.  It felt like we'd get sucked out of the van.  And that happened about 10 times during the evening and following morning.  But we actually slept pretty well.

We took a leisurely pace towards Washington the next day.  (Stopped at a Walmart to see if I could get the oil changed in the van - of course they didn't have the filter but it was fun to try and one of the technicians was from South Londonderry.)  We stopped at a little restaurant, not a chain, and found a local paper that showed interesting sights to visit.  It showed George Washington's birthplace and it was right on our way so we went to it.  One of those great unplanned travel events.  It's right on the Potomac and it's a gorgeous setting.  As usual we nearly had the place to ourselves so spent a couple very pleasant hours visiting.  Many of the National Parks have Junior Ranger programs where kids can do some educational exercises and then earn a Junior Badge.  Sam did the packet that was for his age group and worked hard on it and earned his badge.  There is a lovely walk to the birthplace.  It's on a point of land out into the river and we could hear geese honking on the river in the late afternoon sun.  The original house burned when Washington was just a small child but the outline of the house is there and in the early 1900s a 'reproduction' was built although they now know it was not accurate.  Beautiful rail fences - setting sun - and a small version of the Washington Monument in the sunshine.

The outline of the original house.

A point of land that goes right out into the Potomac.

The replacement.

The monument.

Lots of beautiful rail fences.

On to Washington.  Our route led us to Washington but coming from the east instead of the west as we had planned so we had to get on the beltway and drive to the west of DC to where we are staying in Potomac.  We followed the Googlemap directions to a T and arrived safe and sound.

Our first day was spent resting and hiking the Billy Goat trail in the Great Falls National Park which is right around the corner.  Our host, Ginny, and her daughter, who is 8, hiked with us (Ginny's husband and two sons live there too).  It's a beautiful park on the Potomac and goes along an amazing section of the river that has unbelievable rock formations.  There are the remains of a canal alongside the river - it was intended to go to all the way to the Ohio River but only got about 180 miles.  Then the trains, (more trains) came along and the need for the canal to be finished disappeared.

Unbelievable rock formations - that's the Potomac you can see.

It goes through a huge gorge.

We still like each other after 5.5 weeks!

Tuesday we braved the traffic and drove into DC and parked near the mall.  (No pictures, left the camera where it was dry.)  It was our first all day rain/drizzle but our spirits weren't dampened.  Parking is expensive in DC.  A quarter gets you 8 minutes.  So we put all the quarters we could rummage up into the meter and walked a couple blocks to the Washington Monument.  I've never been up in it before so we got our tickets - again, no line - and took the elevator up.  The stairs are no longer open to the public.  There are commemorative stone panels on the inside of the walls and they were being defaced so they closed the stairs.  Even though it was cloudy we got a good view of the immediate area and could orient ourselves.  Only about 6 other people were up there with us.  I remember being there 30 years ago in the spring and the lines went 'round and 'round the monument.  I had forgotten about the tiny pocket knife I carry and of course they wouldn't let me take it and they wouldn't hold it for me.  But they did let Sam run out and he took it to the edge of the grass, dug a little hole, put some grass back over it and we recovered it after our tour.  I depend on that knife.  Some people feel naked without a cell phone - I feel lost without my knife. 

Back to the meter armed with more quarters and then off to the Air and Space Museum - a couple of blocks the other way.  We saw the Wright Brothers exhibit, a nice exhibit on Charles and Anne Lindbergh which was fun since I've read several of her books and read about her in books by her daughter.  Sam and I went separate ways for part of the time so he saw some things I didn't see.

We left late afternoon and found parking by the Potomac near the Lincoln Memorial.  It was just starting to get dusky and so we got to see it from daylight to dark with the lights on which is pretty spectacular.  Before it was fully dark we visited the Vietnam War Memorial and the Korean Ware Memorial.  I was thinking how new the Vietnam War Memorial was and how I'd seen it fairly soon after it was up and then realized that must be nearly 25 years ago.  Not so new after all.

Day three was spent entirely at the National Zoo.  Sam want's to write a blog about that so I'll leave that for him.

Day four we had to pack in all the rest of the things on our list to see.  We started out at Arlington Cemetery and took the tour bus to the top of the hill.  It was only a fair tour and we had exactly 8 minutes to get out and trot up the steps to see Kennedy's grave.  Not exactly the amount of time one needs to contemplate what happened.  Back on the bus and up to Arlington House where Robert E. Lee lived.  It's undergoing major renovation so it was empty of furniture and surely looks like it needs renovation.

Then on to the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.  We got there in time to see the change - once an hour at this time of year.  It's pretty interesting to read about what the soldiers go through to qualify.  http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/ceremonies/sentinelsotu.html  There was a group of kids from Greensboro, NC that had brought a wreath to put near the tomb so we got to see a the whole ceremony for that.  Including taps.  It really doesn't matter what you believe or what you feel reverent about but to stand on a hill, with a large group of absolutely silent people, with the wind blowing, marble all around, the ceremony, and taps, you can't help but be moved.  The bugle was clear and beautiful and of course taps convey exactly what they are supposed to convey.  You have to think of the tragedy and devastation that each of the markers represents for the families of the deceased.  They have just under 30 funerals a day at Arlington.

The soldier on the left is inspecting the gun of soldier that's coming on duty.  A ceremony full of flair.

At the end of the walk there is a big click of the heels. 

The wreath ceremony.

We walked down the hill from the Memorial Amphitheater (the location of the changing of the guard) to the front gates.  I hope all that death was worth it.

Drove in to the mall again and parallel parked the van for the first time in my life in the middle of DC traffic.  More quarters.  We went to the National Archives and saw the originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.  There were quite a few school class trips there so it was hard to spend much time looking at them.  It's also very dim (preservation) in the Rotunda so you really just have to get the feel of them instead of reading them.

Then off to Fords Theater to see where Lincoln's life so tragically ended.  The theater is still a theater so we couldn't go in as they were rehearsing for A Christmas Carol that opens this weekend.  But there is a good museum underneath the theater and we spent quite a while there.  It gives a scary minute by minute account of the day of the shooting - what John Wilkes Boothe was doing during the day, what Lincoln was doing.  It has the gun.  I don't know quite why it shocked me so but it did.  I think he held it 7 inches from Lincoln's head.  They have his clothes he was wearing and the pillow they laid his head on - all stained with his blood.  They have the tail coat worn by the orchestra conductor that has slash marks in it from Boothe's knife as he ran out of the theater.  They have the wooden piece of music stand that he used to jam the door closed in the box that Lincoln was in.  They have Mrs. Lincolns opera glasses.  It really is amazing.  Then we went out and looked across the street to where they took him and he died.

Ford's Theater.

The gun.  It's very small.  But big enough. 

By this time it was getting dusky again and we hadn't seen the Capitol Building yet.  So off we went into traffic again and found parking near the reflecting pool.  The steps were closed but we were able to be right in front of it as the Capitol, the monuments and the mall lit up with night lights.  It is a spectacular view.

It was getting dark.

The moon came up.

A great last view of the Capitol.

Then it was rush hour and we had to make our way the short 12 miles or so to our hosts' house.  We averaged 12 miles per hour.   A half hour to go down the side of the mall - so that was about 2 miles an hour.  Almost unable to move.  Even a green light was little help as it depended on the light turning green at the next block and that traffic moving a bit before the traffic in our block could move.  Finally we reached the George Washington Memorial Parkway and zoomed along at about 35.  It did pick up and we didn't feel like complaining at all after we saw an accident on the other side of the highway with two solid lanes of rush hour traffic being diverted off the highway onto a one lane exit.  The traffic was stopped for miles.  Finally we saw people driving across the median and coming through U-turns to escape and go in our direction.

We've had a great time in Washington and much of it was due to the great hospitality of our hosts.  A nice meal every night - a bed and bath all to ourselves - lots of tips and route help.


And then:

We left Washington and headed north to Gettysburg, PA.  Turns out it was the 147th anniversary of Lincoln's famous speech.  If we'd known we might have been in time for a commemorative speech by Sam Donaldson of ABC News fame but we weren't.  There were quite a few people there including a lot of school kids.  They have a good movie filmed with reenactors about the battle there.  Then they have the cyclorama.  http://www.gettysburgfoundation.org/cyclorama.htm  It's an amazing painting and they've transitioned from the painting to real scenery very cleverly.  So if you see a stone wall in the painting coming towards you and getting bigger at the base of the painting they've built a stone wall at the edge of the painting in exactly the same size stones and color and look so it looks like the painting continues in 3D.  They did the same thing with a rail fence.  We saw their museum and more on Lincoln, bought our last lapel pin (we've been collecting them) and then, suddenly, we'd had enough.  Back to the van, back to our northerly route, back home.  We headed for Stroudsburg, PA for the last night in the van.

As you can see we strung up Christmas lights around the inside.  The van has an outlet on the inside and a plug receiver on the outside so we can plug in to the power pedestals at the campgrounds.  The seat Sam is sitting on pulls forward and we fold out the comforter and the sleeping bags.  It really is very cozy and feels like home.  We will miss it and I wonder if it will miss us.

Evidently I bought some bad diesel in Lancaster, PA and we spluttered and coughed and crept up hills (zero power) all the way to the campground.  This morning (Saturday) the van would hardly run at all and after the range of thoughts on what to do and how to get home I put some dry gas in the tank.  As I took the gas cap off I noticed it was all beaded with condensation.  So I was pretty sure water was the trouble.  I had quite a time starting it up again but finally it did and after a bit of spluttering it ran great.  We filled up again with better fuel - more dry gas and it runs like a charm.  We are now at David's father's, and Sam's grandfather's house in Cornwall, NY.   We took the back way, up through New Jersey (and guess what, not all New Jersey looks like Newark!) and some beautiful farm land over looking lovely valleys and mountains.  We only had a two hour drive today once we got on the road and arrived mid afternoon.  I'm glad for the ease of a house and familiar people and the prospect of the comforts of home but certainly very sad and longingly looking back over my shoulder at this trip that I've been thinking about, planning for, and freaking out about for at least 3 years.

With luck we'll be home by Sunday night and the last blog from me will be after that.