Flying South for the Winter...well for a couple of weeks anyway

29 October - met up with Nicola Slater in Florence South Carolina for breakfast and had a great chat.....and a nice breakfast...thanks Nicola :)  We discussed all things American and our lack of accents...NOT!!! lol Anyway it was great to meet up for a while.  Then took off for Savannah Georgia. Don't know what was in the air but it sure wasn't SWEET Georgia Brown.  Very bad odour. We had a look around town and went over the bridge a couple of times just cos we could and then pointed our nose south towards Jacksonville Florida. The roads through Georgia are wide and the countryside is beautiful. Nice wide highway all the way to Florida. What we have seen of Florida so far (which isn't much yet) is exactly like you would imagine...warm, sunny.....palm trees....old people...oops sorry!....that was my reflection in the Starbucks window hehehehe. We're doing a Walmart/Starbucks night tonight. Beautiful spot....lots of shops and a lake.

Miles#   323.7 (521 kms)      Bugs#  972            OLD# $3.00

Nicola

Savannah Bridge

Beautiful, wide, non busy Georgia roads....brilliant!

Van Problems

28 October - Spent the night at Walmart Danville Virginia and had a heart starter at Starbucks. The Starbucks/Walmart combo works well if  the coming day is just travelling in the car. The shower can wait till that night :) and we get a free night's sleep.

We set off this morning - on a very very cold morning - intending to do a quick stop at Jiffy Lube as the van is due an oil change. This is normally a 15 minute job maximum but they found some worn bearings or something ....don't speak mechanicese....but it was something important that needed immediate attention.....to do with the steering at the front. Anyway it was shades of van #1 and I didn't want any loose wheels. Lost 3 hours getting it fixed but all seems well now.

Drove through North Carolina and into South Carolina and am now ensconced in a Motel 6 looking forward to having a shower.    The scenery continues to amaze although we didn't see much of South Carolina as it was dark when we came in. Miles 197.3 (317.5 km)   Bugs #966   OLD# $3.00

Shenendoah Skyline Drive

27 October - this is the most beautiful piece of road we have travelled on since our journey began. Admittedly the time of the year helped. The autumn leaves we've seen up until now pale in comparison with what we've seen today. Once again the photos are a waste of time but here they are anyway

I'm feeling a bit better today. The replacement Australian passport has arrived at Kae's. Paul has posted my NAB credit card & Australian Citizenship paper and I've been in empty countryside most of the day. I still need to reapply for a full Aussie passport and also my UK one. Grr...don't want to think about it anymore.

We're now in Danville Virginia heading towards North Carolina tomorrow

Miles# 241.5 (388.6 kms)    Bugs # 954   OLD $3.00 (seems the age is 62 in a lot of places - Damn!!)

Money down the drain

26 October - My stolen purse contained $550 US & $225 Canadian and my insurance only pays a maximum of $250 on cash. That was the top level of insurance too with no excess. Not happy but what can I do. I can't dwell on it or I'll cry again and I've already cried a river. For the first time I have seriously considered calling it quits and returning home but that just makes the bad guys the winners. Have to try and move on emotionally but it's hard.

Well - to put things in perspective we went to Arlington National Cemetery today. It was a wet day but a little humid and the trees at the cemetery were wearing their best clothes.  I'm still amazed at the colours on display. The cemetery was mind boggling. Every time we crested another rise there was another field covered in white gravestones. I should maybe have felt a feeling of pride that so many died for their beliefs and to keep the world a safer place but my already despondent mood increased and I could only think what a waste of lives. So many were just young men and women - still babies in their mothers minds. We watched the laying of wreaths at the grave of the Unknown Soldier - very moving.

Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy both requested plain wooden crosses at their graves and they got special dispensation to have them - they are the only ones like it in the cemetery.

JFK and Jackie Kennedy are buried side by side under an eternal flame with two children - one who was stillborn and another that died only a few months before JFK was assassinated - just a few weeks old.

Every which way you looked  there were just more and more gravestones like below - so sad. Seemed like acres of gravestones.

After lots of driving and trying to park we went to visit another President at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Unfortunately the pool has sprung a leak and they are digging it up and rebuilding it so I have added a Google shot to show what it will again be on completion.

The statue of Mr Lincoln was very impressive.

Me and Abe

Left Washington mid afternoon and drove into Virginia. The traffic was bumper to bumper for miles and we only travelled a relatively short distance for the time we spent on the road. We're having a cheap night tonight - camped at an all night Walmart in Front Royal Virginia and currently doing this blog in the Starbucks next door - free Wi-Fi. Need to re coup some dollars :)  I am pretty much over crowds and aggressive drivers and am looking forward to finding a field where I can do a 360 and not see a soul and then yell my head off. I'm sure I'll feel better after that.

Miles # 83.6 (134.5 kms)                    Bugs#947      OLD $3.00

Washington DC

25 October - Headed off this morning to the Australian Embassy and applied for a temporary Passport. Cried some more because that's all I had. :(     I am having trouble accepting what has happened. I feel like someone stole my identity - would rather it was my camera or something easily replaceable but the passports meant a great deal to me - a symbol of my new life.

Walked for miles around Washington and saw the White House (much smaller than I ever thought),  Capitol Hill, the FBI HQ, the Washington Monument, Obama's piggy bank (the Treasury Building), the art museum. The architecture is beautiful and the streets wide and clean and the park superb. The weather was warm like a spring day. As I was feeling a bit down still we decided a hair cut and colour was in order so I am now a newly coiffured brown pricklehead and Lee has  shorter than normal (for her) red hair. We both feel better for it and so to keep the good mood rolling we went to Macy's and bought new bags and purses...just coz!!

Bugs # 941 OLD $3.00

Obama's House

They wouldn't let me in

I'm GLAD they didn't let me in

New York...the good...the bad....and the ugly!

19 October - We got up to get the train into NY and travelled 20 mins in the pouring rain to get to the station only to find there were no trains as the line was still out from Hurricane Irene....noone thought to mention that when they were giving us directions to the station. WTF? A sign said to go to another station - half hour drive - still no trains. We finally went to Suffern - 40 miles from our camp and caught the train there. Basically this meant at the end of the day we got one train NY to Secaucus (10 mins) then another to Suffern  (60 mins) then a 40 min drive. We got home each night about 2 to 3 am. We did so much in NY that I will just list them and comment appropriately (or inappropriately)

• Went to the Post Office to post parcels to Australia - amazing - open till 11 PM and on weekends....WOW!!
• Lined up for an hour to buy discount tickets to Billy Elliot matinee. Loved the show. Any unsold tickets for a performance you can line up and buy for up to 50% off.
• Lined up again for the night time ticket sales and went to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Starred Daniel Radcliffe and John Laroquette. Both were superb but Daniel sang and danced his little heart out. Was absolutely the best thing we did in NY.

• Saw the Naked Cowboy :) 
• Ate hot dogs and a shaslick and hot nuts in no particular order - yum
• Drove home - got in at 3 am - was super scary - bucketing down, pitch black and semi trailers coming out of nowhere at 80 mph spraying so much water up that the wipers couldn't keep up. :(

Naked Cowboy

20 October - 

• More hot dogs but this time with sauerkraut - yum again
• Better day today - drier and warmer
• Queued for 1 1/2 hours for tickets to Mama Mia. I loved the Aussie version and the film but was disappointed in this one - especialy for Broadway. Still love the music though.
• Saw the Empire State Building - impressive. NBC - Radio City Music Hall - 5th Avenue - Rockefeller Building. Also the Dakota Apartments where John & Yoko lived and he was murdered just outside :(.
• Saw the building with 3 towers where Steve Jobs lived. 
• Caught a Pedi Cab which took us on a 45 minute trip around Central Park. Saw the Fountain from the opening scenes in Friends.

'Friends" Fountain

21 October - Cool sunny day. We decided to hire a limo. It was actually cheaper to do this than catch cabs and race around trying to see as much as possible. Our driver was James and we nearly fell over backwards when it turned up

• Lee had champagne and I drank OJ and munched on cheese and biscuits.
• My first Limo ride - we had it for 2 1/2 hours
• We saw Chelsea, Greenwich Village, the "Friends" building, Meat Packers area, Car Impound, City Hall, Seinfeld's Restaurant, Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Bleeker Street, Chinatown, Little Italy, the Occupy Wall Street protesters, Grants Tomb. Statue of Liberty.
• Loved the limo experience.
• After the ride we queued up again and Lee went to see The Lion King and I saw Chicago. Loved it although there was obviously not all the brilliant dancing that Catherine Zeta Jones did in the movie.
• Got home about 2 am - exhausted

Seinfeld's Diner

Friend's Building

22 October

• World Trade Centre - they are still in the process of building the Freedom Tower and the place was very busy with crowds and crowds of people. It was amazing to try and envisage just what happened on September 11 and be on the spot where so many poor people died. The film we saw on TV was hard to relate to the actual location. Still defies belief.
• Went to Wall Street and the financial district
• We rode the Subway and some Rappers jumped on at one station and performed on the train and a Mariachi Band did the same at another station. Very entertaining.
• In the evening we went to two different Comedy Clubs. Very funny.

23 October Left New York for Philadelphia and stopped for petrol on the way and found my purse was missing. I hadn't used it since the day before. So I didn't have to keep getting it out my back pack I kept a handful of notes in my jeans pocket and so hadn't noticed it missing. It must have been lifted out the bag at some stage. Tears...tears....and more tears.  Went to a Maccas and Lee rang to cancel the credit cards. Went to Police Station at Mahwah to report the theft for insurance purposes. Met Lt  Jeffrey Dino - lovely man - we have been very lucky with our Police Officers. He thought our van was a bit out there lol but was impressed with our travels.  Miles 172.8 (278 kms)   Bugs # 928    OLD#  $3.00

24 October - Drove from Philadelphia to Washington DC and went straight to Australian Consulate to work on getting a new Passport. Impressed with Washington and the roads are wide and traffic light so no stress, A sure winner for me lol,  Saw a glimpse of the White House. Need to go to Consulate again tomorrow and then the British one. After that we will be sight seeing and popping in for tea with the Obamas.
Miles 150 (241 kms)   Bugs# 934  OLD # $3.00