Friday morning broke nice and clear, but with a heavy coat of frost on all of the vehicles. We checked the National Park, and found that the Newfound Gap from Gatlinburg through the park was closed due to ice and snow. Instead, we had to follow 321 parallel to the park across to I-40, then across the Appalachians into North Carolina. We got occasional glimpses of the tops of hills covered in snow.
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| Snow capped hills |
The tallest hills in the park are about 6600 feet. We stopped at a Welcome Center in NC to pick up some information, particularly on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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| Fall Colours |
Then we headed into Asheville, to find the 12 Bones Smokehouse. The GPS took us right past it on the Foundy Rd through the River Arts District studios, but couldn't see it. Their website had an alternate address in case GPS didn't work well, so we went there, and still couldn't find it. We asked a delivery guy if he knew where it was, and he pointed out a sign, parallel to the road. We walked around in that direction, and found the restaurant on the next corner. In our defense, their sign was easier to find walking than driving by. Joan had figured this was the place when we went by the first time due to the number of cars around. We picked up a half rack of ribs, a couple of small containers of smoky potato salad and sweet vinegar cole slaw to take back to our hotel in Canton, about 15 miles back up I-40. The ribs were quite good, and the potato salad had a nice bite to it.
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| 12 Bones |
Saturday morning we woke up to a heavy frost on the truck, as it was in a fog bank, in sub-zero(C) temperatures. We checked the Blue Ridge Parkway map to see that it was still closed. We got the truck all packed and cleared off and headed to
Chimney Rock State Park. The road to Chimney Rock, although US Highway 64, is a fairly narrow windy road with several areas of switchbacks. Eventually it gets into the Broad River Valley (broad may be a description of the river, but not the valley). From the entrance to the Park, we climbed another set of switchbacks up to the parking area. Climbing wasn't too bad, since about 9:00 AM, most of the traffic was going the same direction. At the parking area, you have several choices. You can take the elevator, or the 499 steps. We opted to take the steps. There are choices even on this route. You can take the Vista option, or go past the Grotto through the Subway (somewhere between 4 and 5 feet clearance). There is also a bat cave you can climb a few feet down into (no bats). The drive back down the hill was a bit more exciting, as there was a good amount of traffic coming up at 10:30 on Saturday morning. Either we, or the traffic coming up had to stop to allow us to get around the switchbacks. People were pretty good about allowing us enough room. Back down at the bottom of the hill, we continued on 64 until we got to Bill's Creek Road, then Cove Road and Sugarhill Road until we got to I-40. A strange little road through the hills. Then we got back to I-40, then north on I-77 to Jonesville, in the northwest area of North Carolina.
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| Lake Lure from Chimney Rock |
On Sunday morning, we awoke to another coating of frost on the truck. We checked the Blue Ridge Parkway site to find it still closed, and called a recorded message for Shenandoah National Park. The road through it was still closed due to snow and ice. So we headed up I-77 to I-81 to then north to Staunton, near the south end of Shenandoah. Our GPS went into a loop starting up, getting to the 'accept' mode of travel, then restarting again after about 6 seconds. We stopped at Walmart and picked up a new GPS. We got to the hotel in time to watch the final Nascar race of the year.
Monday morning, Shenandoah was still closed so we carried on north on I-81, using our new GPS. This one had more flexibility on preferences, so at New Market, we told it to go the shortest route, instead of the fastest. This took us across the mountains through the park. We could see why it was closed along the ridge of the park, as there was still quite a bit of snow, although none on the crossing road. We stopped at Thornton River Farm market to pick up some apples. In Warrenton, we were surprised to see a Safeway so we stopped in to pick up some things for lunch and other meals. We carried on this highway all the way into Washington to a Comfort Inn in downtown Washington. It is about a 20 minute walk from the White House, and 25 minutes from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. We had to park on a driving lane while we unloaded our stuff from the truck so the parking valet could park it. He was more concerned with the height of the truck than the length, until he found out it was too long for their parkade. He was able to park in the alley in front of their garbage on the side of the building. Since we are within walking distance from everything we want to see, it will stay there for four days except maybe to let the garbage truck get at the dumpster.
Tuesday morning we checked to see if we could get tickets for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Entry is free, but they limit the number of people in the museum. All of the current day slots (don't know how many the keep open) were gone by 8:00. Advanced bookings are closed until Dec 5, when they open the lottery for bookings in February 2019. We need to get on-line at 6:30 tomorrow when they open the current day slots to see if we can get one.
About 8:30 we headed out to do west end of the National Mall (the strip from Lincoln's Memorial in the west end to the Capitol on the east end), and return to the museums in the center of the Mall. Our first point of interest was Lafayett Square at the north end of the White House.
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| White House |
We got a glimpse of the Christmas Tree across the park to the west side of the White House. We missed the presidential pardon of two turkeys.
We came to a pond on the National Mall. It's inhabitants were Canada Geese (on their way south) and 3 cormorants.
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| Cormorant |
Beside the pond is the Reflecting Pool, which stretches from the World War II Memorial,
to the Lincoln Memorial. Only about 80 steps up to the memorial, significantly less than Chimney Rock.
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| Lincoln Memorial |
From the Lincoln Memorial, we headed south east along the Potomac River to the Maple Grove, 150 trees donated by Canada on its 150th anniversary.
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| a few of 150 maple trees for Canada's 150 celebration |
Then to the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial,
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| Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial |
the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial,
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| FD Roosevelt Memorial |
a rest on a bench beside the Tidal Basin to have a muffin,
and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial ( a few more stairs, but not as many as Lincoln.
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| Jefferson Memorial |
You can see the Washington Monument from almost anywhere in the downtown area, but this was one of the better views.
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| Washington Monument |
From there we headed back north to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 3 stories of descriptions and pictures of the rise of the Nazis, and their persecution of the European Jews and Roma (gypsies). There was quite a crowd there, a high percentage of them wearing a uniform of light blue shirts. If we stopped to read all of the exhibits, we would have been there for hours.
After the museum, we sat on a bench along a park on the Mall before returning to our hotel.
A total of 12.25 km in 4h48m. We were tired.
On Wednesday, we tried to get tickets at 6:30 without any luck. After breakfast we picked up a few things from the market a few blocks east before heading out for the day. Then we headed back toward the National Mall. We went by Ford's Theater, then down to the Canadian Embassy. They even have the pair of red chairs like the ones in the national parks.
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| Red Chairs at Canadian Embassy |
Interesting that the Canadian Embassy is the only one near Capitol Hill, .5 mi, while the British Embassy on Embassy Row is 4.0 miles away. I guess that is due to the longest friendly border we share with the USA.
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| The Spirit of Haida Gwaii - the Black Canoe |
From the Capitol,
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| Capitol Building |
we walked west along the mall to the National Art Gallery. The highlight mentioned at the information desk was the portrait of
Genevra de Benci by Leonardo da Vinci. They also have a large collection of other old masters from Europe. When we were done there, we were ready to pack it in for the day, so walked back up the hill for lunch at Maddy's Taproom, a couple of blocks down the street from our hotel. Good burger and veggie sandwich with fries. Nice selection of draft. Our waitress was surprised to see that the name on the credit card was the same as her grandfather's.
Only 6.7 km in 3 hours today, but still tired even though we did a lot less than yesterday.
Thursday morning, Thanksgiving Day, we got up early again, and this time managed to get tickets to the National Museum of African American History and Culture for 1:00 PM.
This morning is the coldest Thanksgiving Day in 20 years here and the coldest ever for the New York Macy's Parade. We headed down to the museum in time to arrive just after 1 PM (they won't let you in before the time on the ticket, but you can be later). We toured the 3 stories of the museum, which started with the original slave trade from west Africa, and continued through to Obama's presidency. It turned out to be a good day to do the museum, although the reasonable amount of people may be due to Thanksgiving. We spent about 2 hours there, and skipped the post Martin Luther King Jr era, as we had absorbed enough by then. One comment on the museum indicated that many people take 6 hours to go through. Way too much for us. In addition to the write-ups and displays, there were many videos being run.
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| National Museum of African American History and Culture |
On the way back up to the hotel, in the wind, we stopped at Starbucks for a break.
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