National Mall - Day # 3

What a difference one day makes!  Saturday, although cold, was clear blue skies....the first we have had in a while.  I did say it was cold, right?  I got up first, as usual, turned on all three gas heaters,  got the coffee started....we've been perking since we left Huntington, WV....then turned on the BIG generator to put some power back into our house batteries......the battery bank was down to 75%, which is as low as they have been for a while.  Since we have had no sun, and we don't leave the generator on when we are gone we have been slowly drifting down further each day.  The big generator can put juice back in the batteries quickly when they are that far down, and within a couple of hours we were over 80% again.  By the time we left for another day of site seeing we were back to 85%.....now if we can just get some sun into those solar panels while we are gone!

We arrived back in our familiar stomping grounds around Noon time, found a parking spot about 1/2 block from the National Air and Space Museum and headed over to see how much more we could see.  As you might imagine, this museum is quite large, and is very, popular.  We thought it was busy on Friday, but Saturday was another whole level of BUSY....at times we were literally walking sideways to make headway from one exhibit to another.  

We started out in the Wright Brothers exhibit, which is really where it all starts, right?  If not for their exhaustive, multi year research into the physics of flight we would not be where we are today.  We probably spent well over an hour just reading all the information about their methodical study of flight, and applying what they learned to building a series of gliders, which led to the 1903 controlled flight under power.

This is the actual plane that they flew under power......amazing.  They would spend several more years in secrecy before they would patent their flying machine not only in the U.S., but in many European countries, and let the world see what they had invented.  As a result of their secrecy there were many skeptics who later had to eat their words.

Within a few decades the world had changed forever.  Distances that used to take weeks, months and years to cover could now be covered in days, or hours by plane....the world got smaller.  By 1969 we, the USA, had a man walking on the moon......all because of the methodical, dedicated, amazing research of the Wright Brothers....bicycle manufacturers by trade.

DC-3

 The X-15

 The first German missile, the V-1 Rocket, or Buzz Bomb, used in WWII to bomb Britain

 The lunar landing module

 The more advanced German V-2 Rocket

We had to move the car around 2 pm, and were able to find free parking behind the Smithsonian along the Mall for another 3 hours, and headed back into the NASM.  In all we spent 5 more hours Saturday in this museum, and still did not see every single exhibit, but we saw all we wanted to see....our brains were full, and our tummies were hungry, so we called it a day and headed back toward Greenbelt to a micro brewery I had found on Yelp called Franklin's Restaurant, Brewery, and General Store in Hyattsville, MD....about 4 miles from Greenbelt Park.  Yelp gives it 4 stars....I would give it a solid 5.  Franklin's is located in an upscale, improving neighborhood.  It is two stories high, and has a wonderful atmosphere to go with the great craft beer, and fresh,  vibrant food.  We each ordered the house Munton Chuck Porter, and to eat I ordered the Glorious Gloria grilled chicken sandwich.......I cherished every single bite!  TLE got the Roasted Asparagus, Roasted Beets, avocado, hard cooked eggs, Cherry Glenn goat cheese, toasted almonds, greens, Champagne vinaigrette (taken right from the menu....that is a mouthful, no?)

We arrived "home" around 7:30 to find the solar panels had done their job and gotten us back to 90% on the house battery bank.....that is as high as we have been for over a week now.  Sunday's forecast is for sunny skies once again, so we are hoping to get around 95%, or higher on Sunday.

I watched parts of a couple of NBA playoff games, then read until around 10:30 before my eyelids started drooping, so I put away my Kindle and headed for dreamland.  I think Sunday we'll take a day off from site seeing, and do some bike riding, and laundry.  We had wanted to ride into D.C. on our bikes Saturday, but it was very windy early on, and very cold, so we'll see what kind of weather Sunday brings.

Thanks for stopping by!