Washington D.C. - Day # 14 - Moving Day

Hard to believe Wednesday marked the end of our fortnight inside the "Beltway" as well as our 15th month on the road.  We arrived two weeks ago with a little apprehension about whether we would find a spot in Beltway Park large enough for our rig, whether we could actually dry camp for 14 consecutive days, and whether we would have enough time to see everything we wanted to see.  Of course we now know we were able to find a spot perfect for our 62 feet, and we were able to successfully dry camp for 14 days even though it rained almost half the time.  We now know that even 14 days is not enough time to see everything.  I'm not sure 4 weeks would have been enough time.  However, we did see everything that was important to us, and we got mostly through 4 Smithsonian buildings....The Castle, the Air and Space Museum, the American History Museum, and the Portrait Gallery.  

Frankly, our visit to Washington D.C. far exceeded our expectations, and has left a lasting impression on both of us.  The most important thing I have learned is that those men and women who conceived this marvelous experiment called the United States of America stand head and shoulders above those who "lead" us today who in my estimation are mere midgets by comparison.  Those men who signed the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor.....how many of our leaders today would not only take that pledge, but actually live it out......sadly, too few.

Usually when we have been sitting in one place for this long it takes a while to put everything away before we can move.  Since we were pretty much gone from the coach most days we didn't get much out.  We were only going to move 80 miles Wednesday so we just took our time packing up.  We also had to dump our tanks again, and "pay the rent".....for those who have recently begun to follow this blog that means filling up the diesel tank.  We came into Greenbelt Park with about 40 gallons of diesel in the tank.....our tank holds 180 gallons.......about as low as it has been for a while.  

On our numerous trips about town we had passed by a station on Greenbelt Road about 2 miles from the park called U.S. Gas that was selling diesel for $3.63 a gallon......that's one of the best prices we have seen in the last year.  While I dumped the gray and black tanks, and washed the front windshield TLE washed the T-Bird.  By the time we had finished our visit to the dump station it was about 12:15.  We arrived at the gas station about 12:30 and began to fuel up.  Amazingly it took exactly $500 to fill the tank.  TLE figured out that we had averaged 6.5 miles per gallon on this last tank, and while that is on the low end of what we have experienced the past 15 months I was expecting lower mileage as we have spent the past 1,000 miles driving through very mountainous country in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

As we merged on to Interstate 495 northbound I noticed it was 1:15 pm.   We came to a rest stop about 19 miles from our Hagerstown destination, and even though we had only driven 61 miles at that point, we stopped and took a break.....we are not in a hurry, and have no appointments so why not?  While I walked around the coach and trailer checking the tires TLE made us some snacks (cottage cheese and celery with peanut butter), and then we took about a mile walk around the rather large rest stop.

We arrived around 3:30 at a Walmart in Hagerstown just off the Interestate, and part of a large mall....in addition to Walmart there is a Home Depot, Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy, Starbucks, Famous Footwear, and many, many other stores.  We were the first RV to arrive on Wednesday, but by the time the sun set there were about a dozen rigs parked around us.  

We took a walk before dinner up and down the entire length of the mall, and then settled in for the evening.....of course there was a Moca Frappuccino along the walk.  For dinner  TLE made delicious Bleu Cheese Burgers (no bun) and a great salad, chased with a  Chocolate Porter.

Tomorrow we'll get out the T-Bird and drive 30+ miles up to Gettysburg National Battlefield and spend the day there.

The RV Ghetto this morning

Thanks for stopping by!!