Washington (last day); move to the country

I'm camped at Hickory Hollow Campground in Rockwood, Pennsylvania. It is about 7 miles from Somerset, PA. I was thinking last night that no one that knows me knew where I was at, so I decided to put my location at the beginning of each blog post.

My last trip into Washington D.C. was to the Museum of Natural History and Chinatown. 

Neat building where I got off of the Metro. It is part of the Navy Memorial.

This was a sculpture in one of the many parks around the city. I'm sure you older more mature readers recognize the thing. Let the younger ones know what it is.

This is a pond in the middle of the Art Park. A family of ducks lives there so they have their own ramp. That would be a good idea for a dog to go in and out a window.

I went into the Museum of Natural History. It is one of the many Smithsonian branches. It is impressive as you enter the door, as you can see in the next picture.

The entrance is on the right.

 

This is what you see as you enter.

Lions and other animals from Africa.

Bears and reindeer from the North.

You exit the building onto the National Mall. The castle is part of the Smithsonian also. Notice the Red Cross aid tent. I'll use it as a point of reference in the next pictures.

Looking up the mall towards the Capitol.

Looking down the Mall towards the Washington Monument. Of the other side of it is the WW2 Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. The chairs are for a commencement ceremony. I didn't find out whose it was, but it was a large class.

This was taken while sitting on a bench in front of the castle looking back at the Museum of Natural History. See the Red Cross.

This highly ornate building is one of the Department of Transportation buildings. Impressive, uh?

Chinatown. I stopped here to get something to eat. Restaurants everywhere, but no buffets. I took a chance, entered one and ordered Chicken with Garlic Sauce. It was pretty good except it had too much celery.

I pulled out of Washington around 10:00 a.m. yesterday morning. I wasn't sure in what direction I was going until the night before. It seems like I'm looking for opposites lately. Just as I went from the mountains of Cherokee, NC to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, I decided the opposite of the big city would be the country, so I headed off towards central Pennsylvania.

That gap in the distant mountains is where the road crosses the mountains. It makes it clear how places like the Cumberland Gap got their names.

The rolling hills of the Laurel Mountain area of east-central Pennsylvania. That road is the Penn Turnpike. Cost me $10.00 to go 50 miles on it.

There is Freedom parked by herself in the empty section of the campground. Kind of symbolic of me traveling solo. According to the people the campground should be filled up by Wednesday. I'm paid up through Thursday at this campground. They are booked up tight for the Memorial Day holiday so they will kick me out Friday morning. I'm looking for a place to camp over the holidays. A lot of places are like this one, and have been booked up for weeks. I would have made reservations earlier but I didn't know where I would be located. If I can not find a campground somewhere, my other choices are truck stops and walmart parking lots. I have a couple calls out for campgrounds and they should be calling me back this morning. Hopefully I'll find a temporary home for the weekend.

The temperature got down to 34 degrees last night and the high today is predicted to be 65. Quite a spread in temperatures and a little lower at night than I wanted it to be, but it's all good.

My plans while I'm here are to see the Flight 93 memorial. Again, you more mature readers can tell the younger ones that this is the place where the plane was forced down on 9-11. The one that only hit an empty field.

My other plan is to see a house that I lived in when I was around 8 years old. It is in the small town of Elizabeth, PA just south of Pittsburgh. I've checked on Google Earth and it appears to still be there, 50 years later. I lived there for about 1 1/2 years or so while my father built the Charlaroi Dam on the Monongahela River. He was the Project Superintendent.

Well, it's 9:00 a.m. here so I'll start calling around looking for a campground. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya.