Vietnam War Memorial

As we left the Abraham Lincoln Memorial we walked along the park and pass the Vietnam War Memorial, a large wall full of over 50,000 names of the brave young men and women who laid down their lives in a small country on the other side of the planet. It was sobering to see so many names and to reflect on so many families impacted by such a large sacrifice. To date 5,550 have paid this price in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps it is time to have these, who would lay down their lives for you and me, return home to their anxious families.

The Library of Congress

 The library was a beautiful building. They only would allow photos in the lobby and that's why I can't show you pictures of anything else. Oh well. Hope you enjoy them.

Washington DC

Gen. Andrew Jackson

Pulling into a KOA late that night we booked in for a couple of days and set up our 10ft x 10ft awning that a great guy had just given us at the VW rally in Bath, Maine. It was nice to have the extra space to sit the chairs in the rain, just outside the doors to our bus. Rain. Did I mention that we have been in rain and cloudy weather since we left Boston. Its been quite a while. And pour. It's what I call "Forrest Gump Rain." That's rain that comes at ya from all around. From the sides and even up from below!  Well it was some heavy rain and on the day we packed up to leave the KOA campsite we wanted to head into the city and walk about and see the sites. The rain let up. The sun came out and we had looked up a parking garage the night before... TomTom'd it and pulled into it at 7:45am. Parking the bus, we grabbed our backpacks with our laptops and headed out, excited to see the sites of this historic town. Walk... and walk... and walk. We walked our feet off!

Closed Wash. Monument

The Washington Monument was closed due to fractures from an earthquake they had here! The huge reflecting pool that sits in front of the Lincoln Memorial, (the one Jenny runs through in that Forrest Gump movie I mentioned earlier), well it was totally torn up. Ripped to shreds. It looked like downtown Beirut. I guess this is where all the Stimulus money is going. Beatifying Washington.

What was the Reflecting Pool

Anyhow we walked around the mess to go see Abe. He looked so majestic sitting up there looking down over the mess that used to be his pool. The building was truly impressive. I was glad to be there and to take the time to read all the writing on the walls of this shrine. Abraham Lincoln's words. His address after the war had ended.

Abraham Lincoln Memorial

Now, I was under the impression that the Constitution was on display at the Library of Congress.  So we began the long walk back up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capital Buildings as the Library is behind them. Now the Library of Congress in a beautiful building and hosts Thomas Jefferson's personal library. You can't check out these books for a weekend read... but you can flip through them on computers as they have digitally scanned all the pages of the books and have them there on computer screens for you to read. Neat eh?

No Constitution though. And having spend numerous hours listening to the only politician that actually knows what it says and stand by those hollowed words, Ron Paul. I had to see this document and get a copy for myself. The guards kindly informed me that the sacred papers are on display at the National Archives and that this building was on the way back to our parking garage anyhow. So we made another stop. Hustling through the crowd of school children who had just showed up and were apparently being carefully examined by security we made our was to the large domed cathedral like chamber. With subdued lighting and marbled floors I took the time to notice every detail wanting to emblazon the experience into my mind. There were no photos allowed in the National Archives. Sorry.

Manchester Car Show

Car Show in Manchester

We were heading to Washington DC, and taking the side roads which we were getting accustomed to. They are quieter and I can still do about 55 on most of them down here. No big semi's barreling past either. On the way down one of these little roads we noticed a sign for a "Car Show" in a tiny town called Manchester. Why not! We turn into this one street town to see the whole street just full of cars. We pay our 10 dollar entry fee and in we go. I suspect we were the last car in... as they took us to the centre of town in the middle of the road and had us park right there... in the middle of everything. It was like the spot was saved for us!

It didn't take long for the crowds to form and Tracey, standing by her door must have told our story 40 times or more that afternoon! I thought she was going to lose her voice. I stood at the back with the big door up and the engine door up. She looked pretty with her new chrome carburetors shining back there. I was content to stand a bit back, munch on a hot dog and listen to folks comment on her. We stayed until the show was beginning to break up and then made a quick exit to keep going on our journey to the nation's capital.

Boston

Boston
It was a very busy time of year for us, workwise. Therefore, you may be disappointed to learn... we got no pictures of Boston. Besides the place was a disaster as far as roads go. You may as well had driven a tank over the roads. The same goes for Virginia Beach... but I am getting ahead of myself. One of the places we did stop in was a nature preserve and the look off was at the top of this hill. There was a tiny parking lot there and we happened to get a spot off to the side. My perfect spot for parking is at the end of a lot or right beside a handicap zone. That way it is unlikely that someone with park, at least on one side of the bus. There ws quite a few people coming up to this look off point and a crowd quickly formed around our bus as I busied myself with the work of making our lunch. Tracey did the story telling as she likes that quite a bit I think. The crowds listened intently forgetting for the time being why they came there in the first place. The wonders and beauty of nature surrounded them, but everyone was enthralled by Olive.

September 11

We drove from Bath down the coastal highway, enjoying the views of the ocean and countryside. The small quaint towns were nice enough but we didn't really stop in them to spend any time, as we did want to move onto our next destination.... Boston. I took a picture of the flag at half mast, as all were down here at that time.

VW Camping Event in Bath, Maine

Now off to our VW Show in Bath, Maine.



Bath.
We were on our way to the VW show and stopped into a small town along the highway. Bangor. He we stayed a night, got some work done and I wanted to switch out the spark plugs in favor of some real German plugs. I had left Tracey at a local Starbucks and, having ordered the plugs the day before, heading down to the auto parts store to pick them up. I pulled into the parking lot intent on doing the switch out right there in the parking lot. No trouble. Old ones out. New ones in.

Just then a orange VW pulls up beside me. Out hops a young guy named Scott. He says, "Hey are you Mark?" I look him and his bus over and reply, "Yes, who is asking?"  He pulls an envelope from his pocket and says, "My name is Scott, and I think I have some mail for you."

We share a laugh as I thank him for the envelope and explain. I had noticed while we were back in Canada... going around the Gaspe Penninsula, that my license had expired. Calling back to BC I had arranged to have a replacement license mailed out to the address of a fellow VW'er named Gary, who we had met in Nova Scotia. He actually lived in New Brunswick, and we were going to be passing by his place on our way to the USA. Well, as we got to Gary's house, he was not there and we had to keep moving, but we knew he was coming to the VW event in Bath, Maine so we figured he'd bring it with him. Well, it turned out he couldn't make it with his bus, so he gave our mail to Scott who was coming. Scott and his wife just happened to be stopping in Bangor and spotted our green bus. And there you have it.... I got my mailed delivered 6000 km from home. lol.

Bath VW Event
This was the largest assembly of VW Buses we have seen yet. There must have been 50 buses in attendance. We were peppered through the woods and had just marvelous sunny skies during the day and evenings of starry wonders to keep us up at night. We all were hosted by a campsite that gave us a remarkable rate for the weekend and the organizers cooked up a lobster and clam dinner for all of us. In the morning that we were all going to leave, a parade was organized and 50 or so VW Campers headed down the highway to a local beach to all park in a row and show off a bit. There were special draws and prizes awarded, but we didn't win anything, except the admiration of all in attendance. If it was a show n shine, I am sure we would have come away with something more then the fond memories we have now.

From Canada with love

Fredericton was not better than St. Johns! Now for those of you who love New Brunswick... let me apologize now. But there was nothing we found endearing about the province in our trip down the east coast or this journey up it's middle towards the US border at Houlton.

Making it to the border, as we had decided to press onto a VW event someone had told us about in Maine, we pulled into the lineup expecting the same basic questions we got when we popped over the border in Montana. Not so lucky. "Pull over please sir, you have randomly been selected for a more thorough examination." Deciding it best not to question this 'random' selection, we pulled over. Instructed to leave the vehicle, we made our way into the inner chambers of the US Border Office. Leaving Olive unlocked as instructed their crew carefully went through our vehicle, just outside our sight, as we anxiously waiting within. Young office DoingLittle decided that wasn't enough, so he calls me into a separate interrogation room to ask me some more detailed questions.

Walking into this tiny room was did not bother me as much as the small bench which sported hand cuffs on either side. Quietly I sat down as Sgt Bilko looked about for a note pad. Pulling the pen from his pocket and making some doodles on the newly discovered pad, he began asking me a series of questions. How long do you intend to stay in our country? Are you planning on recruiting clients in our country? Do you have any relatives in our country? He made it quite clear that they were considering "Deporting" me. Then he corrected himself and said... well just refusing admission into "His Country." But I suppose after he was satisfied with my answers, our passports were returned and we were allowed to return to our Olive. Now we were expecting to have to put her back together again, but to our surprise, there was a large stainless steel table on wheels beside our bus, but nothing was on it and she was neat as we left her. Whew. We got into the states.

Leaving Nova Scotia

Digby Ferry heading to New Brunswick

Digby ferry to New Brunswick was our next trip. The boat reminded us of home and the expensive 1 1/2 trip to Vancouver. However, there was no picturesque city awaiting us on the other side. St. John, NB was a disastrous town. Industrial and dirty the whole feel of the place was like driving into a large refinery. It was labour day when we came in and it was as though everyone had been beamed up to the mothership! There was no one home. No one on the roads and the stores all closed. I guess there was something good on TV. The only thing of note was meeting this fine gentleman and his wife (names escape me), who had traveled the world in their RV. If you zoom into the map displayed on the back of his RV you can see the route he has taken and the territory covered. It was quite impressive and it got me thinking about doing a map like that for our Olive. That was it for St. John, though... early in the morning we were out of there and heading for Fredericton.

The Bay of Fundy

Biggest Tide in the world

Before we left Nova Scotia, several had told us about a neat driving towards a provincial park, which would be a nice place to spend the night. Well, everyone says things like, "Its just 20 minutes to this place, or it's only 10 minutes to get to this other place". The reality we have found is quite different. Forty minutes of driving and we still weren't there. It was very dark by now and the stars were bright in the sky. Our twisting and winding road kept snaking it's way across the country side and with no real signs to guide us, Tracey was beginning to feel anxious. We both like to reach our night rest stops well it is still light out to scope the place out a bit. Not to proud to ask for directions, and realizing we are in the friendly province of Nova Scotia, I pull into a farmer house drive way and knock on the door. Making sure that the lights were on first, of course. A nice guy comes to the door and confirms I am heading in the right direction... just a bit more he assures me. I felt if we had of kept the conversation going a bit more he would have offered to put us up in his backyard! Well, we got there and it was too dark for photos and as we had to make an early go of it in the morning, it was straight to bed. Up to early for photos and there you have it. Nothing to show for the trip. lol.  Now on the way out I had noted this little bay just off the road, and so on the way back we pulled in here for breakfast. The tide had pulled out and left the boats 40ft down on the mud. It was shocking to see and as we were making breakfast, up from below climbs a fisherman. Apparently living on his boat. We talk and exchange some stories. He is a rough fellow with hands that are cracked and leathery with years of hard work and salt air. His smile is broken with missing teeth but his spirit is not broken. Smiling and pleased to see us and the Olive he is quick to share his blueberries, that he seems to have in abundance as he hands over a large grocery bag full. Now we had our fill with blueberries and not the room in the fridge to keep them. There was however, another VW owner who had pulled in to see our bus and share a tale or two about our mutual passion. He was glad to have the berries, and was thinking about how his wife was going to use them in their tasty breakfast.

East Coast Blueberries

I had never actually seen blueberry bushes before. It is just one of those things you never really think about. Where do blueberries grow? Where do they come from? For instance, did you know that pineapples actually grow on bushes and not trees?

Blueberries Everywhere

Well, we were driving down another little back road in Nova Scotia, and chatting about the beauty of the land and the fertility here. Everything grows. We passed corn fields on our left and onion fields on our right, and a bit more up the road as we just made it over a little hill, fields and fields of blue berries. There was a little restaurant there, where they also invited people to pick their own baskets full of the tiny royal coloured nuggets of tastiness. We stopped as it was beginning to rain as I was craving a piece of pie.

We met a lovely waitress whos' family owns the restaurant and we discussed minimal living, family and her upcoming wedding! Upon leaving she was exciting to learn we were driving and living in our VW Bus. Well, after the tour she wanted to show us just how much of a VW fan she was. Turning around rather quickly, she pulls her pants down!!!!.... just enough to reveal the VW logo tattoo she had just above her... well, you get the picture.

Beers and Macs

We had settled into a nice afternoon at a street side pub in the small university town of Wolfsburg in Nova Scotia. Having struck up a conversation with the couple beside us... we discovered that they were from the beautiful state of Georgia. Atlanta to be specific. Which was great as this was one of the places we wanted to visit. Myles Smith and Ortrude White.

They were kind enough to snap a photo of us after Tracey had spilled a beer on her Mac. They don't actually go together... drinks and a laptop. Fortunately it dried up nicely and all was well. We hope to see Myles and Ortrude in about October.

Our Private Beach Night

Famous Painter Roger Savage

We arrived in Liverpool, on the south shore of Nova Scotia and pulled into renew our water supply. Up to the bus walks Roger, a local and well known artist. Full of smiles and laughter we share stories and Roger recommends a provincial park a few minutes out of town. But he informs us of a small private road that few know about, which we could take the bus down right to the end of a jetty and enjoy the private sandy beaches and ocean view, camp for the night without anyone disturbing us. We take his advice and find this beautiful spot.