Day 12 - Washington DC to Philadelphia

This was our comfy room for a couple of nights

At last it’s stopped raining!  We are heading to Philadelphia today.

On the way we decided to find a few more Wherigos seeing as rain had stopped play yesterday – this time Mark drove and I jumped in and out the car.  The roads were much quieter being a Sunday.  By our reckoning we should now be #1 finders in the world for Wherigo caches – whoo hoo!

Driving through Washington DC

We drove into DC and did the webcam that we decided was too wet to walk to yesterday – we were able to park fairly close by as the traffic was much quieter this morning.  It’s amazing just how many passers-by asked if we needed  directions. We met so many friendly people in Washington – a few people we were glad to avoid but on the whole the Americans we've met were courteous and helpful. 

I was shocked at the amount of homeless people sleeping on the streets in the capital, we saw quite a few just lying in the street, in the pouring rain, in broad daylight, some just under a sheet with rubbish around them.

Time for a few more general observations:

• Continual rolling news on TV and radio catastrophizing ‘events’.
• 90% of adverts on TV seem to be  for health related problems, some I’d never even heard of.
• They have no idea how to make coffee and tea is non-existent unless you want it made with tepid water. 

Blue skies!

As we got closer to Philadelphia we could see blue sky and the clouds breaking up – at last the sun has come out.

Checked in at our B&B – a fabulous little apartment in a delightful 4 storey terraced house built in 1836 in a tree-lined street – beautifully done out inside.  Kathy, the owner, was really friendly and welcoming and was so excited that we had come from England   .

241.4 miles

Day 10 - Washington, DC

The following morning we woke to heavy rain, we checked the Washington Metro website and all trains were running normally so we decided to try and make the best of things and go out in it.  We caught the Metro into Washington which took about 15 mins – we got a ticket for the day to hop on and off the metro but ended up only using it to and from the hotel as we walked everywhere so as not to miss anything.

House where Abraham Lincoln Died

Place where Abraham Lincoln was shot

Me at the White House!

Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool

Korean War Memorial

Roosevelt Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

We walked 13+ miles around Washington and saw some amazing sights, including: The White house, United States Capitol, Ford’s Theatre where Abraham Lincoln was shot and the house in which he died, we saw the Lincoln Memorial to name but a few amazing places.   We had a fantastic time despite the rain – to actually visit the capital of the USA was a dream come true so I wasn’t going to let the weather get me down, not for a second.

We headed back to our hotel with soaking wet feet after nearly 10 hours of walking in the rain.

The area where our hotel is situated appears to have been recently rejuvenated but not fully as there are very few facilities.  It was a short drive to a convenience store and an Aldi – the hotel was lovely but we wouldn’t have felt comfortable going out after dark.

No track log today as we left the hire car at the hotel and used the metro.

Day 9 - Altoona, PA to Washington, DC

We checked out of the Motel and headed to the Memorial Day Salute virtual then continued to West Virginia, Virginia and then onto to our accommodation in Camp Springs, which we chose as it was in a convenient location, just at the end of the metro line about 7 miles south of Washington DC.

No coincidence the symbol is 'Heinz' shaped

Pennsylvania is famous for its covered bridges - and what an amazing sight they are

Oh dear

As we drove through Virginia the weather took a turn for the worst and the rain came down in a deluge, we could barely see the road in front of us.  We were listening to the local radio and the Governor made a statement that Virginia was in a 'state of emergency' due to the imminent arrival of Hurricane Joaquin.  Well you can imagine our disbelief!  We weren’t really sure what to think but we could see for ourselves that the weather was not good.  We thought the best option was to head to our hotel, check-in and baton down the hatches until the storm had passed.  The traffic was horrendous but we eventually made our way to our hotel and luckily the room was very comfortable and nicely equipped so we weren’t too concerned about being cooped up, the most annoying thing was that we had planned to head into DC the next day for a full day of sightseeing.

The rest of the evening we watched the rolling news and all the worst-case-scenario reports, just venturing out to a nearby supermarket for a few supplies.  Things weren’t looking great.

As the night wore on it seemed that the worst hit areas were the Bahamas and the storm itself would more than likely hit Carolina worst of all and then head out to sea, hopefully missing Washington area altogether.

274.6 miles