Our 2003 Vacation was a trip to the east coast. We put a little over 4,000 miles on our vehicle.
Saturday, July 12
We got a late start. The day started with a parade. Cathy is in Ranger Band and they had to march in the Rapid City Optimist Kiddie Parade. The parade started at 10:00 AM and she was done by 10:30. So we headed home, finished packing then loaded up and took off around 12:30 PM. We managed to get all the way to Des Moines, IA.
Sunday, July 13
The day started a little early for some of us. We were up by 6:30 AM CT (5:30 AM MT) so we could eat then go to Church. We found a church very close to the motel – in fact, we could see it from the window in our room. After that, we stopped at a Target to pick up a few things we needed. And after a stop for gas we finally got on the road by 10:30 AM CT. We got through Illinois and Indiana, stopping to spend the night in Lexington, KY. We had a little trouble finding a reasonable motel to stay at, checking with four different hotels before finding one at the fifth stop.
Monday, July 14
On Monday we got another early start, getting up around 7:00 AM ET (5:00 AM MT) so we could get packed up and get a bite to eat before getting on the road by 8:30. We travelled through the rest of Kentucky and through West Virginia. After we crossed into Virginia, we stopped at the first item on our list – the Natural Bridge of Virginia. You can find more about the Natural Bridge at http://www.naturalbridgeva.com. We then headed to Lynchburg to spend the night.
Tuesday, July 15
On Tuesday we headed to Appomattox, where General Lee surrendered to General Grant, bringing the Civil War to an end. It was here that we were able to track down some information about relatives that fought in the Civil War. We next headed east to Jamestown. We visited the Jamestown Settlement where you could see what it was like for the early settlers to the area. Just a short distance away was the actual site. We found a place to stay in Williamsburg.
Wednesday, July 16
Our first stop this morning was Yorktown. We visited the Yorktown Victory Center where you could see what it was like to live there. There were people there dressed in attire of the time, answering questions, demonstrating various aspects of life in the 1780’s. We then headed to Busch Gardens. We were a little disappointed because the maps and signs to the various parts of the park were not very good, plus because of weather, most of the rides had to shut down. But we did enjoy some rides and shows.
Thursday, July 17
This was the day we visited Colonial Williamsburg. This is a unique site because of the mix of old and current. Many people are dressed in 1774 attire and in many cases, they act as if it were 1774. As you stroll through out the area, you quickly learn to only visit the places with flags in front. Many of the homes are used by people today as homes. Walking the same streets as Thomas Jefferson and others, is a unique experience. For more information, visit http://www.history.org/.
After we were done with our visit, we were going to head over to Charlottesville. However, our departure from Colonial Williamsburg was delayed because the truck wouldn’t start. It turned out the battery operated cooler had sucked the juice out of the battery so we were assisted by one of the staff members. We were then on our way west.
Friday, July 18
After we got packed up, ate, and got the truck fueled up, we headed to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. It was pretty interesting being in the same house as he lived. He had a lot of interesting things, including many things that Lewis & Clark brought back with them. However, we could not take any photo’s inside the house, but you can see some by visiting http://www.monticello.org.
After spending several hours there, we headed to Washington DC. We got there early enough so we visited Arlington National Cemetery. We just walked to the various things we wanted to see – JFK’s grave site and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We caught part of the Changing of the Guard. We then checked around for a motel room and found a very good Hampton Inn only a few miles from Washington.
Saturday, July 19
On Saturday morning, we got up and headed to the parking lot at Arlington National Cemetery. From there we purchased tickets to the Tourmobile which included tours of Arlington and DC. We started with the Arlington tour just to hear some more details about it. We didn’t get off as we had visited most of the sites the day before.
The first stop we got off at in Washington was at the White House Visitor Center. We then walked around the White House, then over to Ford’s Theater. Our next stop was in front of the FBI building, then over to the Air and Space Museum. We then got back on the bus for some details about other sites such as the Capital Building, Union Station, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, etc. We next got off at the Jefferson Memorial. We got back on and rode to the Lincoln Memorial, where we saw that and the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials. When then got back on the Tourmobile for a ride back to Arlington. We got back early enough to rest a while before walking to Church, which was less than half a mile away. On the way back we ate at an Italian restaurant. Again we rested a while before loading back up in the truck to go see the memorials at night. It was pretty impressive, we had not done that on our last trip to DC.
Sunday, July 20
Sunday morning has up packing up and heading to Pennsylvania. Our route took us from Virginia, through Washington, DC, into Maryland, Delaware, a detour into New Jersey (so the kids could say they were in NJ) and then into Philadelphia, PA. We had planned to visit the new Constitution Hall and see the Liberty Bell. But with all the construction and crowds, we decided to continue on to Valley Forge. After buying the tape and taking the auto tour, we then proceeded on to Hershey PA. We found out the Hershey Chocolate Factory tours run until 10:00 PM, so we stopped in there, took the tour, got the free Hershey candy bar, ate in the cafe, and made some purchases of – what else – Hershey candies. After that we headed to Harrisburg for the night.
Monday, July 21
Our next stop was Gettysburg. We stopped at the Visitor Center, bought the 2-hour auto tour tape. After a visit to the National Cemetery, where President Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg address, we headed out on the tour. Again, like many of the places we visited, it was pretty interesting actually being at the site of things we had read and learned about in history class. For more information about Gettysburg National Military Park, visit http://www.nps.gov/gett/.
By mid afternoon, we were heading west again. We had some, not so pleasant, experiences along the PA Turnpike. I’ll just say going 30 MPH in bumper to bumper traffic for around 30 miles of road construction is not something I would want to experience again, ever. We finally crossed the border into Ohio and then had some more fun. The rain starting coming down, very heavy many times. Three times we ran into water running across the Interstate. The last time we could actually see well enough to prepare, unlike the first two times. And the water this time was 8-10 inches deep. Nancy was more than ready to stop driving when we got to the motel in Richfield, OH. She managed to pry her fingers off the steering wheel all by herself.
Tuesday, July 22
Tuesday was a driving day. We did take a small detour off the interstate and into Lorain OH to see Lake Erie. They have a very nice park that we stopped in to see Lake Erie and take some pictures. We then headed back to the interstate and crossed into Indiana. Again we made a slight detour to Sturgis, MI, again just so the kids could say they were in Michigan. Back on the interstate we crossed into Illinois just in time to take I-90 right through Chicago. Matt was excited to see the baseball field where the All-Star game was played. The traffic was way to heavy to my liking, but others thought it was interesting. We managed to make it to Janesville, WI to spend the night.
Wednesday, July 23
On Wednesday we continued on I-90. At Wisconsin Dells, we stopped and took a ride on a duck. See http://www.dellsducks.com/ducks.html for more info. We then continued on and made it to Earl & Donna’s, where we spent the night.
Thursday, July 24
In the morning, we got up, ate breakfast, visited a while then back on the road. We got home around 2:30 PM MT.
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