Author: kimspathway

Wed 8/8  – 5891 steps
Song: Shoofly pie sung by Dinah Shore or Ella Fitzgerald

We did a tour of Amish countryside with Kathy who used to be a driver for an Amish family. I can highly recommend this tour. Kathy gives you a radio and you (and others) follow her in your own vehicle listening to her speak on the radio. She was well informed and took us to homes of her Amish friends. As you enter the valley, there are no electricity wires to be seen.
The quilts we saw were incredible, all hand sown. We tasted the most delicious apple bread and bought some wonderful hand home-made peanut butter, which does not stick to the top of your mouth. It was clearly washing day and all houses had washing on the long lines that are wound in or out with a pulley system. The houses are immaculate and all have beautiful gardens.
I saw a sign advertising shoofly pie and immediately I could hear my dad sing in my head, “ Shoo fly pie and apple pan dowdy makes your eyes light up, my tummy says howdy” I never realized as a kid that Shoofly pie or apple pan dowdy were actual desserts. I googled the lyrics and found the song. Then I remembered the delicious brown Boston bread we used to eat. It was a round steamed loaf and more like cake except we ate it with a thick layer of butter, yum! I made a note to look out for that when we got to Boston.

After the tour, Kathy recommended Good ‘n Plenty for lunch. This is a family style buffet restaurant, serving Pennsylvanian Dutch food, meaning you sit at a table next to strangers and when there are about 10-12 people, they bring out the food on platters, family style. We had roast pork, fried chicken and stroganoff as the meat dishes with veggies and homemade bread. For dessert, shoofly pie!, It is a pie made from treacle and in all honesty, it was a bit disappointing! However, I found a recipe and will try it at home. The cherry pie and home-made ice cream were very good.
We drove, in the rain, to our campsite in Lehigh Gorge, chosen for its proximity for  cycle trails.
Chuckle of the day: Americans and their dogs

What I learnt: Pennsylvanian Dutch is a misnomer. The Dutch is an incorrect translation of Deutsch but typical of the Americans, they disregarded their mistake and continued, even building windmills at a themepark.
More interestly, from Kathy, so much about the Amish way of life. Here are a few things that stood out for me. The Amish broke away from the Mennonites, to continue in the more traditional life style. They do not have electricity, but use gas or generators. They do not drive vehicles, but may be driven in one. They mostly travel in horse drawn buggies and steel wheeled scooters. They can use fork lifts for heavy lifting. They plough and harvest crops with horse drawn, steel wheeled implements. They can use a shared land line telephone situated in telephone boxes between farms for communication. They have a one room school system.
Most significantly, they don’t waste money building elaborate churches. The old order Amish get together in people’s homes to read the bible, sing hymns and listen to a sermon. Their bishops are chosen to lead the community and are not paid. I wish they could have kept this tradition in Swaziland.

Tuesday 7 Aug –  3367 steps and 15km cycle
Song: I remembered something about ‘Ida, sweet as apple cider’ but could not sing it so it doesn’t count, however, The laughing apple by Cat Stevens I could do.

David went for an early morning cycle. When he returned we packed up and drove towards Lancaster county.
We parked the trailer at an apple cider tasting venue and set off on a cycle through apple and peach orchards. There was such beautiful scenery, just like jigsaw puzzle pictures.
We returned to the RV, showered and went to taste some cider. The place we stopped at because of their signs advertising hard cider tasting, only do cider tasting on weekends! Never deterred, we set off to a new place and even though there were 2 busloads of tourists, we managed to taste their cider and their wine. Wine wasn’t great, but we bought 2 six packs of Jack’s cider, nice and dry. On the way out we found a farm market in an old barn. We found pies! Real meat pies! With pastry! First in USA! They were frozen, but we bought 2 for the cook’s night off.

I had chosen a campsite that advertised that they had a restaurant, so we could walk to dinner, share some wine and stroll home. It was a nice campsite, but the restaurant was about 8 miles away, no stroll home for us. Luckily, we had steak left over from the braai, so I created a quick steak and mushrooms dish and thought of Simon always saying that all we ate was left-overs.
Chuckle of the day: I was cruising up the last hill and David was trying his best to catch me, but couldn’t

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What I learnt: The joy of traveling in an RV is you can shower or go to the toilet in the carpark, wherever you are. Also, a cider in USA is non-alcoholic, if it contains alcohol, it is a referred to as a hard cider. Generally they are nicer here than what I have had at home. Angry Orchard is available at most Walmarts.

Mon 6 August  – 7269 Steps
Song Little boxes by Des and Dawn
Before we left Cherry hill, I went to do the laundry. This campsite has it sorted. The Laundry is next to the cafe, so I could sit and have breakfast while I waited for the machines to do their thing. Now I am spoilt for life.
We had to go via Rockville to fetch David’s bike, and I could see he was itching to ride again, so we decided to do a short drive and stay overnight in Gettysburg.
The scenery was interesting. Ranging from the little houses in Rockville that all looked the same to large country manors in lush green fields. As always, there were churches and the usual yards full of scrap.

Soon we were in apple country and made a stop at a farm stall where they have delicious cider slushies and exciting homemade goodies. We stocked up. As soon as we had checked in at the KOA in Gettysburg, a lovely campground, David was off. He had a wonderful time riding around the battlefields.

I stayed at home and tried to sort through photos. I think I prefer the days when you had 24 or at a push 36 photos on a reel for the entire holiday, not over-countable for every event.
When David returned, he made a fire and we had a quiet braai,  listening to golden oldies.
Chuckle of the day: David’s chagrin about our neighbors fireplace versus ours

What I learnt: Too much choice complicates life. The more choices you have, the more decisions you need to make. Things were easier when you did not have to make so many decisions – which photos to keep, which campsite to stay at…. I am not complaining as I know these are 1st world problems and I am lucky to have them. Just observing. At least I know to always take “the road less travelled”.

Sun 5 August  – 10828 steps
Happy Birthday Sean and Buster

As we were discussing where to go next, I could see that David really wanted another day in Washington – so many museums! We took a metro in and got off at Chinatown. The first thing you see as you come off the elevator is a Mexican restaurant!
We had decided that we wanted to go to the Spy museum first. The queue was already out the door. So we went for brunch at the The Smith, in honor of Richard’s birthday. Thank you Buster, it was an excellent choice. I had something new, a breakfast pie, full of mushrooms, sausage etc with a cheesy biscuit top covering topped with 2 fried eggs. David had an old favorite, eggs Benedict with his rediscovered favorite drink.

By the time we finished the queue outside the Spy museum had shortened and we went in. It was so interesting and well presented, but very busy, even though it is expensive. You had to hustle for space as you came into a new section and wait for a turn at the interactive displays. They have loads of old gadgets used by spies and show how these have developed over the years. They show how spies and disinformation helps George Washington defeat the English, how code breakers gave Queen Elizabeth enough evidence to behead Mary, Queen of Scots, how Ninjas are trained and a lot of various stuff – too many to remember let alone list here. They also have a display of 50 Bond villains and their weapons of choice. A really good museum, we spent at least 3 hours there and did not cover everything. There is only so much you can absorb in one visit.
We hopped onto a bus for a new route to see the other areas of DC, but mostly just to sit for a while. We hopped off before the end, but there was still only time for 1 more museum. There are 11 Smithsonians in the National Mall, 6 others and a zoo, all free to enter if you have the time. We chose the Museum of Native Americans, also free. It is also tremendous. Unfortunately, it closes at 5:30 and we had to leave. We could easily have spent a day in there. I cannot understand why museums close so early in Washington. the place is packed with people wanting to see them.  The evenings are so pleasant, they could easily stay open later.
We found a restaurant en route to the metro and after overeating at their buffet, we took a train home. Lovely day!

Chuckle of the day:

What I learnt: My belief system ties in to what it is to be Anishinaabe. There is so much similarity between the wisdom of the ancient tribes across continents. What a pity most of it is lost or ignored in the modern world.

Sat 4 August – 14157 steps
Song: Lawyers in Love by Jackson Brown

Our first mission was to fix David’s bike. We found the closest cycle shop with the highest rating on Google maps and set off. This involves packing up the RV and driving in traffic, finding parking that is large enough, in other words it is not a simple task. Finally we got there, but they did not have the correct tyre.  So I phone the next shop on the list. I had to speak because David often battles to understand the accent. The first couple of shops I tried would have to order them and then finally we found a Trek shop, who were quite amazed that I thought they might not have the tyre. So we set off to Rockville to drop off the bike. Driving on the highway, you come around the bend and in front of you is this vision of the largest temple I have ever seen. Then it disappears. I googled it and found out that it was The Washington D.C. Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is located in Kensington, Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C. Absolutely awesome! When we got there, they had only 1 of the required 29inch tubeless tyre in stock. Luckily it was a Maxus that is David’s favorite tyre.

We returned to the campsite and took the Metro to Washington. We did the usual hop on hop off tour. I really liked the wavy stone building which is the Museum of Native American History, the Mountain of Hope for Martin Luther King and the art outside the Holocaust museum which is a broken Swasticker and an overturned schoolroom portraying the disruption to so many children lives. I was not brave enough to go to that museum itself.

A ticket to Madame Tussards was included in the ticket for the bus. The figures at this venue were far better than the ones in San Fransisco. More political, but still fun.

We also had a ticket for a night tour. Well, it started at 7:30pm, which is theoretically still day and thus includes a sunset. We had such a good guide, no sun baking us to a frazzle and no traffic. It was a wonderful opportunity for photos and I fully recommend this over any daytime tour. I think my favorite was the Korean war memorial, with steel soldiers and a granite wall with faces. The statue next to the Vietnam wall was also awesome, but I could not face all the names on the wall. Such a waste of life and for what?

Lady in green tent has been protesting since 80s

Korean War memorial

Korean War memorial

next to Vietnam memorial

Chuckle of the day: Einstein’s statue has a shiny nose because apparently people believe that if they rub the nose, some of his wisdom will be transferred to them because, according to our tour guide, easiest way to get to the brain is by picking the nose.

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What I learnt: There are many so museums in Washington DC you cannot hope to see them all in a few days. We decided to spend an extra night, because we had only skimmed the surface.
Also, if you are looking for something specific, phone first!

Friday 3 August   4095 steps
Song: Teddy Bear’s picnic sung by many mothers.

We returned to the parkway for a lovely drive through the woods.

We continued on to Skyline drive, which runs through the center of the Shenandoah National Park. The highlight of the day was seeing a mother bear and her cub foraging on the side of the road. Unlike our parks at home, you are not allowed to stop, and there were cars approaching from behind, so David inched forward slowly, but I managed to get some great shots of the cub.

There were also deer and lovely wild flowers and as we left the Skyline to head to our camp, we got stuck for a while behind a vintage car. Luckily the engine was well tuned and it drove like the wind. We left the tranquility of the rural roads for the hectic traffic going in and out of the towns around Washington DC.

Chuckle of the day:

What I learnt: Sometimes I assume people know what is going on in my head, but they don’t. Maybe I should explain the song addition.
My brain has a constant stream of music flowing around it. I sing all the time. Lucky for the people around me, it is mostly contained inside my head. Sometimes it pops out loud, often to the surprise of pupils sitting in my class. When I hear a word or do something, my brain links it to a song. Probably because as a kid I listened to a wonderful old Springbuck radio programme called “Going for a Song”. One team supplies a word and the other has to sing a song containing that word. It may be our most played family game, making car journeys seem shorter and we have had many good evenings around the bar, getting noisier and noisier.  So I decided I would share a few of the songs in my head. Feel free to add a comment about a song that pops into your head.

Thursday 2 August 4058 steps
Songs: Country roads by John Denver and Pocohontas by Neil Young

Even though it was raining, David started his day with his usual cycle, but returned after 20 minutes. He had ridden over a small metal rod that went through his back tyre and destroyed it.
The upshot of this was that we managed to leave early, which was a good thing as we had a long drive ahead of us. As we left the park , we drove to the view point where you can look down over Virginia and Kentucky.

Then we drove along towards the highway. It is beautiful countryside. Again, you come across towns that are about a mile wide by 20 miles long. They even have superstores in the valley. We went to the highway to cut down some of our travel time by going through tunnels, but the traffic was so backed up because of accidents on both sides of the roads. We saw at least 3 accidents with trucks and another that had come off the road. Traffic going in the opposite direction was at a standstill for at least 10 miles in the first incident. Not surprising though, these huge trucks come racing downhill, around bends in the pouring rain. It was scary, so we got the freeway as soon as we could. We had planned to drive along the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway in any case. Whatever road you are on, you are surrounded by beautiful trees, most of which are deciduous and I can only imagine how spectacular this must be in Autumn.

I was also amused by the creeper that covers everything. I assume it is the same as what we call “Virginia creeper”at home. Wherever you look, you see these jellymould shapes of green.  I guess you have to keep moving or it will engulf you, like some cheap sci-fi horror movie.

On our way, we saw a sign for Pocahontas,  so I did a quick Trip Advisor search and found out that coal mine tours were offered there. Google said they were open. We immediately decided to make the detour. On the way, you cross state lines several times. Sadly, when we got there, it was little more than a ghost town and the mine was well and truly closed. We followed google back to the main road, but it has having problems and took us via the narrowest windy roads. Poor David had to do some hectic maneuvering, especially when a car came from the other direction.

Luckily we soon got onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. It literally runs along the crest of the mountains with valleys on either side. The scenery was awesome, in spite of the mist. We had had a long day and at about 6pm we found a campsite just off the parkway which was one of the best we have stayed at.

Observation of the day: This sticker on a shut down mine in an almost ghost town, his supporters are definitely out there. Maybe they believe he can make it great again.

What I learnt:  Although I only know a little and there are few facts about Pocahontas’ life, there is a romanticism about her that attracts me. I learnt that David feels the same. Both of us immediately said “should we go there?” when we saw the road sign. We haven’t done that for any other of the names, however peculiar, we have seen along the way.  Also, John Denver was not wrong when he said described this area as “almost heaven.”