Van appreciation day again. Eurgh. Not much to say about the journey- we mostly slept. However, the whole thing was far more enjoyable than usual, because Alice was sat in the front (and was therefore DJ extraordinaire). We were staying in a KOA in Virginia that night- as close as camping as we really get on this trip (sleeping bags and all!) The only real reason we were in Virginia, is that it was a convenient stop on the way to DC. It reminded us all a lot of England though, which was nice.
We were slightly alarmed (Alice more so than the rest of us) to find out that there were regular sightings of brown bears in the forest we were in. We were instructed not to leave any "trash" out overnight (also as a precaution against skunks. Great.)
Alice and Bessie decided to go for a walk to scout out the toilets. Gillian was a little surprised then, to come out the cabin a while later, and see the two of them zooming around on someone else's golf buggy. Apparently a kind ranger had decided to give them a lift back to the cabin (probably thinking, mistakenly, that the cabin was one of the many further up the hill). Despite the bear rumours, Alice and Bessie decided to go for a walk into the forest, while Gillian and Sas swung on a swing. Unsurprisingly (we all know Bessie's history of getting lost- see the Grand Canyon post if you've forgotten) they got lost. They had to scramble through bushes, and thorns, and got pretty wet. Thankfully, there was still no sign of bears.
Our cabin. There were some photos of us swinging on the swing close up, but they have been deemed far to unattractive to show you all (the phrase 'tree trunk legs' come to mind- too many American cheesburgers I reckon).
That night we ate at a lovely place called Applebees. We stuffed ourselves silly (as we do every meal). Then as we waited for the bill, we had a truly fascinating discussion about what awkward advances the girls on the table had experiences, and what the guys on the table's 'moves' were to get a girl. Good old John (if we haven't told you about him before now, we'll tell you when we're back- he is HILARIOUS) said "I don't need any"; possibly the quote of the day. There were also some pretty amusing stories from the girls.
When we got back to the KOA (see we're so hard core at the camping thing, that we had dinner at a restaurant...) a few people went to bed, and everyone else sat on the porch of our cabin and reminiscied about all the funny thing people (not gonna lie- mostly John- I hope we told you about the Vegas Mugging Incident!!) had done. There are far too many to mention. We were all in fits of hysterics for hours (no exaggeration!) Kat (our tour leader) had had a quick catch up with some of the other tour leaders staying at the KOA, and had a fresh batch of gossip for us- trust us, it was juicy! There were some serious love triangles going on the the other groups (some involving the tour leaders!! SCANDAL!) Needless to say it was a late night that night.
19th June
Got up. Got washed. Packd bags. Loaded trailer. Waited for John. Waited for John some more. Hit the road. Our standard morning routine.
During the 315 mile drive, through Virginia to Washington D.C., we played several games: thumb war, rock/paper/scissors (or rock/paper/atomic bomb in Dave's case), staring competition, fit or fugly, and "how long can you hold your breath?"- which Alice lost).
Next stop was on the hard shoulder for an emergency toilet stop for John (who literally said he would otherwise wet his pants).
Washington is a very clean city- flower beds along the pavements, trees thoughtfully dotted around, no litter, and no bums (which are tramps in Brit English- we discovered earlier that calling them tramps here was a bit risque, considering the term basically means a 'woman of the night'...)
All the girls shared a room (with one other unknown lady from Colorado), and the three guys shared with ten other guys they didn't know, in the Hostelling International branch we were staying in. We walked into China town for food, the waitress had a very funny accent and we were all given an awful lot of "fwide whys".
This is where Abe The Babe (our wonderful new nickname for Abraham Lincoln) was assasinated by John Wilkes Booth.
We wondered around DC at night on an 'Illuminations Tour' of the capital. This is the whole group in a rather eerie pose in front of the Washinton Monument. If you look closely (and have amazing eye-sight) you can someone holding the US flag. Fun game for you.
This is a photo of our "silhouettes" in front of the Washington Monument. I don't think the photographer (John) completely understood the concept...
Abe The Babe in his majestic memorial. After much deliberation (and an incredible amount of confusion) we have come to the conclusion that the inscription ought to read:
In this temple, in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memorary of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.
Engraving punctuation was clearly too much effort.
The next thing we saw was really very emotional and made us all cry. The Vietnam Memorial lists the 58,000 people who lost their lives during the Vietnam War. Today happened to be Father's Day so there were hundreds of flowers and messages left there by family members and friends.
As you can very clearly see, we saw the Obama's Crib. It wasn't ridiculously far away, hidden by fences, or over-run with policemen at all. This photo was taken at 10.59pm and 36 seconds. Twenty four seconds later, the White House was shrouded in darkness because they turned the lights off. I hope you appreciate our speedy photography- it's even clear enough for you to spot the flag (despite us having to optically zoom in about 364198473189 times to make it look this big:)
After the tour ended, we stopped off on the way back to the hostel at a random bar to have some drinks. The over 21s ordered a nice looking pitcher of beer. Unfortunately, in a truly momentous example of stinginess, the waitress told us ominously that they were "watching" us on the outdoor CCTV to check no under age people had even a sip. Charming.
Then we went to bed.
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