Wow, time is streaming by at a rapid pace. It’s been two weeks since I posted and
feels like about 3 days.
As I mentioned in our last post, we made it to
Virginia after a wonderful three weeks in Tennessee. We started out from
the Wautaga Dam and headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway. Heinz
thought it would be nifty to drive the Parkway in the RV (towing the Honda), so we scheduled 3 days
to complete it, figuring on roughly 100 miles per day driving distance.
Several people, including me, had told him that it would be a slow drive due to the twisting road (read: may not be the best idea), but you know the German mentality. Well, after covering 70 miles in 5 hours
Heinz admitted that driving a 40 ft. RV (plus toad) was not really a whole lot of fun. With all the curves and
hills, not to mention the 35-45 mph speed limits, he had absolutely no time to enjoy the views along the drive. When we encountered a road
construction detour that took us off the Parkway, we took full advantage of the opportunity/excuse and headed
for the Interstate. But the Parkway section that we did drive was absolutely gorgeous with
scenic overlooks about every mile or so. It would be a perfect drive in a car - even better still on a motorcycle!
Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway
We arrived in Roanoke
late on a Friday afternoon, two days before we had planned to be there.
We pulled into the parking lot of a Camping World on the
edge of town and went in to get a Rand McNally GPS 7710 - a model designed for RV
use. While checking out, Heinz asked the clerk where we could find a
good campground for us to spend the night. Her reply was, "Right where you're
at, just stay in the parking lot" - so we did.
We had begun to hear strange swishing noises in the power steering system as we pulled into Roanoke, so the next day Heinz went back into
Camping World to speak with the technicians. They recommended another shop
in town since they had no mechanics trained in that kind of work - we'd have to wait till Monday to get it checked out. Camping World invited us to stay in their parking lot over the weekend, and pointed out their dump station if we needed to drain tanks or fill up with
water. Since it was a free spot
for 3 nights, we smiled and took them up on the offer. We spent Saturday
poking around Roanoke, checking out the City Market area, a British sports car meet, hanging out at
Panera's sipping coffee, and going to the movies (The Avengers).
Sunday we hopped in the car and drove over to Appomattox Court House National Park. Think back to your American History
days and remember the Civil War lectures (if you’re Southern, just remember,
period). Appomattox Court House is
where Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General
Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the Civil War. Over the years after the surrender, the village slowly died
away, the buildings either burned down (the courthouse) or began to
disintegrate (houses-including the McLean house where the surrender was
signed). In the 1930’s Congress
bought the land and after WWII, work was begun to rebuild/restore many of the
houses and outbuildings. In 1954,
the area was designated a National Historic Park. Today the village looks much the same as it did in April 1865.
McLean House (reconstruction), site of Lee's surrender
Volunteer re-enacting the role of a US infantryman telling about the surrender.
On the way home from
Appomattox, we stopped in Bedford, VA to see the National WWII D-Day Memorial. This is
an amazing and moving place. The
memorial is on 88 acres at the top of a hill outside Bedford. We took a guided tour of the grounds
and got a much-appreciated explanation of all the imagery and the symbolism of
the various spots within the layout.
The grounds are laid out
in a manner that reflects a narrative chronology beginning with the planning
and preparation for D-Day in England.
Quoting from the Memorial’s brochure: “With its circular folly, symmetrical
sculpture and decorative plantings, the Memorial’s northernmost component,
establishes England as the starting point. The folly’s Classical Revival form nods in the direction of
the architecture of both Norfolk House at London and Southwick House at
Portsmouth, where much of the planning for D-Day occurred.” This area includes a larger than
life-sized statue of Gen. Eisenhower, busts of all the other top brass, and a
flower garden in the design and colors of the “SHAEF” patch (Supreme
Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) worn by members of the
command unit.
As you move through the
Memorial you next come to the Invasion Plaza, with the ground divided into five
segments representing the five beaches invaded on D-Day and surrounded by wall
plaques bearing the names of all Allied personnel killed that day. At one end of the plaza are elevations
representing the casemates and bunkers encountered by the invading forces and a
pool of water with hedgehogs (German obstacles used to scuttle landing craft,
not little furry critters). There
are sculptures of men crossing the water, dying on the water’s edge and scaling
the wall. The pool contains fountain
spray heads adjusted to simulate the impact of enemy gunfire - they are set to
randomly explode. In addition,
there is a noisy waterfall by the viewing bridge leading the viewer to have a
symbolic sense of the chaos and noise of the invasion. The plaza is flanked on either side by
monuments to the Air, Coast Guard and Naval forces taking part in the
invasion. I didn’t know it
until our tour, but the Coast Guard were in charge of sailing the landing craft
on D-Day due to their expertise with small boats. The middle sculpture of the men climbing the wall leads up
to the Victory Plaza dominated by the Overlord Arch. The arch is topped with the black and white stripes used on
all aircraft flown by the Allies to easily differentiate them from enemy
aircraft in the heat of the battle.
Invasion Plaza
Invasion Plaza
Overlord Victory Arch
There is LOTS more
symbolism in the Memorial, so if you’re ever in the area, be sure to stop in
and see this commemoration.
Once Monday came around,
we got the rig checked out and fixed, but that took most of the day, so we
spent one more night in Roanoke. Tuesday, we packed up and
headed out to Charlottesville, VA. We spent two nights in the Charlottesville KOA there, a
peaceful, woodsy location a few miles outside of town. While there, we spent several hours at Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. We took full advantage of all the guided
tours on offer, including the garden, and the downstairs and upstairs tour (just
recently added) of the house.
Monticello.
Did you know that this famous view is actually the back of the house?
We also spent an afternoon
driving the Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park (leaving the RV parked this
time!). Formed from over 1,000
privately owned tracts of land the Shenandoah started as a patchwork of forest,
fields, orchards, and home sites and was dedicated as a national park in
1935. Have you ever noticed how
many of our national parks and monuments were dedicated during the years of the
Great Depression? This park along
with many others was a worksite of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a make-work program of the Depression era that put
unemployed young men to work building roads, hiking trails, visitor centers,
and monuments throughout the national park system. Workers were paid $30/month, of which $25 was
sent home to help support their families, and $5 issued to the employee. My own dad was a proud employee of the
CCC’s, working at Colorado’s National Monument outside Grand Junction.
Shenandoah Valley from Skyline Drive
Tunnel along Skyline Drive built by CCC boys
Next stop: Washington
DC. We stayed at the Fort Meade FamCamp in Maryland and took the Metro into downtown Washington for several
days.
We spent our first full
day wandering the National Mall looking at the
various monuments, even taking the time and energy to walk around the Tidal
Basin to view the Jefferson Memorial up close. It was a beautiful spring day, warm, sunny, and relatively
un-crowded as it was a workday and schools were not yet out for the summer. It was also a peaceful day, drifting
from monument to monument while discussing history and philosophizing, not hard
to do when surrounded by monuments to great men who accomplished great deeds
and average Joes just doing their duty.
Altogether we spent time at the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans
Memorial, Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial, WWII Memorial,
Washington Monument, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Roosevelt Memorial,
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Women’s
Memorial.
Lincoln Memorial
Washington Monument
Jefferson Memorial
Designed by Maya Lin in 1982, the Vietnam Memorial caused major controversy with many calling it a "black gash of shame." Her concept was that the wall would be a quiet protected place in the midst of the city bustle. The walls have a mirror-like surface of black granite reflecting the images of the surrounding trees, lawns, monuments, and visitors, leading a visitor to see that the names inscribed will always be reflected in memory. The walls stretch into the distance toward the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial and inscribed in chronological order by date of casualty are the dead and missing. Names begin on July 8, 1959 and end on May 15, 1975. Ironically, despite the initial controversy, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is now the most visited memorial on the National Mall.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, aka, the Wall.
Due to public pressure for a “traditional” memorial, in 1984 the planning committee added a sculpture sitting slightly above and facing the Wall. The three figures are clothed in uniforms with no insignia or rank, representing all services and ranks that served. There have been multiple interpretations of the meaning of the sculpture with the top three being that the men are coming out of the jungle and stopping in disbelief at the number of names on the Wall; that the men are stopping to look for their own names on the Wall; or that it is simply the “thousand yard stare” of combat veterans.
The Three Servicemen
Starting from the day it was dedicated many visitors have left items at the wall. Over the years, items ranging from flowers and food to cigarettes, love letters, and even a Harley-Davidson motorcycle have been left. All items except food and flowers are collected daily and placed in a warehouse for preservation.
Tribute left at the Wall.
Dedicated to the women who served in the Vietnam War, Vietnam Women's Memorial depicts three uniformed women tending a wounded soldier. The figure looking up is Hope, the woman praying (not seen in photo) is Faith and the woman tending to the soldier is Charity.
Vietnam Women's Memorial
The next morning saw us
up, rubbing our sore feet and heading out to Dulles Airport and the new Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. This is a fascinating place with
displays of aircraft from the Wright brothers to the space shuttle
Challenger. We planned on spending
around three hours exploring and ended up leaving when they closed the doors on
us. Unfortunately, our fascination with the aircraft meant that
we were too late to get into the National Cathedral and Arlington Cemetery, our original plans for late afternoon.
Static display at the museum
Red Devil, 1911
Space shuttle Challenger seen behind the wing of an SR-71
Day three in Washington
found us sleeping in a bit followed by visiting the National Museum of the American Indian.
We were both somewhat disappointed in this museum and didn’t feel that it
met our expectations of quality usually associated with Smithsonian museums. We wandered through the exhibits hoping
to find something that would capture our interest, but it simply didn’t
happen. Many of the displays are
dark with lights that reflect off the glass making it even more difficult to
see the items. The overall effect
of the museum felt like a high school history project focusing on every tribe of the Americas (north and south), emphasizing the
sociological impact of the white man on the Indians, rather than the
culture of the peoples. We thought by including every tribe of the Americas, the museum failed to paint a cohesive story of any sort. Oh well,
can’t win them all I guess.
South American embroidery with dragons
Next we traveled down the
road to the National Geographic Museum on the
first floor of the Society’s office building. This is truly a small gem of a museum and should be a “don’t-miss”
if you’re visiting Washington.
That day there were special exhibits on Samurai history and the sinking
of the Titanic. Heinz and I both
felt that in three rooms of the Samurai exhibit we learned more about the
history and culture of the Samurai than we had about the American Indians in a
four-story museum. In addition,
the museum has a rotating display of National Geographic Magazine photos. Overall, the Samurai display was well worth the visit, but no pictures were allowed. Though pictures were allowed, the Titanic display was... so-so.
Model of the Titanic on the ocean bottom.
