Driving through the USA

We're now in Washington, where it's raining and quite cool. We returned the car to Avis at Dulles airport yesterday, and now suddenly feel a bit immobile, having to either walk everywhere, or work out how to use the Metro to get there. Despite the tension of driving from the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road (which I'd nearly got used to after 2 weeks) there was a freedom in living out of the car around the rural areas and smaller towns. We covered 1500 odd miles through 10 north eastern states. In our fortnight of driving from Boston to Washington we been quite amazed at the magnitude of the US roads system, but at the same time surprised at how poorly some of the infrastructure is maintained, compared to Australia.

Autumn Foliage - New Hampshire

Shaker Village Craft Workshop

My last post took our travels to Mt Washington in New Hampshire, which was the northernmost extent of our meanderings. After a dinner at the rather classy Mt Washington hotel and two nights in a somewhat more economic motel nearby, we drove back down through the very colourfully autumn leaved New Hampshire and Vermont forests, stopping at preserved or scenic railways, craft shops, revolutionary war battle sites etc. Of particular interest was our stop last Sunday at the Hancock Shaker Museum & Village, which had a Village Fair this weekend. The Shakers were a religious order, now extinct, who were very much into disciplined lifestyle, self sufficiency in farming, and quality in their construction. The village fair displayed lots of related and local crafts, and it was interesting to get into conversation with several of the locals. It has also been interesting to find how many people we speak to (away from the main cities in particular) do not recognise our accents, often thinking we are British!

Onward down through the western end of Massachusetts, across New York (state); across the Hudson and Delaware Rivers and the corner of New Jersey into Pennsylvania. There was a moment of PANIC when our GPS navigator thought it was time to reboot and would not start, but fortunately it came good quickly. (Bringing the GPS was one of our better decisions of this trip!). We found a pleasant a motel in the village of New Holland which is pretty much right in the centre of the Amish & Mennonite area of Lancaster County, where we stayed for two nights. It rained pretty solidly most of our time there, but luckily there is the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and many antique craft and (particularly) quilting shops. Also lots of quaint looking Amish horse & buggies (which, very sensibly, if anachronistically, have electric tail lights and turn indicators!)

Amish Country -  Intercourse,  Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Moving on, a quick visit to the Hershey chocolate factory, then to Gettysburg, where we immersed ourselves for two days in American Civil War history. A huge museum with an amazing cyclorama painted originally in the 1880s, and comprehensively mapped and marked battlefields all around the town. I have never seen SO many memorials distributed over an area of countryside as are around Gettysburg! Many more than I recall on the WW1 battlefields in France; Every regiment/brigade/ unit of the Union Army is commemorated.

Gettysburg - Battlefield Monuments

Some advice for Mr Lincoln

Continuing south into the tops of Virginia & West Virginia we stopped at picturesque Harpers Ferry, site of more Civil War actions, and through a section of Shenandoah National Park before driving into Washington.

Wright Brothers 1903 Flyer - Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Washington

We've had our share of wet days this last week, but fortunately in almost every town of consequence we have had some of the time – arriving or leaving – with good weather. Today, on our first day in Washington we opted for an indoor activity, and spent the day in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. We've 3 more days here, so hope for a fine one to look around the large outdoor attractions the city has to offer, before we move on back to New York on Thursday.