a visit to Washington, then home

Monday April 3 we left  Martinsville to drive to  the Washington, DC area.  We booked into the Greenville Family Farm Campground near Haymarket VA (about  20 miles from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's annex at Washington Dulles International Airport.

The campgrounds had all the connections for water, sewer, electricity we needed.  No WIFI but great cell phone reception. Smart of us to have unlimited voice and data from Freedom Mobile, even in the USA.

We spent most of Tuesday at the Air and Space Museum at Dulles. One word describes it...AWESOME!
We joined in on a guided tour by one of the docents who really knew his stuff.  He had some great insights that we would never have gotten walking around on our own.

There are 5 main attractions here. The Space Shuttle Discovery, SR-71 Spyplane, B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, Boeing 707 prototype, and a Concord SST.
The Space Shuttle is very impressive and even shows the singes of the heat of re-entering the atmosphere. It was always my impression that the heat was caused by the friction with air molecules. Not so. It was due to the massive pressure build-up on the surface. Remember your physics? Compressing a gas will result in increasing its temperature.
The docent related a neat story of the Apollo 11 command module. This mission was in big trouble because there was an problem in the command module and the crew had to return from the moon in the mission module. Before re-entry, they transferred back to the command module that did not have environmental controls. It was very cold inside. After successfully landing in the ocean, the rescue crew opened the hatch and it was still very cold inside, even after the blazing heat of re-entry.

The plane with Boeing is the prototype of the 707.

The Enola Gay is the airplane that dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima

Two historic planes...the 707 prototype and the Concord.

B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay

Aerobatics and ultralights

The first flying car. None have ever been successful.

On Wednesday we decided to head into Washington to see the Smithsonian museums. The best way is to drive to the nearest Metro station in Vienna Virginia. For $20 we rode in and returned, parking included. On the drive back to the campground, it was a 45+ minute drive in the heavy traffic. We are so glad not to have driven into the city!

We visited the Aviation and Space museum downtown. This is the original, before the collection became just to big to house everything. Although it is nice by many standards, it was bit of a letdown after the Dulles museum. There are still many interesting displays, even the Kitty Hawk, and war birds. We were done in a couple of hours and headed to the Museum of Natural History.

Boring. We trailed around for a couple of hours, not impressed by anything. We never left the main floor and maybe there was something there to see but we were pooped by now and decided to head for the hills.

The next day was wasted (rainy) doing laundry in Manassas and shopping. We found a pressure washer at Home Depot of $80. The exact same thing in Ontario is Cdn$188. I kid you not!

Sunday. We headed for home as the weather was going to be nice and warm for the next few days and we hate unloading the motorhome in the cold and rain. We stayed overnight at a WalMart in Edinboro PA, having dinner in town at a nice restaurant. The weather was a very pleasant 25C.

We were home by 2 PM the next day after crossing at Fort Erie with very minimal delay.

 

Corpus Christi, Houston, Martinsville

On Thursday March 23^rd we drove to Corpus Christi.  We booked into the Colonia Del Rey RV Park which was just a 20 minute drive from the USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier and close to the bridge to cross over to Padre and Mustang Islands.  The next day we spent 4 hours touring the USS Lexington aircraft carrier and then drove up to Port Aransas to explore the area. We happened to stop at a sporting goods store just to kill time and ended up getting great bargains on swim suits. Bev really lucked out getting two suits at $20 each and a gorgeous sun dress for $5. Vic's suit were $10 each.

A view of the USS Lexington from the bridge to Padre Island

heading for a tour of the USS Lexington

Giving it a try

We left the Corpus Christi area on Saturday March 25^th to head towards Houston. We stopped at a Walmart in Dickinson (about halfway between Houston and Galveston) and unhitched our tow car to research some of the area RV Parks.  We settled on Green Caye RV Park for $30 per night which was just 6 miles from the Houston Space Center.  

Sunday we drove south to Galveston. We drove around Pelican island touring along the Seawall area, the East End Point, the port area and stopped at the Seawolf Park  to tour a WWII submarine and a destroyer escort ship. 

Amusement park on the pier in Galveston

another glimpse of the rides on the pier

one of the container ships passing by the East End point, site of the remains of Fort San Jacinto

on a dock in the port area of Galveston

Lots of oil rigs

Oil rig that can be toured

The WWII USS Cavalla submarine at Seawolf Park near Galveston

On the deck of the destroyer escort ship USS Stewart at Seawolf Park

Huge container ship passing going into port by Seawolf Park

Monday March 27^th we spent most of the day touring the Houston Space Center which was about a 15 minute drive from where we were staying. We hoped to take the VIP Tour but it was booked weeks in advance. We will have to return in the fall and book ahead.
 

Modified 747 with Shuttle Endeavor replica

Lunar Rover replica. Original is still on the moon.

A real piece of the moon.

Space Shuttle cockpit

Space Shuttle cargo bay with Canadarm

The next item on our itinerary was to drive to Martinsville VA for a weekend of NASCAR racing. It would be a 3 day drive, making it the day before the rain came.

Tuesday March 28^th we left Dickinson TX and stopped for the night at a Walmart in Mobile Alabama. We had driven in 4 states that day:  Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

one of the many crawfish ponds along our route through Louisiana

The following day we drove through Atlanta Georgia and found a nice RV park called Carolina Landing near the town of Fair Play. (south of Greenville SC). This gave us the opportunity to dump the tanks and load up with water to last our stay in Martinsville. Nice park, nestled in the hills and trees and very quiet.
 

Thurs Mar 30^th we started out about 9:15 am.  By noon we stopped at a Rest Area at the North Carolina border to change into long pants as the weather cool (14C and drizzling). Sad to put on long pants for the first time after 4 months wearing shorts. By 2:44 pm we were in our camping spot at the Martinsville Speedway.  We had tickets to watch the Pole Qualifying on Fri, truck race Saturday and STP 500 on Sunday.  Let the fun begin!

Alas, Friday it rained and the practices and qualifying were cancelled.   

Mudsville. And the fun begins.

When it rains, as it often does at this time of year, the campground becomes very slick and soft mud in many places. The guy pulling this 5th wheel trailer is in big trouble. Too much mud and not enough traction. He needed a pull forward to get into position beside his friends .

Saturday was cool and windy but dry.  We were able to watch the practices, truck qualifying and finally the truck race at 3 pm.  Our favourite driver, Chase Elliott won that race!

#23 is Chase Elliott, during the warmup laps.

 Sunday Elliott finished 3rd in the race, part of the Monster Energy Series. 

Turn 3. Elliott on the outside of Larson. Two of the young guns.

Go #24! Chase Elliott is our guy.

 

Vic sporting his Chase Elliott shirt

When it came time to leave many RVs were stuck in the mud from the Friday rain and tow services were required.  In the photos below, even one of the tow trucks got stuck and had to be towed out!

Red tow truck stuck in the mud.

Big Brute tows Little Red.