Easy couple of days

Since last we talked, I travelled from Fredericksburg, Virginia to my brother Tim's house in Crofton, Md and back again. In between there were a couple of notables.

First was during the trip north on Saturday morning. I started early (7 a.m.) and, although traffic was typically heavy (yes, even on Saturday morning) it kept moving and so did I. I travelled up I-95 until near Alexandria where I picked up I-495 for the cross town trip over the Potomic River. As I headed east over the river I crossed the state line into Maryland, but there was no way to stop and take my picture. I may have been able to stop on the shoulder (safely?) but blending back into traffic would have been nearly impossible. So I kept going, figuring I could get one at another time or location.

I arrived at Tim's by 9:45. After some catching up we went out to breakfast at a place named Grumpys which was just down the highway from Tim but he had never seen it before (I spotted it while doing a U-Turn when trying to find his house)!

We later travelled back to the south west quadrant of D.C. to go to Mount Vernon, the plantation home of our first President.

 I had never been there before and Tim had not been there for many years. We walked from building to building checking out most of the facilities and grounds (I know Betty would have loved and spent a lot more time at the garden). 

There are so many people visiting that, when you buy your ticket it has a time printed on it when you can get into line to wait to go into the mansion! This is there way of trying to spread the crowd out over time and give you the opportunity to see the rest of the grounds while waiting for your "appointment". But the time is only a suggestion of when you should get in line, it doesn't help shorten the line. Rather than stand in a line that was perhaps 100 yards long, in the sun, we skipped the mansion and toured the museum which, I thought, was very well done with creative displays mixed with videos which were also uniquely staged. They would have, for example, a scene staged inside a barn. The window would be open and through the window you would see a screen showing British Soldiers assembling outside as if you were looking through the window and saw them outside.

On the way back to Tim's he told me to get my phone ready to take a picture of the Welcome To sign. But I was too slow and missed it.

Today (Sunday) we went to a Go Kart track so I could run circles around him. It was a lot of fun and something we had not done for quite some time. My kart was blue and orange and I didn't even request it! 

They had an unusual set up where you had to stop every time around and give them a ticket to take another lap. It sounded worse than it turned out to be because the track was a half mile road race course with a nice lay-out. That being said, it would have been nice to continue to run lap after lap.

After dinner at Bob Evans (Betty's favorite) I said goodbye to Tim and headed south on a state highway instead of the Interstate.

 Traffic was steady but moving and I quickly found myself at the toll gate of the bridge over the Potomic. The lady at the toll booth said there was a place to pull off on the south end of the bridge, so I was able to walk over and get a picture of the Welcome sign looking back in to Maryland.

I was very happy that I was heading south as the traffic backed up in the north bound lanes (people headed back into D.C.) was backed up in both lanes for (by my measurement) for three miles!

Tomorrow morning I'll roll out slowly and head toward the Fredericksburg Battle Field park, then over to Yorkstown. My idea is to head across the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel before rush hour.

We'll see how that works out.