It’s REAL Rustic

It must be something to do with my accent. Whenever I telephone to book accommodation I seem to throw whoever it is at the other end into a fit of utter panic.

I like to think I sound reasonably normal. But now we are in North Carolina, and we have been in Virginia, and we are going to Kentucky. Whereas most accents involve the occasional mispronunciation of a vowel or two, in this part of the world entire new syllables and grammatical forms are invented round the campfire on long winter nights. As a result, perhaps, Lucy and I are most definitely not from round these here parts (y’all).

We have been staying in a series of beautiful countryside cabins and campsites, yet whenever I call to make a reservation I get a long speech as if the Queen was coming to stay:

It’s rustic (nervous) no, it’s really rustic … it was built in the 1930s (panicked) you have to walk ten yards to the bathroom … wifi only works near the main lodge (really panicked) you may have to run the hot tap a little before it heats up … the fridge is only small … (desperate sounding) the cooker runs on gas … your cellphone might (pause) not WORK!

Despite the physical hardship, we are sleeping ten hours a night. Life is tough.

The Capit(o/a)l

First stop on the road: Washington DC, a pleasant 4 hour drive or so south of New York. This was the only part of our journey where we had pre-booked a hotel (SEE how intrepid we are), which ended up something of a blessing given that James & Lucy’s timing (we’ll leave NYC by noon) proved a little on the [traditionally] optimistic side (left the island about 4….).

Things we loved about Washington?
Air and Space Museum. Totally insipring uber geeky fabulousness!!! With rockets!!!!Rockets!

The Capitol. Totally awesome building. So awesome it got an epic point from James.Capitol

The gadzillions of american flags and eagles we saw. DC is in the midst of a massive upheaval (job creation programmes anyone?), all of which clearly need some highly visual patriotic support.

Flags 1Flags 2

The White House (but also see below…..)

FDR and Martin Luther King memorials; neither of which we took photos of but we do have a lovely picture of James holding up the Washington Monument taken from just by the FDR memorial. Heaven only knows what’s happened to Washington Monument now he’s gone….

Atlas!

Bikes!! Absolutely the best way to get round DC. James’ notion of running everywhere is clearly daft. Not to mention making me sweat and go red in the face 🙁

Bikes

Art….despite a somewhat tragic looking James (or is that the bull??).

Bull

Last but definitively not least, the totally uber awesome robes in our hotel. RRROOOAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Roaar!

Things we were less fond of?
Everywhere being under construction. This, believe ot or not, is the view down the famous reflecting pond. No reflections, no pond, no happy Lucy. Made up for slightly by HUNDREDS of large diggers 🙂

Reflecting pond

Food in the Air and Space Museum. McDonalds anyone? NYC I miss you already

Space museum food

Crowds at the White House. And the fact that this (we’re on a fairly hefty zoom here) is the closest you can get to it without months of forward planning and a large group tour. Humph.

White House

All in, we loved Washington and, remarkably, after 2 days there, we felt like we’d been on holiday for weeks. Still, you know, at the end of the day it’s a (albeit beautiful and inspiring) city like any other…My heart yearns for the open road…