Thursday was our first day in DC, and we started by meeting up with Connor and Emily. They flew in from Cincinnati Tuesday night and had already had a day of fun in DC! The timing worked out great that it was Spring Break week for Miami University, and it was Connor’s birthday on Tuesday, so we had planned to meet up in DC for a few days at the end of our trip!

Our first stop was the National Museum of African American History. It’s the newest of the Smithsonian museums, opened in 2016, and one of the few that we have not been to. The building itself is beautifully designed, inspired by a West African three-tiered crown. The building is wrapped in a unique bronze metal lattice that pays tribute to the ironwork created by enslaved African Americans in the South.

There are three history galleries, broken down by time periods. They do an amazing job of presenting everything in an informative and understandable way, and there was truly just an overwhelming amount of history to absorb. Obviously we couldn’t possibly have read or interacted with every exhibit in the two hours we spent there. There are also culture and community galleries which we did not see at all…we’ll have to plan a return visit!

From there, we walked a couple of blocks to get lunch at the Ronald Reagan Center…along with several hundred eighth graders there on school trips! And then it was across the Mall to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. We knew it would be an emotional museum to visit, but we have tried unsuccessfully to get tickets many times on past visits to DC and I was finally successful at 7am that morning when they released some same-day tickets. It’s hard to put into words how it feels to walk through and read about the atrocities that the Nazi party inflicted on Jews and other groups in Europe. While we all know the general story of the Holocaust, there is so much more detail and information presented in this museum that continues to horrify and shock us. What a challenging job for a museum curator to figure out how to present this kind of history in a way that is accurate but appropriate for all ages…and it truly is well done. Again, the design of the building itself plays an important role, feeling stark and sterile in many places, but also full of natural light, brick, and metal.

To lighten things up for the rest of the day, we took the short walk from there to the Tidal Basin. We were incredibly lucky that the peak bloom of Cherry Blossoms was happening this week…a bit earlier than usual, and something we never could have predicted when we chose these dates way back in September! Words cannot describe how incredible the Tidal Basin looks, lined with cherry trees in full bloom. The only thing that would have helped would have been some sunshine and blue skies – it was a very gray and cloudy day – but they were still gorgeous. We didn’t spend a ton of time, but did get some photos and take in the scenery before heading to the Metro for the ride back to College Park.

We had a nice dinner at a cute little restaurant that serves food and offers hundreds of board games for those who want to play. It’s near the University of Maryland campus and is surely a popular place for students.

Friday’s plan started at the National Zoo which we haven’t visited in many years. The pandas are always my favorite part of this zoo, and they didn’t disappoint! Such fun to watch them…they really do look like stuffed animals. All of the animals were pretty active since it was a cooler day, so we saw quite a bit. And I absolutely love using my telephoto lens at the zoo…the pictures are so much better than what I cab get without it!

From there, we went over to Arlington National Cemetery. I’ll never forget my first visit back in 1989 and my amazement at how the white headstones are in perfect alignment no matter how you view them. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, we watched the changing of the guards and a couple of wreath-laying ceremonies. We walked over to the Kennedy gravesites, including the eternal flame, and then to the grave of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is buried near several other Supreme Court justices. The view from the hills of Arlington is pretty incredible, too…could see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol, and the Pentagon.

Saturday’s plan shifted a bit when we hit crazy traffic due to some road closures because of a half-marathon being run through DC. We decided it was going to be virtually impossible to get anywhere in the District, so we headed back to Maryland for lunch and an IKEA trip. Connor is planning for his first apartment in Chicago, and wanted to check out some furniture and storage options.

That used up a decent chunk of the afternoon, and after a short rest back at the campground, we drove towards the Baltimore airport. Connor and Emily had a VERY late flight back to Cincinnati, so we had dinner near the airport and went to the massive outlet mall that’s nearby until it was time to drop them off. We left them at the terminal around 7:30pm, and as we were heading out of the airport, there was a police car behind us with its lights flashing…uh oh. So Mark pulled over and the officer told him he had been in an “authorized vehicles only” lane at the terminal. Apparently, the lane closest to the terminal is just for buses or other authorized vehicles, and the outer lane is where cars are supposed to drop off passengers. He said there were signs overhead and to the side, but we honestly never saw them. And, in my defense, I’ve flown out of BWI many, many times, but typically arrived at the terminal on a rental car shuttle bus, and I’m guessing those are “authorized vehicles”, so it all seemed very normal to me! The officer ran Mark’s license and registration and came back with a warning…which, as he acknowledged, since we are from out of state, means nothing. Phew. It was pretty entertaining, however, since last year on our trip to DC, a traffic camera captured Mark speeding while driving our rental car and we received a nice little ticket and invoice in the mail after we got home. So now he’s two for two…after going about 40 years without any tickets. Seems to have an issue in the “DMV” (District/Maryland/Virginia) area!

Saturday night was our last RoVer campground night for this trip…unbelievable that it’s time to head home. We had decided to split the trip home across two days, so we only had about a three-hour drive from College Park to Lewisburg, PA, where we had a hotel room booked. Part of the reason to split the drive was that Mark decided he would have to winterize the RV before leaving College Park, since Rochester still has some cold weather coming…so all the tanks needed to be completely emptied and he uses an air compressor to blow air into the tanks to ensure they are completely free of liquid (since we don’t want it to freeze). All of this takes a bit longer than our usual departure routine, so we didn’t leave the campground until about 11:15. That would have made for a very long day if we were trying to get back to Rochester! It was darn cold in College Park in the morning, too – and windy! We spotted a bit of snow flying around right before we left, as well. Ugh. I guess winter’s not over yet. The drive was annoying more than anything…it was windy the whole way to Lewisburg and there were some stretches of really bumpy road. The most important thing is that we made it to our hotel in Lewisburg safely!

It was really cold in Lewisburg so Mark left the furnace running to keep the inside of the RV at least 40 degrees, so that nothing would freeze…and that definitely made it more bearable when we climbed in Monday morning when the air temperature was about 20 degrees…not quite as cold in RoVer as it would have otherwise been! The drive from Lewisburg to Rochester was interesting…again, super windy and hard to steer at many times. And, we hit occasional snow squalls along the drive where we would go from clear roads and blue skies to near whiteout conditions, and then a few minutes later, back to being clear. Not too far away, maybe 30 miles East, on Route 81 in PA, there was a massive pileup involving more than 50 vehicles, with three fatalities, because of snow squalls…SO VERY GRATEFUL there was so little traffic on Route 15 and we had no issues other than not really enjoying the journey! And it was such a wonderful feeling to pull into the driveway and be home after 55 days away. Like any good vacation, you enjoy the time away, but there’s no place like home!

Unpacking from almost two months on the road is quite a task…and again, with the low temperatures in the forecast, we had to empty pretty much everything to make sure nothing would freeze. We’re mostly done, with just a little more to tackle today. We’ll be doing laundry for weeks, it feels like…but I’m so happy to not have to go to a laundromat to do it! And this morning I had to drive around collecting our mail. The USPS is REALLY inconsistent with how they handled this. They forwarded some mail to our temporary mailbox location, they held a LOT of mail (even though they say they don’t hold mail for more than 30 days), and we know of at least one piece of mail that was returned to sender. Ugh. There has to be a better way…

We put over 1,100 miles on RoVer, and over 3,500 miles on Plum. Keep in mind, the long journeys didn’t add any mileage to Plum while she was being towed, so that’s all from ‘short’ day trips and everyday errands. More than I expected, but more miles = more fun?!?

Anyway, it really was a wonderful trip and we’re both very happy with how well it went. We’ve learned we can live in RoVer for two months…so now the question is, when will we do it again and where will we go? For now, we’re home in Webster for six weeks…then we will head to Ohio for Connor’s graduation. How is that even possible? And it’s time to start thinking about any summer camping trips we might take…although those will likely be short ones and will feel like a breeze after planning for this one. Oh, and I’m so happy to have a dishwasher again…I really missed it.

Hope everyone enjoyed this two month journey as much as we did..and this blog has been incredibly helpful to Mark and I…otherwise, we would never remember all that we did and saw!