Hello! I haven't abandoned the blog. My computer is failing, so we sent it to our guru for help. Internet connections at the campground outside of D.C. were very slow . . . blah, blah, blah. Here is a recap of recent events with photos to follow on another post.
It's pouring rain as I type this and we are warm and dry. However, about a month ago we were not as dry as we'd thought. Before leaving Colorado, Craig repaired a leak in the window in the bunk bed over the driver's area. Somewhere in Amish country, PA, at 9:45 one evening, Craig realized part of Garvin's mattress and a blanket were soaked. The blanket was so wet, water was dripping off it when we brought it down from the bunk. Craig took every plastic tub, container and storage cube we had and propped them under the mattress to dry it, and the bunk. The leak really is fixed now after three separate caulkings and he figured out how to alleviate most of the condensation, so we really are dry, finally.
From Philly, we headed to Valley Forge with four new tires, feeling all ship shape. It was sunny and beautiful, the museum at Valley Forge was exceptional, and we planned to go back in the morning, see a few more things, and head to D.C.
The next morning Craig notices one of our new tires looks low. Luckily we're near a Sear's Service Center, but they don't work on motorhomes and neither do any of the 15 places we call in the next few minutes, or they aren't open on a Saturday, or they close at noon and won't be able to fit us in . . . Finally Craig finds a place about 20 minutes away. They can fit us in later, giving us time to go back to Valley Forge, which we do. Then we spend an hour driving up and down the same road looking for the garage. Their directions weren't good to start with, and when we called to clarify, they assumed we were coming from a different direction, and sent us back the way we'd come. It all worked out fine once we finally made it there but we were a little cranky, and it was stressful for Craig driving back and forth on a two-lane road with a fair amount of traffic. They decided we needed a new valve stem and off we went.
A little info on Valley Forge -- no battles were fought there. It was the winter encampment for General Washington's army from December 1777 - June 1778. Soldiers were poorly outfitted, but when the army left there, after being drilled for months by a Prussian, Major General von Steuben, they were a no longer a rag-tag group of militia men, but a coordinated army. And even though the Revolution would continue for several more years, Valley Forge is considered a turning point because of the cohesion developed there.
North of D.C., we exited at Greenbelt, MD by mistake, then Craig saw there was a farmer's market, so we decided to check it out. Then we saw signs for "Historic Greenbelt" and were curious.
From the Greenbelt website -- "Greenbelt is one of three greenbelt towns envisioned by Rexford Guy Tugwell, friend and advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and created under the Resettlement Administration in 1935 under authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act. (Greendale, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, and Greenhills, Ohio, near Cincinnati, are the other two towns. A fourth town, to be located in New Jersey, was never built.)"
The idea was to get low-income families out of the inner city with access to better neighborhoods. A central business district is surrounded by houses, parks, walking and bike paths which go under busy intersections, giving kids and adults the ability to ride and walk most anywhere. It is now cooperatively owned by the people who live there and felt like a wonderful community.
And, I kid you not, we saw high school kids playing Quidditch. If you're not a Harry Potter fan, this won't mean a thing to you. They weren't flying or wearing robes, but they had brooms between their legs and hoops elevated on sticks. When we first went by them, we wondered, but then we saw their jerseys which read "Quidditch Team" and we knew we weren't seeing things.
There was one more tire issue while in D.C. The one with the replaced valve stem lost air again, so Craig took it to a garage (again with the bad directions, so he was sent hither and yon by the people who worked there) but the guys doing the work were great and they tightened the new valve stem and replaced one other, and now the tires remain inflated, for which we're very grateful.
We had a wonderful week in D.C., then went on to Mt. Vernon before arriving in Williamsburg, which is where we are now. Each spot was incredible. I have a much greater respect for George Washington than I remember having in school. He was a formidable and inspired leader, intelligent speaker, uncompromising rebel, and inventive farmer and business owner, just to name a few of his greater qualities. We could have spent days more in each place. Seeing the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution in the National Archives was almost hard to get my head around and yesterday in Williamsburg, a reenactment of events ended with the public reading of the Declaration which all colonies heard in the months following its adoption by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
I don't think I've ever had the entire Declaration read to me before, and certainly not by people in period dress, standing in a building restored to look like the Virginia Capitol of 1776. As I've said previously -- I was moved, humbled, and awed by the foresight of our Founding Fathers. Had they failed they would have been tried and convicted of treason.
I've been wondering quite a bit what they'd say about our modern world.
Sending love, and photos next.
On the left, the house George Washington rented during the winter at Valley Forge. On the right, replicas of the cabins the soldiers built for themselves, usually 12 men to one cabin. 
