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| Liberty House |
It was really interesting to see and stand in the same room that George Washington and the signers of the Declaration of Independence spent time in. As I walked around, I came across a hostel located on a side street and decided to spend the night there. Apple Hostel has excellent rates, is extremely clean, and is located only a few blocks from the Liberty House. Plus, they offered discounts at the local restaurants. I wish that I had more time to visit the local restaurants and pubs; it looks like a foodie paradise around the historic section.
The next morning, I decided to head to Brooklyn to visit see the sights. Only 90 miles away, it seemed to be an easy enough drive. Along the way, I had to pull off to make an ATM visit and ended up in Camden, NJ. Now I've been to some pretty "dangerous" neighborhoods before, but they were nothing compared to Camden. I told a friend of mine that it made East LA look like Disneyland. It was 8:30 in the morning, and the hookers were already working the streets. Burnt out buildings, trash in the streets; if you've watched "The Walking Dead", you'll have a pretty good visual of what the streets looked like. As I pulled up to a convenience store ATM, another car pulled up a couple of spaces down from me. I had an unusual feeling that this guy was waiting for me to get out, so I kept my car running and decided to wait for him to get out first to see if he was just going to grab something from the store. I waited and waited. He would glance over to see if I was going to get out, but I kept waiting. After I decided that he was probably looking for more than just milk and bread, I left and found another ATM in a safer location.
Along the way, I decided to visit my old Navy buddy Dan in New Jersey. Haven't seen the guy since '84, so I met up with him at work. The snow started to fall pretty good when I got there, so he took a break and we went to the local 7-Eleven and grabbed a cup of coffee. We sat in the rental car for the next hour catching up on what we've been up to all these years. I consider myself fortunate that I've got these friendships from my Navy days that are still going strong.
I left Dan and headed to Brooklyn to see another shipmate, Patrick. Not a bad drive, but the $15 toll going into Brooklyn on the Goethals bridge caught me by surprise (it was $13 coming out of Brooklyn on the Verrazano bridge). Still snowing, Patrick and I went out for a quick dinner at a local pub (best cheese stuffed ravioli I've ever had!), and got caught up since our last visit in '09.
I left early the next morning to head to Chesapeake, VA to visit another Navy shipmate and his family. It was a pretty uneventful seven hour drive, and arrived just in time for dinner. Frank and Denise have a wonderful family, and it was a real blessing to meet their kids and Denise's father. Denise is an outstanding cook, so we had a great dinner and fellowship that evening.
By this time, I was four days into traveling, and it was time to take a break. I spent the next two nights in Chesapeake, resting, doing laundry, and planning my next few days.
I took off early the next morning and headed to Washington, DC. I checked into the Capital View hostel, a ten minute walk to the Capital building. Again, a really nice, inexpensive hostel conveniently located to all the local sights.
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| Capital Building |
Washington D.C. was amazing! I had no idea that all of the monuments were located around the perimeter of the National Mall. I spent the next two days walking around to visit them, covering roughly 21 miles according to my GPS. I definitely got my money's worth out of my hiking boots those days. The Lincoln Memorial, the MLK memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, the Vietnam Wall, the WWII memorial; it's tough to say which one stood out the most to me. They were all pretty incredible; I wish that I had more time to visit the various Smithsonian museums. I'll definitely go back to see what I missed.
After my DC visit, I had to start thinking about heading back. Money was running low, and I was getting tired of walking 5-10 miles a day sightseeing. I drove back to Dover and spent the night. The next morning, I headed back to the Air Force Base terminal to see if I could get manifested on a flight back to California, but no luck. I turned in my rental car and hiked four miles to the bus station. I was able to catch a bus up to the Wilmington, Delaware Amtrak station, and then took the train back to DC. Another night at the Capital View hostel, and then I headed to Andrews AFB for the afternoon flight back to California. But, no luck; I couldn't get a seat on the afternoon flight and I ended up spending the night in the base air terminal. I lucked out the next day, and was able to catch a late morning flight to Travis AFB. Down to the last of my funds, I spent one more night at Travis AFB at the Westwind Inn and caught up on the sleep that I lost the night before. The next morning, I was able to catch a seat on a C5 going to Miramar MCAS. Finally home!
The whole Space-A experience was worth it. Next time, I'm going to plan it out much better and have some kind of itinerary before I head out. Trying to figure out where I was going to sleep every night was mentally wearing, but it did add to the adventure.
I'm hoping to catch a few days worth of hiking up the coast next week, so I'll update the blog soon.
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