A yard in Connecticut.

Just liked it.

Typical small Connecticut town green/square

Around the green is the City Hall, 2 churches & 3 houses. Lost the photo of one of the houses:(

New England

New Englanders take Independence Day seriously. I also love the fact that many farms are named & if the house is old, as is this one, it will have the date & the name of the original owner.

I've spent nights where logic would not enter.

This is a line from one of my poems & it describes the next night of my trip.

I'd really started to deal with toll booths. during the day I had spent $15 more or less on tolls. I was going to stay at a different motel 6 in Philadelphia. I thought I followed the directions in the Motel 6 guide (my bible). I went through a toll booth that charged $20.50 & had to immediately turn around because it over shot the motel by 2 exits. When I got to the motel's office 2 other tourists were there bitching because they had done the same thing. They didn't have any ground floor rooms (stairs still give me problems) so I decided I'd go on to Baltimore. It was around 3 p.m.

On the way to Baltimore I needed gas. Got off at an exit & the 2 gas stations there had no regular gas, only diesel. Got back on the turnpike, now I'm running on empty. Exited the next place that showed gas, same story. Didn't want to run out of gas on the highway so continued on streets in the area until running on fumes & found a little gas station with gas. Now I was far from the highway & had to go this way & that to get back. Got into Baltimore at twilight. The freeway I want to get to the motel is seventy something. It disappears into a "bad" neighborhood. I wander around poor black parts of Baltimore for almost 4 hours. I know there must be middle class people & white people in Baltimore but I never saw any. Now it's like 10 p.m. Screw this. I get on the turnpike & drive through the edge of New York & New Jersey & into Connecticut. For the first time since Texas the night is cool. I stop at a service stop, it's 2:30 in the morning & sleep in the backseat. I'm comfortable & sleep well. When I wake up at six, my back is in terrible shape. So when I get to Hartford I stay in a motel 2 days recovering.

.

Philadelphia

What a joy after D.C. Underground parking was close & reasonable, as were the sights.

The people in costume are from the Visitor Center which had underground parking & was in EASY walking distance of The Libery Bell & Independence Hall. Because I could leave Jake in the underground parking, I could take a Duck Tour. I had seen them in other cities. They're WW II amphibian vehicles & can go on land & water. I hear the one in New York is fabulous. Anyway we went down Broad St (the happening place in Philadelphia).

Larry Fine of The Three Stooges was born here & was first a violinist & then a boxer.

Then "The

Duck" went into the harbor. Will Smith's father didn't want to leave Philadelphia so Will bought his father the corner condo (photo to left).

The battleship is The Philadelphia.

That's another "Duck" & a monument to Irish immigrants. We saw Betsy Ross' house. Check out the plaque. It started to rain as I left. I had no idea it was an omen.

Washington D.C.

Over 20 people & I parked in parking spaces on a street by the Washington Monument. Apparently a dozen of us did not pay attention to the sign that all parking terminated at 4 pm for the afternoon rush. When I came back around 5, my car & 11 others had been "put up" on the grassy meridian. I walked the row checking & no one had tickets. will I get a bill from the city of Washington?

That's the Vietnam War

Memori-al.

I not was surprised at the distance between the grassy mound of the Washington Monument & The Lincoln Memorial. There's also the War of the Pacific Memorial at the end of the reflecting pool.

Washington was hot & difficult. No tours would allow Jake but when we dragged our hot asses back to the car parked far away from the tours center, I had parked in a very expensive underground parking lot(level 7 deep) & the car temperature was okay. I'll keep that in mind for Philadelphia if I can't find a tour that will take Jake.

I'd like to come back to D.C. on a tour. I left without going to the Smithsonian. I drove around & saw all the major sites. Dropped the camera on the car floor & couldn't pick it up while driving so don't have photos of the White House.

I like these row houses.

Mt. Vernon

Got to Mt. Vernon for the first tour of the day, 9:30, was able to park Jake in the shade with a breeze. This was one of the most interesting tours of my trip. I grew up in the 40s with the squeeky clean “Father of Our Country” image. I was impressed with George’s creativity & scientific inquiry. I feel people’s environments tells a lot about them. I like that with all his military & political concerns, he paid a lot of attention to the details & aesthetics of Mt. Vernon.

The top right photo is the laundry house where they made their own soap etc. Then there's the kitchen, the gardener's quarters & 2 photos of the Spinning Room. They had a smoke house, a salt house & a house for the servants of visiting guests,In 1798 there were 766 guests at Mt. Vernon, many of them staying for extended times. There were many more "out house" for making paint, carpentry, etc., etc.

The next 2 photos are the view from the front porch. The lady in white is one of the time characters. Sometimes they're guides & sometimes living pieces of history, as is this woman.

Now I told you I was intrigued with George, but I didn't mean to cut Martha out.