Washington D.C., Colonial Beach, Pope’s Creek, Stratford, Port Royal, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, Richmond, Charles City, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Roxbury, Brookneal, Appomattox, Lynchburg, Lexington, Staunton, Charlottesville, Stanardsville, Barboursville, Montpelier, Orange, Culpeper, Arlington, and back to D.C. If it exhausted you to read all of these Virginia cities, imagine how I felt after visiting all of them over the course of one week. Tiring, yes, but never dull. My friend Bob and I had a fabulous time touring historical Virginia as well as taking in a few sites in Washington D.C. from August 4-12, 2007. I must warn you now, the postings pertaining to this trip will likely linger on into 2008.
In any case, the trip began for me on Saturday morning, August 4. My flight was not so ungodly early as it had been the previous weekend when I traveled to Los Angeles. This one was around 10:00am. The lovely Jackie Moore stayed over again and took me to the airport that morning. The actual flight times to D.C. only totaled a little over three hours, but the layover in Atlanta smack in the middle of the trip was about two and a half hours in itself. I occupied my time eating Quizno’s and chatting on the phone with Jackie. Our intriguing conversation actually almost caused me to miss my plane. I would have never heard the end of that one!
Since Bob and I were embarking on the ‘Presidential’ tour, I chose the Ronald Reagan International Airport to fly into. Bob had flown into Dulles Airport on Thursday and had spent Friday in Baltimore. He picked me up at about 4:00 pm, having already rented a nice Grand Marquis, we were primed and ready to hit the road and begin our adventures. We decided that Bob would be the driver and I the navigator. So it was nice that I never had to drive, but navigating through an entire state can be very exhausting in itself.
We kicked off the trip with a quick stop at a movie location in D.C., which I’ll tell you about later. Following that, my first objective was to get us to RFK Stadium for the Washington Nationals vs. St. Louis Cardinals baseball game. I always enjoy a good baseball game along with the atmosphere of the crowd, hot dogs, and beer – but this excursion meant more to Bob than to me. One of his many goals is to visit every Major League ballpark and this was one that he needed to see before it is leveled sometime after the Nationals move in 2008.
In front of RFK
Me in the stands
It’s amazing we kept our eyes on the game with that hot girl standing behind us
As a part of a Geico promotion, we got to pose for pictures with the famous Washington Nationals ‘Presidential Race’ participants from Mount Rushmore
Bob has no requirements as to how many innings he must remain at the game, so after four innings and eating our obligatory hotdogs, we took off to make the long drive to Colonial Beach, Virginia. When we left, the Nationals were losing 0-1 after a St. Louis homerun. As we walked to the car though, we heard numerous cheers rising up from the stadium. I later found out that the Nationals actually defeated the previous years World Series winners 12-1 !! We each received a Thomas Jefferson bobble-head (based on the character as seen in the above photo) as part of a Geico promotion.
We ended up at Doc’s Motor Court for the night. This was a cool inn that just reeked of the 1950’s and overlooked the majestic Potomac River. I spoke to the owner the next morning and she told us that her husband had built the motel in 1947 when he was 19 years old. Tired from the flight, the game, and the long drive, it wasn’t difficult for me to fall asleep at our destination lodging. This was good…because after this, the activity would be nearly non-stop.
Our digs weren’t fancy, but they were accommodating
Bob settles in before taking a shower in ‘a metal coffin with water’
Exterior of Doc’s oozing with 50’s nostalgia
Click here to see the location from “The Exorcist”…
Bypass the trip and continue with 2007…
I see you had COLOR TV by RCA, but did you have air-conditioning and tile bath?
Dad
August 15th, 2007