Sleeping on the Potomac

Last night Lucy from London said that she had a little trouble sleeping here the previous night. A few minutes later we found out why. The sounds outside were unbelievable.
Trains (a lot of them), loud insects, planes, trains, cars, helicopters, loud birds, trucks, trains, probably some dirigibles, noisy stars (I think). Unbelievable. Oh, don't forget about the Koreans that were experimenting with the American beer.

This morning in the kitchen everybody is chatty, and I hear that Beth is getting some ideas of where we are going today -- wait, it sounds like she is writing down Florida stuff.

The Koreans. Good times. They arrived in a group of about eight men. The hostel host gave them her usual hostel tour: "...here is a map of the C&O, a map of the A.T., a map of D.C.", etc. only she used the universal translator -- a loud voice.
They were hungry and wanted to grill some meat. They were going to send half of the team out to purchase some beef. Our hostel hostess does not like to send people to Bristol because the roads are confusing and people get lost. The beef squad showed her the GPS they had and insisted that they would be fine. She called the supermarket and warned them that some Koreans were coming to find some beef. The rest of their team waited here. And waited.

Our hostel hostess brought some marshmallows out to the boys manning the grill, because she assumed that they were done with their meal. She found out that the beef team had not returned. The members of the grill team were VERY hungry. A few minutes later our hostel hostess came to tell me that the grill team were eating marshmallows and Korean whiskey.
This was their first experience with marshmallows but probably not their first experience with whiskey. The grill burned down to ashes. The beef team finally returned. They had bought some beef and a few other things. They found some bright colored cans of beer that looked very Korean in style. It was that new caffeinated beer. Marshmallows with whiskey, cold beef, and cold beer that encourages loud talking. The porch is thirty feet from our tent. The train tracks were someplace VERY close. The bridge across the river was WELL within earshot. The catfish I had choked down at the "Cindy Dee Restaurant" seemed to be a serious mistake. Yep, it WAS difficult to fall asleep. Beth and I giggled ourselves to sleep.

West Virginia -- Maryland -- Virginia

Hi gang,
We are camping on the Potomac at the intersection of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, I think. We are officially in Maryland right now, but just barely. We have been in the mountains for the last few days and we didn't have any signal. None.

I seem to be 'zawsted tonight, so I will attempt to wake up early tomorrow morning. We are staying at a hostel and we may not be able to plug in until 7am.

On our way to here from Apex we stopped at V.I.R., a really cool racetrack, and then we went into the mountains. That was it, nothing but terrific views and a lot of deer, but no radio contact. Today we detoured from Skyline Drive and rode the backroads. Here we are. Tired, bleary, showered, and happy. We are only a few hours from Hershey, and we have a week to get there.

Here are a few photos, including the usual sunset shots. We really DO enjoy our sunsets.






Last night we were camping in the mountains and the stars were terrific. It was a little different than Ossipee though because there were blinking lights waaaay up there from all of the airliners. Southbound on the left and Northbound on the right.
Sometimes their strobes would syncronize and create a marquee of blinking lights across the sky.