4 am from Williamsburg

(hello)

No, this is NOT an abandoned website. No, I haven't forgotten about it. No, I really DO care. I was going to call you, but I lost my phone, or my computer, or, or, I really really meant to call.

Well, anyhow, aren't you glad to hear from me?
I was real busy for the last week. Car stuff you know. Carlisle, Hershey, cars, walking, work, work, work. I have been working overtime. I would have written, but you know how this car stuff ties you up.
It's 4 am and Doug is going pouring another cup of coffee, talks, goes out to smoke a cigarette, comes in, pours coffee, talks, goes out to smoke...
It's great to see him again. Six months. It's always a trip to see his morning routine. Beth is still sleeping on the pullout couch in the living room / dining area / kitchen corner / computer cubicle of this maximum security tourist condo in Williamsburg. D&L are here because they traded one of their extra weeks that they couldn't use in Sanibel. Odd sort of banking system, but it seems to work, and we get to visit D&L right here in ol'vaginny so it's oooohkay wi' me.

We have been staying at George B's place for the last week. It was great. We slept in our tent in the yard until they turned the heat off and then we moved inside. Beth is stubborn like that. George offering a mattress, Beth not wanting to put him out. They spar back and forth until four nights later when it is really cold and pouring rain. Beth comes in to see why I am not coming to bed yet (Ed and I are telling stories) and she falls asleep on the couch. I seize the opportunity to sleep on the carpet, and the tent was abandoned for the last few nights.
We had nice weather up until Wednesday, the day Hershey started. It was hot walking around.
Hot enough so at 2pm there were at least three simultaneous wind funnels that lifted up large vendor tents and dumped them in the next aisle. Each one was just about in the middle of their respective fields. We saw one happen. It's very odd to see a 20 by 40 tent getting lifted up twenty feet and toppled over when there isn't any wind where you are and you are only thirty feet away. I guess it happens every year at Hershey and I suspect it is from such a large mass of asphalt being covered by so many tents that strange thermal events occur. Or it's the aliens.

Oh dear, just listen to me.... I've been going on and on... and how have you been?
.... oh, uh-huh, yes, that's very interesting... well I've got to eat some breakfast now, you'll have to tell me your wonderful stories a little later when we have more time. I'm sure it was a wonderful week at your little car place, yes I would love to hear all about it. Oh, you have pictures too? Yes, I'm sure they are lovely. Stories and pictures, I just can't wait.

Museums

The advantage/disadvantage of not having any plans is that things don't quite go like you haven't imagined them.
We were finishing up the Blue Ridge Parkway which sort of automatically loads you into Skyline Drive when you cross into Virginia from North Carolina. We were enjoying the great camping, abundant deer, and astounding vistas, but we were being affected by Bart's Boring Beauty Syndrome so we took a left down off the ridge and drove along the base of the mountains in the Shenandoah Valley. We love back roads. Up down left right cows houses barns cars trucks fields. It is very comforting to us to have a change of pace.
When we got to the Tri-State area and settled into the hostel, we realized that we were only two hours from Carlisle and we had an entire week to get there.

We were all museum-ed out. No more. We needed a break. Beth also didn't want to be around a lot of people before the week of the Hershey car show.

Washington D.C. was within a quick drive and we KNEW that we could easily grab a train into the city, but if you aren't there to collect or distribute money then D.C. means museums.

No museums. We left the hostel and turned left. We were driving right next to the old C&O tow-line canal which was recently re-opened to the public along the entire length. A couple of miles along we saw "Mr. History" from the hostel, and we stopped to talk to ask him how the locks worked way back then. He talked for quite a time about the details of the C&O and how it was George Wahington's brainchild and broke ground July 4th 18?? on the same day that the B&O railroad broke ground. He said we should go on a tour of Harper's Ferry while we were there, but we said we were museum-ed out. He showed me on the map where Antitiem was, the site where more Americans died in a single day of battle that at any other time or place.

We avoided Harper's Ferry park, and drove along next to the C&O. Ate in Shepardston. Went through Antitiem and took pictures of the battlefields. We traveled along more backroads. These are roads that we will NEVER be on again. If there is something to see, you've got to see it now.
An orchard, buy apples. Some driving. Ooooh! The town that is preparing for the huge apple festival in two more days. Sixty to one-hundred thousand people in a small town. Let's keep moving. Oooooh! The national apple museum. They are closed, but since we drove so far... our private tourguide showed us their museum which includes a nice collection of apple peelers from Goodell Company in Antrim, NH.

More backroads. We come across Gettysburg. We have no choice. We would be in trouble with some folks if we didn't stop. We drove around the fields and took pictures and read the signs.
We started talking about the importance of things that we just read about.

We drove through the town of Gettysburg, more back roads, some non-descript city. Gotta see the Clock & Watch museum, but it's Friday and housing is always tough to find on Friday.

The Clock & Watch Museum was great! After a couple of hours, Beth went out to the car to take a nap. I got kicked out at five PM. I attempted to claim that I didn't know what time it was, but when I said it, I realized that I was in a section where all of the clocks were working correctly. Damn.

I went out to the car and Beth had been on the phone with a campground to see if they had any vacancies and was yelled at for having the nerve to ask "on our busiest weekend".

I was able to find a place Pennsylvania State Campround an hour away, and off we went. We stayed the night at a wonderful camground and headed off in the morning, swearing that we were NOT going to go to any museums.

We drove straight to Carlisle.

Car Week, again.

We have been circling around Carlisle for as long as we could. We were scheduled to get here next Tuesday, but the East Coast is a little smaller than we remembered and we got here a week early. We are camping in a Marmoneer's backyard and are going to the Carlisle show in a few more minutes. It turns out that the "Carlisle Fall" show is for parts. There is NO car show. All of the leftover parts travel twenty miles up the road on Monday and Tuesday to Hershey for the hoards to peruse. They did have a two day auction here. We checked in when they were auctioning off number 220 of 242 cars. Beth and I really liked this wonderful 1954 Nash Metropolitan Convertible, and we were actually going to bid on it, but the price came within our grasp and then quickly shot up above our self-imposed limit.
There were a number of other cars which various people we know would have loved. I called my brother David about a beautiful 1962 Galaxy 500 hardtop that was very nice with a 4 barrel and 4 on the floor. I was going to bid up to a few thousand for him since I didn't have his permission. It went for $29,000.
Then right behind it was a 1958 Galaxy 500 hardtop with 14,000 original miles, one owner, all original, never restored, looked like new. That sold for 20-something too.

Today is parts. I only need a hubcap that isn't likely to be there. I am safe.
You folks are also spared the overload of photos that were likely to ensue. I have been having an ongoing argument with my cheapo-stubborn-crapola-computer for a week now, and it seems to be winning the argument about whether it wants to read photo memory cards or not.

Now I wasn't going to be uploading all of the photos right now, that would be when we are settled in for a while in one spot (starting in late October), but I use the computer to clean off my camera for the next day's adventure. I have had to throttle my picture habit back a little until I fix this $^&$@! computer.

So it is beautiful weather on this fine Sunday morning in Carlisle Pennsylvania.
George the homeowner will be back in a day or two, and we have been trying to organize with some other folks the details of who is going to be where for the Hershey show later this week.

Pennsylvania Tollbooths.

Pennsylvania REALLY likes tollbooths. If you want to drive to the corner store, you have to pay a toll. I didn't understand why the GPS (mapping) system in the Odyssey has a "minimize toll roads" option, but around here it seems to be very important. It is a little odd that the turnpikes here have the highest prices and the worst pavement with uneven, lumpy concrete that is banked backwards toward the outside of corners. I'm surprised that the two or three residents of PA that don't work for the highway department haven't written a letter to complain yet.