Capitols and Capitals....

On the road again – Willy Nelson's song soon became our theme song for the next few days. Man! Did we do some miles?! Through Louisianna we passed through Mississippi, then Alabama (most of it whilst we were asleep), Georgia, Tennessee and finally into Virginia. Braving the ‘wild’ the daring trio of Rachel, Heidi and Serena slept outside on our mats each night – who could be bothered putting up a tent especially when it was so hot and such wonderful weather outdoors?! One day in Virginia, whilst staying in a camp ground the finally reminded us of camping in the woods rather than in an RV park as all our other campgrounds were, it got so hot that we decided to go down to the lake for a swim. However once entering the water, we found that it was hotter in the lake than out of the lake! Yuck! A few days down the track, Heidi and fellow Trekker Alison decided a clean up/organisation of the van Trailer was in order... pity it was 4 days before the end of the Trek! But we did it and man, did that Trailer look organised! But feeling hot afterwards was an understatement.

When camping, things that seem so menial in every day life become such mammoth tasks. For example, doing washing at home on a Saturday is a simple task of sorting, throwing it in the machine and coming back when it’s done. When on the road and trekking/camping it is considered quite an ordeal. Firstly you have to find the time. No point in getting into a campsite late and then needing a good 3 hrs to wash and dry. You then need to find out where the laundry is, which is usually a mile down the road so lugging it all there is fun fun fun. Once there, getting an available machine is the hardest part especially as most campgrounds accommodate at least 4 Trek America groups of 12 people each night. When you do find a free machine, you throw all in at once , none of this coloureds and whites sorting – no time and not enough machines for that. Then you suddenly realise you need washing powder and quarters to run the machine. You take your $1 notes to the change machine, get your quarters (put in a $5 note and you feel like you won in Vegas!!) and purchase your washing powder. Head back to the machine, put in your quarters and powder. 45 mins later you return having done the 1 mile hike BACK, to find your washing dumped on top of the machine so that someone else can use it next. You then have to go through a similar rigmarole process for finding a dryer. Putting in yet more quarters, working out how the machine actually works as every single one seems to be different, hiking back to camp the 1 mile to return 45 mins later when the machine is finished and pulling out your clothing to find that all is still fairly damp but because of the queue of people wanting to use the machine you just have to settle with taking it back the 1 mile hike to your camp ground and throwing it in your tent hoping it will be dry by the time you have to pack. Phew!!!! And don’t get me started on the washing up of the dinner dishes at night when there is no tap in sight!

And thus, due to this fact, Serena and I decided to skip the white water rafting trip early one morning (how could it simply compare to that of the Tully River?) and do all our washing, packing, leg shaving, hair washing and appliance charging. What a great feeling it was when it was all done and the group returned all wet, smelly, hairy legged and having 5 mins to shower AND eat lunch before making our way to our final destination on the Trek, Washington DC.

Rolling into Cherry Hill campground in Washington DC (well Maryland technically) was a very welcome sight at the end of a long afternoon in the van. The rain, however was not. Rain meant tents had to be put up and no sleeping outdoors - :( yes very unhappy face. But once we’d set up camp, prepared our hot dog dinner that went down a treat, the clouds had parted and it was time to head into DC for our illumination tour of all the famous monuments. We walked past the Vietnam Memorial wall, through the Korean Garden Memorial which was so eerie as there are statues of men in raincoats dotted throughout and lit up from below all seeming so real. We then wondered up to the Lincoln Memorial, made famous by Forrest Gump when he went to make a speech about the Vietnam war and Jenny comes running through the water... oh and some guy named Martin Luther King Jr made some sort of a speech there too... (cough cough, tongue in cheek). We went up to see Mr Lincoln sitting in his chair and looked back at the beautiful Washington Memorial Obelisk and then wondered down to the fairly recently constructed World War 2 water fountain memorial. By this stage we were in serious need of a toilet so we made our way back to the van, got out the trusty GPS and got terribly lost! Just in time before a couple of Trekkers exploded we found the public toilet we liked to call MacDonald’s. What would travellers do for toilets if it wasn’t for MacDonalds?!!!

Hanging out by the Washington Memorial

Serena takes in the beautiful view from Lincoln Memorial down the 'Forrest Gump/Jenny' Lake

Reflections at night in DC

The (Black and) White house at night... I think Obama was trying to sleep which could explain why he didn't come out to meet us when we called him!

President Lincoln sits happily in his chair

The back of the White House... no we didn't try to get in - this time!

World War II Memorial Fountain

The next day was dedicated to Museums. The greatest thing about Washington is that it is ALL FREE! Why wouldn't more backpackers hang out in this area?!!! They have the World’s best museums that make up the Smithsonian Institute of Research. The choices are: Museum of Natural History (animals etc), Museum of African-American History, Museum of National History (Presidents, Civil and Confederate Wars), Air and Space Museum, Museum of Art and Literature, The Holocaust Museum, not to mentional all the political buildings such as The Capitol Building, the White House (you can’t go in there - think they knew we were coming?), all the monuments from the night before and so much more. We spent approx 4 hrs in each one we visited and then spent a couple of hours on the lawn outside trying to take it all in - whilst scoring the joggers going by on their ‘talent’ of course! What a fantastic place of knowledge. Later that afternoon with all of us so much wiser from all that we had learnt we headed out for the final supper... our last dinner in China town.

Our last night of the Trek was a momentus night. Serena, Brian our tour leader and I, all spent some quality time together.... counting knives, forks, spoons, bowls, plates, lanterns, pots and scrubbing down the eskies for the next Trek group. Early the next morning we were all up and packing the final bits and pieces into the trailor and said our farewells to the group. We decided to ditch them all as they headed up to New York and we had decided to spend more time in Washington visiting friends. And so ended our Southern Sun Trek - well at least we thought it had. I remembered hours later that I had left my Ipod in the van, so with some tricky manoeuvering on Brian's part we got it back days later via another tour group! Our plans of heading into town to further our education came to a screaming holt when we both decided that we were smart enough already and just hung out in the Camping Ground all day catching up on some much needed sleep time and looking forward to the beginnings of the next legs of our adventure.....

H and S