I wanted to let you know that starting tomorrow I will be doing a series of “On The Road” posts here. For those of you who are not familiar with them they will be end-of-day posts about our trip to Washington DC and Baltimore. Except for a one day trip in 1998 this will be the first time we have taken a tour bus. This will be a six day trip.
Of course the first and last day of the trip will mainly be sitting in a hopefully comfortable air-conditioned bus and letting someone else do the driving for a change. I am already lining up all my techie toys to take with me. I will be working on my MacBook to do some work (my wife calls it play) and of course the iPad will go along with us. My wife loves to play many of the games installed there but I hope she will relinquish it occasionally to let me do some of my regular internet stuff including responding to your comments here. 🙂
Yvonne and I were in DC in 1988. It was a pretty stressful time given that I had only recently went deaf and we had not worked out a good means of communications between us. That along with trying navigate the streets there drove us to the edge more than once. My wife vowed that she would never set foot in that town again!! The only way I convinced her to do it this time is that we will be chauffeured to each of the site and will not have to get behind a steering wheel for the entire trip. But I’m still kind of amazed that she agreed to go.
We are scheduled for several visits to the Smithsonian, as well as trips to the White House, Congress, Arlington Cemetery, and the Mall and other places I am probably forgetting. It will be a busy but enjoyable time. Like always the old saying “Things are never as good as you had hoped or as bad as you fear” will come to play here. I have certain hopes for how meaningful the trip will be. I’m sure that as usual some of these will be dashed on the proverbial rocks. We will both be finding out about that soon.
One of my all time favorite books was Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck. It was about Steinbeck and his dog Charlie traveling around the U.S. in a makeshift truck camper. I read the book when I was about fifteen years old. The way Steinbeck described his experience totally enthralled me and I quickly tried to make his writing style as my own. I later discovered Will Rogers and had the same experiences. So today I say my writing style is a meager attempt to combine my two favorite authors.
No, I am not Charles Kuralt (for those of you who are not old enough look him up on Wiki) but I think I can entertain you with my on-the-road reports. Check them out in the coming days. If I happen to miss a day due to exhaustion or whatever please excuse me in advance. 🙂
RJ's Corner 
I will be really interested to see how you like touring by bus. I just got some materials from a local bus tour company to see about cost etc… It looks a little expensive but includes hotels, some meals, and guided tours to the sights. I love the idea of leaving the driving and all the hotel plans, etc…to someone else. My husband is not keen on the “traveling with a group” idea….yet. But, it would be so nice to avoid a lot of the stress we have had before on road trips. So please give us your honest opinions of this group experience. (not that you don’t always give honest opinions!) Sounds like fun to me!
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Hi Jane. Yeah I, to a fault, try to give my honest opinions about things. Some times I get me in trouble but that is just who I am I guess. I enjoy by on-the-road posts, they are different from the day to day stuff as they are generally posted the same day as written. I have been told by several readers that these are their favorite posts by me. Since Steinbeck’s book “Travels with Charlie” is one of my all time favorite books and I try to emulate it with these posts, it humbles me to know that others enjoy them. Join me tomorrow for the first of 6 posts.
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I love DC and go often (helps that grandchild lives nearby).
If you have time- eat in the basement of the National Gallery. It is relaxing and beautiful. It also has the BEST gift shops.
The Shackler Museum is on the same side of the road as Air and Space.It is small and has art from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The museum is multi level -parts underground. The gardens by the Natural History Museum are wonderful to wonder if you just need some outdoor quiet.
There are great lunch trucks on the side streets from the Mall. The “new” in there is not to eat in a sit down place- but enjoy a truck lunch—and we are talking some of the best food I have ever had.
You might want to catch a military band concert http://dc.about.com/od/concerts/a/militarybandcon.htm If you get close the percussion may be in your range of enjoyment. My favorite is by the Navy Memorial. You could get really close there.
Get a bottle of water ready each morning- it will be hot this time of year.
Make sure to stop by the statue of Will in the rotunda (last time I saw him). And if they don’t take you to the Roosevelt monument—find a way to get there—-it is AMAZING!
I am SOOO excited for you. Have a wonderful trip!
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Janette, thanks for all the great ideas. You certainly do know DC. I think we are scheduled for a “lunch on your own” when we go to the National Gallery so I will try to take your advice.
On the band thing, yeah if I am close enough I can feel the precessions and that is neat. Another way is to take an inflated balloon and feel the music with it. This is going to be an very interesting trip I think, or at least I hope.
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My advice for your upcoming trip is two words: comfortable shoes.
My husband is hard of hearing and wears what we call his “ear plugs” so that gives you an idea of how well the things work. If we are going to get into a snit, it is from a hearing miscommunication or he has the pruners in hand.
I am glad your wife was willing to go on the tour and hope you have an interesting, fun vacation.
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Hi Denise, yeah I am definitely onto the comfortable shoes thing. I found a pair of shoes that fit my feet so well I actually bought three pairs. I am on my second pair now and will likely try to get at least one more to replace the ones I have worn out. My wife and I have pedometers so I will likely be give you the daily walking mileage. It is usually more than you think.
I was hard of hearing for about twenty years before I finally lost it all so I know what your husband is going through and of course you know what my wife has to deal with. We do very well now with English Signing but that is a funny story. She signs very well but doesn’t read signs because I generally talk to her. I don’t sign very well as I don’t use it often. So when we are in with a group of deaf people, which happens on occasion, she signs for me and I tell her what other people are signing. Between the two of us we make a pretty complete deaf person 🙂
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