Washington DC- Annapolis Oct 26- 30

At the repair shop

Arrived early afternoon in Greenbelt Nat’l Park and set up camp.  I noticed that the trailer wasn’t sitting quite right and much to my distress, I saw that the forward mounting shackle had parted from the trailer frame.  This means that we are in danger of losing the axles and wheels off the trailer if the other two shackles were to break.   Using our Aircard and Google we were able to locate a welding shop only a few miles from our campground.  I called them up and they said come on over.  Slowly we made it to this big shop that looked like a scrap iron yard but they were able to weld the shackle  back on to the frame and put in some extra reinforcing.  Disaster averted!

Ed and Pats at Arlington

The next day we went into Washington and met up with our friend Sonya, whom we have known for many years, and has always welcomed us into her home as long lost family.  We spent the next three days catching up, visiting  with her kids and seeing some sights in DC.

Muster for Lunch  USN

I spent a day in Annapolis where I visited the Naval Academy.  It was very impressive, beautiful buildings, spacious grounds, great harbor.  The Navy does a much better job of showing off their Academy to visitors than does West Point.  The West Point tour was mostly by bus and you only got to visit the church.  The Annapolis tour was a walking tour, where you got to go in many of the buildings, see the midshipmen in formation, see what their dorm rooms looked like and get a better idea of what it was like to be a midshipman at the Naval Academy. 

Sanity/Fear

On our last day we went to Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity/and or Fear on the Washington Mall.  It was mobbed.  I think there was some 70 to 80 thousand people.  Unfortunately there were not enough giant television screens and speakers to see or hear very well, but it was fun seeing the crowd and all the creative signs people made.  It was a very sane crowd, I saw little or no fear.  We did manage to see Stewart’s and Colbert’s opening shtick, but the crowd move in around us and some we couldn’t see or hear much.    BUT WE WERE THERE.