Once again heading north (it DID occur to us that this was probably the wrong direction to be heading this time of year!) we stop for an early morning visit at the Wright Brothers memorial in Kitty Hawk. WINDY!!! It must have been the reason they chose this location. Lots of opportunities for historic poses of course.

The life size reproduction of the plane and participants is great (an addition since our visit over 30 years ago - yikes! time flies quickly). Notice the two unlikely traveling companions in the background - school bus yellow Tillie and energetic Red. It probably set a record for the slowest a Corvette has ever traveled over such a distance (we were almost to Philadelphia before we parted company).

Still heading north we stopped again briefly for a "heat adjustment" - John had turned it off the day before and it became apparent by the loss of feeling in our toes that perhaps we needed it again. Our next destination was the Chesapeake Bay bridge & tunnel, an awesome feat of engineering. (Tillie's German engineering also is awesome the way one is treated to sharp jerks on a windy day, and it was WINDY! Those engineers are probably now amusement park designers.) We managed to survive and Tillie picked up Maryland and Delaware on her state map.

Finding ourselves once again at water's edge, we took the Cape May ferry to... you guessed it, Cape May. If you've not been there, chances are you've seen an article at least once on this Victorian resort community. Always looking for a bit of history we stayed at the Inn of Cape May, built in 1894 & listed on the National Registry of Historic Places (luckily for us, the rooms have been updated somewhat since then with newly renovated private baths). The next morning and still on a history bent (actually we were just looking for anyplace that was open) we had breakfast at the Congress Hall hotel built in 1816 (and a much grander place than where we stayed). John Philip Sousa stayed & performed at the hotel & in 1882 wrote the "Congress Hall March" in its honor (can you hum it?). Anyway breakfast was good - their pastry chef won 2nd prize for his lima bean cake in the annual Lima Bean Festival the beginning of October. Fortunately or unfortunately it wasn't on the menu to sample (I wonder what the other entries were & what Miss Lima Bean looked like!). I've got that festival on my "to do" list for some year coming up.

Headed home at last we stopped only briefly at Perkiomanville in Pennsylvania, the home of old VW parts, to pick up some new heater cables. They told John one VW owner had motified an electric blanket so you could plug it in the cigarette holder and thus keep your shoulders warm (I wonder if you can get dual controls...)

Tillie arrived home none too soon with snow spitting in the air. She's ready to spend the winter inside but looking forward to more adventures next year. If you find yourself twiddling your thumbs this winter and want to follow our blog at home... www.musingsfromthecountry.blogspot.com is expected to resume the beginning of November.

Yesterday we were up bright & early - 5 a.m. If you think that’s early, one of our fellow campers had already left – of course, John DID have to crawl under Tillie with a flashlight to turn on the heat before we could leave. With “heat” it only took about an hour before we began to regain feeling in our cold toes. By that time it was warm enough outside so John could revisit the underside of Tillie to turn the heat off again. We gather Tillie is a fairly typical old VW.

By noon we made it to New Bern (the second oldest city in NC & the birthplace of Pepsi) in time for some eastern NC BBQ. For those of you not familiar with NC BBQ, the western version is tomato based and a tad sweet while eastern is vinegar based with absolutely NO tomatoes. And if you’re somewhere in between, well, you never know what you’ll get. Anyway we asked a local to recommend a place & Moore’s Bar-B-Que (in business for 61 years) was everything we wanted… DE-licious. It was interesting that they were located right across the street from the Pepsi bottling plant but featured Coke in the cooler. However, whatever their beef was with Pepsi, it probably didn’t matter because everyone was ordering “sweet tea” anyway.

Took the time before leaving New Bern to visit Tryon Palace built in the early 1700’s, destroyed by fire, then rebuilt in 1952 from the original plans (the project of 2 VERY rich ladies from Goldsboro). Also restored are 14 acres of beautiful formal gardens. Our guide in the palace told us one reason beds were so short back then was that everyone slept sitting up with bolsters behind them because they ate huge dinners. (Perhaps they should pass out bolsters to everyone who works on Habitat projects in NC!) The photo is of the pigeon house next to the palace.

Tillie met up with her cousin, the red Corvette, and John’s cousins John & Judy at the Driftwood Motel on Cedar Island. (Patty was VERY excited to be spending the night in a real BED, not that Tillie isn’t cozy.) Even though the Corvette is much younger and probably more energetic.

The Outer Banks and National Seashore in NC are truly beautiful. Long, long stretches of sand beaches unspoiled by development, seabirds in abundance, & a few off-season visitors enjoying the outdoors – fishing, kite-surfing, kayaks with sails (we’d never seen those before), bikers, beach walkers, bird watchers & lighthouse gawkers.

We’re spending the night at the Surfside Hotel (you’d never guess it was on the beach would you?). Had a GREAT dinner at Windmill Point Restaurant in Nags Head. It actually has 2 claims to fame other than the food. It has the last of the windmills built over 100 years ago to grind grain in this part of the country. And it has and uses the largest collection of memorabilia from the ship S.S. United States. The photo is us sitting at the bar that came out of the ship and we’re sitting on the same seats where John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy & John Kennedy sat. Other notables were at the bar at different times but these happened to be together & John just HAD to sit where Marilyn sat. (The toilets in the restaurant are also from the ship – 1952 vintage & still working – there are no brass plaques so who knows who sat on those...)

Not overnight rain or sore muscles or North Carolina mud or too much to eat could keep our team from the last day “on the job”. Although we did NOT get any of the four houses completed (they hope to have them done by Christmas), we did give them a big leap forward. The railing crew (Francis & Gordon from another part of NC) completed the last of the decks we’d built.

The vinyl crew, headed by Harry & assisted by Jean (both from SC) & Patty, finished the end of one house & made a good start on another side. The energy crew with W. Va. Janet & Gail (our supervisor’s wife) finished stapling & sealing all the seam & openings in the wall insulation in one of the houses. (Did I mention these owners will end up with houses that can be heated and cooled for $25 per month? Only Tillie is more efficient. Of course, she doesn’t believe in cooling & only in heating if the temperature is moderate.)

The next photo is of Marianna & Felipe in the house that will be theirs. They were there today working on painting the walls and woodwork. (All the new owners are responsible for painting the walls & woodwork.)

On the 4th house our construction crew completed framing the walls. The last photo shows our Care-A-Vanner team in front of that house. Unfortunately we didn’t have a 50 foot ladder so you can’t see that our construction crew also completed framing the inside walls as well as the sides. (In case you’re wondering, the windows are framed behind the sheathing and the holes will be cut out later.)

So that’s it for this 2 week Habitat build. Tomorrow (if we survive the night - they're having a demolition derby tonight at the fairgrounds where we're camping & we hope they won't think Tillie is entering!) we’re up before the crack of dawn heading east & therefore avoiding all the leaf peekers heading west to the Blue Ridge. Tillie wants to see some beach and sand before heading back to New York.

Remember that rain from yesterday? Know North Carolina's neckname? Answer - the "tarheel state". (It should be the red tarhell state.) The mud from all that rain was not to be believed around the job site. It's slick as in slippery! It clings to your shoes, boots, pants, anything it touches (Yuck! It's why I'm once again over at Marge's doing laundry!) Janet had her own way of cleaning off the mud - memories of her childhood I guess. I thought at first the man on the porch had another way of dealing with the mud, but he only turned out to be one of the plaster contractors.

Rosemary (from Conn.) & Amy (from here in Lenoir) still managed to put out enough food & coffee to keep us happy over break & mud free enough that the lady from the Lutheran Church could set up lunch for us. We were all happy to have VEGETABLE soup for lunch. Tonight, one of the Baptist churches fed us dinner - a salad, lasagne, baked potato, buttered bread, pumpkin dessert & sweet tea (in case you were wondering about the weight gain). If they don't stop feeding us so much, we're going to need TWO pant sizes bigger before we leave.



In spite of the mud, our crew did manage to finish the flooring on one deck and build another one; start the vinyl siding on another side of the house we'd put the roof on; put the subfloor on the newest house going up & start construction on the sidewalls. We're all hoping to get the sidewalls up tomorrow and, to be honest, sort of "dreading" the "really good country lunch" we're to go to tomorrow at another Baptist Church. They're saying it will be our best lunch yet (we all asked if they also provided beds so we could take a nap afterwards). And in case you're worried that they're not going to feed us enough tomorrow, someone is taking us all to dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Don't be surprised if I'm not able to left a finger to enter a blog at the end of tomorrow.

Work week two & our group returns with renewed energy. In photo one, Georgia Ed works on finishing siding aided/supervised by Harry (our team leader from S. Carolina) & Ed’s wife Carol. In the next photo Patty & W. Va. Janet dig footer holes for the deck posts (all we were missing were the orange & white striped pants we noticed some of the “road crew” wearing). And, in case you’re wondering, we finished those holes & set and perfectly leveled the footer blocks (You wouldn’t have expected anything less, would you?) At the end of the day the deck was up.

Meanwhile, part of our crew started building on a fourth house. In the morning there was a bare foundation. This photo was near the end of the day. On that crew were Conn. Bill, Garry (our local supervisor in Lenoir), W. Va. Bob, & Tenn. Jim. Even more impressive, they did it all the old-fashioned way with hammer and nails (no pneumatic nailer for this part of the project.)

Thought you might also like a photo of where we’re camping. As you can see, Tillie is rather “different” from the others. The restrooms/showers are way off to the left/west. They are much appreciated since Tillie is not thus equipped. Sleeping in Tillie is very “cozy”. We have a small electric heater that takes the chill off, an electric kettle to make a nice cup of tea & a small refrigerator for OJ, milk & beer (happy hour is under Harry’s awning).

Last night we had a BIT of rain move in which makes Tillie even cozier with the soft patter of raindrops on the top to put you asleep. Then suddenly it’s 3 in the morning and you are “regretting” that nice cup of tea you had before going to bed. Look closely at our campground. See all those bare spots? It turns out that when there is a BIT of rain those bare spots collect the water turning the route between Tillie & the restrooms into a moat. (We’re beginning to see a DECIDED benefit to the RV’s.) As rain is predicted to continue until this afternoon, daylight did NOT bring a dryer route west.

At the job project the dreaded N. Carolina clay is as slick as ice, and rain moved the work inside. As this was Tuesday (a day when the local “Grumpy Old Men” show up to help), there were actually more than enough bodies for the inside projects, so the 3 of us females who did show up (the others proving to be far wiser than us) were allowed to come back to the campsite. I guess that’s a plus for me although I AM refraining from having that second cup of tea.

What does one do on a weekend in Lenoir? Well, you could visit a couple of thrift shops to pick up a warmer jacket and some jeans. And you could stop at the farmer's market (turnips & turnip greens seem to be the vegetable of choice right now). And you could stop at the Bernhardt-Seagle Hardware established in 1829. It's the oldest single family owned hardware store in the world. If you don't mind multiple owners, it's the second oldest hardware store in the US (the oldest one is in Worchester, MA).

Then for lunch you could go to the Molasses Festival at Sims Country BBQ (unfortunately they had just run out of BBQ but they still had plenty of molasses). The person with Patty was Miss Molasses from 1985 - 2005. She finally gave it up when she became a diabetic and couldn't eat molasses. Apparently the festival also gave up crowning a Miss Molasses. Who is the man by the pickup? He makes the molasses. Other entertainment? - GREAT bluegrass music by the Dollar Brothers at the festival. For a little variety we went to hear Joseph Robinson (the principle oboeist with the NY Philharmonic for over 20 years) play with the Western Piedmont Symphony at the Civic Center. A nice way to end the day.

Today we went over to Malin & Charlie's place on Turkey Hen Mountain. So peaceful and they have all these NEAT things - gravity fed water from a spring/stream up the mountain, solar electricity, a REAL root cellar, a brick first floor for solar gain for warmth in the winter, an "almost" greenhouse for growing greens in the winter. AND Malin made waffles with an old-fashioned waffle iron on the wood/gas stove - they were delicious.

This afternoon we got together with some other Habitat volunteers who are working on a project about 45 minutes away. (We'd worked with four of them on the Oneonta build this past spring.) Tillie popped her top so she wouldn't look so small next to the RV we're parked next to. She's still the favorite as far as appearance on the campsite.

Friday!!! And we’re beginning to see big changes in the houses. John LOVED working with an all women crew on the back deck (which of course they finished). From the left, Maria (who’s working on getting enough hours to qualify for a Habitat house, Anna (who already has a Habitat house here in Lenoir), John (from New York), Francis (from a different part of North Carolina), & Mary (from New Hampshire).

And then there are our unrelated “twins” – Jim (from Tennessee) and Bob (from West Virginia). They seem to be like John & our friend Bruce who 99% of the time dress alike without ever conferring on what to wear. (They only confer to make sure they do NOT wear the same thing.) Jim & Bob may look like they’re supervising but actually they’re responsible for all the siding on the house behind them. You’ll be happy to know they finished that side before calling it a day. Gordon (husband of Francis & also from a different part of NC) is the other fellow in the photo.

Good eats again today for lunch… chopped BBQ from Hannah’s which, we’re told, USA Today rated as one of the top ten BBQ places in the US. It was GOOD!!!

Tillie, not to be outdone and always on the cutting edge of gourmet dining, took us to dinner at the Elk Creek Winery near Elkin, NC. The restaurant was written up that very day in the New York Times although we made reservations there last week, well before the article was published. The writer came down to do a feature on NC BBQ and ended up including a great review for this restaurant. She wasn’t wrong either. Everything was DELICIOUS! Photo from the right – the dog (who stayed outside), Patty, Jesse Williams (our chef who stayed in the kitchen manning the wood fired oven where he cooks much of the food – also from NY), John, Judy (John’s cousin-in-law from NJ), John (John’s cousin – husband of Judy), Joann (Judy’s cousin from NJ) & Jack (his real name is John but enough is enough – husband of Joann). They’re on their way to Hilton Head so we rendezvoused for dinner. Three of us had roasted rabbit as the main course which was great. (The owner lives in a teepee beside the rows of grapes which left me wondering on the way home just HOW those rabbits came to be on the menu. Who knows what you’ll find if you go there. John was just reading where over 100 boars were killed during last year’s hunting season.)

Another beautiful and productive and FUN (aching muscles included) day in Lenoir. The first photo shows the “front porch” crew. If you look closely you might suspect that someone was not especially competent with a tape measure when it came to determining the length of the posts. However, it turns out folks here don’t run them all the way to the roof, just cut them off at rail level.

Janet (who’s in the next photo and from West Virginia) and Patty (from New York and not in the photo) were the crew putting in anti-squeak bracing (there’s probably a more technical term but who cares?) It turns out Janet’s arm held out longer than Patty’s, so Mary (from New Hampshire) stepped in to help finish the job.

Of course the highlight of the week has been Carol (from Georgia) teaching all of us how to peel a banana. Demonstrating in the last the photo is Bert (from New Hampshire sitting next to his wife Mary also from New Hampshire and a member of the anti-squeak crew). Anyway, you do NOT start peeling a banana from the stem end – you start from the blossom end. The peel is much more tender on that end and, as it turns out, a much easier way to start peeling a banana. Supposedly monkeys do it that way and they have a LOT more experience than most humans. Can’t wait to try it, can you?!

Finally, PHOTOS!!! thanks to Jeff mailing the power cord & George delivering it on his fancy-dancy motorcycle to us after a (hopefully scenic) tour of Lenoir. (George managed this in spite of my directions where I failed to mention two major turns… I also failed to take his photo – where WAS my brain yesterday!)

Photo 1 – John delivering the dog food when we dropped off Red at Leigh & Bruce’s. Harpo (their dog) morphed quickly into a doggie vacuum. You would be surprised how many individual nuggets there are in a 20 pound bag of dog food.

Photo 2 – Octoberfest ladies – Pat (Vicki’s mother), Gail (Vicki’s best friend), Vicki, Frank (Vicki’s father) (Would you ever guess Vicki is happy to once again be living in North Carolina?)

Photo 3 – Octoberfest guys – Frank (remember him?), Harry (Gail’s husband), George & John (notice their drinks are in true German fashion – how on earth do those German waitresses carry four of those mugs in each hand during the Octoberfest? You do NOT want to mess with them!)

Photo 4 – Vicki & George in front of their new home in Hickory (although it doesn’t show in the photo, Vicki & George added North Carolina to Tillie’s “I’ve been there” map)

Photo 5 – Charlie, John, Malin, Marge in Marge’s kitchen. Charlie built the house for her and did an absolutely WONDERFUL job.




Photo 6 – John & Patty hosting Bonnie & Dave (Patty’s cousins) at the campsite. (John is standing off to one side because he’d been working in the hot sun all day on a roof – believe me, not even good wife Patty wanted him any closer at that point in time!)

Photo 7 – One of the Habitat houses we’re working on - the real purpose for the trip. They are doing a GREAT job here in Lenoir and feeding us VERY well. Lunches every day and this makes the third night in a row dinner has been provided. We’re all asking where the nearest thrift shop is so we can buy bigger pants!

We're still unable to post photos -- BORING!!! Sorry, perhaps in a couple of days.
Have arrived safely in Lenoir. GREAT lunch with Malin, Marge (Malin's mother who makes a mean BBQ even if she is from Michigan) & Charlie. We're VERY lucky to have Marge right in town with a shower at the ready since the bathrooms at the Fairgrounds where we're staying in Lenoir are marginal.
Today was our first day "on the job" at the Habitat project. They have 3 houses in various stages of construction. Today was a beautiful day so part of us worked on putting up soffit and part worked on putting roof decking on. Those of us who like to have 2 feet firmly on the ground did the cutting. Our group leader, Harry, is wonderful as is Pete the fulltime Habitat coordinator. In fact, Pete is having us over to his house for a cookout tonight so.... gotta run!

Ah.... the best laid plans. Jeff mailed our power supply for the computer overnight via the USPS. This morning we went out for a wonderful Elks club breakfast and while we were away the postman came but left a note that the package wouldn't be left without a signature. The post office is now closed until Tuesday. And so it goes....

Anyway it was a day of shopping in Hickory--- furniture outlets (Vicki found an end table), antique mall (Vicki found some crystal coasters), the farmers market (Vicki bought some squash but we bought apples & sorghum-a product we don't see much in the north), a couple of thrift stores (Vicki found Patty a shirt & a sweater), and the local BBQ place - came home with wonderful NC BBQ. Our friend Phyllis (who's on her way to Florida) joined us and had her second BBQ dinner in one day - she rated them both good. We also tried to find the zero energy Habitat house here in Hickory but it proved to be unfindable. As one lady said, it's hard to tell someone how to get anywhere in Hickory. Tillie enjoyed a day of rest.

Well folks, no photos today - you'll have to use your imagination (a certain member of our traveling group - male, so that let's out me & the mesquitos - forgot the power cord to our computer. Yesterday was the last we could use it to upload photos until the power cord arrives in the mail). Anyway... today was a beautiful drive as we continued south through Virginia and into the mountains of North Carolina. We decided to give Tillie a break and take back roads including going to Cripple Creek from a song out of Tillie's youth. The trees are turning color down here too and we were up and over the eastern Continental Divide before we knew what happened.

We knew we were in North Carolina as soon as we saw the sign stating it was a state law to "burn headlights" while wipers are on or riding a motorcycle. We think they drive the same vehicles in NC as those of us in the north, but perhaps their headlights are different. Anyway, Hickory was today's destination as our friends George & Vicki just "retired" here. Vicki is VERY happy to be back in her hometown with family & friends. This evening was spent with some of them at the local German restaurant for their Octoberfest. GREAT food, live music, Octoberfest beer in liter steins, even a man dressed in lederhosen at the next table, and, of course, the chicken dance - lots of fun. No wonder Tillie was so anxious to go south since she's almost all German with maybe a touch of Mexican (some of her replacement parts, we must admit, were NOT made in Germany).

Even after cooling her tires for a couple of months, Tillie started right up and we were off! (at 6:30 a.m. - talk about being anxious to get going!) The morning was cool but John had gotten the heat controls working on his side and the heat fastened open on my side - felt wonderful. Then we began to notice the mesquitoes. It seemed they had organized a tour group to travel south with us. As folks would pass us on the road they would think we were waving when all of a sudden our hand would go splat against the window. Then they probably just thought we were crazy. By the time we stopped for lunch in West Virginia there were more dead bugs on the inside of the windshield than on the outside but the tour group has mostly been eliminated.

Once we were on the road again with a clean windshield and minus the bug distraction, I began to notice my feet were getting warm, then downright hot. It's amazing how well Tillie's heater works when it's 70 degrees outside. Luckily the McCormick farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was both beautiful and had a nice secluded parking lot so John could crawl under the VW and turn OFF that wonderful heater. In case you need to refresh your memory (I did), Cyrus McCormick invented the mechanical grain reaper in 1831 thus changing agriculture forever. According to the brochure it took 90% of the population in 1831 to provide food for our nation, now it takes 2%. Obviously they weren't and still aren't using my gardening techniques.

Then it was on to Foamhenge (someone has actually created a lifesize Stonehenge out of foam). There's nothing more I want to tell you about that. But we did add Virginia to Tillie's "I've been there" map.

Tonight we're camping at (trust me, the campground is much better than the name) Jellystone Park.

Today was the day...

Mary checks out her weight - not to see how much she gained from eating that "Sticky Mama" yesterday, but to see how much her luggage weighed. 62 pounds - not bad considering she came over with only the black bag on the right and somehow managed over the last two months to fill up the blue bag on the left. Personally, I couldn't lift either one.










One last lunch near the old mill in Clinton. Can you believe Mary opted to skip dessert? Of course the portions were extra large - even the two John's weren't able to clean their plates.


Then it was on to the airport. We were lucky to find a wheel chair just sitting in the parking lot so grabbed it to use as a luggage carrier. Security didn't ask what she'd done with the person in it... just so long as she wasn't trying to sneak in any shampoo and toothpaste in her carry-on. Hugs & goodbyes and Mary was on way to the boarding gate and we were on our way to NYC rush hour traffic.
It was a great treat for those of us on this side of the Atlantic to have Mary here for the summer!!!! We hope you have enjoyed following our trip and, like us, are looking forward to future adventures!

Trivia question - Where is the world's largest crayon? The second question (a bit easier if you're looking at the photo) - What color is it?

We took the scenic route from Philadelphia along the Delaware River to John & Judy's in New Jersey. Several detours were included, the result of severe spring flooding along the Delaware - rains we missed on our trip west.

After the exciting visit to see the crayon (the answers are Easton, PA & blue), we stopped for lunch in a wonderful diner. Frank & Rita be warned when you pick her up on Wednesday! Mary's appetite has not diminished. After consuming ALL of a huge veal parmesan sandwich AND the potato chips AND the pickles AND a pint of iced tea, she decided to order the "Sticky Mama" for dessert. In case you're wondering, you take a rather large Philadelphia sticky bun, slice it in half, grill it, put half in a bowl, add 2 BIG scoops of vanilla ice cream, add the other half of the bun (with lots of nuts) to the side, cover ice cream with sticky bun "goo", top with lots of whipped cream and a cherry. Mary licked her bowl clean. Need we say more.

Just when we thought we’d seen the last of the "world’s this, that or the other" for one trip, we go to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. It turns out their beautiful dorm is the largest in the world housing all 4,100 midshipmen. The photo shows us with Cyndy & her nephew, Burt (a senior at the Academy) in front of the dorm. It was family weekend for the plebes and there were A LOT of good looking guys walking around. As you might suspect Mary had a REALLY good time.
Anyway, back to the dorm. The other two photos are of the main hall in the dorm. Not a bad place to hang out. Even the dorm rooms looked nice. They have a “sample” room set up for family to look at and Burt says it’s typical. Two or three beds/desks per room, a bath for each room with a marble shower (Burt allowed the sample IS a bit cleaner than normal), & air-conditioning. A lot of the rooms also have a million dollar view of the bay complete with Academy marina and sailboats. Contrary to what you may have heard, these midshipmen still have an opportunity to learn navigation and basic sailing (John was very envious.)
Back in Philly to spend the night with Cyndy, we realized Mary is starting to try to transition back to the French culture… she ordered an anchovy & cheese pizza for dinner.

Three words tend to describe Washington, D.C. in August - hot, hazy, humid. Some good fairy must be watching over this trip because it was NOT hot (at least in comparison to the heat wave we went through in Montana), NOT hazy & NOT humid. And, best of all, there weren't too many tourists. Parking Charlie at Arlington we took the get on, get off bus around the city.
We "did" the typical stops including the capital building (probably the only capital in the world where the statue on top has a bird for a hat - particularly one that looks like a cross between a pheasant & a turkey); the Smithsonian Air & Space (after looking at those first space vehicles one has to believe our first astronauts were a bit touched in the head - the lunar module especially looks like it was put together by a third grade class with limited resources); the Natural History Museum (they were having a special exhibit on Lewis & Clark - to be honest we've had enough of those 2 guys for one year - Mary skipped them entirely & went to look at fossils and bones); the White House (security was tight as protests were going on in the area opposing Israel's recent actions); the Reflection Pool with the Washington Monument being held up by John & Mary (my positioning was a bit off but you get the general idea); and other points of interest too numerous to mention (aren't you thankful for that?!)...
PS - Here I thought Mary had finished with the state business, but, wouldn't you know, we added Virigina today bringing her total up to 29 states visited this summer.