What a Memorial Weekend
30 May 2011 | Washington DC
John and Cheryl
Cheryl's Notes:
We are sad, but it is time to say goodbye to Washington DC. We would like to give a huge thank you to the staff of the Capital Yacht Club ( General Manager Steve, Dock master Kelvin, Rob the bartender and Commodore Dan) and it's members. You have all made this trip more memorable. This is the best place that we have ever visited.
The balance of our week has been very busy. On Friday morning John's back started to give him some trouble, so we take the Circulator bus on our travels. We went to the Supreme Court and took a tour that included a lecture in the courtroom. What a great experience. We also learned some Minnesota history. Back home we have Pierce Butler Route. I thought it was named after two different guys from the old days. Well, it turns out that he was a Supreme Court judge, born in Pine Bend, MN and educated at Carlton College in Northfield. Next we went to Union Station and watched all of the people taking trains. We had some lunch and then took another bus to the only Walgreens in the area for prescription pickup. We got back to the CYC in time for one of the group dinners. They were serving hot dogs and hamburgers from the grill and all of the extras. We visited with Frank and Debby and some other cruisers and watched the Bruins win game 7.
Saturday we went to watch Rolling Thunder, and found out we were a day early. So instead, we went to the top of the Old Post Office. It is one of the highest points in the downtown area and has a great 360 view of all of the buildings and monuments. We had decided to attend the dress rehearsal of the Memorial Day Special that was being held on the west lawn of the Capitol. We would get to see the same show with about a fourth of the crowd. The gates opened at 5:00 pm and we got really good seats with a view of the stage and the jumbo screens. It was a very moving experience. There wasn't a dry eye in the crowd.
On Sunday morning we finally got to experience "Rolling Thunder". It started in 1988 with 2500 Vietnam Veterans on motorcycles riding to protest veterans and POW/MIA issues. This year they had 400,000 motorcycles in all shapes and sizes. They come from all of the US and now include veterans of Iraq and Iran. It was in impressive display. Today we set up our chairs near the National Archives and watched the Memorial Day Parade. The parade honored all branches of the service and all veterans through our nation's history. They even honored the victims and police and firefighters of 9/11.
John's Notes:
It would be easy to just say "ditto" to all of the above. I do have to say that Rolling Thunder was pretty impressive. Four hundred thousand of anything, even grains of sand, is a lot. Four hundred thousand motorcycles is awesome. They sure make one hell of a lot of noise. I've never been a "bike" guy but I might borrow my daughters Spyder and come back for next years event. Can you see me on a 3-wheel motorcycle??
Our slow leak in the dingy is getting worse. We have to add a few pumps of air every day now. When we get to the Solomons I will try and fix it. The leak is so small that you can't hear it and I need to go over the whole thing with soapy water again to see if I can find the pin hole. There is some stuff that you can get and pour through the valve stem that will coat the inside of the tube and fill any tiny leaks. I've heard from another cruiser that it really works. If it does, I would rather spend $60 on that than have someone else repair it for a couple of hundred dollars. If you remember, I already had an expensive "lesson" in generator maintenance this week.
I'm looking forward to getting back to some quiet anchorages again. We have had a great time here but I need to get out of the city for awhile. We are estimating that since we have been here we have walked about 25-30 miles. We really only took the bus on day.
At the parade today, I gave a shout out to some Vietnam Vets from the 101st Airborne. They invited me to join the parade and maybe if my back had felt better I would have. We were at the beginning of the parade and I don't think I was up to another couple of miles of marching.