Author: roneverdij

“de zaak met het carillion” sorry Americans, my Mam’s best friend thru-out her life is Loeke , they have a Jewelry store in Deventer, the town where they and Mam live. Their slogan and for good reason was “the store with the carillon”., they had one hanging over their store facade. So when I was searching for places to see and photograph I came upon this weird and unknown memorial . It was a huge rusty metal tower with a Carillon mounted on top. The Dutch people ( they might not know about it) gifted it to the American people ( whom haven’t found the memorial yet) for their help in the second world War. Nice, it has the dutch flowers at its base, graffiti on the first 8 feet and by far the best view of Washington DC. Thanks Holland!

 

or trying to, finding his new address in DC is easy, getting to his house not so much. Secret service has the street blocked on both sides and barricades are up as well. Just walked around as if I new nothing, Trying to talk to secret service  is like talking to an armed rock. No answer and scary. So I took some pictures of his neighbors houses and pretended he called me for a cup of coffee. Nice guy!

After that I had to confess my sins and visited the national Cathedral where Jeb Bartlett crushed his butt near the altar after God didn’t do what he wanted him/her to do! Great scene in one of the best shows ever.

 

Still early , no traffic and apple-maps working overtime, parked in a lonely lot overlooking the Jefferson Memorial. no cherry blossoms anymore but still an impressive site. The slavemaster was looked at from the right-side by MLK, who , being new on the block and being Martin , forgave.  In between the two , FDR wins the price for most telling monument. Didn’t visit this time but I remember from another visit how impressive this one was. A story told in stone.

Two more buildings I wanted to see ,the Capitol and the Supreme Court. Two buildings I have only seen on TV and from a distance. well TV and distant views doesn’t do it justice. The capitol in all it’s grandeur is amazing. I don’t know how to describe it in words , but will try in pictures. The sheer size and placement is made to impress us mortals, the impression it gives you, is that really important people work there and steer our country , it works. The Swamp Capitol as it has recently been called is an impressive one.

and now my favorite building. As powerful as the magistrates on the bench , the building is made of pure marble from 3 states and a little from Italy for good measure, and because it just is better looking. I was there the days following the news Judge Kennedy was retiring from the bench. It makes you wonder whom Evil ruler will try to get in his place , maybe Scott wants to give it a try ,With all the marble he doesn’t need a soundproof room installed,or Ivanka, Jared maybe, all Wonderfull and highly talented people ready to take on the lady in the green dress.

 

More tomorrow.

So it was a wild morning to say the least, first those two women, of whom I still don’t know if they are pro or against the evil one!. So at 5:40 a bride and groom appeared at Abe’s house with photographer and video man in hand , Now this is 5:40 AM , gorgeous dress, hair make up the whole ball of marriage wax. Amazing , so I barged in and stole some good shots. If anyone finds these people tell them the shots I took are theirs, free!

Sunrise was amazing Abe posing like any good statesman does. Here are the images.

and at the bottom of Abe’s feet is the Vietnam memorial ,visited by many young veterans this morning, freshly back from our current wars. No friends on the wall but many disturbing memories similar to those engraved in black granite , more then 58,000 of them…… what men do to men.

Much more to come ….

Good early morning , forecast calls for a stifling heatwave for today and tomorrow. Coming from the midwest and sticking around for the countries birthday party on the upper east coast. Up at five it is then, no traffic going into the city that George build. Still one of the most impressive cities I’ve ever been to. Easy to get around and no boring moment. The city drips and tastes of politics and the players are rockstars. Its a modern day Rome with buildings to match , why not create our own style of buildings , we have the talent and the imagination. My first stop was the Lincoln Memorial, at 5:35, thought for sure I would be the first and only one for a while. No such luck though, A photoshoot was underway and about a dozen kids were waiting for the sun to rise and blind Abe for the things men do. Here is an impression of what it was like ,

As I said , a photoshoot was underway, one woman dressed in a hideous dress with Trump on the Trane and his slogan going from boob to toe. Another Model dressed in black and wild as a banshee. what was going on, nobody wanted to tell me. So I barged in and shot my own version of the shoot and will let you decide what it all means …..

so we left you coming out of the Museum of Natural History, where we saw how awesome nature can be if we don’t interfere. There was the pandemic , disease and other awfulness exhibit showing us what nature? can do to us, so coming outside we were thrown in the middle of  what men can do to men. The Washington part of the march against separating children from parents at the Border. Here are some images of that.

Coming out of the Smithsonian we are at the corner of the department of Sessions. So a hotspot for the March.

So it all started pretty mellow, visit to a couple of museums, They have free AC, and some interesting stuff on display mostly. We saw the most visited kitchen on TV in real life. Of course this was Julia’s Kitchen, an icon in American life and inspiration to all us home cooks. BON APPETIT, she was really a treasure!

 

Then we got in trouble, some of you may remember the ring I got for Deidre had 1/3 carat ……the hard way. So today came the reckoning, the Smithsonian had a sale on the Hope Diamond and we figured out a way to get it without getting in trouble.

Look careful….the hands are fast!

We hypnotized everyone around us so we could make a clean getaway! pawned it !

The museums were ok but not really special, we must be spoiled as the lines were getting longer and longer by the time we left. Saw a display of our favorite Zinfandel, we discovered it for sure!!!

The great Tucker, only 58 were ever produced , beauty!

Next …..reality hits hard.

A little two day break from blogging, rained out in Cherokee, tremendous thunderstorms thru the night and a flooded campground made us get up at 6 and drive out by 7:30. One day ahead of time . Deidre on the couch sucking data thru the hotspot and getting her newsletter ready for publication.

This was gonna be a pretty good drive today ,about 400 miles to Pocahontas state park. Deidre did a chunk of the driving , flirting with the long haulers and following the sexy truckers around.

We arrived at beautiful Pocahontas around 4 pm , made a fire and went to sleep real early. tired of  driving and dreaming of nice barbecue and starry nights.

Next day , it was work day, had to get out the newsletter but unfortunately Pocahontas did not have good wifi and no LTE reception. So packing it up early again and drive to DC. only 150 miles but the hard way . stop and go traffic, Deidre gave me a little rest by driving the last stretch, arrived at the Dc campground early afternoon , Newsletter ….Done while driving . Tomorrow Washington site seeing trip , rented a car , ready to go!

MAYBE THE LAST TIME WE CAN ENJOY THE BEAUTY OF THE STATE PARKS , UNLESS WE CAN PERSUADE SCOTT TO MAKE US NOT THE LAST GENERATION………… WE’LL VISIT!!

No pictures at all of the Blast…. but it is imprinted in our memories, 4 miles tubing down the river, sometimes slow, sometimes fast , sometimes stuck , sometimes smooth as butter. all shades of green, mosses, leaves , ferns low hanging branches giving a hand to catch up to my loved one. Just the two of us drifting down , laughing, being sooooo elegant in recovering from getting stuck on a low soft rock or getting back on the  saddle.

half way down we got caught in a thunderstorm but we missed the bulletin. pouring rain got us even more giddy and feeling good. The river was full, we thought , of the many rain and thunderstorms of the last week. After returning to the campground ,hanging on to the catch rope and being exhausted from the ab workout, I returned to the river an hour later to snap a few pictures. I thought I was at the wrong river as a flash flood had raised the water by at least 2-3 feet . A raging brown flood passed by the campground where just a few minutes ago we slowly drifted to a great day. Deidre is hurting and asleep , Cayman is not feeling well and I want a car to go drive around and shoot. No such thing here in Cherokee land. Great day!

Let’s be clear, It is spectacularly beautiful in and around Cherokee , North Carolina . The mountains are so green, the streams rushing with crystal clear water , full with lively trout. Fishing is Catch and Keep, as long as you have a tribal license. The Elk are grazing in the flower fields just on the edge of town. Majestic 100 feet tall bamboo reaches for the Cherokee skies where bald eagles soar.( A poet laddy)  Bamboo , you said, yes bamboo without the fury bears. amazing !

Puxatonie Phil’s cousins are everywhere. Must have misspelled that one.  Serious it is gorgeous. The Cherokee tribe owns and maintains the land beautifully responsibly, water sky and trees are important to the “Fire tribe”  When I refer to hell …. well I got to say it. The town , beside the museum and gas station , is just a royal “made in China ” mess. It is tourist trap after tourist trap with the fakest, cheapest, most horriblelest trinkets known to men.

The Museum, on the other hand gave a excellent depiction of the Cherokee’s past and horrors the white men put them thru. Great displays and proud employees. The trail of tears which we drove a small part of was finally properly explained to my dutch lack of American history Brain.

Unfortunately we were not able to rent a car in Cherokee, closest car rental is 40 minutes away and booked!  So I got a ride to town from the KOA lady, Laura, she was very gracious to show me the fields where Elk normally grazed and told me about life here.

After picking me up fours later we tried again to find the Elk and this time we were in luck, The Rain had freshened up the fields and the water logged grasses and alpine flowers pulled the Elk from the thick forest. Groups of 14 ,7 and three Elk in different places showed their superiority over us. They are worshipped by the tribe and disturbing them is not taken lightly by the ever present Rangers. I was told killing an Elk is punished harsher then killing men. Go Figure.

So all in all a pretty great day again. Tubing tomorrow so  no camera with me Quiet Blog day!