A Memorial Day

It was also a Memorable Day. Today we had an adventure. We drove into Washington to see the Viet-Nam and WWII Memorials as neither of us had seen either one of those memorials When we arrived in the general area of the memorials we realized our (my?) naiveté in thinking we would drive around for a while and find a parking spot within the general vicinity of walking distance of the memorials. Oh what country bumpkins we have become! There was not a spot to be found. We drove about in ever widening circles (as well as you can circle in DC) until we found a sixteen foot, 2-hour metered spot about 17 miles from the center of town and quickly jammed our 24 foot truck into it. Then I put 36 quarters into the meter to purchase the advertised 2 hour limit. We then took our magic Garmin, put it into pedestrian mode, and asked the BIB how to get to the monuments. She cheerfully told us “You can’t get there from here.” We ignored her and struck out on foot and only sixteen hours later we were at the Viet Nam memorialt and we decided our trek had been worth it. It is magnificent in its simple and moving design. From The Wall we walked to the Lincoln Memorial and saw the former reflecting pool which is no longer there and thereby denying us the opportunity to recreate the scene from “Forrest Gump” wherein he jumped into the pool to greet the love of his life the drug addled Jenny. By the way, it should be noted that in that scene at the Lincoln Memorial when he was walking around, military custom requires that EVERY MEMBER OF ANY SERVICE, OF ANY RANK, salute any Medal of Honor recipient when they see them. Yes, Generals salute Privates if they are wearing “The Medal”, so every soldier in that scene should have been saluting Forrest.

We left the Lincoln Memorial and walked along the edge of the reflecting pool which is not there (it’s being completely replaced) and arrived at the WWII memorial. It is huge and very impressive. The one thing I noted is that it is the greatest wading pool I’ve ever seen and there are signs all around asking people to not wade in it. Gee guys, I really don’t think anyone who is being honored by that monument would have objected to people wading in that pool on a HOT SUMMER DAY! But that’s just me and I’m happy to say that there were a LOT of people, and not just kids, wading around the edges of the water.

We would have loved to have spent more time in DC, but our stamina left us about the time we took our 700th photo of the day. We begged the BIB to take us back to our truck and she reluctantly did so. As we walked up Virginia Avenue the air was rent with sirens. I spun around just as a dozen DC cop bikes came screaming around a corner followed by some black Chevy Suburban’s and then a great big Cadillac Limousine! I snapped the camera up and hit the button and captured “The Beast” as it is called by the Secret Service, as it went careening around the corner! Wow! It could have been Mr. President himself! I wonder. There sure were a whole bunch of cars with sirens in that motorcade. Anyway, after that we escaped DC and returned to the Del Monte RV Park where we each took a nap. Now it’s almost time for dinner so Bye-bye!

Sincerely,
George Washington, Martha, and the Patriot Pups.