So as we're killing time until monday morning when the shipping offices open & we can collect the bikes, we decided to join the throngs of 'normal people' & see the sights around Baltimore & Washington.
Whistle stop tour should be the real description as apart from the Wildlife Centre yesterday, we stopped long enough to take the pictures, eat a hotdog & drink some coffee before running away to the next thing on the list!
So here's the list of places we've visited...
Shipping Offices - so we don't get too lost tomorrow, fat chance of that with the signage, the crap maps & our shite nav skills!! :-)
Supermarket - We found some excellent things here... see the pics below... this is why people get chunky... bring it on!!
After this Geoff suggested we take a drive out to a Patuxent Research Refuge to the south of Baltimore, so off we set, we found the right highway easy enough for once, then headed off into a beautiful green area full of trees, lakes & picturesque little (& a fair few not so little) houses. Once at the centre, we wandered around a few of the lakes & wetland areas, where we saw beaver hides, nesting birds & some great interactive environmental displays... well worth a visit if your in the area.
On the return to the hotel, we passed a big Harley shop, with some kind of meet going on, so it was a must to go visit it, we wandered around with all the bling on show, some seriously loud & shiny toys here, with a very dedicated set of guys both working there & frequenting the place.
A conversation with one of the shop sales team, who was offering us free hotdogs at the time, really brought home the sense of patriotism that all Americans seem to have... we've had several conversations about their involvement with WW2 & Vietnam now & the feeling of national pride is very strong in everyone we've spoken too so far. This guy's mom was English, from Blackpool, she'd met his father during WW2 whilst he was stationed in the UK, then moved out here when he came back. She's never gone back to the UK since!
He was going on a ride to support the local Police force on the Sunday, alongside another 3500 riders apparently!! Fantastic... Oh & he told us to collect a chip, so off we went to get one, these are casino chips with the name of a Harley shop from around the country, he's got 75 apparently, so we'll see if we get a few before this trip is over...
After all this excitement, we got lost again on the way back to the hotel, surprise, surprise... the road signage over here is pretty shite on the whole, even Kathmandu is more legible than this!!
So once we finally got back, it was time for a siesta before some great spiced fish & beer for dinner... A pattern in the food is developing here I can see...
Sunday saw us heading to Washington, we really did do a flying visit & I'm sure all the people I know who love cities will berate me for this, but 3 hours & we were heading back, pictures taken, no major getting lost moments, no hassles & yep another hotdog, but a spicy one this time... Chilli dog next I think!! The Arboretum was beautiful, the Arlington Cemetery very solemn & the Whitehouse was hard to find. hidden in a little part of 15th Street.
The chicken got to see the Whitehouse where I did manage to refrain myself from asking the very large chested pretty black lady to pose holding him, (How she remained standing with that ballast before her is an amazing feat of nature I think, mother nature is sooo kind to us poor men! :-), sorry guys I never got the photo either...
There is a massive black community all around this region with all the cities & smaller towns having a higher proportion of black people than any other type. There is a richness to the culture because of all of this, I think. The food gets a bit samy unfortunately but the colours, the accents, the laid back attitude, the sense of humour all come from that mix of races & creeds.
The cities here follow the same principles as cities the world over, with the opulent symbols of power, huge monuments, manicured gardens, business districts etc all in the centre, then as you head outwards, the standards drop significantly, the roads get rougher, the buildings & cleanliness get tattier until eventually you move out of the built up environment to the greener bits on the edges, which slowly lose the effect & the damage that we humans seem hell bent on instilling into our living environment.
Down by the Whitehouse we saw various Muslim, US, Chinese & a fair few other races of people, some giving speeches, some with displays saying 'ban the bomb', 'save the world', 'save the planet' etc, with hardly any visible police presence except for one cruiser car which had Secret Service logos all over it, there was also some kind of music festival going on later that was being setup near Cleopatra's Needle
We got back around 4 ish, (we must be getting used to these dodgy road signs because we got back in a oner for once, which gave us time to pack up all of our kit & get ready for collecting the bikes tomorrow, we're really ready to get on a bike now, this living in a hotel, sightseeing, eating loads of food, drinking coffee etc can get a bit boring after a couple of days... ready to go play for real now...
With a bit of luck, we'll be on the road & heading to Front Royal by tomorrow lunch, although the forecast is for thunderstorms in the afternoon so we'll see what happens... inshallah so they say...
have fun all...
Whistle stop tour should be the real description as apart from the Wildlife Centre yesterday, we stopped long enough to take the pictures, eat a hotdog & drink some coffee before running away to the next thing on the list!
So here's the list of places we've visited...
Shipping Offices - so we don't get too lost tomorrow, fat chance of that with the signage, the crap maps & our shite nav skills!! :-)
Supermarket - We found some excellent things here... see the pics below... this is why people get chunky... bring it on!!
After this Geoff suggested we take a drive out to a Patuxent Research Refuge to the south of Baltimore, so off we set, we found the right highway easy enough for once, then headed off into a beautiful green area full of trees, lakes & picturesque little (& a fair few not so little) houses. Once at the centre, we wandered around a few of the lakes & wetland areas, where we saw beaver hides, nesting birds & some great interactive environmental displays... well worth a visit if your in the area.
On the return to the hotel, we passed a big Harley shop, with some kind of meet going on, so it was a must to go visit it, we wandered around with all the bling on show, some seriously loud & shiny toys here, with a very dedicated set of guys both working there & frequenting the place.
A conversation with one of the shop sales team, who was offering us free hotdogs at the time, really brought home the sense of patriotism that all Americans seem to have... we've had several conversations about their involvement with WW2 & Vietnam now & the feeling of national pride is very strong in everyone we've spoken too so far. This guy's mom was English, from Blackpool, she'd met his father during WW2 whilst he was stationed in the UK, then moved out here when he came back. She's never gone back to the UK since!
He was going on a ride to support the local Police force on the Sunday, alongside another 3500 riders apparently!! Fantastic... Oh & he told us to collect a chip, so off we went to get one, these are casino chips with the name of a Harley shop from around the country, he's got 75 apparently, so we'll see if we get a few before this trip is over...
After all this excitement, we got lost again on the way back to the hotel, surprise, surprise... the road signage over here is pretty shite on the whole, even Kathmandu is more legible than this!!
So once we finally got back, it was time for a siesta before some great spiced fish & beer for dinner... A pattern in the food is developing here I can see...
Sunday saw us heading to Washington, we really did do a flying visit & I'm sure all the people I know who love cities will berate me for this, but 3 hours & we were heading back, pictures taken, no major getting lost moments, no hassles & yep another hotdog, but a spicy one this time... Chilli dog next I think!! The Arboretum was beautiful, the Arlington Cemetery very solemn & the Whitehouse was hard to find. hidden in a little part of 15th Street.
The chicken got to see the Whitehouse where I did manage to refrain myself from asking the very large chested pretty black lady to pose holding him, (How she remained standing with that ballast before her is an amazing feat of nature I think, mother nature is sooo kind to us poor men! :-), sorry guys I never got the photo either...
There is a massive black community all around this region with all the cities & smaller towns having a higher proportion of black people than any other type. There is a richness to the culture because of all of this, I think. The food gets a bit samy unfortunately but the colours, the accents, the laid back attitude, the sense of humour all come from that mix of races & creeds.
The cities here follow the same principles as cities the world over, with the opulent symbols of power, huge monuments, manicured gardens, business districts etc all in the centre, then as you head outwards, the standards drop significantly, the roads get rougher, the buildings & cleanliness get tattier until eventually you move out of the built up environment to the greener bits on the edges, which slowly lose the effect & the damage that we humans seem hell bent on instilling into our living environment.
Down by the Whitehouse we saw various Muslim, US, Chinese & a fair few other races of people, some giving speeches, some with displays saying 'ban the bomb', 'save the world', 'save the planet' etc, with hardly any visible police presence except for one cruiser car which had Secret Service logos all over it, there was also some kind of music festival going on later that was being setup near Cleopatra's Needle
We got back around 4 ish, (we must be getting used to these dodgy road signs because we got back in a oner for once, which gave us time to pack up all of our kit & get ready for collecting the bikes tomorrow, we're really ready to get on a bike now, this living in a hotel, sightseeing, eating loads of food, drinking coffee etc can get a bit boring after a couple of days... ready to go play for real now...
With a bit of luck, we'll be on the road & heading to Front Royal by tomorrow lunch, although the forecast is for thunderstorms in the afternoon so we'll see what happens... inshallah so they say...
have fun all...
