Leland, North Carolina (near Wilmington)

Arrived yesterday afternoon (Friday) to a beautiful day. Warm and sunny at last -- 67F. Awoke today to a light but steady rain and grateful to be able to visit with John, Gwen and the kids at their new home here.

Moncure, North Carolina

We are visiting our friend Patti in the small town of Moncure, NC which is southwest of the state capital, Raleigh - in the middle of the state. We'll be here through Thanksgiving, joining Patti and her family on Thanksgiving Day, before heading east toward the NC coast on Friday. Everyone is okay but we experienced a little high drama yesterday at the RV Park where we are camped. A ride-on mower cleaning up near our site shot out a rock that hit our van and completely shattered the van driver side window. We were all sitting at the table inside the van at the time and, given that it is hunting season around here, we were all rattled to hear what sounded like the crack of a gunshot as the window splintered into thousands of jeweled pieces. Fortunately the glass mostly stayed in place with only a few flying splinters ricocheting into the van. When we touched it the glass began to fall apart with pieces cascading down inside and outside the van. Rain was in the forecast and with slight sprinkles already in the air we quickly secured some plastic wrappers over the remaining glass and the whole window. We were concerned that the broken window would make the van cold overnight (we're getting down below freezing) but the van heater kept us warm and toasty regardless! Today is our 3-month anniversary of being on the road. It was filled with traveling to a nearby town to get the window repaired. We've delayed our anniversary celebration until tomorrow while we continue to clean small glass splinters being found inside the van and on our clothing.

"Dixie Caverns" near Salem, Virginia

We left Falls Church on Thursday morning after a very enjoyable 17 days off the road, staying in a home and relishing all that Washington DC has to offer. We did a short drive to Culpepper, VA where we stayed overnight in our van, camped on the Reiman's 150 acre property after a wonderful afternoon catching up with them and having an amazing buffet that night in Culpepper. Reimans are family friends for Denise since she was a little girl growing up in Hawaii where the Reimans lived across the road. Eager to help with animal feeding, the girls begged to be awoken at 6:30am so they would not miss out. (This level of early awake-up motivation has not been witnessed by either of the girls parents to date)! After a hearty breakfast for us humans we did the rounds -- feeding the miniature horses, the calves, peacocks and dogs. Then we made our farewells and departed for Fincastle, VA about 3-4 hours down the road where a great friend of Rose's lives. We stopped part way for a tour of Monticello - the plantation estate once owned by late, great Thomas Jefferson - and were appropriately humbled and delighted at his wonderful home and estate. The only negative was the icy wind that whipped off the mountains making any outdoor activity (especially standing in line waiting to do a tour of the Monticello home) nearly unbearable. Heading onward to Fincastle, we skirted for 15-20 miles along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway that follows the famous Appalachian Trail and were rewarded with some amazing ice sculptures created by small springs that had dripped down the sides of exposed rock facing the road. In the late afternoon sun a sparkling veil was created along the face of the rocks that caused us to slow to 10-20 miles per hour to enjoy their natural beauty. When we stopped for fuel later in the day, the temperature was hovering at 28 F without the breeze. The wind chill factor brought the temperature down a good few degrees further and, not surprisingly, no-one volunteered to hop outside the van to help Doug with the fueling. Dixie Caverns park is the closet RV stop to our friend Dane who joined us for dinner tonight with his Mom before scooting Rose home for a sleepover. We'll join them tomorrow around mid-morning so the girls can go horse back riding at their farm. Our plan is to head on to North Carolina tomorrow afternoon.

Back in Falls Church, Virginia

We're back at Denise's sisters place in Falls Church. The weather turned on us yesterday -- not so cold but very rainy. We got a thorough drenching as we spent the day doing more "tours". In addition to the first few days of monument and memorial tours, we've managed to include the White House, American Indian Museum, Capitol, Library of Congress, and National Botanic Gardens. It's all very impressive and the girls are making the connections between places they've heard or read about and are now seeing in person. Security around the town is heavy with the impending change of presidential administration, as well as some of the international meetings taking place to address the global economic meltdown. It's admittedly getting a little old being regularly bag-checked and passing through metal detectors before entering all public buildings -- which is mostly what we've been doing in Washington DC -- but the security staff are generally pleasant in their task. The van is in getting a 20,000 mile service and oil change today. We expect to be hitting the road again, heading south by Thursday or Friday next week. The rainy, gray weather is making us think longingly of warm and sunny Florida -- especially when we read that is has been 80F down there this week.

"Massadoah" - Woodstock, Virginia

Yesterday we drove 90-minutes from Falls Church to Woodstock Virginia to stay at the beautiful farm house and property here called, Massadoah. Denise's sister is a partner in the 200-acre property. The farm house is the main draw card but not far away is the beautiful Shenandoah National Park - a location where many a bitter battle was fought during the Civil War. The weather has been kind and we've had another two warm days, though the evenings are getting cooler. On our walk yesterday afternoon we saw 7 hang gliders making graceful arcs in the sky above the mountain ranges to the south of the property. Many of the leaves have fallen from the abundant oak trees and it's clear that with the shortening days the weather will soon turn much colder for the winter ahead. We're staying here 2 nights -- heading back tomorrow. It is a wonderful break from the travel and "touristing" we've been doing. We saw a river otter last night as well as the obligatory wood peckers and various small wood birds. This morning a large flock of wild turkeys flew nearby the house. We can hear the occasional gun shot from hunters outside the property but otherwise it is quite serene here. The girls are currently building a fort in the yard near the farm house. It's amazing how the active imagination of young children and the abundant resources of a large farm are so conducive to an afternoon of endless play.

Falls Church, Virginia (just outside Washington DC)

We arrived here on Monday afternoon, Nov 3rd - the day before the Presidential Election. Most of Monday evening and Tuesday day was about settling in for what will be a longish stay here with Denise's sister in Falls Church - moving things out of the van and into the bedrooms we'd been given. However, the main event for all of us was the Nov 4th Election. Shortly after dinner we sat glued to the television watching the results come in and witnessing Americans young and old, from all parts of the country, call for real change. We celebrated greatly at 11pm (Eastern time) when Barack Obama was announced as winner. At only 9, Rose was caught up in the excitement of this special evening and stayed up with us to experience and celebrate the historic event. While we "champagned" she "apple-cidered" in a rousing cheer for our new President-Elect. It's amazing to think that if Obama stays in for two terms as President, Rose will be 17 when he leaves office. The remainder of the week has provided ample opportunity to visit Washington DC and we've spent a good few hours visiting the incredible monuments and museums of the nations capital. We have more trips planned including tours of the White House, the Capitol and the Library of Congress as well as a desire to see more of the awesome Smithsonian museums. The other day as we walked from the Abraham Lincoln Memorial past the Vietnam Veterans and World War II memorials to the Washington monument the girls were tickled to finally be seeing in person some of the sights made familiar to them in text books and television, such as the White House and the Capitol. We managed to get to the top of the Washington monument and enjoyed an excellent birds eye view across Washington DC (or, as we from Washington State like to say, "the other Washington"). We were especially delighted to be visiting while the weather has been above 60 F. Today it even hovered around 70 F, bright and sunny. Wonderful. We have more exploring to do and, fortunately, a good amount of time to do it.

Strasburg, Pennsylvania (Penn. Dutch country)

Camping again, and again in Amish country. We found a quaint RV park in the more rural part of the popular Pennsylvania Dutch Country and are all quite tickled to see horse and buggy's along the road as we drive. It's a cool evening. Tomorrow we head for Falls Church, Virginia - near Washington DC -- and eagerly await the outcome of Tuesday's US Presidential Election.