Waving Goodbye to the Obamas

I woke up a little stiff from my stroll around Washington yesterday so I took it a bit easier and caught a couple of cabs. First stop was Arlington National Cemetery which, even though it is just across the Potomac, is in Virginia. Then I made it to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. 

The plan was to witness the changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and in an unnecessary bit of completionist sightseeing, visit the grave site of JFK. Arlington is quite hilly so if you are a little infirm and elderley it is not easy to get around. The site itself is over 250 hectares and there are essentially no vehicles unless you take a trolley tour, which I did and which I wish I didn't. It was only twelve bucks but it was next to pointless. I should have taken the walking tour, which I essentially did in the end anyway.

First stop on the Trolley tour is JFK's gravesite along with much of the rest of the Kennedy clan. Here you view the eternal flame and jostle with tourists trying to capture a suitably sombre photo with their enormous tablets. There are five acres devoted to his grave and if you were above ground the views of Washington would be quite spectacular. 

From the Kennedy's I headed towards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I have taken part in services at a similar tomb in our own nation's capital. They are often deeply affecting. Here the tomb is under 24 hour armed guard by 3rd US Army Infantry Regiment, also known as The Old Guard. These guys do all the ceremonial work you see when dignitaries visit Washington. They provide the horse drawn carriages for presidential funerals and all the impressive precision drilling. They are unique in many ways. Depending on the role they will be in a blue colonial army uniform included triangular hat with white powdered whig. They wear red waiscoasts for the fife and drum work they do. They are the only unit allowed to drill with fixed bayonets and the drum major is the only person in the US military who is allowed to salute with his left hand. 

Anyway I witnessed the guarding of the tomb and the changing of the guard, all very impressive. The guard takes 21 steps down the mat then faces east for 21 seconds, then faces north for a further 21 seconds, the returns along the mat taking 21 steps. At each turn he shoulders arms with the weapon furthest from the tomb, signifying that the threat will come from the outside. It is all based on the 21 gun salute and the significance of the number has been worked into the ceremony accordingly. They have been doing this since 6 April of 1948. Depending on the time of year and the time of day the guard will be changed every 30 minutes, 60 minutes or 120 minutes.

The Smithsonian National Air & Sapce Museum was something else altogether. I ended up walking to the Lincoln Memorial and catching a cab from there. It is the most popular of the Smithsonians and there is a procession of tour buses belching tourists into it at an unseemly pace. I literally walked through the door and if there hadn't been a fence there I would have run into the Apollo 11 command module. Five metres away was the X-1, the aircraft that Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in. You look up and there is the Spirit of St Louis, the plane Charles Lindberg made the first crossing of the Atlantic in. I was still less than two metres inside the buidling at this time.

Now this place just has it all. There is ICBMs that had been dismantled as part of nuclear treaties. They had the Soviet and American ones on display. There was a German V2 rocket from World War II. They had a predator drone for all the world to see and of course signature aircraft from both world wars including the Spitfire, Mustang, Zero and Messerschmitt. The concept build of the Hubble Space Telescope was there. The piece de resistance however was the actual first plane to achieve controlled, powered flight - the Wright Flyer. Now the other things on display were copious and impressive but whenever Americans thump their chest it is hard to argue with them when you see a museum such as this. The first aircraft to actually fly in 1903 to the aircraft that put man and the moon in 1969, just 66 years. It is pretty damn amazing. 

So tomorrow I leave DC and head towards Niagara Falls. I wont do it in a day. The plan is to go through Gettysburg, then end up for the night in Harrisburg. The following day I will quite literally shuffle off to Buffalo. That's the American side of Niagara Falls. So the next few days are kind of planned. I haven't checked the weather but it can't be as bad as a hurricane. Who knows maybe it will snow.

The Capital

Canberra feels like a capital, it has wide open spaces, imposing edifices and important looking things all around. Washington DC makes it look like legoland. The scale is just so much grander, the architecture is incredibly imposing and the sheer scope of what it holds is just plain astounding. 

It is four kilometres from one end of the National Mall to the other (essentially the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial) 1.5 kilometres of it has museums on either side, then you have the Washington Monument about two thirds of the way along, then various war memorials leading up to the Lincoln Memorial. In Canberra, if you have ever stood on the steps of the War Memorial and looked at Parliament House, it is about the same distance. However you can't walk it as there's a lake in the way. It is far narrower and the only really impressive buildings nearby are the High Court, the National Library and if you're really stretching it you could add the Portrait Gallery and Old Parliament House. 

Here in DC there are imposing buildings at every turn, and more under construction. I visited a few today. But first as threatened I did a little travelling on the local metro. It is kind of cool to get out in the burbs amongst the locals. It was an unpresupposing suburb about a 12 minute metro ride away. I tossed up taking out the Chevy but the hassle of getting it in and out of the hotel parking was just too much and according to Google it would have taken longer anyway. As promised the laundromat had done their job. My beautifully laundered, scented and bagged clothes awaited me and I was quickly in and out and back on the metro.

After ridding myself of the excess baggage back at my hotel, The Washington Plaza, I set off to The Smithsonian Museum of American History. Now the weather was better, like a sprained ankle is better than a broken one. It was light mist with occasional drizzle. After a twenty minute stroll I arrived and just headed in. The first thing I noticed was that they were trying to take credit for the lawn mower. Damn Heathens! It was massive with lots of examples of transportation. There was a big area devoted to the Edison and the light globe and his championing of direct current (DC) instead of alternating current (AC). I was starting to get the impression that while they knew all the facts they had been slightly sanitised.

I then moved on to the section about America at War. The sign at the entrance said it all.

Now my accent had constantly been mistaken as English (it seems the Americans have trouble telling us apart). So I kept my mouth shut in the section that dealt with the Revolutionary War with the British. Of course as it is an American Museum the information offered is a little one sided. The "no taxation without representation" thing while technically correct is a little skewed as a rallying cry. At the time if you lived in Britain 19 or every 20 people didn't have representation either. The Townsend Act was designed to raise $40,000.00 in revenue and only achieved $21,000.00 but there was a horrendous cost in enforcement which would be in the hundreds of thousands. So while the US had a point there is a British side of the story that is rarely told.

There were lots of cool things here. I saw Dorothy's slippers from The Wizard of Oz, George Washington's Revolutionary War uniform, Eisenhower's WW II uniform, a string of first lady's dresses, Abraham Lincoln's top hat and so many other cool things it is unbelievable. It was massive and it was one of only one of seventeen Smithsonians here in Washington.

From there I had a short break for lunch and headed to the National Archives Museum. This building, where no photography is allowed, contains some truly amazing documents. I saw the original fifteenth amendment which prohibited any state from denying the vote to someone because of their race, colour or previous condition of servitude. They have one of the four original Magna Carta's. The US Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights make up The big three for the museum. I saw them all.

I was interested to see the Declaration of Independence. If you want to upset an American (and some say it's the only sport I play) then you tell them that Independence Day is celebrated on the wrong day. Now the official story is that Congress ratified the Declaration on the second of July with the actual text not approved until July 4th. That's the approved version. What actually happened is that the printer, when delivered a copy for printing and distribution, put the incorrect date on it. It wasn't even signed until 2nd August. So the biggest holiday on the American calendar is celebrated on July 4th due to a printing error. The institution that actually holds it does not tell the entire story. I love tormenting Americans.

From there I decided I would try and get up close and personal with a number of the other things I skimmed over yesterday. I walked up to the Capitol Building which is undergoing extensive renovations along with the Ulysses Grant statue at the front. From there I headed up the National Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, just a lazy 3.7 kilometres away. Along the way I passed the Washington Memorial, the World War II Memorial before finally arriving at Abe. He had a lot of visitors but it was still pretty damn impressive to see.

From there I was going to head back to the hotel but on the way I had to pass the Vietnam War Memorial which was profoundly moving. The names of all American serviceman who died in theatre, where missing in action (MIA) or died as a result of wounds appear on the memorial. It is laid out in chronological order. There are four symbols used to denote each combatant's status. If you have a cross symbol next to your name it means you are confirmed dead. If you have a diamond it means you are MIA. If your remains have been found they add a cross over the top of the diamond. If you are found alive after being declared MIA they will add a circle around your diamond. Sadly there has been no need for this last symbol as yet.

From there I started to head back to the hotel and unexpectedly walked past the rear of the White House. I didn't even know that is was possible. Lots of guards and Asian tourists. I was there looking at the very impressive Eisenhower Executive Offices which are just to the west of the White House on the site of the old stables when I discovered that Barack had a back door. Its a lot closer than the front door and in some ways more impressive. At that point I did head back to the hotel after picking up a coffee and giving directions to some pesky tourists. All in all I think I covered about ten kilometres, without including the distance walked in the American Museum of History or the Archives. By that time my feet felt every millimeter I had traversed so I went and did some research at the bar regarding the quality of Napa Valley Cabernets.

Washington D.C.

Can I maybe repeat myself and state how crap the GPS has been of late? Now here I am driving in Washington D.C. The weather is atrocious. There is next to no visibility. I could tell it was bad because even the locals were doing ten miles under the speed limit. Well not all the locals, if you own a Chevy Silverado you are still entitled to drive like a moron it seems. Anyway back to the GPS. My first port of call was a local laundromat. Much better than Miami. This one was drop off and pick up tomorrow, all for $16. While I probably do have three hours to kill, and could do it myself, but for that price why would you wait? Well the GPS got me to the laundry OK. Then when I tried to get to the hotel it took me to the other end of the spectrum. In Florida I was in a trailer park. In DC it seems it sent me to a very swank neighbourhood with massive two story homes on decent size blocks. It was a lot like driving around Turramurra, Lindfield or Killara in Sydney. So it was out with the tablet, while trying to program the driving app and navigating the thick on the ground downtown DC traffic. Well I made it no sweat, well not much sweat. Ah the life of the traveller.

As you can see I made it to the White House OK. I ran in to two Aussies from Melbourne and we did the swap umbrellas, cameras, backpack thing so we could all get photographs. It may not look it but it is raining in this shot. This is as close as you can get. Unless you are a US citizen or the Australian ambassador gets you in. Non residents aren't able to tour the house. Just behind me to the right is a secret service guy who got a little edgy and moved us along when we had been there for a full five minutes having a chat. The armed guards on the roof are perfectly obvious to the naked eye as are the voluminous tour buses that disgorge and engorge Japanese and Chinese tourists by the legion. It is such a well oiled machine that they even have pop up souvenir stands for the tour groups that allow you to purchase your authentic keepsake without having to support the locals in any way shape or form.

Now I also got to see the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial all from a distance. The weather was vile with umbrellas being turned inside out and people getting drenched. 

I will try and get a bit closer look at these when the weather clears up on Sunday (I hope). It is a little bizarre seeing all these things that are so familiar from TV and movies. I drove past the turnoff to Quantico. There are signs up to Arlington Cemetery. The Smithsonian is not just one museum it is a plague of museums that straddles both sides of the National Mall. Blessedly they are all free. 

The architecture here, like much of the rest of the country, is impressive. The only difference here is it is imposing and powerful and very much making a statement about the seriousness of the business conducted within and the task of government itself. Buildings will take up entire city blocks, sometimes more. It is very neo classical in style with Greek and Roman references abounding. Everywhere you look you see tall columns, domed roofs, symmetry and triangular finishes above everything. 

No matter how good the architecture is it can't hide the nasty reality that is a large homeless population. In Jackson Square, which is literally 500 metres from the back door of the White House you get homelessness on an almost industrial scale. Now I have told you how bad the weather is. Look at the photo below. Under each of those tarpaulins is a homeless person sheltering from the rain. When I walked past at a later time there was a line up of people getting fed from a food truck. To be surrounded by such grandeur then to see these people in such an impoverished state is just confounding.

Tomorrow I will try and check out the Air & Space Museum, the American History Museum and if I get time the National Archives. But the highlight of my trip will be riding the metro to pick up the laundry. In the immortal words of Clint Eastwood from the movie "In The Line of Fire" when the President sent his limo to pick him up ..... "I love public transportation."

It's Raining Again

I didn't make it to Washington sadly. The incessant rain was just soul destroying so I stopped in Richmond, Virginia leaving about two hours to go to get to Washington and yes its bleak and still very much raining. On the way I passed a pretty serious accident on Interstate 95. A tree had came down on top of a car, blocking all the lanes in that direction. I found out this morning that the occupant was killed. Another person was killed driving in flood waters. It seems we have fools here as well. A state of emergency has been declared in South Carolina and they expect flooding in Charleston. Maybe I should have headed inland to Atlanta after all. 

In good news, for me at least, the hurricane while still maintaining its category four status seems to have stalled over the Bahamas and it appears less likely to make landfall on the east coast. There is still a couple more days of doubt on this so say tuned. Historical Williamsburg has definitely been scrathced from the itinerary. Much and all as I love my history I don't need to experience it with 1500mm of rain. There are a few things to see and do here in Virginia but all of them require dealing with the weather. I thought I would spend the night, catch up with my laundry and grab some wet weather gear. Well no guest laundry but I am now better equipped for the weather. Excited to get to Washington, maybe I'll meet the President.

Charleston

Savannah is a fascinating place thoroughly in tune with its history. The local paper this morning is talking about pulling revolutionary war canons from the river. It still has a stretch of grass where for many years it was legal to duel, conveniently located next to a cemetery I might add. So it is with a little sadness that I leave. If I lived here I would just immerse myself in my surrounds, the history and soak it all in. I am pushing on to Charleston which is another historical city in South Carolina. To be honest it wasn't really on the radar but everyone keeps telling me to miss Atlanta and do Charleston instead. Who am I to argue?

Did I mention its hurricane season down here? Apparently the official start is June 1 and it ends on November 30, peaking in late August and all of September. So its excitement aplenty because guess what? We have a hurricane. Hurricane Joaquin is currently battering the Bahamas. I am sure I met some people in Cape Canaveral at the breakfast brawl who assumed they would be cruising there right now. I hope they have vomit bags in commercial quantities because that's one cruise I don't want to be on.

It seems to be the real deal. I was drinking with some people last night who were planning to go to Maryland to compete in a triathlon that has been cancelled and since reinstated, people travelled from Australia to take part. I'm sure they won't be happy. After my one and only night in Charleston, South Carolina and this is the quote about the hurricane in the local newspaper. 

                    "The range and possible outcomes is still large and includes the possibility of a major hurricane landfall in the Carolinas"

Now this is Category 4 storm which I'm assured is pretty serious. The weather has been crappy all day and it stuffed my plans to visit a cotton plantation and likely tomorrow's plans to go to Colonial Williamsburg. I can only do so much, but anyway. 

Let me tell you about Charleston. Its recently famous for a church shooting that occurred in June of this year in which nine people were killed. As I'm looking up the details for that I note that there has been a shooting at a community college in Oregon, ten dead this time. They just cant get enough of their guns it seems. The church where it all went down has quite a history. One of its founding members was accused a planning a slave uprising so he along with another 35 people were hanged and the church was burnt to the ground. 

It is a very pretty city with lots of stunning architecture. The building below inspired George Washington when having the White House built.

There is still an original Slave Auction house that has been turned into a museum.

There is also some stunning waterfront homes, many of which remain with the original families. However if one comes on the market you could pick it up for about $10,000,000.00 U.S. And because we are in the south there are a multitude of gorgeous churches including a circular one in the shape of a Celtic cross, all very Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code.

All in all a very pleasant little town. I lucked it and got to stay a spectacular place right in downtown called the King Charles Inn that was truly delightful. 

I think today was hump day for the holiday so its all downhill from here. I am making no plans until I see the weather for myself tomorrow. I tell you it is a little freaky when they cut in to your radio show with a klaxon and then issue a flash flood warning for the area you are in. I think I will probably end up in Washington DC which is about 8 and a half hours away. I am pretty sure even if we get a full hurricane that the Smithsonian and all the other impressive stuff will still be open. Fingers crossed. 

Oh and by way of a coda yes they did execute that woman in Georgia. Some guy in Oklahoma has been given reprieve until November 6 because they need to check the quality of the medication they are killing him with. Another guy just got a temporary reprieve in Virginia for the same reason with another three lined up to follow in Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma. Welcome to the Unites States, were everybody's dying to get out!

Savannah

I kissed goodbye to Florida today and crossed the state line into Georgia on my way to Savannah. Everywhere I had been so far told me that Savannah would be spectacular so my expectations were high. I had a crappy night's sleep the previous evening. The mosquitoes had finally beaten me in Florida and I was covered in bites and itchy as hell. I'd had an atrocious night's sleep and really wasn't in the mood for a five hour drive. When I got to the outskirts of Savannah I thought it looked a bit glib but even through my sleep deprived haze it's charm soon shone through.

I grabbed the deal of the century in a hotel right in the heart of the historic district, I'm opposite the river front and within walking distance of downtown (Broughton Street) and the city market precinct. The city is just alive with history from its foundation as a British colony, to its role in the American Civil War to it being the location for some of Forrest Gump film (The bus stop he waited at was located in one of the many squares that abound in the historic district). They even have the park bench used in the visitor centre for those inclined to be interested in such things. 

In other big news its seems I've made it here in time for a woman's state decreed execution. Kelly Gissendaner will be put to death using lethal injection tonight at 7.00pm. Apparently she is the first woman since 1945 to have the sentence carried out and she literally just had her last plea for clemency denied a matter of hours ago. Since allowing the death penalty to return in 1983 fifty seven people have been put to death in Georgia. I mentioned this to the bar lady last night and although a local she didn't even know they had the death penalty in Georgia. Its clearly not an issue that cuts through here.

The other interesting law and order story is there are signs all over the place saying how many people have died on the states road this year (973). Well as you know my opinion of U.S. driving is not great so I thought I'd compare it to Australia. The population of Georgia is about 10,000,000 and population of Australia is about 24,000,000 so you would think using the ratio as an indicator that our road death rate should be around 2,400. Well the stats are in, as of the end of August we are at 974 deaths. I think the data speaks for itself.

So anyway Savannah has many fascinating things about it. The squares that I mentioned are laid out in a very efficient fashion and break up the city nicely. Most of the side streets have beautiful residential homes so the city has a lived in feel. The Savannah College of Arts and Design (SCAD) had 11,000 students here and part of their mission is to preserve the historic nature of the town so many of it's campus building have re purposed historic buildings and brought them into the 21st century. Having 11,000 students wandering the streets also gives it a good vibe. They bring  an air of freshness and optimism to the area and make it an extremely pleasant place to stroll around. The fact that the city has 23 squares (which are all essentially park lands) makes it easy to navigate and to take a short break from the heat and humidity, of which you could argue they have cornered the market.

The bell pictured above is called "Big Duke" and before the days of radio and telephony the way fire fighters were signalled was the by the coded ringing of this bell. It would tell them which of the many squares you needed to head towards to help out with the fire. There are canons here captured in the war of Independence and gifted to the town by George Washington.

We are in the south so religion plays a huge part in everybodies lives. You have already seen the photo of the St John the Baptist Catholic Cathedral but of equal note is the fact that John Wesley, the guy who founded the Methodist Church, was a Church of England Minister here before branching out on his own. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the first run through of his "I Had A Dream" speech here at a local Baptist church before making the famous one we all know from Washington D.C. 

When Georgia was founded as British colony it had several bizarre rules. Firstly there were to be no Jews or papists (Catholics). The fear was that as the Spanish colony to the South and the French colony to the north were all Catholic any papists in Savannah may side with them if it came to a war. 

Unusually there were to be no slaves and also no hard liquor, wine and beer were fine but certainly no rum. There is a famous group of buildings here called the Pirate's House. Here they had a tunnel down to the river that served two purposes. One was you could smuggle rum in without taking it through the streets and it literally arrived straight to the bar. You could then shanghai the drunk with rum consumers for your ships crew on the return trip. Jews were quickly allowed into the colony when their original doctor died and a Jewish ship that tried to dock was only allowed to do so after the ship's Jewish doctor came ashore and helped with a significant outbreak of yellow fever. 

Now as you can see nearly all of these rules were ignored or taken out of play. Slavery was allowed from 1750, I've already told you how the rum got it in and the Jewish questions was just ignored completely when the colony received such excellent help when it had its medical epidemic. It was those damn papist that had to wait. I'm not sure when they were allowed in to Savannah but that beautiful Cathedral was only built around 1900 and replaced one that hard burnt down in the 1870's.

All in all Savannah is a gorgeous little city. Big enough to have everything you need but small enough to have real warmth and charm.