Oct 2007

Well Asheville was nice and all but we knew as we headed to Tennesee things might get a bit more Andy Griffith, Dukes of Hazard, Deliverance like and....well, they did. First, it started raining. The most rain we'd seen in a long time. All kinds of rain. Misty rain, big 'ol giant rain, rain that came in waves and even sideways rain. So we just kept driving. Through Knoxville toward Nashville (then past Nashville) till we got to Lebanon, TN. Sleeping in an RV with heavy rain is like sleeping in a popcorn popper. Sleep was marginal and early the next morning, with the rain pounding, we moved off the leveling blocks, put them away. Turned off the power, disconnected water, brought in the pullout and then it happened. I really don't want to discuss it. Never work alone when the buddy system is required. It's not something I want to describe but I'll say this.... Sewer hoses, way too much pressure, weak connection. You either have a good time or a painful story which leaves deep emotional scars and recurring twitching and itchiness. I didn't really care for those pants anyway. But enough about the never-ending daily monotony that is hooking, unhooking, taking the car off trailer, leveling and unleveling RV, checking in, backing in, pulling through, fixing tire, fixing other tire, water seeping in, water seeping out, Boy I wish we would have made this a longer drive.

I'm sorry, I needed to get that off my chest. Here's a question. Why is it that in the South there is so much hoopla about the Civil War and all the battles. Look, bottom line is....the South lost. We're now, fortunately, the "United" States of America. That's right. The South wanted to be separate so there'd be what...North America (us) and "South" America with continued slavery? We haven't figure out why there is so much celebration and dedeication to such an unworthy cause. The sports equivalent would be something like erecting monuments and National parks at the sites of a teams worst losses when they were trying to win the Superbowl on Steroids only to lose to a better team that was virtuous, courageous and unifying. Then, you celebrate the bitter loss and reenact it every chance you get for all the tourists to see. We just don't understand. No offense to our Southern friends but WHY?

Then we go through Arkansas. Not much novelty here that we could find. I mean really. How did they even come up with the name "Arkansas?". I think it was like this...."Well Delbert, what should we name this place. Kansas is already taken even though we're from there." Delbert ponders and says "How about "our Kansas" but with a little of that Frenchy flair so we'll call it Our - can- saw or Arkansas. And that town by Texas, will call that "Texarkansas" or Texarkana" It's amazing how things have transpired in US history. For my detailed factual accounts on historical thingies go to my website at www.makeitupasyougoalong.com

So with some 7,000 miles under our RV hat and some long, long straight driving to go down route 66 we'll be charging for home with stops in Oklahoma, Amarillo, TX then to Albuquque & Santa Fe, then Grand Canyon to meet our friends the Phelps before heading to Prescott to stay a few days with them and off to Palm Springs to see Hal's parents then back to SLO!!!

Well after a suprisingly beautiful view of Pennsylvania we made our way to Washington, DC. Actually our RV park was in College Park, MD where we could catch the bus to the Metro and be in Downtown in about 40 minutes. Our first day we rode in to Union Square which is a massive rail, Metro stop with shops, restaurants, food court etc. and prior to airtravel this was where most dignitaries would arrive and be greeted in the Nation's Capital. We're not big on tours but signed up for the double decker open top bus and made our rounds in that to get familar with the lay of the land. We went to the Spy museum which was fascinating and a bit depressing at the same time. It's amazing to find out the extent to which people and Countries go to find out what other people and Countries are doing. In fact, DC has the highest concentration of spies in the world with an estimated 10,000 within a 1 mile radius of the spy museum! We stopped at a small market for a drink and as the stout guy in line in front of us pulled out his wallet I could he see he had a very "official" looking ID. I was really curious and not too subtly snooping to see what it was as I used all my newfound spying skills before I finally just asked the guy if we could see his ID, much to the embarassment of Nate & Kyle. Well, he immediately said "are you guys tourists?" and we are all thinking "uh oh, Dad went tooo far again this time." It turns out he was secret service and dug deeper into his wallet to give us "special" secret service pins..." you won't find these in any of the gift shops" he told us proudly. So a potentially embarassing situation got us some special momentos. Rest assured that you, as US citizens, are now much safer since the Sweaseys have been thoroughly endoctrinated into the Secret Service. This was our first real trip to DC and we gained a lot.

The Lincoln Memorial was probably one of the more moving sights. The boys of course knew this is where Forrest Gump made his famous speech and reconnected with Jenny after his tour of duty in Vietnam - it's so great that our kids have such an appreciation for history. The WWII memorial, the Capital building, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Holocaust Museum, Washington Monument (named after Herbert Hoover of course) to name a few we're all part of the sightseeing.

After 4 great days in DC we moved down the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. The highlight was Lexington, VA. A small town of 7,000-8,000 and home to Washington/Lee University and VMI (Virginia Military Institute). A hilly downtown with narrow 1700's streets and laden with historic buildings that are now little cafe's and shops. We moved onto Asheville, NC which is another cute town but larger and got connected on some great mountain biking trails that the kids loved and the whole area is surrounded by National Forests and Parks and natural beauty. We're now counting the days back to SLO with over 6,000 miles traveled and about 2,300 miles to go!!!

Well after traveling through 6 states and driving over 9 hours yesterday we arrived in Brandywine, Pa near Amish country. Today we traveled to see the Amish and what an amazing group of people and a countryside full of contrast. They live as is it's the 1600's and people are oogling, taking pictures it's amazing. They live in the beautiful rolling hills of Pennsylvania on manicured farms that they till with horse and plow. Then you drive 5 miles and find a massive, dilapidated steel mill in an enconomically depressed town. The highlight of the day was the cute Amish town of.....are you ready for this....i'm not kidding.... Intercourse, PA. Of course the boys had a field day with this, in fact, if you notice the photo below we're not the only ones to have a bit of fun with this.

Hope you can read the sign because it's classic. The funnier part is that quite a distance from Intercourse was Blue Ball bank...I kid you not. Even though the Amish are a wonderful people I couldn't help have some fun bantering with the kids about them. Like how successful would an Amish Valet parking service be... Well tomorrow we go to Philadelphia then to Washington, D.C.

check out our photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/hsweasey

Well after being what we believe to be the only RV crossing on the George Washington bridge and through New York City, past Shea Stadium and out to Long Island we found ourselves at Hal's sister Roberta's house. Roberta and Vince Morra live with Vince's brother Joe right down the street from Brother Matt which means there's only 10 other Morra's living in other areas of New York. We were able to see the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Museum of Natural History and the Broadway play Spamalot - what a treat. Of course taking the Rik Shaw (sp? you know guy pedaling bike pulling you in wagon behind) for 15 blocks with 4 of us in a 2 seater and the young driver from Turkey making sure it was memorable ride weaving through traffic, relentless taxis and then finally, the crescendo...going against traffic toward Times Square and dropping us of in front of the theater. The next night we got to visit with Maria's family - Lillian & Victor Colleti, Joey Carbone, Nicky Cabela, Geppie DiLorenzo to name a FEW who are all descendents of the Giglio and Delorenzo families. There were cousins galore all from NY/Long Island and they were kind enough to show up for one evening with us....the weird Californians...it's a time we will never forget and Nate and Kyle were so excited to meet the whole Sicilian side of their family.We had a great time and it was amazing to connect with everyone. We've got over 5,000 miles on the RV and 1,500 on the CRV and we're about as far away from San Luis Obispo as you can get in Plymouth, Ma (Oct. 9, 2007).

Well we dropped off the RV for a little service outside of Chicago (this wasn’t by accident since we didn’t want to be driving that thing in the City) and drove the car and bikes into a great hotel recommended by Paul Gabriel who comes here for AVP tour events. We were about 3 blocks from lake Michigan & surrounded by beautiful Brownstones. It’s Friday afternoon so all the “who’s who” of Chicago were eating and drinking in the 70 degree weather on the patios of all the great restaurants on Rush Street. Then we just happened by the Drake Hotel. A classic historic hotel. This place was insanely grand with a massive entry, ornate carvings and architecture and was dripping with “old money.” We felt like the Beverly Hillbilly’s walking around here with all the men wearing suits, women in long dresses and children in formal attire having tea….I could almost hear the comments from one mother to her little daughter as the daughter stared at us in wonder…. ”Now little Eleanor…. Don’t stare and please don’t breath too deeply around the commoners.” As we went outside and walked the shore of Lake Michigan we were overtaken by the size of the lake and the size of the buildings. The boys favorite building (they all hard doormen and guarded entries) was one that had a covered pull-in for cars (much like the “pull-through” we have in RV parks) with nowhere to go and on the ground was a huge turnstile so that your car would just rotate around 180degrees after the passenger got out and the driver could then take it away…probably to an RV park with a pull through I told the boys. As we walked along some of the most expensive real estate in the Country overlooking lake Michigan on Lake Shore Drive it was evident we weren’t in South Dakota anymore. Little girls in long dresses with long white stockings and black shoes right out of St Episcopals Goddard Havard Prep Midtown School for 5th generation bijilllionaires pushing their hunched over “Grahndpupah” in wheelchair wearing tweed coat and tie, leaning his chin on his cane with just the slightest bit of drool coming out of the right side of his mouth as the 11 year old granddaughter was begging for him to tell her “the” story again…. “Grahndpupah, grandpupah tell me again how much money I’ll get when you die.”
Of course all this stuff is just what goes on in my head when I walk around…a scary place.

And so it goes as that night we took our kids to see the famous Second City performers (the place where Mike Myers, John Belushi, Chris Farley and yes, Hal’s cousin Ron West all got their start). Sure the age minimum was 10 but they recommend 15, and naturally, as far as we could tell, ours were the only children there but it was funny and other than some language they’d heard before and some references made to things we assume they know nothing about but really do... it was quite an experience. We were able to ride our bikes along the lake front to the Field Museum and the Shedd aquarium which were both gargantuan and a must see. Maria got in some much needed shopping and a trip to the salon.
When we were leaving Chicago on Sunday it became clear Nate’s tooth (which he broke and had capped in Spring while skateboarding – the number one cause of dental trauma and early retirement for dentists) needed a root canal so as we headed East we had to try and find and Endodontist which we did just South of Cleveland and found another one of “those” 11th hour RV parks that had mostly permanent residents, a fishing pond which simply appeared to be a retention basin for the effluent from the dump station then we saw the dried up “pool” which looked more like a pond with some concrete poured around the edges and a mildewed lifeguard chair teetering on the side. Not to mention the swarming yellow jackets and a convention of Daddy Long legs there that swarmed us as we prepped the RV. Well we did our quick set-up routine, locked the RV, ran out in the pouring rain to the car to drive to town to get medication for Nate, groceries and do laundry. I actually just wore my special gloves that I change the sewer hose with into town just to be safe. The next day the root canal went well. It was very painful but Nate felt so much better and is happy to have it over with. So we’ve got our vicodin and now we're making the journey to New York from Central Pennsylvania to see family and spend a few days driving the RV through Manhattan.