We were pretty exhausted today and since we knew Washington DC was relatively close by (about 3.5 hours away - I know, it's all relative) and everything we wanted to see in DC closed at 5pm, there really wasn't any reason to rush to get there. I woke up first and was relieved to see that no one apparently cared whether we were in the right place or not. There were several guys around mowing the lawns (which was a HUGE job! We watched them work on it for at least 4 hours, and they were nowhere near done), and none of them seemed bothered by our presence so we just took our time making breakfast and breaking down camp. In fact, it was nearly 2pm by the time we finally drove out of there.
It was warm and windy in the morning so there was no need to make a fire again. We've had the same wood in our car since Wyoming but we only used a little bit in Omaha and have been stuck with the rest of it since then.
The KOA had a tiny lake with boats to rent and big fish in it. They also had a playground that the girls played on a bit, and there were three little boys about my girls' ages that they played with for a while. Jessey stayed with the girls while I went to take a shower. I came back out to loud, excited voices which always makes me a little nervous at first. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to hear that while I was in the shower, they caught animals in the campground. K caught some sort of orange toad that squeaked a bit that she named Crogunk, and C caught what she says was a garter snake. I just hoped she was right. It had a dark red tongue with black at the tip and had obviously been injured several times as it had deep scars. As she held it, the snake acted very strangely, winding and rolling itself around. It looked like it had serious neurological issues, but C affectionally named it Pretzel.
The snake moved around a lot quicker than C's ball python does, but it didn't seem to mind being held. K thought it was hilarous to put the toad on the table so it would jump on my lap and make me yelp. They were both very sad to have to let their new 'pets' go. They become attached to animals so easily and C was sad for a very long time after she let Pretzel go.
By the time we finally left the campground it was 2pm and we were ready for lunch. I had seen a billboard for Cracker Barrel yesterday that had a picture of fresh baked biscuits and it was stuck on my mind. We drove about 5 minutes down the highway before we pulled off at the first exit that had a Cracker Barrel which was in New Stanton, Pennsylvania.
The food was heavenly! C devoured her chicken 'n dumplings so quickly that I hardly even got the chance to see it. Jessey and A loved the mac 'n cheese and K had an odd combo of fried shrimp and pinto beans, but she loved it too. And the biscuits - oh the biscuits!! I am so glad they don't have Cracker Barrels back home or I would surely gain a hundred pounds! We couldn't help but order dessert. Jessey and A had the blackberry cobbler, I had an apple dumpling, C had a sundae, and K had triple chocolate Coca-Cola cake that was practically black in color. Of course C was happy to help K finish her cake as well.
After lunch we were way too full to get back in the car so we sat in the rocking chairs on the front porch and watched Jessey and C play checkers for a little while. I needed to renew some library books and book a hotel that we would stay in when we arrived in Washington, DC anyway.
I was thinking I may need to mail some of the library books home so they could be returned (one of the issues of being gone so long), but the cute little post office was closed by the time I got there at 4:45, so I'll have to mail them home another day.
As we continued on the Pennysylvania freeway (called the Pennsylvania Turnpike), we were surprised to find it as yet another toll road. I always thought it was weird when I used to get directions on Mapquest.com and they had an option to avoid toll roads. I always thought how ridiculous it would be to be so cheap that you wouldn't pay the few dollars it costs to go somewhere every once in awhile like the Benicia bridge. Now I understand the motivation behind avoiding them. You could go broke living out here!
Pennsylvania does their toll road a little differently. When you get on the onramp you take a long paper ticket out of a machine. It reminded me a bit of a parking garage where you take the ticket and the gate goes up. But in Pennsylvania they just save it all up and charge you at the very end of the turnpike. If you get off the freeway there are payment machines at every exit, and then when you get back on the onramp you grab another ticket. Sheesh. This way made me a little more nervous because I wondered how high of a bill I was going to rack up driving across the state. Jessey looked at the ticket and tried to figure out how much it was going to cost me. He thought it would be around $23. Luckily he was wrong and it cost just under $10, but I can't imagine going to a store across town or going to visit a friend and having to pay to use the freeway every single time both ways.
We got into Washington DC well after dark and checked into the Hotel Harrington. We had opted to go with a lower-rated hotel close to the National Mall instead of a higher-rated hotel farther away from the sites we wanted to see. The hotel was still pricey and was certainly old-fashioned, but it was perfectly fine for us and it turned out to be such a great idea to stay close to the Mall. One downside of our hotel was that the parking lot was 5 blocks away. On the plus side, parking was only $16 a day, compared to as much as $50 a day at some other hotels in the area. But that meant we had to unpack everything we might need for the next three days out of the car, take it up to the hotel room, drive the car to the parking lot, and then walk the 5 blocks back to the hotel. Just about everything in the area was already closed for the night so we just had bowls of cereal in our hotel room and went to bed.
The animal-radars never fail. #impressed
ReplyDeleteC's looks (visually) like a Butler's Garter Snake which, according to herpetology websites, will thrash around if annoyed or threatened.
K's looks like either a Fowler's or American toad. Can't really tell from the picture because of the angle (eg, cannot see the head or the belly) but if she developed a skin irritation afterwards it was the American since the head area glands secrete a mild toxin.
Kinda of interesting that of the two, you'd think the snake to be the more dangerous but it was the toad which was (potentially) poisonous.
Luckily neither of them had any problems from the animals, although I had to tell them both several times not to put them near their faces, and I made them wash their hands after they finally let them go.
DeleteThe snake did sort of a rolling maneuver (like a crocodile death-roll I suppose) although when it did it, one got the impression its eyes should have been rolling around in its head or something (although snakes eyes can't do that)
I thought they were both rather friendly critters for wild animals :)
Cracker Barrel!! Oh the memories of that place! That was a FAVORITE of my family on these journeys. Needless to say, when I saw one off the highway a little ways outside Las Vegas (when I was there last year at a conference), I peeled off the highway and had myself a BREAKFAST! Grits and all! Yum!
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