Nature in the city

Day 248
Mathews Arm VA- Greenbelt MD

Exciting is a good way to describe the ambiance of the morning. Why? It's about to get real. Months of planning have us on a schedule that accelerates us up the east coast. The goal is to stay in front of the warm weather and also the crowds. Only two days were scheduled at Mathews Arm which means it is time to pack our things and roll out. Shirley stays unhooked and gets piloted separate by Katie. Penny drives much easier through the blue ridge parkway without the extra load. I take the wheel an we plunge through the rolling Appalachian ridge line on our way to seek civilization.

Penny's bronze finish glows with the stunning backdrop of the blue ridge mountains

Around halfway down I pull over to snap a picture of Penny. While we are stopped Katie gets out of the Jeep and looks over at me. "I'm bored. I'm spacing out and have nothing to do". That's a cue for me to hook up the Jeep and finish the drive out of the mountains with the whole family in the same vehicle. Luckily for her she got to witness the epitome of laziness as we came down the mountain. Around a blind corner was a man stopping traffic for construction. He was sitting down and not hanging on to his sign. When it was time for us to go he looked up and pointed at the pilot car. Geez thanks a lot for your hard work and concern for safety. Lazy and stupid. Reminds me of how much I hate dumb people.

Exiting the park gives me about an hour of easy driving. Then the traffic starts and things get real. The next hour is weaving in and out of 5 lanes of highway packed with cars. I'm not looking forward to the driving over the next couple of weeks. This will be the new normal and that sucks. At least we made it to our home in DC without turning a small prius into a crushed soda can. 

Katie found a park ran by the National Park Service that is a 30 minute drive to downtown. ​We get set up and head out for groceries. This is going to be a busy week full of places to go and things to see. Hopefully seven days will be enough time to get it all in.