Day Two - Washington DC
From Pennsylvania, through the national capitol, and into the beautiful West Virginia
Introduction - Raystown Lake, PA
Leaving South-Central Pennsylvania
For those of you wondering what has happened, and why you’re reading about day two of our trip again, we’ve got an answer for you right here:
Waking up in a different state, in a tent, on the trip that we all knew would become a truly incredibly memorable was an experience that I will not forget for a while. With that said, this morning had started earlier than we had wished, with a downpour moving in during the early morning. We had to scramble all of our gear together and quickly stuff our gear into the back of the van that we planned on living in for the next fifty days.
Above is a picture of the fog-covered mountains in Pennsylvania from the car.
Washington DC
Monuments, museums, and more!
After a successful stop at a Walmart and a “Sheetz” gas station/fast food restaurant in Maryland, gathering up food and necessary supplies for continuing onward. We then made a stop in our nation’s capitol, Washington DC!
The first thing that we did, was check in on the monuments near the capitol. We started off by seeing the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, before moving on to what we really came to see, the museums!
We visited the Smithsonian Natural Science Museum and the Smithsonian Museum of American History. At these two places, we happened to learn about all sorts of things, from the Dinosaurs to the Revolutionary War, all the way up to Modern American history. These Museums provided some of the most interesting exhibits that we have ever seen in our lives.
Above is a statue of the first President of the United States, George Washington.
Above is Elias Brodeur posing in front of a fossil that we saw at the Natural Science Museum.
Here are some interesting geological formations at the Natural Science Museum.
Upon leaving Washington DC, and entering Arlington, VA, our new windshield wiper that we had purchased earlier in the day half flew off of the car during a downpour. After this happened, we found the nearest place to exit the highway, driving very slowly and not being able to see very much. By nothing more than the divine grace of God, we made it to the parking lot of some hotel immediately off of the highway and used a “temporary” fix for the windshield wiper that remained for the rest of our trip.
Above is a picture of the “temporary” solution being made.
West Virginia
An unforgettable drive, and an unwelcome surprise.
With our day coming to a close in Washington DC, we had moved out to the hills and hollers of the “Mountain State,” West Virginia. Looking for free camping that would keep us within a few hours of the Washington DC Metro Area, I looked through camp spots on the app that we had been using to find a place to sleep each night. I had found a campsite in the mountains of West Virginia, not too far away from where we had planned on going the next day, and without any apparent flaws. This would be one of the first real mistakes or hurdles sent our way on a journey that inspired immense personal growth in all of us involved.
Above is a picture taken at the rest stop mentioned in the passage below in West Virginia.
On our way to the campsite, imagining that we had time working on our side, we stopped in at a rest stop in West Virginia and messed around for a little bit, soaking in the majesty of the Appalachian Mountains. West Virginia was one of the favorite states of the four of us, especially on the East Coast, given its unique and incredible natural landscape. To best describe the physical terrain of West Virginia to our followers from New England, imagine if the White Mountains never ended and ran throughout the entirety of the state of New Hampshire, and then some. Even though I had spent a significant amount of my childhood in the more rural areas of New Hampshire and Maine, nothing compared to how sparsely populated and rural West Virginia was in comparison to everywhere else I had ever been in my life.
While twisting down the more rural roads that were leading us to our planned campsite, passing by mountains covered in green trees, wind farms, and cell towers, we watched the sunset as the night that we were having was about to take a turn for the worst. We turned down a dirt road in the dark, with the general morale remaining excited to see where we would find ourselves camping that night. We climbed up the mountain at a snail’s pace, dodging large rocks and cautiously navigating divots that ran across the road, carved out by the power of storms that had long past and left their mark on the countryside. Nearly thirty minutes into our ascent up this dirt road to where we thought we’d be camping, we ran into our first sign of human development that night (with the exclusion of fences for cows). A gate across the road with the words “road closed” written on it. Now we don’t know why the road was closed for certain, but speculation ran wild between the four of us.
Was it because the road was washed out?
Was it because the road became a private road?
Whatever the case may be, it didn’t matter now; we had to go back down the dirt road we had just come up and find a place to camp despite none of us having had cell service for over an hour. Morale was in the trash, with the only moments of comic relief coming from an attempt to ask the several deer and cows we passed on the dirt road back down the mountain for directions to the nearest campground.
Luckily, as we turned off of the back road, we saw a sign for the campground we eventually went to spend the night at, “Dolly Sods.” Another dirt road in the mountains, this time better maintained but with no guard rails, a steep drop-off on one side of the car, room for only one lane of traffic to pass through, and no shoulder, the ride up to Dolly Sods was one of the most memorable of the trip. We had finally arrived at camp deep into the night, something that would become a theme, and set up the tent in a hurry. With enthusiasm to finally get some sleep and explore the natural bounty of West Virginia the next day, we hurried to bed.
Map of how far away we were when we went to bed that night from Mary Anne’s diner in downtown Derry, NH.
Wow so cool!
Looks like fun haha!