Baltimore

For Baltimore, we decided to stay in a hostel instead of car camping. Hostelling International has a nice location in the city that had a private room and was close to the harbor for only $60/night. The hostel included Wifi, a shared kitchen, and a much needed washer and dryer. We arrived around noon and checked in, took a quick shower, and took off.

We left the hostel and walked towards Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Jen had visited just a few months ago with her mom, so she knew some good spots to stop. The weather was really comfortable (mid 70's) and we preferred to walk instead of taking advantage of the city's free buses. The harbor was a a mix of pleasure and commercial boats and the shore was lined with various restaurants. There was an area to take out small paddle boats and you could see other piers and area of the harbor in the distance.

Jen wanted to walk to the Fell's Point area of the city in time for dinner so we left the harbor and walked through Little Italy on our way there. The streets were quiet in Little Italy, but it was an odd time on a Wednesday afternoon. We did make time to re-visit a bakery that Jen knew about, Vicaro's, to pick up some delicious cannolis.

Fell's Point was actually the original harbor for the city of Baltimore; it's where most of the ship building and commerce was. The area has since become a seemingly hidden from big crowds but still had a great collection of bars, small restaurants, and interesting shops. It was getting close to dinner time and we had walked a long way already today. Also, tonight was Game 7 of the Stanly Cup, so we found a small Irish Bar, Slainte's, that was going to have the game on TV's. I got a boxty for dinner (potato pancake) and Jen got some goat cheese risotto. We watched Boston win the game and then walked back to the hostel for the night.

First thing in the morning, we jogged back to the Inner Harbor and went to the top of Federal Hill for a nice view of the city, then back to the hostel for breakfast.















The hostel had a cool little breakfast operation where you could use the shared kitchen to make some pancakes from a batter they had put together. We then cleaned up and headed back outside.

There were a few stops back in Fell's Point that we didn't get to make yesterday, so back we went, this time taking the free city bus over there. There was a Maritime Museum that Jen wanted to visit, but they had changed their name since the last time she visited so it was a bit tough finding it again. I wouldn't really call it a museum, it was more of a collection of pictures and a few artifacts. But reading through the information, there is a really interesting story behind the growth of the Fell's Point area and the importance it had in our nation's history.

Fell's point, as I mentioned earlier, was a major ship building area and port for the US. However, the British navy had been harassing US merchant ships and disrupting trade so President Adams declared war on the British in 1812. This was a pretty brave (or foolish) move at the time because the US navy had 16 ships vs the 600+ that the British navy had. So to have a fighting chance, Adams sent out communication that any able ship and sailors had the right to arm themselves and attack British ships. Quickly, owners gathered crews and outfitted their private ships to go hunting for British merchant vessels. These owners and crews were called Privateers and they made fortunes capturing and selling the cargo from British ships. The Fell's Point area boomed with new shipbuilding and new revenue coming into the area.

This lasted for 2 years until the British decided to attack the mainland US. They burned down the capitol and white house in DC and then wanted to destroy the Baltimore / Fell's Point area that was the main source of the 'Privateers'. Baltimore survived the 3 day siege and out of that battle came the Star Spangled Banner and eventually a treaty declaring the war over.

With the history lesson over, we walked back to a place in Fell's Point that made 'Best Beer List' in Baltimore, Max's Taphouse. Max's had the most extensive tap list I've ever seen with something close to 100 beers on tap. We enjoyed creating our own samplers with the 5oz pours they had. Visiting places like this and trying out new and different beers is something Jen and I really enjoy doing.

(insert pic of Jen trying sour beer)

We then walked / rode free bus back to the inner harbor for an early dinner. It started to rain on and off, so we decided to head back to the hostel for the night to relax. But we did stop at a store on the way to grab some blueberries to make the free pancakes just a little bit better the next morning.















Now, off to Boston.

Washington DC

Jennifer really deserves a lot more credit than I give her. Generally, she is very willing to let me drag her to any location (-20 degrees in Jackson Hole) or any activity (riding ATVs in 120 degrees in Phoenix, AZ. The latest great idea I tried to pull her into was 'stealth' camping. This type of camping is similar to what we did in North Carolina, with the key difference being that I wanted to camp in areas that didn't really allow camping.

While we were in DC, I wanted to stay close to all the attractions, namely, the national mall. But hotels in this area were way more than I was comfortable spending so I thought that we could instead camp in the car....in a parking garage. Yes, this sounds sketchy, but I convinced Jen that we would park at Union Station in DC (think: Grand Central Station, NYC), and since this lot was under camera and car surveillance 24/7, we could feel comfortable staying in the back of the 4Runner at night. This would let us stay just a few blocks from the heart of DC, while only spending $20/night.

So, straight to Union Station we went, arriving at around 2:00 or so on Monday afternoon. Here's Jen trying to glam up our camping spot:

One important note to anyone else considering a road trip into DC...Driving in downtown DC is interesting in that their are VERY subtle differences in seemingly identical street names ... see illustration here:

Once we figured out how to get to the garage & parked, we set out to explore the National Mall. The first landmark we happened upon was the Capitol Building.

We continued our walk around the National Mall, passing several of the Smithsonian museums and the Washington Monument. We then made our way over to the Jefferson Memorial, where Jen sat out for a brief conference call for work. After that, we continued down to the Lincoln Memorial and back up past the White House (which, for the record, looked to be on pretty serious lock-down).

As it was surely 5 o'clock somewhere, we decided to stop in for a cool beer to regroup & decide our plans for the remainder of the day. Given that today was Game 6 of the Stanley Cup, we elected to hop over to a bar called Penn Quarter to watch the first 2 periods of the game and then to Capital City Brewery for the final period.  Boston won in dominating fashion to force a game seven to be played on Wednesday.

Here's a picture of Jen digging in to an order of fish tacos at Penn Quarter...the lady in the background was seriously thinking about mugging her out of the remaining 2 tacos.

After the game, we headed to the 4Runner for night 1 of stealth camping. Since we didn't want to draw too much attention to the car, we used the public bathrooms to wash up.  Then, we jumped in the car with a few windows cracked and slept comfotably through the night. The breeze on the roof kept the temperature nice enough to not use our portable fan.

We woke up around 7am and wanted to hit the museums.  We started with the Air & Space museum, which we spent a solid 2 to 3 hours in.  We spent the most time on the 'space race' section and the new Wright Brothers section.  We also took time to pay respects to an important marine, pictured below.

Next, we stopped by the NationalArchives to see the constitution, declaration, etc.  We tried to get in at the large door at the top of the stairs - Jen tried knocking, but no one opened the door or presented Alice in Wonderland style cake. 

The real entrance was at the beginning of a long line circling the building, so we decided to skip the documents and try one more stop before lunch.The Natural History Museum was close by and was interesting enough, but we started to grow tired of the endless stream of grade schoolers running around.  But before leaving, we did have a chance to go back in time and see what we would have looked like a few hundred thousand years ago.

We walked to a Thai place for lunch not far from the national mall.  Funny enough, it was right in the middle of 'China Town.'  After eating, we walked back to try out the American History Museum.  Again, it was an interesting place, but the kids were draining and we were starting to reach an information overload and got out of there shortly.

It was probably around 4:00 in the afternoon and we realized that our chances of finding attractions that did not attract the thousands of out-of-schoolers in town would be slim. So, we decided instead to do a sort of a date night - heading out to catch "The Hangover 2" at the downtown movie theater.

On Wednesday morning, we got an early start with a jog down the National Mall and then headed out toward Baltimore.We made a couple of stops on the way out, including at this Walmart to cook breakfast in the parking lot.

Richmond

Jen and I left the rally Sunday morning after breakfast and aimed our sights on the Capitol of Virginia, and the capitol of confederate America, Richmond.

After spending 3 days in the woods of North Carolina, a shower was desperately needed, but we had no lodging arrangements in Richmond. A quick search on hotwire.com turned up a $100 4-star hotel in the lively downtown area of Richmond that we wanted to be in. We arrived in the Berkley Hotel shortly after lunch and settled into the welcome juxtaposition of curtains, a mattress, and a bathroom.

There were a few interesting spots in the neighborhood that we wanted to stop at, but first we did some much needed laundry. Our dirt covered camping clothes were thrown into the bathtub with some hotel shampoo for a wash and rinse.

After showering & cleaning clothes, our first stop out was at Bottoms Up, a pizza joint that while sounding like some sketchy sort of night club, is actually a rather tame, good place to eat. It was voted best pizza in Richmond and the 'Karens Klub' pizza with ricotta and sausage was evidence enough for us.

From the pizza place, we walked up to the capitol building to take a few candid shots. It was a Sunday, but still, things felt pretty quiet in the area.

While walking close to the river front, we happened across a plaque referencing several hurricanes that Jen found interesting because some were considered major storms down in LA.

Our last stop of the night would be Capitol Ale House, a brewpub with close to 50 beers on tap. We played darts, sampled beers, and took advantage of the $2 appetizer specials after 9pm.













We woke the next morning and enjoyed the fact that we could start a Monday with a jog, eat left over pizza for breakfast, and then take off for the nations capitol, DC.

Overland Rally in Marion NC

Long day of driving from Destin to NC...about 10 hours all together. Drove a couple hundred miles on small country highways up through Florida & Alabama until we hit I-85 near Tuskegee. Wasn't too much to see - couple of small towns along the way, but mostly trees & open fields. We had another few hundred miles once on 85, up through Atlanta, then Highway 441 to I-40. Once we got through Atlanta, the rest seemed to cruise by.

We made a couple of pit stops along the way, including one at a Puma outlet store near Atlanta...I got a new pair that I love!

Our destination of Marion NC was determined by an event that David had researched and wanted to attend - Overland Rally. Overland is an outdoors travel publication that has a pretty extensive social network of people who do overland travel (lots of off-road capable vehicles like Land Cruisers, Land Rovers, etc) and a variety of camping set-ups. The rally offered workshops on topics like how to financially plan for extended duration travel, how to pack cargo effectively & tie-down techniques, cartography & GPS, etc...they also had classes on 4wd techniques. We signed up for the beginners one - pretty interesting stuff & got to do some scaling & driving down drops...however, I am having an issue with 4low not engaging, so we had to duck out of the class early once they moved on to more challenging hills. All-in-all, it was a great weekend and we met lots of cool people. Below are a few pics...

We arrived fairly late on Thursday evening - just enough daylight left to set up the 4Runner for sleeping. Here is what our set up looked like for the weekend:

(like I mentioned in an earlier post, we set up the back seat & cargo area with a platform for bedding, so that is where we slept).

The next morning, we woke up fairly early and were able to see the sunrise - beautiful coming up over the valley nearby.

Here's David making coffee:

After breakfast, we walked around a bit to check out some of the other camping set ups. The campsite for the rally was held on a flat hill top (called "The Flats") - there were trails & mud holes all around us.
Here are a few pictures:

 The area in the bottom right of this next picture is called "The Playground"...color-coded green and considered easy off-road driving.

This hill was a yellow path...considered moderately difficult...

David & I did a little hiking to peek at some of the red / difficult trails. We climbed/slid down one...neither of us can imagine trying to drive down these things. Sorry that pics of some of these aren't great, but we were shooting with iPhones.

(just behind me, there is a path called "Superman" that descends at about a 40 - 45 degree angle over  rocks, sticks, and mudspots...crazy!) PS - see those good looking shoes I'm wearing? =)

One more pic...here's David letting air out of my tires for my 4x4 class :D

So, now we are off to the next stop...we are heading to Washington DC but aren't trying to be there until tomorrow (Monday) morning, so we plan to stop in Richmond VA for the night. Should be just over 5 hours of driving and we left at 8:30 this morning so we should be there just after lunch.

Pensacola & Destin FL

Yesterday we arrived in Pensacola just in time to hit David's favorite place for lunch - McGuire's Irish Pub.

This place has really great food, beer & atmosphere in general. Inside, there are dollar bills stapled all over the ceiling throughout the entire bar & restaurant. There is something like over a million dollars in bills hanging - they have to do audits annually for tax purposes. The  menu contains several traditional Irish dishes and also delicious burgers & steaks.

After Pensacola, we continued on to Destin to catch up with the Buisson's. They were spending a week-long family vacation in a nice beach side condo. We really enjoyed catching up with Luke & Debbie.

The Gulf breeze made it very nice out in the evening, so we decided to try out camping in the car. We parked in a lot not far from the beach and slept perfectly with small cracks in the windows and the fan on low. We woke up around 7:00 a.m. and decided to get out for a run. Our route has changed slightly - we are going to be staying a little further inland up to Asheville, NC. David found this great Overland event going on up there this weekend, so we are heading there for Friday and Saturday. Then we'll be back on track for getting to DC on Monday.

And, we're off!

We're on the road, about an hour out from Pensacola. We started early this morning - around 7 a.m. - by heading over to the grocery store and loading out food for the first 4-5 days. Then we stopped back at the house for the pillows we forgot :)

David has been doing the driving this morning while I get some work done. We picked up a great lapboard that has an expanding mouse surface. The data card is working seamlessly so far. I also had one conference call that went well. All in all, I've probably knocked out 2 solid hours of work and it's only 10:30 a.m. I think this working from the road set-up will go just fine.

More to come from Florida shortly...

Transformerizing the Toyota

So...today's project was getting the 4Runner ready for a multi-week road trip. David has been doing a lot of research on how to outfit a Toyota for extra storage & optional sleep space (if needed).

Below are a few pictures of our progress.

Here is what the view of a standard 4Runner looks like from the rear with the back row of seats folded down:

We started by making a 2-part platform that sits 10" above the floor board. Here is David test fitting it:

After we had the platform all set, we carpeted each section of wood to match the car's interior:

This is what the platform looks like all together:

 

Here's what it looks like partially loaded & set up with a foam top mattress on top:

We made the sleeping platform with pre-threaded galvanized pipe, 3/4" plywood and plain old wood screws.  The project totaled ~$200 with most of the cost associated with the pipe.  It supports our weight well and allows for storage space below.  We figure that one or two nights spent sleeping in the 4Runner vs the cost of a hotel will make this worth the time and money.

Looks like we'll be leaving tomorrow morning - a day earlier than expected - to spend a little time in Destin with friends. 

Here we go!