Day 22 : Road trip

Today we left the hovel and picked up our "little car" from Washington airport. The lady at Dollar car asked us if we had a sat nav and wished us luck when we replied no! Once actually out of Washington, navigation was OK and we made our way to Williamsburg, Virginia. We spent the time listening to country and western music on the radio, Will played with the cruise control and I counted the amount of blown out tyres on the road. I had my first "Wendy's" - it was lush and gave me an opportunity to steal more plastic cutlery.

The camp site is lovely. We have pitched our tent in a shady spot in a big field with only one other tent (everyone else is in RVs). There is a nice swimming pool but the water is really warm and not very refreshing.

I'm loving having the car and our little tent - our own little home. I am now sat in the tent (writing on a notepad). The noise of the crickets (or cicadas??) is deafening and the fireflies are so bright they light up the tent like flashes of lightening. Fireflies are amazing (don't get me wrong, glow worms are cool too), because they can fly! You will be walking along and they light up in your face like blobs of fire! It is still really warm so the tent is open apart from the bug netting. The moon is streaming through the trees into the tent and, as the sound of crickets singing and bugs dropping from the trees doesn't send me to sleep, we wonder if there are any bears in the wood...

Today's temperature: 35C

Local accent: changing to a more southern twang

Day 21 : Museumed out

This morning we went to the National Archives to see an exhibition on "the government's effect on the American diet". They also have things like the Declaration of Independence. I feel like we've seen so much American history stuff that when I come back to the UK I need to read a British history book so that Britain doesn't think I'm neglecting it! We saw a little bit of the Smithsonian Folk Festival then went to the National Air and Space museum before heading back home.

Any plans made about what to do next whilst standing in cold air-conditioned museums are always scuppered within 30 seconds of leaving by the immense heat! Its only going to get hotter (but the frequency of pools, sea and lakes nearby will increase).

Day 20 : Memorials, memorials...

Today we went on a guided walking tour of Washington. It was good but really hot. We saw the Washington monument, the White House and Jefforson memorial in the distance, the relatively new WW2 memorial, the Vietnam war memorial and the Lincoln memorial. I've come to realise that most of the famous landmarks I recognise in America are due to watching the Simpsons! Sadly the reflection pool was empty for rennovation so it is just an expanse of mud. Nevertheless, the view sitting on the Lincoln memorial looking across to the other memorials and buildings was impressive. I also cuddled a cute police horse which was nice. I continue to enjoy the free toilets and water fountains everywhere.

We are now back in our hovel with ants and daddy long legs everywhere. For dinner we shared some microwave pasta (there is a microwave but nothing else, so my collection of plastic cutlery from museum cafes is proving useful). We bought a giant road map today and ripped out all the pages we don't need in preparation for our road trip.

Bitey bitey count: reducing but set to increase.

Day 19 : Washington D.C.

A very tiring day today. We caught the overnight bus from Boston to Washington and neither of us slept much. We're staying an another homestay through Airbnb for the next few days, although the house is more like a hostel. The area (Takoma Park) seems nice enough, but the room is a bit dingy and there are no cooking facilities. We're staying in the basement of a large 19th century mansion (we were supposed to be staying in a different room upstairs, but the downgrade gave us both a cheaper rate and an early check-in).

We managed to drag ourselves into town for a few hours and visited the Museum of the American Indian and the American History Museum, both of which were very good. Tomorrow we're hoping to go on a free walking tour of the main sights, although today was very hot, humid and stormy, so not ideal conditions for wandering around outside. One piece of good karma came our way as we were given some spare unlimited metro travelcards by an Australian lady, so at least transport will be free for the next few days (we did the same with our Boston and New York travelcards).

Thomas joined us for clam chowder in Portsmouth

Day 18 : Wallis sands

We are currently on a bus from Portsmouth to Boston bus station in order to get an overnight megabus to Washington. Today Kieran was off work, the 3 of us had Dunkin donuts (much much yummier than Krispy kreme) and iced coffee (all the rage over here) for breakfast. This morning we picked up Will’s newly hemmed shorts (thanks Seth!) and headed to Walmart (to buy hats and sleeping bags) on the way to a lovely beach in Rye just down the road. We did some sunbathing, pebble skimming and went for a very brief dip as the water was chilly but beautifully clear. We chilled out in the afternoon and Will learned from the net how to survive a bear attack: the first thing you have to do is figure out what species of bear you are facing (black or brown – which are not always black or brown and vice versa!) and then decide whether there are cubs around, before deciding whether to fight or play dead!

Bitey bitey count: L= 15 W= 20 (but 7 of them don’t count)

Since arriving in the USA….

• Number of new beers = 17. Note we’ve hardly drunk the same beer twice.
• Number of new supermarkets = 4. Note: I thought food was really expensive but it turns out we had only been in expensive supermarkets in expensive cities. Food is the same price as the UK if not cheaper so we won’t starve and suffer nutrient deficiencies.
• Number of times in Boston south Bus station = 3

Day 17 : Lazy day in Portsmouth

Kieran and Helen were working today so we had a lazy day in their house, using the time and available internet to sort out some of the next leg of our trip (Washington and the drive to Memphis). Before Kieran went to work he took me to an outdoor shop to purchase a tent for our road trip; we're going to get other camping kit once we have the car, but wanted to make sure that we have a tent so we're not hunting around for one in Virginia.

In the afternoon we booked some more hotel / hostels for Fiji and a camp site near Nashville. Seth from Eppy's Slacker Shorts, whom we met last night, came over with a suitcase full of shorts for me to try. I picked out a nice pair of vintage trousers and he measured me up, so we should be collecting a great pair of bespoke shorts in the morning! They're certainly going to get a lot of use over the next 10 months.

We planned to have a picnic dinner in the evening but had to abandon due to a thunderstorm, so we headed into town to the Portsmouth Brewery pub where they run a microbrewery. There is a lot of good beer over here (I'll write another post on that later) and the beer culture is surprisingly close to that in the UK - we had a great blonde ale and a stout that were brewed right on the premises.