Greetings from Benson, Arizona!

We’re writing from the west, but we have to backtrack in this chapter a little to share more details about our stay in Pensacola, Florida.
Along the shoreline they have developed a wonderful park to memorialize all of the wars. Each war or conflict has its own section and statue or plaque. The one that struck Joan the most was the memorial for soldiers who received the Purple Heart. If there is another like it — we don’t know where it is. There is also a replica of the Wall in Washington D.C. memorializing the names of American men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the Vietnam War. War is a sad commentary on mankind.
Across the roadway, there is a memorial dedicated missing children. It has a walkway that projects out into the bay and a touching bronze statue.
We left Pensacola and continued on our trip westward. We crossed the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Mississippi is an important commercial and recreational waterway to our country and is visually quite impressive. Perhaps a houseboat trip down the Mississippi, just like Huck Finn took, may be in the Vagabonds future.
James is visualizing himself in a straw hat and bare feet, with a straw in his mouth and a fishing line is hand.
Joan laughs as she visualizes this geriatric literary character.
Entering Louisiana, we stopped at the Welcome Center. It was very attractive, decorated for the Christmas season with antique toys, greens, and ribbons. A visitor is immediately taken by the Southern charm of this region of the country.
As we continued on I-10, a large construction truck drove past us, spewing pea gravel all over the roadway — and the van. Two pieces of gravel hit the windshield and made chips. We took down the trucking company’s name and plate number.
At the Butte La Rose Exit #121 we pulled into the parking lot to examine the rest of the van. After ensuring that there was no other damage, we called the trucking company, and discovered that they really didn’t care about our damage, so James placed a call to the state police and got the same attitude.
Things are different in the south! James had the exact same type of incident years ago with a dramatically different response from both the trucking company and law enforcement in Connecticut.
At this exit we also found another visitor center. This one was built right into the swamp on stilts, with displays of the wildlife that live there.
Beside the parking lot of the visitor center we noticed the L.A. Airborne Memorial Bridge and Monument. The memorial was dedicated in 1989 by the the National 82nd Airborne Division, and includes the 18-mile elevated Atchafalaya Expressway that travels through the swamp.
Another large swamp we visited was the Blue Elbow Swamp along the Sabine River at the entry into Texas. This is another welcome center built on stilts in a swamp. At the back of the building is a boardwalk that gives visitors a look at life in the swamp. We could only go part of the way on the boardwalk, due to repairs being made to the structure.
Heading south, we crossed the Boulivar Peninsula, which is at sea level and onto Galveston Island. This area was devastated by Hurricane Ike in September 2008, and homes and businesses are still being rebuilt. The homes are built on stilts at least 10 feet high.
The two strangest buildings were a laundromat in a house trailer, high above the ground, and an elementary school entirely built on pillars.
The storm surge at Crystal Beach was 14 feet, and the new building is to prevent the homes and businesses from washing away in the event of another hurricane. Living to appreciate Mother Nature can also have its downside!
On Galveston Island, the waves were crashing into shore, and surfers were taking advantage of the frenzy of the water. Galveston Island is a pretty island with miles of open beaches on one side of the road, and attractive condos and hotels on the other. This area was also hit by Hurricane Ike, and the new buildings are behind a sea wall. While we were on the island, we saw an advertisement for the Festival of Lights and decided to go that evening. It was held at Moody Gardens, an educational and entertainment center that includes a rainforest, an aquarium, film theater, beach, and gardens. The Festival of Lights is arranged with over 100 lighted scenes — including music — along paths lined with flowering shrubs. It was a beautiful, cool evening and the presentations was well worth the $5.95 Senior entry fee.
We left Galveston and headed to Corpus Christi — a city with heavy traffic that never stops — worse than I-84 in Hartford at rush hour!
James is of the opinion that population growth will severely overload the local network of city streets in the near future. Our purpose in visiting Corpus Christi was to attend the H.E.B. Festival of Sharing. H.E.B. is a grocery chain in southern Texas and Mexico that, for 23 years, has put on a free meal once a year in 23 Texan and six Mexican communities. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the meal, and be entertained by singers, dancers, and musicians. It is staffed by volunteers who set up, serve the food, clean up, and do whatever is necessary.
Last year we attended the festival in San Antonio. We are unaware of anything like this event on such a huge scale back in New England. Corpus Christi is also the home now of the USS Lexington, a living museum similar to the USS Intrepid in New York City. It is a WW II vintage air craft carrier modernized with continuance service into the Vietnam War. Its last duty was to qualify Naval Aviators in the art and science of aircraft landings and takeoffs. It is nicknamed the "Blue Ghost."
James is not sure of the genesis of the nickname; but, a night landing by a fighter pilot might turn the pilot a little "ghostly blue" after a safe landing.
SNOW! In Southern Texas! If you were watching the weather, you would have seen that it snowed here. UGH UGH UGH — we can’t go too much more South in Texas than the Gulf of Mexico.
Southwest Texas is flat — extremely flat. It was windy and cold as we passed into Mountain Time at Van Horn, Texas. There is little civilization between the small communities.
As we traveled through a desolate section, smoke came from the van. We had to pull over and James discovered a broken heater hose plastic connection. James is of the opinion that all car manufacturers are enamoured with "planned obsolescence."
Fortunately, he had a few spare parts and the tools needed to fix it. While we were sitting on the side of I-10, no one stopped to see if we needed help.
With traffic passing us at 80+ mph, it was a cold, dismal place — but soon James had the problem fixed and we were on our way again.
For many drivers it would have been a time consuming, expensive repair, but we were ready.
We passed over the Continental Divide and about 50 miles later we drove into Arizona.
This week seemed to pass all to quickly. Thankfully we are in a part of the country that offers breathtaking scenic beauty.
From Benson, Arizona — James and Joan, American Vagabonds
You can e-mail James and Joan at american_vagabonds@yahoo.com. Follow them online at www.registercitizen.com’s home page, then click on the blog link. Stay tuned for the next post!

American Vagabonds: We go westward - and how we live on the road

Before leaving Pensacola, Florida, we visited the Naval Air Museum on the Pensacola Naval Base. The Petty Officer sentry at the gate only required to see the driver’s (Jame’s) license. The museum’s parking and entry to the museum are free. In addition, there is a free tour of the museum’s flight line conducted by a retired naval aviator. This is a must-stop, not just for the military-minded but for all Americans. The museum, at the very "cradle of naval aviation" is a living testimony to America’s ability to project its foreign policy anywhere in the world.
Bidding goodbye to a fine American city, we are now heading west, staying on I-10 until we hit the Texas border. Then we plan to go south along the coast.
We entered Alabama on Dec. 15, and the difference in landscape was immediate. There were fields of cotton along the roadway — which had not been in evidence in Florida. We used our GPS to guide us on the state and county roadways. The GPS we have now is a Magellan, which is pretty good with finding our way. We started out with a Tom Tom a few years ago, but since it gave us drastically wrong directions, we switched to a Garmin.
We named it ‘Ms. Direction’, and sometimes ‘misdirection’ depending on the results of our instructions from her, but after a few years her maps were out of date and we wanted something different.
Hence, the Magellan — and when she is on target— she is ‘gellin.’
When she is off, we need more assistance! Our iPhones have MapQuest, and a few other navigational helpers, so if we are lost — we are really lost! (We do use road maps, too.)
We thought this week we would give you, the reader, an idea of how we live in the van and our rather unique lifestyle.
The van is a 1997 Volkswagen with the inside camper by Winnebago. It has a lot of miles on it — 193,000 — but James says it drive like a new car. We are averaging 23 mpg on the highwayand 20 mpg in the cities. James does the driving, while Joan navigates, checking the maps, iPhones and GPS.
She also spends down time knitting to keep busy. The top of the van pops up with canvas sides and zippers to open screens, to increase head room and ventilation, and provide a bunk (never used as such yet) or storage, depending on what we are doing.
We have all the comforts of home, only in a much smaller space.
We will start with the "kitchen." The surface of the stove and sink is stainless steel and easy to keep clean. The gas stove has two burners that work great. A lid covers the burners when we aren’t cooking to provide a small work space. We have a small sink with a cold water faucet. Below the burners is a small refrigerator that doesn’t work as well as we’d like, but runs on electricity, battery, and gas. Beside the fridge, there is a small cupboard for groceries and cooking utensils. (Notice the operative word here is SMALL!)
Next to the cupboards, the back seat stretches across the van. A small couch barely seats two, but it’s cozy. The seat folds down to become part of the bed at night, and during the day we sometimes eat meals there, or just relax. There is a space in back of the couch where we put bedding and duffle bags when we are traveling. At night, when the bed is made, the duffles go up on the top bunk, or in the driver’s seat. The passenger seat is turned around to add to the living area.
Beside the food cupboard is a small cabinet where we keep our morning coffee supplies. We make drip coffee as good as any resturant — or what you can make at home. We use a Jet-Boil with a butane burner to heat the water, then pour it through a funnel made by Melitta with a coffee filter and the coffee in it. The coffee drips directly into a cup and so we have delicious coffee in minutes!
We use the same process when we are camping and backpacking. Under the coffee cabinet we keep cards and small items in a drawer, and a bottom cupboard for our electronics: Notebook computer, DVD player, battery TV, weather radio, and a few other incidentals.
As we previously mentioned, the ‘downstairs’ bed is a narrow 46" wide. It has taken us many experiments to make it comfortable.
Too hard, too soft, it was like the Three Bears’ beds. We have finally hit on the most comfortable system with air mattresses under the foam mattress. The foam mattress is only 2" thick and folds in sections. On this, we use a fleece ‘sack’ Joan made from a set of sheets, and on top of that blankets or sleeping bags depending on the weather.
We put hanging pockets on the wall next to the bed to hold glasses, tissues, etc. We don’t use the "upstairs" bunk for sleeping, since this requires climbing up and down, and it is difficult to make up with the bedding.
There are lots of storage spaces in the van. Beside the bed is a closet with sliding doors. On one side, we keep our ‘good’ clothes or what some might consider more formal attire, for dancing or going out. On the other side we keep hiking boots, dance shoes, spare sneakers and other shoes we don’t wear every day.
Another large space is under the bed, but is only accessible from the outside. What goes in there are items we don’t plan to use for a few days. On the side of this space is room for tools and mechanical items.
Attached on the back of the van is our bike rack. Some years we take our hybrid bikes or our tandem bike, but this year we have two lawn chairs, the zero gravity kind. Their main purpose is for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California, when we settle on Colorado Boulavard for the Tournament of Roses Parade.
There is also a small space outside, above the cab of the van, to carry weather-proof items. The problem, of course, is to put them up there and get them back down when you need them. There is also a cost of approximately 1 mile per gallon of gas as anything outside affects the wind stream.
Inside the van there are lots of other nooks and crannies to put things. All we have to do is remember where we put what! Enjoy the photos with this post; they're not scenics, but our way of showing you what our home on the road looks like.
In conclusion, for this week the reader must consider this is not a lifestyle for many seniors. We choose this traveling lifestyle not only for the economic advantages, but also for the freedom it offers us: To go anywhere and not be readily identified as "out-of-towners."
It, our lifestyle, just works for us.
From Corpus Cristi, TX, The Sparkling City by the Sea (Gulf)
James and Joan, the American Vagabonds
You can e-mail James and Joan at american_vagabonds@yahoo.com. Follow them online at www.registercitizen.com’s home page, then click on the blog link. Stay tuned for the next post!

Third leg of the journey: From DeLand to Pensacola, Florida

Third Leg of the journey: From DeLand to Pensacola, Florida
Last year at this time,when we were in Florida, it was cold! This week the weather was beautiful-blue sky, warm breeze — it’s the Sunshine State after all.
We moved from our van into Joan’s cousin Bruce’s home and settled in. This is always a process which can be time consuming and disruptive. We had been through this with Bruce before, so he wasn’t too concerned. Actually, he was chomping at the bit for us to finish because he had a question to ask.
Brucie planned all of this like building a fine Swiss watch. He had just purchased a big screen TV, but had no way to get it home, so James took him to get it in the van. On the way, he told us about a flea market that is held on Wednesdays at the Volusia County Fair grounds.
We decided that we should go early the next morning as they set up at 6 a.m.
We were astounded when we arrived to find a huge flea market set up with lots of customers looking for bargains. We do not know of a flea market held in the middle of the week equivalent in size and scope to this one back in Connecticut.
We started up the first row of vendors and the items offered were endless. The crowd picked up and James was surprised to hear one merchant say how slow it was!
This was a Wednesday morning and people were arriving with wagons and carts to do some serious shopping. Certainly something that would never happen in the northeast.
We only made it through two rows, and decided to take a break. Wandering through the farmer’s market, we stopped to dance to the music being played by a local band. James has a habit of ‘Happy Feet’ when he hears music. After a little more shopping, we decided to leave and head back.
That evening we had another interesting experience that you wouldn’t find in the northeast — a dance on a Wednesday night. We went with Bruce to the Daytona Beach Boppers Dance Club. It is a social club of mostly singles, but a few couples could be spotted in the crowd —which was the most eclectic crowd of people you will find anywhere. They all seemed to have a good time and we certainly did — dancing to the old music of our teens — a long time ago!
After two days in DeLand, we bid Bruce good-bye and headed across the state to visit Joan’s high school friend Barrie, who moved to Florida a few years ago from Arizona, and before that — California.
Barrie lives in St. Petersburg on a short canal that runs from Lake Maggiore.
Barrie’s little rental sits right across the road from what seems like a wild bird sanctuary. We saw several species of water birds flying and swimming about, and when she brought out some food, they came into the yard. One little snowy egret she calls Gorgeous George is friendly as can be, and wanders into the yard whenever someone is outside!
We walked down the street along the lake shore looking to take a picture of the storks that hang out there. In the water, a small alligator was swimming along peacefully.
We’ve been told that every lake in Florida has at least one alligator! Joan kept hoping to get a picture of the cormorants (sometimes called snake birds) drying their wings in the sun. When they swim in the water, their whole body is under the surface and just their long neck sticks out — looking like a snake. Their feathers are not waterproof so when they get out of the water, the birds spread their wings out to dry. All of our pictures are taken with our iPhone cameras, so unfortunately the quality isn’t professional — and neither are we.
On Sunday, Barrie, her friend Kathy, and Joan went to lunch to celebrate their joint birthdays, while James stayed at the bungalow to do some maintenance on the van and then watch the football game — a quintessential American male thing.
A short note on maintenance. Tooling around the country in a used vehicle can be problematic. We always have the van checked by a expert before we leave on a trip, in our case — Jim Borla at Borla’s Garage in Torrington; and we never leave home without tools.
All of this guarantees nothing; but we believe in the Boy Scout (Most Excellent) Motto: Be Prepared!
Sunday night we went to Gulf Port to the casino (no gambling) for a Christmas dance. It was a "dress affair" but we were ready with our dressy dance outfits that we always pack when we go for a vacation. (Gulf Port is a community of artisans, and have open-air art shows on a regular basis.)
We generally have bikes, hiking gear, and camping gear with us. so when the occasion arises, we are ready.
We left St. Petersburg on Monday morning, heading north to Palm Harbor to a Planet Fitness gym. It didn’t seem to be up to the standards of the other PF gyms we have experienced, but it was good to exercise. Continuing north, we stopped in Chiefland, FL for the night at a Wal Mart super center. There were a few other RVs stopped for the night in the parking lot, and a number of tractor trailer trucks.
We have a system of arranging our gear in the Volkswagen when we stop overnight. This night was no exception.
Since the bed was already made, it was a shorter process to move our gym bags and clothing duffle bags around. We should mention that our lifestyle is a bit rigorous. Our bed measure 46 inches across. As a reference, a double or full size bed measures 54 inches. In later blogs we’ll cover more of our lifestyle arrangements. However, what makes this all worthwhile are the American people we meet as in the laundromat we are at today. Some are interesting, some are informative, and most are as friendly as the local folk back home.
We spent last night at a Florida Rest Stop on I-10 and continued west this morning.
Yesterday we traveled miles through the Apalachicola National Forest, looking for their campgrounds, but never found them. The National Forest signage is not like the National Park service.
Later we discovered that we drove right by one, but since they called it a "landing" we didn’t stop!
We passed into Central Time at 9:35 this morning, but kept our watches on Eastern Standard Time. Any time references from now on, will be EST. We have found that when traveling, keeping to our regular time schedule is much easier on our systems, and when we get to Pasadena, CA, it really helps as people start picking their spots to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade early on December 31.
We’ve decided to hang around Pensacola — The home of Naval Aviation — a few days and see what comes up. Just gotta (sic) check the local beaches.
James and Joan, the American Vagabonds

You can e-mail James and Joan at american_vagabonds@yahoo.com. Follow them online at http://www.registercitizen.com/ home page, then click on the blog link. Stay tuned for the next post!

American Vagabonds: Second week, Virginia to Florida

Heading south, from James’ son’s home, we left the Interstate and drove along the shoreline, a path with which we are familiar. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are a unique and interesting place to visit. We stopped at the Aycock Brown Welcome Center at Kitty Hawk and spoke to the two women who were on duty directing travelers and answering questions.
Joan asked them what they liked about living in the Outer Banks. One reply was, "It is a dream place to live." James said under his breath, "Yeah, except for the hurricanes!"
In her spare time, the other woman said, she likes the fishing.
The Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a beautiful, wild place. The Outer Banks are all sand dunes and, instead of lawn mowers, people have little tractors with scoop loaders on the front to move the sand around. It blows across the roads and into driveways. Many of the homes are built on stilts, and the ones built farther from the shoreline have "crows nests" so they can see over the rooftops to view the ocean.
For those of us in Connecticut with only access to Long Island Sound, we do not have a feel of the awesomeness of the Atlantic Ocean. The Outer Banks residents experience not only the magnificent view of the Atlantic, but also the brunt of the wrath of hurricanes as Cape Hatteras juts out into the Atlantic.
With Torrington being a thousand of feet above sea level on rock and ledge, it is hard to imagine living on sand, a few feet above the sea — with water flowing on both sides of the community. We are all children of the Earth indeed!
We stopped in Kitty Hawk at the Wright Brothers’ National Memorial. There is a museum, a replica of the first plane the Wright Brothers flew and a history of flight. It seems to be quite windy there, and on the only hill there is where the Wrights made a good choice to launch their first (glider) airplane. (We again used our National Park Pass, and paid no entrance fee.)
The Outer Banks are a series of islands connected by bridges and ferries. We arrived at the ferry dock at night in time for the 7:30 Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry. This trip takes 40 minutes and is free — subsidized by the state of North Carolina. It was dark when we docked at Ocracoke Island. We drove through deserted marshland for 13 miles, with little traffic going in either direction. Ocracoke Island has a small village with few residents. The community is practically and solely dependent on tourism.
We didn’t stop at Roanoke Island where 116 men, women, and children disappeared in 1587 from the settlement of Jamestown. That will be for another trip!
We were too late for the last ferry to Cedar Island, so we stopped in a park parking lot for the night. The park was closed, and we were the only ones there. In the morning, we got to the dock in time for the first ferry to Cedar Island. This time the cost was $15 for a ride of 2 hours and 15 minutes. During the summer months, reservations are needed for the ferry, but there were only 7 cars on the ferry this time, as it was off-season.
As the ferry progressed along the watery "road," flocks of sea gulls began to follow us, diving into the water to catch their meals. At times, they flew very close behind the ferry, keeping up with us, gliding gracefully above the surface. One has to appreciate Mother Nature with scenes like this.
On Cedar Island, the road traveled along with canals on either side, with little shoulder or guard rails. We saw a kingfisher standing in the marshland, looking for his breakfast. As we moved through more "stable" land with occasional homes, we saw small family cemeteries along the road with only 4 or 5 stone markers.
We stopped for the night at Wal-Mart in Wilmington. Most Wal-Mart stores allow RVs to spend the night in their parking lot. This is known as "boondocking" to the RV crowd. If the Wal Mart is open 24 hours (as the superstores are) it makes it convenient for travelers. Sometimes we see others stopped for the night and this night was no exception.
A young man from northern Vermont parked next to us. He was driving an old school bus, with chipping brown paint. There was a large chimney on top of the bus, and he told us he had a wood stove for heat! Since he had recently needed to make repairs to his bus, he told us that he was out of money and would be looking for work in the area before he could continue on his journey. He, too, is traveling the country but on a far shorter shoestring than we are.
When we left the next morning, we went to the gym, and headed out to Charleston, South Carolina. When we arrived, we called the local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and discovered they were having a dance. We drove to the post, changed clothes, and enjoyed the company of the local veterans. We spent the night parked in their parking lot and left the next morning to spend the day in Charleston, which is a city full of history and is the site where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.
Our outing for the day was to Fort Moultrie, which is on the shore facing Fort Sumter. Fort Moultrie has a long history of defending Charleston — first from the English in the Revolutionary War, and later the War of 1812, the Civil War, and again in WW I and WW II. We toured the underground bunkers, and climbed to the look out. We could see Fort Sumter out in the bay, which is only accessible by boat. (Again, we were able to use our National Park Pass for admission.)
Heading south again, we entered Florida at 7:15 that evening, and stopped at the welcome center for the night. Florida rest areas frequently offer security for overnight parkers, however, rest areas in Georgia have signs saying overnight parking is "prohibited." There are probably travelers and truckers who do stop there, but we never have. As the State of Georgia is only a two hour trip on I-95, this presents no problem for us. However, James advises all readers to make safety a priority, and if rest is required, Georgia will be as welcome as any other state.
As we traveled the highways, Joan remembered traveling with her family as a youngster. One of the favorite pastimes of those road trips was watching for the Burma Shave advertising signs. For those not old enough to remember the signs, they were red with white lettering, spaced at about a quarter mile intervals. They had single lines, with a punch line at the end. The signs were first used around 1927 and continued until 1963 — until highway travel became too fast to read the signs. There were a plethora of verses on the Burma Shave web site, but here is a favorite:
Ben
Met Anna
Made a hit
Neglected beard
Ben-Anna split
Burma Shave
After traveling ONLY 1,677 miles, we arrived at Joan’s cousin’s home in DeLand, Florida, around 12:15. p.m. It is a balmy 80 degrees and sunny. Florida weather!
From De Land, Florida, the capital of American sky diving.
James and Joan, American Vagabonds

American Vagabonds: First Week: From Connecticut to Virginia

With the ultimate goal of being in Pasadena, California for New Years Eve (the same for the last 2 years), we began our trip at 9 a.m. on a chilly Tuesday morning, Nov. 22.
This is the third year of our winter tours of our nation.
And, this year we got an EZ pass to make passing through the tolls quicker and easier. The EZ pass is on the windshield by the rearview mirror and is electronically read as we pass through the toll booths. It, the EZ pass, works as advertised!
We usually stop on the New Jersey Turnpike to fill up on gas as it is generally cheaper. This trip was no exception — $3.59 at home and $3.19 in Maryland. Interestingly, we have found two states do not permit self-pumping: New Jersey and Oregon.
Our first stop was at James’ son in Falls Church, Virginia, outside Washington, DC. This is a trip we are quite familiar with and it is a stay we relish — not only staying in touch with family, but also because it gives us the ability to frequently tour our nation’s capital.
This stop on our trip is special as we’ll have Thanksgiving with two thirds of James’ family. Thanksgiving is indeed a holiday for all Americans. On Friday, the so-called Black Friday, it is almost obligatory to go out to the retail shops and box stores to join the frenzy of shoppers (not one of Joan’s favorite things to do) trying to take advantage of the holiday savings.
James loves to shop on this very special day, kicking off the holiday season.
In the past we have explored the Smithsonian and monuments in the capital. One of the newest memorials is the World War II — Women in Military Service for America Memorial.
Located right outside of the Arlington National Cemetery, the memorial tells the history of women in service to their country. One feature of the memorial is the log of women that anyone can access using computers. Type in a name, and you can get the military history and picture from your search.
It was really exciting to see Joan’s aunt’s picture and military history.
We should mention that driving in the metroplex of our nation’s capital is markedly different from tooling around Litchfield County. I encourage anyone visiting the Washington area to check out downtown Alexandria. It has a feel of a unique sort of charm and invitation for all visitors. Thankfully, there is Mapquest to navigate along with Joan. In this area for most of us from small towns in Connecticut, having a navigator in the passenger is seat not a luxury, but, we feel, a necessity. As senior citizens, several years ago we obtained a National Park pass at a cost of $10 each. This entitles us to enter national parks and forests at a reduced rate — and sometimes for free. Since the pass is good for a life time it is truly a bargain.
We went to Great Falls National Park in McLean, Virginia, and only 15 miles from Washington (with our park pass it was free) which give a look at the Potomac River before it gets to Washington. The river is fast moving with rocks and gorges, which can be very dangerous for those who foolishly decide to climb past the fences.
On the last Sunday of each month, there is a Tea Dance held in the Spanish Ballroom, (listed on the National Register of HIstoric Places) Glen Echo Park in Maryland. The Spanish Ballroom is a 1933 restored Art Deco building. Music is provided by the Hot Society Orchestra from Washington, DC.
The music is reminiscent of the 1940s and great for dancing. Walking back to the parking lot, we passed a historic carousel and made our way through a series of "Yurts" with artisans displaying their talents in this unique park.
One of the problems we have encountered on our trips is that since we travel in a small RV van, we don’t have a shower. In past years we stopped at a motel a few times a week so we could do our laundry and take showers, but this can be expensive.
This year we joined Planet Fitness in Torrington, and can now go to any Planet Fitness gym in the country. This should help out in three ways. We can shake out the cramps of sittiing for miles, keep up our exercise program, and shower!
Tomorrow we will say goodbye to James’ family. They will go off to work and school, and we will continue south on our journey to Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Fredericksburg is the site of major Civil War battles. We took the walking tour of the battle site of several engagements. James saluted the Union Memorial to honor the bravery and sacrifice Union soldiers made to save the country we have and enjoy today. We have included a picture of a tombstone for a Connecticut soldier who died in one of the battles. He, Union Soldier Charles Miller, along with all soldiers who lie with him — some identified only by a number — deserve eternal honor for their sacrifice.
From Richmond, the State Capital of Virginia
James and Joan. the American Vagabonds
You can e-mail James and Joan at american_vagabonds@yahoo.com. Follow them online at www.registercitizen.com's home page, then click on the blog link. Stay tuned for the next post!

Here are some of the places James and Joan have visited since they began their trip on Nov. 22.
The first photo on the blog page was taken at Great Falls National Park.
They have sent us photos from their visit to Washington, DC, including the Eternal Flame on the grave of John F. Kennedy, the grave marker of a Connecticut Civil War Soldier, the Kennedy Family grave site, and the World War II Memorial for Women.