Wed-Sat: DC, NY, Boston, and car troubles Update

Sorry for such a delay... haven't had internet connections (well, decent ones) and a few minutes to do any updates!  Here's a quick re-cap...

Left Dad's in Louisville early Wednesday (6am-ish), heading to DC.  A few hours out, as we took an exit to re-fuel, the engine died as we approached the stop sign.  Freaked me out for a minute because of the loss of power steering/brakes.  Anyway, it seemed to be a problem sometimes when idling while in gear.  Pretty strange.

This spelled 'Brennalyn' with pretzels.  Amazing what you can think of

when you are bored!!  Yes, Brennalyn is the one that did this!

Changing out the air filter...

We decided to continue on to the next exit about 20 miles away to have the battery/alternator checked at an Autozone.  Those all checked out OK.  The guy helping seemed to think it was a throttle idler thing-a-ma-bob that they didn't have in stock.  So... we replaced the air filter just in case that would help it out, and went on our way.

Washington, DC
In DC, as we traveled through town to our location for the evening, the RV continued to die as we slowed down in traffic, at stop lights, etc.  Not every time, but often enough that I had to switch to be a left-footed driver.  More on that later...

As we made our way to the WalMart to spend the night, Brandon and I went in to verify that would be OK by speaking with the manager.  It was sorta funny -- they leaned over and asked the security guard by the door if that would be OK, to which he responded, 'yeah, I guess so.'  Well, my first clue should have been that they had a security guard for a greeter instead of the usual older retired person there.  I decided to speak further with the security guard.  He let us know up-front that it's a pretty rough neighborhood, and to be careful.

Heading back to the RV, we decided to have a quick pow-wow.  After some deliberation, we decided we ought to look for a different place to stay.  We managed to find an RV park a few miles away -- nice place (Cherry something RV park).  It was getting pretty late by now, so fortunately we were able to get a spot when we got there.  Much safer area.

Thursday AM we looked into how to take the bus/train in to DC.  Found out it'd be almost $100 to go that route, but that there is parking for buses and RVs near Union Station for $20, so we decided to take the RV into town to park there.  Driving in DC is an interesting experience, especially with a 30' RV with multiple blind spots.  It wasn't exactly clear how to get where we needed to, and we had a few interesting experiences including squeezing through a street under construction designed for smart cars.

After getting a personal tour of the Capitol building from an intern working in Labrador's office, most the kids were already wore out from the walking we had done.  Nevertheless, we continued on with what we had intended to do -- walk the length of the mall to the Lincoln Memorial at the other end, visiting a few places along the way.

To keep the story short, suffice it to say there were a few dramatic episodes of exhaustion before making it there.  With some of the kids convinced they were on the brink of death from walking so much, Brandon and I hustled back (some jogging, some walking) to get the RV and pick up everyone (almost dark by this time).  Driving again with one foot on the gas and one on the brake to keep it from stalling, we drove on the street in front of the Washington Monument to get the rest of the family.  And we're off... on the road again towards New York!

New York (well, actually, New Jersey)
We are getting really tired of paying the 'toll'... over $27 after getting off at Jersey City!  Rolled in late (around 1am), and checked in with the security guard at the marina/RV park next to Liberty Park.  It felt like the equivalent of finding a place to park at Jalopy Jungle.  Interesting experience.  Anyway, after a windy and rainy night, drove over to Liberty Park to ride the ferry over to Ellis and Liberty Islands.  Let's just say we were happy to have purchased a couple of large umbrellas the day before!

We tried to go through the Holland Tunnel later on, but were denied access because we have propane on our RV.  Liz, always looking at the bright side, said "At least that saves us $20!"  So, we decided to get the heck outta there and head towards Boston.  The traffic on this day was by far the worst traffic we have had.  Got to a rest area outside of Boston and slept until the next morning.

Boston
Headed in to see Benn and Megan early Saturday.  We parked the boat at a nearby store, and they shuttled us down to their place.  They spoiled us with pancakes for breakfast with homemade syrup and let the kids play on their wii.  Beautiful view on a hill above the city.  Much nicer area than what we experienced in Jersey.  Had a good short visit, then we were back on our way to Palmyra NY.

Having yummy pancakes and syrup!

Video games!!  Oh my gosh!!  We've been so deprived... ;-)

Check out the accordion!

Yes, still having to have one foot on the gas and another on the brake... in fact, at one toll booth (did I mention we are tired of paying for tolls?), the RV died and we coasted in to pay our taxes.  Fortunately it starts up fine in neutral when that happens...

Palmyra
Sitting here now at Palmyra in a KOA campground, taking showers, washing clothes, and getting ready to get to sleep.  Will likely add some pictures to this post tomorrow.