driving in circles

my mom and i left my godmothers house on friday the 30th of march thinking we were going to be driving two hours to ashland, virginia to a place called 'foam to size' to buy some new foam to fix the beds in the camper.  the old foam was was too soft and i was waking up with a back ache.  we were planning on reupholstering the bed cushions and then get on the road and head down to knoxville tennessee to see some old friends down there.

but the universe had a different plan for us....

we got to the foam place in the afternoon and bought some foam. we went to a campground very near by and covered the new foam cushions. when we lay down to sleep we both burst into laughter because the new foam was as hard as rock. i mean it was really really hard!! we decided then and there that we had to go back to exchange the foam because there was no way that we could keep this hard foam. i hardly slept that night, tossing and turning. the next morning we realized that it was the weekend and they would not be open till monday. ouch!!

so we decided that we would lay down all the soft things we had with us, sweaters, coats and yoga mats on the hard foam and drive up to washington DC to meet my mom's book editor and go to a special church there. neither of us have ever seen the white house either so we decided to drive into the city to see the government sights. we arrived in DC as the sun was setting and were able to get some good views of a few of the famous places.

the approach

the treasury

the white house

eagle 

occupy DC

cherry blossom light

the washington monument

the crapitol

the pentagon

we spent two hours walking around seeing the buildings and visiting the occupy DC campground.  the occupiers are not allowed to sleep in their tents but they are allowed to sleep on the sidewalks across the street from their tents. the police raid the camp often to make sure no one is sleeping inside the tents. we had a long conversation with a young activist, keil, who hitchhiked from the state of maine to join the movement in october. he had a lot of great things to say, some good ideas, was very excited and spiritual and ready for action.  if all the occupiers were like him then perhaps something could really change but most of the others we met had more of a feeling of just hanging out and did not seem motivated.  it was interesting.

after our short DC visit we drove another hour to park heights and spent the night in the parking lot of the christian community church.  sunday we spent at the church, met mom's editor and other nice friendly people.

movement for religious renewal

the church yard

in the evening we headed back down to ashland, three hour drive, to be at the foam shop really early on monday morning.   we got new much softer foam and changed the upholstery, its much much better now!!  i can sleep really well and don't wake up in pain, yippi!!

as we had been driving up and down the I-95 we found that the steering in the van seemed really loose when driving fast. so since we were still just two hours away from rapidan and we have a friend there who is a mechanic who could look at the steering and probably help us get a good deal if something needed to be fixed, so we decided to drive back to rapidan. we had spent 10 hours driving and lots of gas and we hadn't gotten anywhere.  bummer!!

so we drove back to my godmothers house on monday afternooon and our friend tom, the car guy, had a look at the steering and said he could not fix it but that his buddies in town could have a look so we drove into town and the guys had a look and said they could fix it but not until tuesday so we spent the night at my godmothers and brought the van in on tuesday. the guys got one thing fixed and had discovered something else that needed repair but said that i should go to a different shop because they couldn't do the wheel alignment and blah blah blah. so now its thursday and i am still in rapidan at my godmothers house waiting for the van to be ready for the road..... 

in the shop

its fun to see my godmother again and i know its good to get the van all fixed up so that we can be safe on the road but i will be happy when everything is done and we can really get on the road! 

lightleadsme!!