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12 Nov 2008 Photos from Washington, D.C.
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3017780193 e5db3c7510 Photos from Washington, D.C.

World War II Memorial. Each state and US territory are represented around the circle.

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View of the Washington Monument (obelisk) from the WWII memorial.

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Lincoln Memorial in the distance, looking from the WWII memorial.

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The Atlantic end of the WWII memorial. The Pacific is represented 180 degrees around the circle.

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Us outside the Lincoln Memorial and standing along the reflecting pool.

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The (George) Washington Monument

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View of the reflecting pool, gardens and the Washington Monument (obelisk) from the Lincoln Memorial

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Abe Lincoln Statue - Amazing detail in the stone carving!

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Us at the Lincoln Memorial

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The Lincoln Memorial Building

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Beautiful autumn colours in the trees around the Lincoln Memorial

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The White House - Rear Garden view. I think this may be the oval office on the top floor, but I am not sure.

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Garden at the rear of the White House.

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The front of the White House - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave at dusk. You can't see him in the picture, but there was a secret service officer standing on the front steps.

At the base of the Lincoln Memorial there was a very striking display of support for President-Elect Obama. Thousands of people around the world had joined together to create billboards offering congratulations and testimonials of hope for the USA and world under the new presidents’ leadership, and thousands more had signed the displays after being erected in Washington. It was quite a sight to see just how much hope Mr. Obama has given to so many people around the world.

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One of the more amusing comments left by a visitor icon smile Photos from Washington, D.C.

08 Nov 2008 A Beautiful Drive: Tennessee to Virginia (Day 9)
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3014159363 11b7017f45 A Beautiful Drive: Tennessee to Virginia (Day 9)

We’re safe and sound in Virginia after driving just over 550 miles today. We were both feeling great today after our day of rest in Nashville and made it a little farther than originally planned, stopping for the night in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

The scenery today driving through Tennessee and Virginia was beautiful, breathtaking even. Right now, autumn is in full swing in the Tennessee hills and the trees are every shade of yellow, red and orange. The colours are even more striking than we are used to seeing in Canada, as here there are very few evergreen trees – nearly every tree has changed colour for the season. As we drove along, the leaves were steadily falling from the trees and drifting into the highway creating whirlwind leaf effects, not unlike driving through a snowstorm except much more colourful! As we moved further north, we passed many small farm towns, which were quite beautiful in their rustic charm.

Here are a few photos taken on our drive Northeast today, I hope they help you appreciate the beautiful scenery:

3014990156 6e562f60b5 A Beautiful Drive: Tennessee to Virginia (Day 9)

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3014157673 8695a8f7ed A Beautiful Drive: Tennessee to Virginia (Day 9)

3014992842 2327dae896 A Beautiful Drive: Tennessee to Virginia (Day 9)

3014155999 f1e92b613f A Beautiful Drive: Tennessee to Virginia (Day 9)

08 Nov 2008 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos
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3012351354 d79fc8a69f Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

3012351570 53e1f0deb3 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Downtown Nashville. The historic Ryman Auditorium is the brick a-framed building center-left.

3013173251 5a7e830164 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Country Music Hall of Fame. The windows are like the black keys on a piano.

3011531759 a11e1203f4 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Union Station. A 100+ year old restored train station - now a hotel.

3011515469 ab56826f49 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Nashville Music City

3012351882 4d78f2b011 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Downtown Nashville at Dusk

3012351958 86b5d2ab8b Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Hard Rock Cafe Nashville. Notice the acoustic guitar.

3011515721 9927724e81 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Jack's BBQ, where we had a fantastic southern meal

3011515853 445e991779 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Cowgirl D

3011516243 48a435beb8 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

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Inside the Ryman Auditorium, looking across the balcony. The building is more than 100 years old and a national historic site. The Grand Old Opry started in this building but now only broadcasts from here in the winter months, when tourism slows down so it was a great time to visit and see the show in the historic building.

3012352360 543475cbe2 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

3011515959 f8cafe1b15 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Inside the Ryman Auditorium. We were seated near the front of the balcony - GREAT seats!!

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Onstage at the Grand Ole Opry

3012352792 3c6b38e22b Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Jimmy Dickens. 88 years old, quick with the music and the jokes!

3013252065 fc94345bdb Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Diamond Rio

3011516409 3bd3bbf73a Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Randy Owens (from the band Alabama)

3012353486 5bcd5ba0c7 Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

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Marty Stuart

3012353864 e9b93b57ae Nashville, Tennessee & Grand Ole Opry Photos

Vince Gill performing his new song "Heaven"


View more photos from Tennessee, Nashville and the Grand Old Opry

05 Nov 2008 Day 7 Done! Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas
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Today was another race east, we clocked 585 miles.

3007486832 a198b58bbb m Day 7 Done! Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas The morning got off to a great start after a good night of sleep and a yummy complimentary breakfast which included waffles shaped like the state of Texas!! They do everything bigger and better in Texas including “the biggest cross in the western hemisphere”!

The hotel lobby had a sign in it inviting anyone to take this challenge: get chauffeured in a limo to a steakhouse and eat a 72oz steak for free if you could finish it in an hour!!3007495674 0c7e78eb2a m Day 7 Done! Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas
The weather was bright and sunny as we pulled away from Amarillo and headed east. We have noticed that gas is cheaper (in some cases $1.20/gal less), there is an abundance of country and gospel music on the radio, there are 3 pickup trucks to every car and there are bbq restaurants and waffle houses all along the side of the freeway. Amarillo left us with a great impression of Texas and the hospitality they are known for in this part of the country.

In between the gospel and country stations we found plenty of talk radio full of buzz about the election last night. People were calling in from all over the country with plenty of opinions and lots of praise for Barack Obama and his victory. We stayed up last night longer than we had intended watching the coverage on the news and the making of history. We both wish the best to this country that has hosted us and treated us well for the past two years. Now that we are on the road we can truly appreciate how vast and beautiful it really is here and that at the end of the day we are not so very different.

3007476110 1a68702184 m Day 7 Done! Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas We crossed into Oklahoma around noon and noticed an immediate and drastic difference in the landscape. Western Oklahoma is GREEN! Farms and farms and more farms…oh…and some cattle and  hay bales too. We drove past Oklahoma City (surprisingly big city) and then noticed again that the landscape changed into hardwood trees turning to beautiful fall colours.

At this point I took the wheel to give Jamie a break. Somewhere abcop Day 7 Done! Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansasout 2/3 of the way across Oklahoma I was clipping along to a very upbeat country song when I came over the top of a hill, saw a police cruiser lying in wait and I was busted!! 80 in a 70 zone. The cruiser pulled up behind me with his lights flashing and so I pulled over. Up to the window came officer ” hunk” who thankfully gave me a warning after checking out my license and insurance. I have been driving for 12 years and that was the first time I have been stopped!

3007475998 8a11d767c3 m Day 7 Done! Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas Arkansas looks pretty and like a farming state. Much of the landscape was not visible to us on the way as it gets dark so early now. We’ll get a better idea tomorrow when we leave and start heading into the eastern part of the state. Our route tomorrow will take us across another state line and into Tennessee with a likely stop in Memphis before stopping for the night in Nashville.

More news and pictures tomorrow, keep visiting and LEAVE SOME COMMENTS (please).

3006836391 f5191aa533 Day 7 Done! Texas to Oklahoma to Arkansas

Western Oklahoma

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Eastern Oklahoma

04 Nov 2008 Made it to Texas: 657 miles today
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3004113965 01e34f94a8 m Made it to Texas: 657 miles today We are safe and sound in Amarillo, Texas. It was a long day of driving, just shy of 660 miles and 11 hours of travel (including stops) in total. We left Williams, Arizona this morning around 7:30am, drove into and through New Mexico and into Texas just after sunset. We both split up the driving almost 50/50 so it was much easier on both of us. There weren’t many stops today as our main goal was to put a significant distance behind us after a few days of sightseeing and more casual driving. We did stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico which was interesting – I’ve always heard of Albuquerque as the butt of “middle of nowhere” jokes but the city was nothing like I expected. It was actually a very large, major and modern center – out in the middle of nowhere lol! Truthfully we’re realizing you need at least 3-4 weeks to do this drive properly, there are so many places we’d like to stop and explore unfortunately however we don’t have the luxury of time to keep stopping everywhere along the way. Perhaps someday!

It was an interesting day to be in the US, as it was election day. Even though we’ve mostly been on the highway, we did manage to see a few interesting aspects of the election both over the past few days as well as today. As we stopped in rural Utah for lunch a few days ago we ran into a full group of McCain/Palin party organizers in a local Subway restaurant. We got more than a few ‘funny looks’ from those folks when they saw our California license plates on the car (California of course by far being Democrats). Today we saw something both cute and inspiring: a group of four school-age boys, no more than 13 years old standing on a street corner near the freeway exit in Albuquerque with a handmade sign reading “HONK for Obama – NOT for McCain!”. They were there by themselves, no parents around, jumping up and down and very excited about the support they were getting from the motorists passing by. Personally I don’t even remember knowing what an election was at that age, let alone publicly supporting one candidate or another. One other nice thing today – Starbucks was giving away free coffee on election day, we didn’t even know it until we stopped in for a caffeine break mid-afternoon.

3003972335 fb196c2d89 m Made it to Texas: 657 miles today

Our Votes: The Best We Could Do!

We did the best we could to support our choice for President. Obviously as Canadian citizens we couldn’t vote in American Election, but 7-Eleven was running a promotion whereby you could buy coffee in cups specially made for your choice of presidential candidate. Each purchase counted as a ‘vote’ and the results were tracked at www.7-election.com. I’m certain it didn’t help the cause but I’m glad to see that America went that way anyway. icon smile Made it to Texas: 657 miles today

If you haven’t already noticed, we’re trying to get photos of a “Welcome to” sign for every state line that we cross. We aren’t sure we’ll get every one, we’ve crossed state lines in the past in the US where there were no signs (such as crossing from California to Nevada and back around Lake Tahoe), but we’ll do our best. The Texas sign is above, here are the two others we passed today:
3004131627 1b19f3b485 m Made it to Texas: 657 miles today   3004966680 61357c1bf6 m Made it to Texas: 657 miles today
The temperature has really started to change as we travel away from the West Coast. Despite being so far south, it was COLD – just a little above freezing temperatures – when we left Arizona this morning. It probably doesn’t help that we are almost 5000 ft feet up as we travel across this area. This afternoon it did warm up to very comfortable temperatures – and it is warmer this evening in Texas. Thankfully we have still not lost the continual sunshine that we are so used to from California! icon smile Made it to Texas: 657 miles today Also BTW, we passed through another timezone today; we are now on Central Time – 2 hours ahead of California and 2.5 hours behind Newfoundland.
02 Nov 2008 Day 4: Zion National Park, Utah
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We had a fantastic day today touring Zion National Park and the surrounding area in southern Utah. We were woken this morning around 6:30AM by an extremely loud noise – it sounded like an explosion and the entire room shook for at least 10 seconds. It turns out it was just thunder, the likes of which we’ve never heard before. We were disappointed to find it was raining heavily when we got up and thought our day of sightseeing was ruined. Thankfully while we were getting breakfast the rain slowed and on the 1.5 hour drive to Zion National Park the rain stopped altogether and the sun came out with a beautiful blue sky. It was a fantastic day from that point forward.

Zion National Park is indescribable in its beauty. The entire area is composed of sandstone and the unique geology of the region makes for some breathtaking landscapes. With all the natural beauty, we couldn’t resist taking literally several hundred photos and narrowing down the photos to share with you this evening was quite a task – there are more than normal but we couldn’t resist! I’m not sure these photos can entirely do the park justice, but I hope they can convey some of the natural beauty we saw today.

I have to say, when I thought of these types of landscapes in the past, I would have thought of Arizona, never Utah. I had no idea how beautiful Utah is and of how much there is to see and do – there are many, many National Parks in southern Utah, I only wish we had time to see more of them. I think there will be a return visit sometime in the future!

BTW – we really appreciate receiving all your comments on posts, even if we don’t have the time to respond to each individually (our Internet access is limited each day). We do read and appreciate each one – please keep them coming!

2997836531 aacff961a8 Day 4: Zion National Park, Utah

Driving down Utah highway 89 South to Zion National Park

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Panoramic vista just outside the park entrance. Click to view the larger version!

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Us at Zion National Park Entrance!

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Typical example of the scenery inside Zion National Park

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These mountain cliffs form the walls of a very, very deep canyon which you drive down into on your way into the park.

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One of many beautiful views in Zion Canyon inside the park

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Me in a tree! We were hiking and I couldn't find an unobstructed view (from other trees) of the landscape so I had to climb up to get it!

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Beautiful yellow tree in the park - click through to view a larger version.

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Autumn in Zion Canyon

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Dominique checking out the river in Zion Canyon

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Beautiful fall foliage in Zion National Park

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Interesting cacti in a beautiful landscape

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Zion Canyon Walls illuminated at Sunset

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Zion Canyon Walls illuminated at Sunset

01 Nov 2008 Salt Lake & Utah Photos (Day 3)
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As we were late getting into Salt Lake City last night, we didn’t see much of anything as we drove in. Before heading south today, we backtracked a few miles and visited the Great Salt Lake, accessible just on the outskirts of the city. The scenery was quite striking however we did discover one thing – the lake smells really really bad!! The lake has a very high concentration of salt (even more than the Red Sea on one end) and other minerals – apparently that includes sulfur. The entire area smelled like rotten eggs – not pleasant. We were surprised to find a lovely little boat marina on the lake shore, where we stopped to take a few of these photos.

2994755568 cbfbd3c4b6 Salt Lake & Utah Photos (Day 3)

Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, Utah

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Fremont Island on Great Salt Lake

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Great Salt Lake Shoreline, Salt Lake City

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Great Salt Lake Marina

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Leaving Salt Lake - Mountains Surrounding the City

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Snow-capped peaks outside Salt Lake City

2994755848 835e07a275 Salt Lake & Utah Photos (Day 3)

Utah Highway Landscape

01 Nov 2008 Nevada Desert Photos (Day 2)
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Here are some examples of the scenery on the drive through the Nevada and Utah desert. For anyone expecting professional quality photos, please look elsewhere! icon smile Nevada Desert Photos (Day 2) Many of the photos are taken through the car windows while driving, unfortunately we can’t stop for every photo op or it would take us months to get home! These photos do however give a good representation of the desert landscape in Utah and Nevada in particular.

2991495206 f385efef47 Nevada Desert Photos (Day 2)

Sierra Nevada Mountain Range

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Looking across a small salt flat

2991495342 9214033017 Nevada Desert Photos (Day 2)

Desert Landscape

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I-80 Rest Stop in the Desert

2991495250 28573d9fbc Nevada Desert Photos (Day 2)

The Never-Ending Highway to Nowhere!

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Mountains and Desert

01 Nov 2008 Reno at Night
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Here are a few more photos from our overnight stay in Reno, these were taken after we had refreshed and refueled at the fantastic buffet restaurant in our hotel, the El Dorado in downtown.

2991435784 655a014fbf Reno at Night

Greek god of Fortune, Hotel Lobby Fountain

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Fountain inside El Dorado Hotel Lobby

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El Dorado Hotel Exterior

2990582393 941bc8c601 Reno at Night

Neon Sign above El Dorado Casino Entrance

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Reno's Version of "The Strip"

2990582497 b2db608880 Reno at Night

Harrahs Casino Entrance

2991436056 e4d49c197c Reno at Night

Reno Street