Posted on 03/17/2016 5:40:09 PM PDT by Chickensoup
Virginia has low gas prices once you get outside the DC area.
If you get to Asheville don’t leave without seeing Biltmore Estate.
See the Air & Space Museum. Minor League baseball games can be fun.
Western Maryland in the Spring is not to miss.
Avoid potholes.
We have lived in and traveled the Eastern seaboard most of our lives...there are just too many places to mention. along that Florida to Maine stretch. Having lived in Philly and New Smyrna Beach I do recommend visiting both. The Colonial downtown areas of Philly should not be missed. This is a good time of year to visit NSB.
Highly recommend using the WAZE app. It requires relying on the honesty of other users but I have found it to be very useful in looking at traffic situations (and speed traps) ahead.
ENJOY!
Don’t drink the water and don’t talk to strangers...
Very impressive.
Nowadays they have it on open display behind protective glass under low light. Not as impressive a display, which is a pity. There should be that moment of anticipation that burned the value of this treasure into my mind and heart.
St. Augustine is much like Savannah and Charleston.
When a ship arrived from wherever in the world they would take the ship apart and use the ballast stones to build the first story and the wood to build the second floor.
If you look you can see various type stone from the world over in these cities.
Unfortunately many have stuccoed over but still many times visable.
Also a great take in: Gettysburg.
If you go there, consider hiring one of the guides. It doesn’t cost much, and they actually drive your car on the grounds leaving you free to observe while they explain. It sounds odd, and I wasn’t all that enamoured of the concept, but after I did it, I got it.
Then, after they do that, go back around and look at stuff on your own so you can spend as much time as you wish.
Might have misread the material or forgotten. Also could have been the fact that I have no trunk, thus need a locking container in many circumstances, though I use them anyway. Still a difficult state to travel through.
St Augustine, Savannah, Charleston, Williamsburg,
USS North Carolina in Wilmington NC.
If you go west, do the Blue Ridge Parkway with stops at the Biltmore Estate, Blowing Rock, Grandfather Mountain, Floyd then pick up Skyline Drive near Charlottesville where you see Monticello.
No question there.
I just read the info so it’s top of mind. Many here believe that guns must be locked and the each cartridge must be removed from magazines. Both wrong. TSA doesn’t even require magazines be empty.
You’re only supposed to travel with a gun if going to a range or gun show.
Some believe you can’t even stop for gas, again wrong.
Will do, I am on I think 95 around there so I don’t think it will be an issue.
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Well, here’s a Baltimoron with an alternative notion.
On I95 going through/around Baltimore, you are mere minutes away from Fort McHenry. You need not travel through any of the drug trade areas to get from 95 to Fort McHenry.
Those telling you to avoid Baltimore appear to believe the riots occupied the entire city. As always, the rioters trashed their own neighborhoods, none of which you would pass through.
6 minutes, and 2.2 miles from the Hanover Street exit off of 95.
It’s worth it.
Here in the Republic of Illinois firearm owners are registered. Get an ID card. You can transit Illinois under federal law, and I doubt without an FOID (the id card) stopping for gas would cause a problem but who knows. Certainly not outside the Chicago metro area. Beyond that, you're at the mercy of the LEO and local prosecutor. It's absurd, but that's how things are. And in Illinois, possession of a single round of handgun ammunition without an FOID can be charged as a felony. I prefer these issues be dealt with by the states, but some level of rationality should prevail on the state level. As well as on the federal level. If you can transit a state legally, common sense says whether it's Delaware or Texas, stopping for gas, food or, horrors, the night, is part of transit. If a state doesn't want tourist dollars from gunowners, so be it.
The TSA thing, you’re right, but the mags have to be “securely” boxed. My understanding factory ammunition boxes qualify as secure, though they don’t say that. The mag is even OK with your firearm, federally. But you’re landing somewhere. I box and lock ammunition separately flying too, who needs the aggravation. But you’re right about everything you said
Eh. I’m being harsh. I lived there for a few years...I was just pissed every time I think of that speeding ticket. It really got my goat
As with any city, even the smaller cities (I currently live in York PA and work in Lancaster and every day I hear about a shooting or stabbing or a drive by or a drug bust in York and Lancaster Cities and wonder why I left Baltimore : ( ) and sadly even many “small towns” now days, there are places to stay out of and you have to keep your street smarts about you but if you do, Baltimore is still a great city to visit.
I will yes to visiting Fort McHenry! And if you go to the Inner Harbor, which isn’t very far away from Fort McHenry and very accessible to and from I-95 without having to go through any “bad” areas, there is, in addition to the popular National Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center:
Historic Ships in Baltimore
There is also the B&O Railroad Museum
http://www.borail.org/Collections.aspx
Closer to Ft McHenry is the Baltimore Museum of Industry
I wouldn’t recommend eating or shopping at either of the Inner Harbor Pavilions (overpriced and over rated IMO) but heading a bit south to Federal Hill – lots of interesting small shops and art galleries and great places to eat; same with Fells Point, just be careful getting there – you don’t want to go too far north or too far east of Fells Point proper. Federal Hill and Fells Point are the oldest sections of Baltimore with lots of Colonial era buildings still in use. You say you like muscles? If you go to Fells Point, check out Bertha’s Muscles. And some of these places are accessible via the Baltimore Water Taxi service so you don’t necessarily have to drive to get there once parked.
http://www.baltimorewatertaxi.com/Stops%2C-Schedules-002B-0024amp;-Routes.aspx
I will also second the historic City Dock area of Annapolis and you can also arrange to take a tour of The US Naval Academy (but you will have to have photo ID’s).
http://www.usnabsd.com/for-visitors/
True story - when I was in my late teens (late 70’s) I was out with my older brother and his wife on a Sunday afternoon shopping in Glen Burnie, traveling south on Ritchie Highway when we saw two Mid-Shipmen hitchhiking. I don’t recall all the details but they had a weekend pass and somehow missed their bus or ride and were getting dangerously close to not getting back to the Academy on time – something that would have been very bad for them. My brother picked them up and we drove them all the way, well out of our way, to the Naval Academy. The guys were so grateful that one of them got my brother’s phone number and they offered to give us a personal guided tour of the Naval Academy which they did a few weeks later. Security wasn’t quite as tight then as it is now so we got to see a lot more than most tourists and of course a firsthand account of what it was like being a Mid-Shipman. Great time (and it didn’t hurt me at all that the guys were very handsome ; )).
I will also say go to DC if you can. Try to go off rush hours - the traffic will still be bad but not quite as bad and the street grids in DC can be confusing, but go!
There are so many great places of historical significance and interest to see, many of them free to the public like all the Smithsonian museums and the National Galleries of Art, The National Archives, The Library of Congress, the Vietnam and WWII war memorials, etc. IIRC there are also some museums not well known to most like the Crime Museum, located a few blocks from the FBI headquarters, opened after the FBI stopped allowing tours and the US Postal Museum located across from the historic Union Station, or the National Arboretum or the United States Botanic Gardens, The National Zoo. You could spend a month in DC and not get to see everything.
The last time I was there was in 2005. My boyfriend at the time and I stayed for the weekend in Crystal City VA and took the Metro all over – to Arlington National Cemetery (also well worth the trip) and then to the then recently opened International Spy Museum (not free and a bit pricy but a lot of fun- and I also hear that the Newseum is great) and then on Sunday we took the Metro from Crystal City to the Mall. We had planned to go to the Smithsonian but that weekend there was a big event on the Mall, IIRC for Armed Forces Day. The entire Mall was filled with all sorts of displays and demonstrations of military equipment and education. I got to go inside an evacuation medi-vac helicopter, a real military Humvee and got to hold (of course not armed) shoulder rocket launcher… it was very cool.
I will say that in 2005, I was very impressed by the DC Metro. It was clean, on time, not expensive with a weekend pass and easy to navigate, but I understand there have been a lot of problems with the Metro since I was there last so something worth looking into, just understand that parking in DC can be a challenge.
Other thoughts – Gettysburg – Yes!!!! I’ve been there many times and it is always a moving experience. And if you go in the Fall, the first two weekends in October, try to also go to the nearby National Apple Harvest Festival. I go just about every year.
Philadelphia – Yes! Independence Hall, Liberty Bell and outside of Philly - Longwood Gardens, Winterthur and the Brandywine Battlefield Park and Valley Forge. Longwood Gardens in the late spring is absolutely breathtaking.
Lancaster – Yes parts of the countryside surrounding, mostly north of Lancaster City are beautiful, but meh - having lived in the area as a young child and now having moved back to the area in 2010, “once you’ve seen one Amish buggy, you’ve just about seen them all”. LOL! I guess I just don’t get the attraction of gawking at the Amish. I just see them as folks living the life they choose and minding their own business. But yes, if you are traveling the back roads in the area, you have to watch out for buggies and other horse drawn farm equipment (and motorized farm equipment too as not all farms in Lancaster county are Amish). FWIW – the Amish don’t really like having their pictures taken but then again they aren’t going to go all “Harrison Ford” on you for doing so : )
That and in Amish/Mennonite country, they spread fresh cow and chicken manure and lots of it on the fields several times a year so…. keep that in mind that a good part of the year it smells like cow and chicken a$$ - that is not a bad thing, it is after all farming country, but it is what it is.
Also keep in mind that there are a lot of tourist traps along Route 30 outside of Lancaster that claim to be “Amish” this and “Amish” that including “Buggy rides” and places that claim to sell “Amish” made goods and crafts and authentic “Amish” restaurants, but not all of them are or have any real Amish working there or any Amish goods, and FWIW, the “real” Amish don’t give buggy rides to tourists. There are a couple of outlet malls on 30 in Lancaster but they are like just about any other outlets you find anywhere else. Lancaster City has some good restaurants and a few museums and such but it also has quite a few rough areas not populated by THE Amish but the OTHER Amish and not unlike Baltimore or DC or Philly so just keep that in mind.
But there are some real Amish farmer’s markets to be found in places like Paradise and Bird In Hand or Strasburg but they mostly only run on Fridays and Saturdays and in church parking lots. They sell produce, homemade cheeses and pies (shoefly) and soaps, quilts and other crafts, all sorts of stuff and at all not expensive. Some of the more commercial markets like The Rabbit & The Dragonfly and Lancaster Central Market in Lancaster City, the Bird-in-Hand Farmers Market in Bird In Hand and the Roots Country Market & Auction in nearby Manheim do have Amish vendors but also many “English” ones and some of them like Roots which I’ve been to since I work in Manheim, is more like a big flea market. Again, meh.
If you decide to visit Lancaster PA, rather than going to Lancaster City, I recommend going a bit off the beaten and more touristy path and going to Lititz.
You can still drive through the heart of the Amish country to get to or from there but Lititz has that quaint small town feel, with lots of history and also lots of neat small and some rather “funky” and unusual specialty shops and some great little places to eat. Some of my favorites if you are looking for something more unusual than Pennsylvania Dutch fare (of which truthfully, I’m not a big fan, a bit bland and heavy for my taste) are The Tomato Pie Café and Café Chocolate.
If you are traveling south from NJ along the NJ Parkway, stop at Cape May and just walk around for a few hours and take in the Victorian homes and B&B’s, and then take the Lewes - Cape May Ferry to Delaware and drive through the Delmarva taking Route 1 along the coast and then Route 13 and perhaps a side trip to the historic town of Snow Hill or the Assateague Island National Seashore and see the ponies. If going south from there, if you want to go to Wilmington or the Outer Banks in NC for instance, consider taking the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel Bridge. A marvel of engineering.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_Bay_Bridge%E2%80%93Tunnel
Wilmington NC - USS North Carolina. I was there when I was a kid in the late ‘60’s as our family was driving home from a vacation in Myrtle Beach and then again in 2001 with my (ex) husband, also returning home from Myrtle Beach and we had the very great pleasure of meeting one of the veteran volunteers who had served on the ship during WWII and after talking with him, thanking him for his service and me telling him about my father’s service in the SPT, (the USS North Carolina being one of the ships he remembered as being one that protected and defended the troop transport ships he was on while island hopping), and talking with him quite a bit at the visitor center (and he appreciated that we were really interested in the history and not “PC” version) he gave us a “special” guided and very personal tour with his remembrances of what it was really like on board and at war – what the exhibits got it right and what they got wrong (damn PC BS he told us) and we corresponded with him for several years until he died. It was such a special experience and I still cry when I think about it and him and my dad.
The Outer Banks of NC are beautiful and Charleston SC and Savanah GA have a lot to offer as well.
I would one day like to take a driving vacation through NE. Years ago I went on a week-long ski trip to VT (Sugar Bush) and I found rural VT to be beautiful and in 2004 visited my nephew and his wife when they were living in NH (between Manchester and Concord) and we went on a day trip to Portsmouth and to the Strawbery Banke Museum which I loved. One day I’d like to get up your way to visit Maine, especially along the coast. I would also like to one day go to the South West and to the Rockies.
Have a fun and safe trip and let us know after you get back, where you went and what you saw and liked and didn’t like. There are so many great places everywhere in the US to visit and explore, from the big cities and their attractions to small town America and the off the beaten trail attractions.
You did an excellent recap of the mid-Atlantic. I might add a few minor additions. Quaint towns like Chesapeake City, MD; Northeast, MD (that’s a town name, not a geographical area), Shepherdstown, WV. Historical sites like Harper’s Ferry, WV; Civil War battlefields like Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg, etc.
Thank you so much for your time pulling this together. Wish I had a little tour group to enjoy.
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