Maryland
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2007
1
79
92
Trip End
Dec 27, 2007
Maryland,
New York,
United States
Sunday, November 18, 2007
We found the apartment with no problem, and as we turned into the driveway, Belle was there to welcome us.
After a round of big hugs we went down to Susie's basement apartment. Another round of big hugs and then Snoozy showed us round her apartment.
We waited for Susie's dad to arrive back from his run and then we were off to the hockey pitch to watch North Carolina play Penn State in the NCAA game.
On the way there I commented that as Danny Forward was playing for North Carolina, we may see her Mum, Bev, at the game. Sure enough, as we walked along the sideline, we heard a voice calling us ......... Candy Forward!
Candy (Bev's eldest daughter) had flown in from London, and her Mum had flown in from South Africa. More hugs and we arranged to join them after the game for their "tailgate".
We watched the one sided game with Snoozy and Belle, which North Carolina won 3-0. Danny scored a good reverse stick goal and all the East Londoners were celebrating.
Snoozy took us for a tour of the Maryland campus. We rubbed the Terrapin's nose for good luck, we saw the football field, we visited the students union, we saw Snoozy's first year digs etc. It was good to listen to Snoozy describing her time in the USA with so much joy, she has had a great time, with more good times to come no doubt!
We had some fun with Belle when we went to see the student's union. There was no place to park, so we parked in one of three disabled spots and told Belle to pretend she was lost if approached by security. Belle had been before, so did not mind staying behind. We had a good laugh when we returned to the car as Belle was sitting with a road map opened on her lap, pretending to be lost. The joke was that Belle has never been lost in her life! She is always the navigator on our hockey trips and always finds the way successfully!!
We dropped off Snoozy and Belle and went to find the Forward's at their "tailgate". In the US, tailgates are parties after the game, where supporters and players get together and celebrate by eating and drinking excessively!
So we joined in, pretending to be Carolina's by wearing North Carolina track suits. We had a hamburger served to us by a lady smoking a huge cigar! At first we thought we were in an episode of the "Hillbillies", but she told me she had taken a bet that if they won she would smoke a cigar. In fact we noticed many people and coaches smoking cigars, but no-one could get Grant to smoke one (Grant Fulton is the assistant coach of N.C. and a friend of Candy and mine).
We enjoyed the celebrations, with the highlight definitely being Bev's koeksisters she had brought from South Africa!!
All too soon we were having a SA photograph and saying goodbye. It was a strange goodbye knowing we would see Bev in East London within 2 months, but not sure when next we would see Candy next.
When we got back to Snoozy's it was time to meet Snoozy's boyfriend. Dan is a great guy and we enjoyed getting to know him. We all went for a pizza and had a very good evening, and then it was time to get to our hotel in Washington.
It was the worst moment of our holiday to say goodbye, not knowing when next we would see Snoozy. We will see Belle in April next year for 2 weeks, so we could say goodbye to Belle ok, but Snoozy and I have spent many many hours on the hockey pitch, driving all over England for games, drinking many Costa mango frescata and of course ....... eating KFC! So it was a tearful goodbye and then we were off to Washington DC.
We found DC very easily and were excited to drive on the highway past Capitol Hill, Lincoln Memorial etc. The problem we found was that we couldn't find the hotel street!
We ended up at the entrance to the Pentagon, the CIA and Arlington cemetery before we stopped the car and contemplated staying somewhere else ..... where was Belle when you need her?!
We had been driving for an hour around DC and it was 11pm, so we decided to try one last time. We realised that Map Quest (internet directions) had been over complicated, we tried a road that was not on Map Quest, we drove for 5 minutes and then pulled in to a "Days Inn" and asked for directions - now before you ask why we hadn't asked for directions until now, we had been on highways and parkways and there was no-one to ask!!
We were 5 minutes away! So excitedly we drove on and sure enough, there it was. We pulled in to the car park relieved and went to check in.
The door was locked so we knocked. The guy behind the counter just looked at us ..... so we knocked again ...... again he just looked at us!
Our irritation quickly began to resurface. We realised there was a door on the side, so we went there and knocked again. The counter guy came slowly towards the door and stopped a few meters from the door, "what do you want?" he demanded. I felt like really telling him what I wanted to do, but we politely said we had come to check in. He reluctantly let us in. We were found the guy's behaviour exceptionally strange and this was further enhanced when he kept insisting we pay with a credit card and not with cash. We insisted we would pay with cash and enjoyed watching him get irritated with us - "what a strange choice of profession" we thought, obviously he disliked people!
Anyway, we finally got into our room at about 11:30 and we were asleep by 11:32.
Comments
Hi again
That must have been so much fun to see old friends again, especially seeing you have travelled more than half way round the world & besides Greg's dad, the last real friends you saw were in Australia...quite amazing!!
Have really enjoyed the last hour travelling across the US again...pics of Washington DC brought back many memories...watched the 1st moon landing there!
Love & God's blessings.
Dad & mom xxx