National Gallery of Art, Again

We visited the National Gallery late in 2013, but saw rather more of grand-daughter Penelope than the collection (see http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/01/national-gallery-of-art.html). For our last day in DC this year, Vicki wanted to see at least one of the sights, and we settled on a more leisurely visit to the National Gallery. It's a museum of which Americans can be proud, particularly its Impressionist collection. Below are a variety of highlights, mostly by artists we've come especially to like. It made us a bit homesick for Europe (!), but we were ready now for a new American adventure to begin.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Mosaic from Roman Tunisia

Abbot Suger's chalice from Saint Denis

Giotto's Smirking Madonna and Hobbit

Van Eyck's Annunciation

Durer's Lot and His Daughters

Cranach's Crucifixion and Centurion

Tilman Riemenschneider's Bishop of Wurzburg

Bosch's Death of a Miser

Arcimboldo's Four Seasons in One Head (a
four-fer)

Titian's Dannae

A small Claude Lorrain Judgment of Paris

Watteau's Italian Comedians

From the impressive Degas/Cassatt special exhibit, the
American Mary Cassatt's Little Girl on a Blue Armchair

And last, a great archival exhibit on the
"Monuments Men" and the NGA

One of the Monuments Men with the rescued Velasquez
Infanta, which we've seen many times in Vienna, but never
fully appreciated...

DC Report

Largely because of Vicki's foot issue and the need let it heal, we did not get out much during our 6 weeks in DC. We were not idle, however. In addition to the hours upon hours of research about solar power for RVs, exterior storage arrangements, TV and wifi while on the road, and so on, we also painted and repainted Rachel and Will's downstairs suite...a large great room, galley, bedroom, and bathroom...hard work, especially all the woodwork and doors. But it's done, and we feel pretty good about having made some improvements. As usual, I went for a number of walks in the area, and we also went through the things we had previously stored at their house.

Then, just at the end of September, we got a call from the company that was building our new camper, a Provan Tiger, telling us of yet another delay, this time until early November. It was first scheduled for delivery in early August. Not all the delays were Provan's fault, but, by this time, we had waited long enough, were faced with missing the early autumn time we needed in Montana, and we therefore exercised our option of backing out of the deal with a full refund. No hard feelings--we enjoyed working with Mark Guild and really looked forward to joining the Tiger club--but too much time was being lost.

All this occasioned more priority-setting, planning, research, still more planning and research, and then shopping. Ultimately, we decided on a truck camper set-up, still wanting something that will go off-pavement and in all seasons...a 2014 Ram 3500 4WD crew cab with a 2008 Bigfoot camper mounted aboard. Interestingly, the Bigfoot was in Missoula, MT, precisely where we wanted to be in October (and September)...

The galley in the downstairs apartment became the painters'
studio for a couple weeks

Picking up our new truck in VA; the contrast between working
with honest, straightforward Provan and a car dealership could
not have been more complete

"America's Largest RV Show"

At length we figured out it merely bills itself as America's largest RV show (http://www.prvca.org/), but it was still pretty large, and we're glad we drove up to Chocolate City (Hershey, PA) and its Giant Centre to do the show. (Thanks, Rachel and Will, for use of the car, again). We've already made our decisions and commitments about our next camper, a Tiger Bengal TX 4x4 (http://www.tigervehicles.com/tiger-models/bengal/)--if only it would ever get built!--so we mainly looked at accessories, new ideas, and services for RVers at the show, trying to keep the impatience and frustration in check.

A look at the expanse of rigs...

The accessory sales were mostly inside the Giant Centre arena

Thus; I wonder if the home team is called the Chocolatiers?

My role in these expeditions is to document all
the new or otherwise interesting items, many of
them gadgets or gimmicks not sold in stores
nor seen on television; for further consideration

Thus; incredibly, we spent most of the day at
the show and bought nothing

We would have bought this cute camping high
chair, but P is too old for it now

I don't think think we'll be working for Amazon during the
winters, despite its being very fulfilling work (nyuk, nyuk,
nyuk); their table was generally shunned so far as I could see

Martin the Geico Gecko was there

Finally, a decent-sized flask (from a savvy new
company called Grass Haven; from CO, of course)

The only vehicle that really interested us was this Sportsmobile
all-terrain Fuso, a prototype of which we had seen a few years
ago in CA; obviously we're not into slide-outs, outdoor entertainment
centers, hook-ups, or KOAs, etc.; has a Mercedes 3-liter diesel and
gets 17mpg, we were told; just 22 feet long; $240k

Vicki examines the escape package...for digging yourself out
of mud, sand, snow, quicksand, lava...

One can go into a swag frenzy at these shows, but this time I
restrained myself and came back with merely a few "useful" items 

Washington, DC Out-Takes

We took the American/US Air red-eye from SFO to DCA (via JFK) on August 21st-22nd, moving our act from Middle California to the Middle Atlantic, to stay with daughter Rachel and her husband Will--in their mother-in-law suite--until our new camper is finished. The camper is a Tiger Adventure Vehicle, a Bengal TX, or somesuch, being built with modifications too numerous to detail, or even contemplate, near Columbia, SC. Our plan was for it to be ready for pick-up in mid-August, but, obviously, that didn't happen, and we are here in DC, comfortably but very impatiently awaiting news of the camper or even of the arrival of the Chevy 1-ton truck it will be built on. Too much walking in Paris resulted in Vicki's getting the Fascist Planter's disease, so she's staying off her feet, and we're staying pretty close to home, especially on those wonderful Washington days when the temps are in the upper 90s.

Sun rise on the east coast

The flight was OK until someone decided to change the route from JFK to DCA
but neglected to add fuel to the plane; fortunately, the crew figured it out (are the
margins that thin?) and after taxi-ing back to the terminal and adding another
thousand pounds of fuel and letting half a dozen passengers and their luggage off
in order to avoid missing connections, or re-routing them entirely, we finally took
off, arriving at DCA only a couple hours late

The near-north neighborhoods where Rachel lives are undergoing considerable
change, especially the building of high-rises; and in some cases, the removal of
smaller buildings to make way...

Thus

DC's old Carnegie library, pictured here because we have already spent
considerable time in DC and other libraries here...

DC libraries have their own police force; we suspect this is not because of
over-dues...

At the Library of Congress' 14th annual National Book Festival; I attended quite
a few of these in my working days; here NEA's Amy Stolls introduces the
contemporary fiction panel

Hitherto, and sometimes very unpleasantly, the national festival was held outdoors,
on the Mall; this year it was indoors, at the Washington Convention Center; fun for
me, not because I attended any of the scores of sessions, but because I got to see a
few old friends...John Cole of the LOC, Maggie Coval from Colorado, and Alice
Meister from Montana

Under heavy guard from the Junior League of DC, Billy Collins signs...

Outside the downtown library...you've heard of the doc-in-a-box... this is the
dentist-on-wheels

Labor Day Sunday we drove down to see Dave and Holly's Tardis,
a Tiger similar to what ours someday will be; in Chesapeake, VA

With the arrival of Vicki's sister Marie for a 4-day visit, we undertook a variety
of interesting American retail experiences; here, they are at the colossal two-story
American Girl store at Tyson's Corner; American Girl apparently is what you
graduate to right after the Disney/Princess phase, so I expect I'll be seeing a lot
more of these stores in the future

Middle California Out-Takes

High-level work (one summer during college I did elevator
construction, brutal but high-level work)

View-shed; from the top of the Fairmont

Tidying up a black cab, before the next call

The Fairmont sources its own honey

Mercury Resting--San Francisco, as any great
city, is studded with sculpture; this one
commissioned by the University Club in
1915 for an international exhibition; "relocated
for the enjoyment of all"

On Market St.--dedicated to "the mechanics"

Commemorating the invention of the slot machine

Reminiscent of Paris

"Skip to my loo"--at Fairyland

Oakland's Grande Lake Theatre--notable historically,
architecturally, politically...

Disappearing into the fog...

On our smart phones, of course!

Six-Year Anniversary

Six years ago, this day, Sunday, August 31st, 2008, Vicki and I embarked from Missoula on our retirement journey, having sold, donated, or stored everything but the contents of our two packs and two day-packs (and personal items). In the past six years we have visited five continents, some 36 countries, and logged a couple hundred thousand land, sea, and air miles. And we have seen our two daughters married and a grand-child born. It has been an extraordinary six years. Today finds us at daughter Rachel's house in Washington, DC, planning to drive to Chesapeake, VA to look at a Tiger Adventure Vehicle similar to the one being built for us presently in SC...and looking forward to the next six years, and more.