Sunday Night in DC

I had hoped to visit all the monuments west of the Washington Monument while we had the car, but we ran out of time. The only one we visited was the Jefferson Memorial which is on the south side of the Tidal Basin. We were too early in the season to see the blossoms on the cherry trees that arearound the Tidal Basin. After 9-11 they moved the parking lot that was right south of the Jefferson Memorial. Now we had to park over a quarter mile away and walk. The statue of Jefferson shows him standing, looking across the Tidal Basin at the Washington Mounument. I remember a few years ago when I came to DC with a group from Berthold to attend the natioal ABC convention. Tanya was too young to go into the Holacaust Museum so she and I rented a paddle boat and cruised around the Tidal Basin.
In the evening David and I met my cousin Blanch at a chile place in Alexandria for supper. King Street in Alexandria is a tourist place with many quaint shops and restaurants. A free trolley runs the length of the street. The next time I come to DC I migght stay in one of the motels near the west end of King Street. Alexandria is also the place of the school in the movie "Remember the Titans." Both Blanch and I got confused because the Jefferson Davis Highway which we came into Alexandria on is not called that in town. David and I asked a number of people on the street how to find it but they were all from out of town. It took us 15 minutes to get out of there. David has lost all confidence in my ability to navigate. We turned in the rental car and traveled by bus, subway, and taxi back to our motel which is on the north end of DC, actually in College Park, MD. So far nothing we have seen in Washington has impressed David more than Gettysburg.

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Highways

I find it interesting to come across a highway number down here that is the same as a highway number up in our neck of the woods. Yesterday, we spent some time on Highway 281, which is the same U.S. highway that goes through Jamestown and crosses Highway 2 at Churches Ferry. I-35 splits into I-35 W and I-35 E as it passes through Ft. Worth and Dallas, just as it does in the Twin Cities. Many years ago in North Carolina, I was on U. S. 52, which runs from Portal SE across America, sometimes disappearing for hundreds of miles, swallowed up by highways that get more respect. On the way down here we crossed U. S. 30, which is known as the Lincoln Highway out east because it passes through Gettysburg and Northern Illinois. I don’t know who devised the U.S. highway system, but they made it interesting.

Dallas where JFK was assasinated

I am standing on the sidewalk reading the historical marker. Out in the street behind me is a white X painted where the Presidential limo was when Kennedy eat hit with the fatal head shot (the third shot). Farther up the street to my right an X marks the spot where the second shot hit him high on his back. This was the “magic bullet” that went through JFK’s back and then hit Connelly. That billet actually caused seven wounds. Beyond me is the Texas Book Drpository. Oswald shot from the far right window on the sixth floor. That window is behind the tree. Only the seventh floor can be seen from this angle. Ruth is standing next to the stone pedestal in which Zapruder stood and made his famous video of the assassination. Dealy Plaza is across the street behind her. This was taken up in the Sixth Floor Museum. This is the window Oswald shot three shots from. The boxes are arrranged just as they were on 11/22/63. This is the X on the stre...

LBJ Ranch

Part of the LBJ National/State Park is in Johnson City where he grew up. Part of it is 15 miles west of Johnson City where he was born and where he had his ranch and where he had his home while he was a Congressman and VP and President. He and Lady Bird are buried in the family cemetery out on the ranch. This is the home in Johnson City where he was raised from the time he was six. Nearby is the shed he fell off of as a kid and broke his leg. While LBJ was serving in Congress and as VP and President he travelled back and forth from Texas a lot. 20 percent of his time when he was President was spent at his ranch. He built a runway on the ranch so he could fly there easily. Air Force 1 was too big to land so he bought a smaller plane to shuttle him from the Austin airport where AF1 could land to his ranch. This is that plane. This was his house at the ranch. The secret Service had a smaller house out back. He held many high level meetings in the shade of the large ...

Pastor Skar

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