Road Trip Aug 2019 - Maryland State Capitol

We left our home in Norfolk VA mid-day on Saturday for Fairfax VA to see Adam and Melissa.  We we planned an overnight stay before heading to Williamsville, NY.  We changed it up a bit and drove to Fairfax by way of the Eastern Shore through Annapolis MD.

Since we hadn't seen the Maryland State Capital, we drove there for a quick visit in the middle of the afternoon.  We parked downtown near the Vistor's Center in the public garage and walked the two blocks to the capitol.

The Maryland State House sits atop the what seems like the highest point in the city.

The capitol is small by some standards but is rich in history.  It is the oldest State House in continuous use in the U.S.  That note is quite amazing to us since it goes back to 1772.  

It has a beautiful dome that is unique as it is made completely of wood with no nails.

The current State House is the third to be located on the site.  The first one burned in 1704, the second was completed in 1709 but was not adequate for the growing colony.  The current structure was started in 1772 and completed in 1779.

The State House has the distinction of being the only State Capitol to serve as the nation's capitol from November 26, 1783 - August 13, 1784.

I took the diagram from self-guided tour brochure that gives a layout of the the old portion of the State House at the top and the annex which was joined to the existing building during the 1902-1906 construction period.

The building included spaces for both the bicameral body with 47 members in the Senate and 141 representatives in the House of Delegates.  We took a self-guided walking tour and viewed the old House Chambers which was set up as a replica of how it appeared in 1876 - 1905.

Something I don't remember seeing is a walking area that was an additional thickness of the existing carpet pattern where viewers walked.  I don't know why that caught my eye.

Next we saw a collection of silverware from the USS Maryland housed in the next room on the same side.

The silver service was created in 1906 and depicts 167 scenes from Marlyland's 23 counties and Baltimore city.

Across the hall is the Old Senate Chamber's where General George Washington resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783.

A painting as well as a statute captures the event in the Old Senate Chambers.

The State House is also the place where the Treaty of Paris was ratified, ending the Revolutionary War.

The Senate Committee and Stairwell Rooms house two galleries with important paintings.

The walls are filled with paintings of key figures in Maryland's history including Washington, Lafayette and Tilghman at Yorktown, and John Hansen who was a delegate to the Continental Congress and at one time served as President of the Continental Congress.  I've never heard of him.  But that's one reason we go to these places -- to learn.

The Stairwell Room is surrounded with paintings showing important Maryland events.

Displays includes paintings showing George Washington's travels through the Revolutionary War, the four Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

We spent about an hour at the State House trying to absorb as much as we could and then continued our drive to Fairfax to see Adam and Melissa and spend the night with them.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Flashback: Pancakes and Polishing the Roadrunner

Sometimes my mind wanders.  There we were, reading to the boys before afternoon nap time and engrossed in "Curious George Makes Pancakes."

The boys love pancakes and this one had a few blueberries in the plot.

For some reason it triggered a thought back to our time at Cheyenne Wyoming during Frontier Days. I remember gong to a free pancake breakfast downtown in Cheyenne and along with hundreds of other folks, being served some big pancakes.

It was a fun day.

A day or two later I was in the midst of one of the many projects we have going at our house in Norfolk (15 minutes away from the boys). I decided it was time to clean the vinyl siding on the house and garage.  I had some fairly expensive spray that was supposed to take the grime and algae? right off the vinyl.  I hooked up the hose and started on the garage first.  I figured I could give it a test run on the back side of the garage and no one would notice if it didn't work out.

Well, the green stuff and dirt didn't loosen up and fall right off after I sprayed it.  Instead, I had to use elbow grease to get it clean.  I got a bottle of Awesome spray soap cleaner from Dollar Tree and it worked perfectly. With my ladder and some rags, I systematical rubbed down one side, then the other, row by row on the siding.  I didn't mind it, but it took a little while.

In fact I did one side and the back, and on another day did the front and saved the other side for yesterday.

All in all I spent about and hour a side on the garage but I was pleased with the results.  Not only did it get clean, I got some exercise,  and felt a sense of accomplishment while I worked away.

As I stepped back it reminded me of all those times that I washed and waxed the Roadrunner.

I never minded doing it and knew that I was saving money by doing it myself and I knew that it was done well.

So there I was -- thinking of days gone by that were fun memories.  Thankfully we have pictures of all the places we went and things we did and can look back and smile.
We're about to head out on a road trip tomorrow and make some more memories.  We'll be in the truck going to Canada, (north of Toronto), Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee for a couple of weeks.

I imagine there will be lots of those kinds of days with flashbacks and memories of our time on the road.  We enjoyed it SO much.  And we are enjoying this stage of our life too.  Hope you are having a great week and thanks for joining us today!

Getting Settled In

We've been in our new (renovated house) for a couple of weeks now and things are moving along well.  I'm including a few pictures of the mostly finished house.

Our daughter Kelly asked a few days ago if it felt like home?  -- Not yet but we are getting there.  Here is a look at what we've had done:

The house.  We painted the whole house and renovated the kitchen and both bathrooms. We opened up the kitchen by taking out a half-wall between the kitchen/dining room and cut a pass-through window above the stove between the kitchen living room. The master bath had a door from the hallway and the bedroom. We took out the hallway entrance. We also had a new roof put on, new gutters, new windows and have done some gardening. We still have the baseboards and trim and baseboards to finish inside.

After becoming fans of downsizing, we relearned the skill of upsizing and got new furniture for every room.  I was amazed at how quickly we filled up the garage which is from the tools and stuff we carried in the motorhome.  😳

We love projects and have a long list so we are enjoying it.  Pam's garden is still going strong despite a fungus that took out the squash.  The

pictures:
Kitchen

 New flooring, countertops, cabinets and appliances, lighting

 Dining Room

New lighting, pantry cabinets

Den/Family Room

Living Room

Hall

New lighting, moved cold air return vent from above closet to the door (second door on right). Removed hall access to master bath.

 Office/Bedroom

New lighting

Hall Bathroom

Completely renovated, new floor, tub, vanity, lighting, shelves, tile, 

Boys bedroom (for sleepovers with Grandma and Papa)

Master Bedroom

Master bath

Completely redone. closed off the hall door, moved the pocket door from the bedroom, tile floor and shower, new vanity and plumbing.

Laundry room

Removed cabinets, moved washer, dryer, added mop sink, added shelf, bench seat at lower right

Deck

We didn't do anything to the deck, just got a table and some chairs.  Adam and Melissa gave us their umbrella which gives us some good shade.

Garden

Yard

That's a brief look at our new abode and some of what we've been doing in the last month.  Hope you all are having a great summer.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Renovations at the Lynnbrook House

I wanted to give you a quick tour of the Lynnbrook House and how it is coming along.
It's been a busy couple of weeks and a lot of hard work.  Pam and I are doing the painting and the rest of the work is being done by a local contractor and his subs.

Interior Design and contractor work is being lined up by Live Oak Real Estate, LLC.

We are glad for the changes that occurring daily, and we're hoping for to move in a couple of weeks from now.  We will see.  There is a lot left to do.

The major items we're having done are the kitchen, both bathrooms, laundry room, the roof, and new windows throughout the house.

Kitchen
Its a small kitchen and everything needed updating, so we started over.

"We" gutted it, cut a pass through window from the living room,  patched the ceiling and walls, repainted everything, added laminate flooring and then new cabinets.  The appliances and countertops arrive in a couple of days for installation.

The hallway and master bathrooms are getting completely redone too.  I noticed how small the hall bathroom was and then thought, "Hey - we used to live in a motorhome.  That was a small bathroom.  This is not as big as some, but it is fine.

The tile work is finished and now the trim work and vanity install next.
Hall bathroom

Master bathroom

Laundry/mud Room

Roof
Just like the DIY flip house shows on TV we had a couple of "Ugh Oh" surprises!!  that we had to take care of.
The first one was some plumbing and pipes under the bathrooms that had to be upgraded.
The second one was the big one.  A few weeks ago we noticed a large drip coming from a hole in the kitchen ceiling where the electrician had been working.  After a couple of heavy rainstorms, it was apparent we needed a new roof.  We knew there was some patch work on the roof, but it apparently wasn't doing the job.  We ended up replacing two sheets of plywood and eight 1" x 6" pieces of lumber.  We figured, "Pay now or pay later" and opted for now.

Painting

We feel like we are making progress and almost have the end in sight.  We also feel like we are not as young as we used to be.  We love the exercise that comes with the painting and yard work -- and we are getting plenty of it!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!