Cruisin the U.S.A. Part II - Washington, DC to Ft. Myers, FL

On Saturday April 28, I said farewell to my uncle and flew to Washington, D.C. to meet up with Amin Asadollahi and commence Part II of travelling in the U.S.A.  We spent a couple days in Washington checking out museums and preparing for the trip ahead to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a final destination of Ft. Myers, Florida.

Washington is a fantastic place - it is easy to navigate (very logical street layout and has a metro) and there is alot to see and do.  We hit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of National History, and the Botanical Gardens (all of which are free!), with the requisite pictures around the White House, Capitol Hill, and the Pentagon.

(Capitol Hill on a glorious, sunny day)

On the topic of the Pentagon, Amin and I stood from the back corner of the furthest parking lot (a solid mile from the actual building) and took a casual picture with the Pentagon far in the distance.  No sooner did the flash go off when a Pentagon Security officier on a speaker demanded that we don't take pictures, giving us a stern reply when we asked why.  National security aside, I couldn't help but think "pretty sure everyone already knows the building is in the shape of a pentagon"..but hey, we all have a job to do.

We left Washington and headed to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the Tennessee-North Carolina border.  The route we chose to hike was only 20 miles, but with steep elevation changes along the Lakeshore Trail which hugs Lake Fontana in the South-West section of the park.  We took a boat up the lake then spent four days, almost entirely under tree canopy, hiking back to the marina.

(Cades Cove in western end of the Park)

(Amin and I on the boat en route to site 77, the start of the backpacking)

(The best part of camping, having a drink by the fire)

We fell into a pleasant routine of drinking tea and eating oatmeal really early in the morning, hiking through the morning, then setting up camp/purifying water/swimming and napping in the afternoon. Bugs/animals were hardly an issue (some ticks and giant milipedes being the exception) and for one of the most popular national parks in the country, we didn't see any other hikers until the last day.

A straight 16 hour drive from the Smokies brought us into the final destination, Fort Myers, Florida.  The past few weeks here have consisted of beach camping at Cayo Costa State Park, biking in the Everglades, finding awesome local hang outs to write blog entries from (like Bennett's Fresh Roast which has the best donuts ever!), helping to clean the beach on Sanibel Island (see separate blog post), and generally relaxing and having fun.

One of the best things about travelling is meeting great people along the way - everyone has a story to tell and travelling tends to bring out the best in people.

(Amin, Andrew, Pascal, Van, and Jeff.  Van and son Andrew played guitar for us on Cayo Costa)

 

(Us with brothers Brent and Aaron, who joined us at site 90 - where none of us had the required reservation)