- A new adventure begins.
I'm going to go pick up my mom.
And then, off to Washington, D.C. we go.
- [GPS] Turn left onto
Florida 9-53 North, Northwest 42nd Avenue.
- The Lewis and Clark road trip begins.
(intro music)
♪ I'm riding ♪
♪ Riding, riding ♪
♪ Riding in my RV ♪
♪ My RV ♪
♪ Wherever I want to be ♪
♪ You guys, I'm free in my RV, yeah ♪
(playful jazz music)
- [Narrator] It is Friday morning in Miami,
and naturally there's a little bit of traffic
on state route 836, the Dolphin Expressway,
going towards downtown.
(playful jazz music)
The white dome on the right is the Florida Marlin Stadium,
LoanDepot Park, I believe it is called now.
And I can understand the need for sponsors and all that.
But LoanDepot Park just does not roll off
the tongue now, does it?
(playful jazz music)
They're building a double decker bridge
here over to Miami river.
Hopefully, it'll streamline things.
(playful jazz music)
Here's the real bottleneck.
Every single time, trying to get on I-95 North.
Hopefully, after all this construction is over,
they might make it into a two-lane exit.
One can only hope, right?
(playful jazz music)
And we're home free.
I-95 North seems to be pretty clear,
and we're going to be on this road
for the better part of the next two days.
Our first stop is going to be at La Mesa,
a Winnebago dealership,
where they are going to replace one of the solar panels.
There were two screws missing.
And my only explanation is
that someone might have tried to steal it,
but I guess we'll never know.
All I know is that a couple of days ago,
I was getting back from Pali Camp
and someone was honking at me.
And at the beginning,
I thought it was like a viewer saying "Hi" so,
I waved back and no, he was frantically pointing
towards the roof of the trailer.
So I stopped and low and behold the panel was coming loose.
It is almost impossible
for those screws to come off so clean on their own.
So my only hypothesis is that someone removed them
and somehow didn't have the time to finish the job.
What do you guys think?
(playful jazz music)
And here we are.
While they replace the damaged solar panel,
I'm going to take mom to Fort Pierce.
Well, we dropped off Minitini III at La Mesa here.
They're gonna replace that solar panel
and now we're going to Fort Pierce for lunch.
And there. We've been there before.
So, yeah, let's go somewhere nice.
(playful jazz music)
We're going to do the touristy thing
and eat at this place called Crabby's Dockside.
It's right on the marina.
Yep. Let's park right here.
(playful jazz music)
Here we are, downtown Fort Pierce, Fort Pierce Marina.
We're gonna have, we're gonna have some lunch,
some early lunch here.
Let's do it.
By the way, I'm traveling with mom.
(playful jazz music)
Gotta get a table with a view, right?
A cold local IPA, of course,
and the catch of the day with corn and coconut rice,
and this fabulous view.
(playful jazz music)
Well, that was really good.
We gotta get on one of those wildlife boat tours
one of these days.
Actually, here we've got some wildlife
without having to take the tour.
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Look for a link in the video description.
(tranquil music)
There are so many fish here by the marina.
I don't know if they're naturally occurring
or they're just here because people feed them.
(playful jazz music)
It is fascinating.
(playful jazz music)
(cheerful live music playing)
They have live music at Marina Square.
(cheerful live music playing)
This is one of those cases
of being in the right place at the right time.
(cheerful live music playing)
(audiences applause)
(energetic live music playing)
Well, check it out.
This was a pleasant surprise here to find the, you know,
live band at the park here, all the fish and,
and the food was actually really good.
Service was sluggish, but the food,
the fish was amazing.
Now let's go back to La Mesa and see if the RV is ready.
(playful jazz music)
Well, everything went great at La Mesa.
We have a brand new solar panel and our next stop,
Buc-ee's.
(playful jazz music)
Well, mom has never been to Buc-ee's.
So I thought I'd take her,
so she can see what all the fuzz is about.
(playful jazz music)
Well, we had to make our pilgrimage
one more time to Buc-ee's.
So here we are.
(playful jazz music)
Say hello to my little friend. (laughs)
(playful jazz music)
(people chattering)
To make a long story short,
eventually we got to Jacksonville
and shortly after the Florida-Georgia state line,
Saint Mary's River, we're going to stay at Walmart.
- [GPS] Welcome to Georgia.
- [Mom] Oh, thank you.
(playful jazz music)
- [Narrator] I-95 is not very cynic
in Georgia and the Carolina.
So we're just gonna stop at south of the border
just to corroborate that it is still there.
I had heard rumors that it was getting demolished
and I'm happy to report that it's still here.
(playful jazz music)
Tonight we're gonna stay at the Rocky Mount KOA,
just about 30 miles south of the Virginia state line.
(things rattling) (birds chirping)
It's a brand new day.
(birds chirping)
(birds cuckoo)
(upbeat music)
We didn't get to do anything here.
Just a comfortable night with full hookups.
Now off to Washington, D.C. we go.
(upbeat music)
- [GPS] Welcome to Virginia.
- [Narrator] Okay.
(upbeat music)
- The GPS wants me to take the beltway
but we're just gonna punch through the center of town.
Oh, no. Black helicopter overhead.
(upbeat music)
Check it out.
I think it is going to land at the Pentagon.
Arriving at any major city and our nation's capital
probably even more so can be a thrilling experience.
If a little stressful one too.
I mean, you get to recognize iconic landmarks
like the Washington Monument, but there's also traffic
and the own family area with the area.
(upbeat music)
Here, we get a glimpse at the Capitol Building
and the Library of Congress,
but it is hard to see from the interstate.
(upbeat music)
Today, we're staying at Cherry Hill Park
in College Park, Maryland,
probably the closest RV park to Washington, D.C.
At least that's what they claim.
(upbeat music)
We made it here to Cherry Hill Park.
It's bitterly cold
and I'm filling up my fresh water tank
because it is very likely
that it is going to freeze tonight.
So we don't have to, we don't want to run into any trouble,
but I mean, we haven't had some snow flurries here
until just a few seconds ago.
(car engine roaring)
Well, now let's get something to eat and go to the city.
(people chattering)
Came by this place called the Hard Times Cafe,
which is basically the local saloon.
You know, when everybody, where everybody knows your name,
and except nobody knew ours, but that's pretty good.
That's pretty good.
(playful jazz music)
As a House of Cards' fan,
I've always wanted to come into D.C. at night,
and maybe reproduce some of those iconic night shots
from the intro.
And now it's as good a time as any.
(playful jazz music)
Driving through the streets at night
is really a unique experience.
Lincoln Park here on the left, and this is Capitol Hill,
one of the oldest and largest
historic neighborhoods here in D.C.
with all these row houses of different architectural styles.
Pretty soon, we'll be able to see
the back of the Capitol Building.
(playful jazz music)
That would be the Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art.
(playful jazz music)
Not quite the glamorous night shots I was hoping for,
but that's the best I can do from the car.
In order to achieve the type of night photography
I wanted to do, I would have to get out and walk.
And this is the thing.
Washington has changed a bit
since the first time I was here in 1994.
Everything seemed much more accessible back then.
I recall there was even a street
going by the front of the Lincoln Memorial.
Now, all I can hope for is a shot of the back.
It's still pretty cool to drive around the Capitol at night.
Let me tell you.
(playful jazz music)
There. That's the White House.
(playful jazz music)
One last view of the Capitol before we start heading back.
(playful jazz music)
This is, by the way, going to be
a little bit of a short episode because the next one, oh,
the next one is going to be action packed.
(playful jazz music)
(upbeat music)
On the next one, we'll visit the Jefferson Memorial.
The cherry blossom peaking sites only locals know about.
We'll have an IPA with Jim Impala.
We'll visit the National Museum of American History
and go for a frigid stroll along the National Mall.
Then on the next day,
we'll go back to Tidal Basin to see more cherry blossoms,
and try to replicate that picture of my mom from 1958.
Then Martin Luther King, Lincoln, and much more.
(playful jazz music)
♪ I'm riding ♪
♪ I'm riding in my RV ♪
♪ Wherever I want to be ♪
♪ And guys, I'm free in my RV ♪
♪ Yeah, I'm riding ♪
♪ Riding, riding ♪
♪ I'm riding in my RV ♪
♪ My RV ♪
♪ Wherever I want to be ♪
♪ Because I'm free in my RV ♪
♪ Yeah, I'm riding ♪
♪ Riding, riding ♪
♪ I'm riding in my RV ♪
♪ My RV ♪
♪ Wherever I want to be ♪
♪ Because I'm free ♪