Perfect Strangers

We started the day with a stop at the Great Falls National Park in Maryland and ended the day with a quick visit to the Grey Towers National Historic Site. There was a whole lot of driving in between.

We left our nation’s capital behind by driving out of town on the GW Parkway until we got to the Circle of Death (as Will calls the Capital Beltway I-495) where fortunately we only had to cross the Potomac River before exiting in Maryland for the drive to the Great Falls National Park. Most of the info we found on this park refers to the Virginia side, but the Maryland side has some great views of the Great Falls too. Along with another portion of the C & O Canal that we had visited on Sunday, this time around mile mark 15 at lock #17. They are refurbishing this section of the park and we had to dodge a crane putting in a temporary dock on the canal for our walk to the falls overlook. The dock is for an excursion boat that takes a little cruise up the canal, through a lock before turning around and coming back. It is seasonal and we were a couple weeks early for a boat ride, even if the dock was ready.

We then hit the road. After zigging and zagging a bit we found our way to MD27 and headed northeast. The rest of the day was spent on Interstates 83, 81 & 84.

When we ran out of driving steam it was in the small town of Milford, which is just about the last town in Pennsylvania on I-84. As we drove into to town looking for lodging and a meal we saw signs for the Grey Towers National Historic Site, so we followed the signs up a hill to a great stone house. It was closed for the season, so we couldn’t tour it, but did walk a bit about the grounds. It was the home of Gifford Pinchot who is the great grandfather of Bronson Pinchot who played Balki Bartokomous on the TV show Perfect Strangers. Just kidding, he was a conservationist, a Pennsylvania governor and America’s first chief Forester. It is built in the manor of a French chateau, but if I was casting a movie and needed a place to stand in for an insane asylum, this would be it.

Tomorrow we take I-84 all the way to my old home town of New Britain, CT. Wednesday isn’t supposed to be half bad weather-wise, but they are calling for snow/freezing rain on Thursday. OH, BOY! We are never coming up north again until it is at least mid May.

Sally took that picture of me as I tried, in vain, to get a different vantage point to capture the Lincoln Memorial.