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It looks like my wife and I will be going to Washington DC on our spring break, we are both teachers. We will be taking a day to go up to Aberdeen and see the ordinance museum. Any advice on making a visit to the ordinance museum? Also, any good hotels in the area?
Thanks,
Eric

Here's info on visiting the Ordnance (no i) Museum:
ordmusfound.org/

You'll need to bring photo IDs. If anyone is not a US citizen, they should bring their passport.

If you visit on a weekend, you might be able to get a special guided tour by someone on this board...

First thing to keep in mind is that you should probably plan to take metro into Washington DC rather than driving. There is very little parking in downtown Washington DC. Metro really is the most convenient way to see the city - although I should note the Lincoln Memorial is kinda in an odd spot and requires a good walk (or tour bus). Once you get downtown, IMO, the Tourmobile is one of the best ways to see the city (especially if you're trying to fit it into a day or two): www.tourmobile.com/

Unfortunately, the National Museum of American History is closed until 2008. If you can fit it in, the National Air & Space Museum Udvar Hazy Center is really worth it www.nasm.si.edu/udvarhazy/ (although I guess you should just see the one downtown if you can only do one).

Anyway... If you therefore plan to take metro - did I mention its really hard to park downtown? - you should try to find a hotel on the orange or blue lines of the metro. Orange line goes out to Falls Church & Vienna, Blue line out to Springfield. Orange line is closer to the Udvar-Hazy Center, and slightly closer to begin the trek north to APG for that matter... You might be able to find a hotel that provides a shuttle to the metro. Of course if you're flying into National, you could just stay downtown - but hotels are expensive downtown. If you're flying into Dulles, you should find a place near the Orange line.

Your really only need a car for going to the Ordnance Museum (and the Udvar-Hazy Center if you can fit it in). Keep in mind Aberdeen Proving Ground is a good trek north, its north of Baltimore, about 90 minutes to two hours depending on traffic - I usually find the traffic heavier on the way back.

Depending on the weekend & my classwork, I might even be able to join ya'll! Hope this was helpful!

Neil

Eric

Security will be similiar to when you visited Ft Knox. Although there are some definite 'off-limits' areas.

Glad you enjoyed the visit here, I hopr you will be able to make it back so I might be able to 'show off' our recent successes. Take plenty of photos at APG.

I'm WAY overdue, for a trip there....

Regards
Don

Security has actually become kinda "quirky" at the front gate at APG. There seems to be a different SOP almost every time I visit now - but I wont go into details publicly of course. But regardless, bring your ID, and you'll be fine.

Its more like Knox before they created the special entrance to the Patton Museum and you went through the old Chaffee gate...

Neil

Don

I'm hoping to get APG way myself while I'm at ANCOC at Ft Eustis this March / April timeframe. I'll have to see what my weekend training schedule will look like. I'm hoping to see some fellow DG members as well!

Well, if you visit over the weekend of April 19-21 you could also stop by the AMPS National Convention. As a society of armour model builders, we're a pretty good addendum to any trip to APG. Lots of great tank models, great vendors with every armour model and accessory you could imagine and a bunch of really enthusiastic modelers to "talk tanks" with.

See our web site, below, for more details. We also list the hotels in the APG area.

Paul Roberts
President, AMPS
www.amps-armor.org

I'd be interested in tagging along, maybe we can cajole Bob Smart into one of his behind the scene tours. Pretty please Bob

Jeff Lewis

It would be cool if we could get everyone - Eric, Jeff, Jeff, Bob, & myself - together for the same weekend in April... But that might be too hard to do...

Eric, what weekend are ya'll looking at for your armor-gone-wild spring break?

Neil

Okay folks This is probably as good a time as ever to announce it

A while back when the subject of AMPS came up had an idea of a special tour we could do connected with that. I've talked to Ed Heasley at Aberdeen and he's given me the preliminary green light for the project.

Of course we will do the usual 'Bob's tour of the warehouse' but this time we will get the keys to the Belair Street Storage yard and be able to get inside and get 'up close and personal' with some of the vehicles that we usually can only look at through the fence.

I'm not sure how many people we will be able to accomodate (We might be able to do two shifts if there is enough demand) but it will be a 'sign up ahead of time' event.

Paul - We probably should talk as the details get firmed up if you think it should be announced at AMPS.

Neil - I could probably use some help with this (especially if we have a lot of interest) if you can.

Everyone else - Hold off on the 'sign me up' messages for right now. I'll announce an email address to reply to for that so I can track the 'reservations'

Bob,
Good ideas - but I think I'd recommend that we try to arrange the tour for the AFV News folks (like Eric, Jeff, & Jeff) on a seperate weekend if at all possible. Like you indicated, I think we're talking about too many folks at one time on AMPS weekend...

Besides which, I think this will to some extent be inevitable - with whatever Eric and Jeff's schedules are...

Neil

- Neil_Baumgardner

Bob,
Good ideas - but I think I'd recommend that we try to arrange the tour for the AFV News folks (like Eric, Jeff, & Jeff) on a seperate weekend if at all possible. Like you indicated, I think we're talking about too many folks at one time on AMPS weekend...

Besides which, I think this will to some extent be inevitable - with whatever Eric and Jeff's schedules are...

Neil

Neil

Throw my name into the hat. I have to be here for my sons B-day on the weekend of 14-15 Apr, then I have 'authorization' to ..... ROAD TRIP!!!


Don

Thanks for all the information. was sorry to hear about the American History Museum being closed, but I did see it two years ago. Being a teacher restricts my travel during the school year, so the only week I can travel is the first week in April. I have never been to Aberdeen, so I am really looking forward to it.
As for the Air and Space Museum, that is near the top of the list to see. I am curious to see what planes they have added in two years.
Dontos- Next year we are coming back to Fort Knox, we figured we would do that again along with the caves up there. Now if I can just talk her into the Air Force Museum in Dayton too.
Thanks,
Eric

Cool, I'm sure we can work something out for your visit - I currently appear to be free both weekends. At the least I have both weekends (April 7 & 21) penciled in on my calendar.

Neil

I know that we are holding off on the "sign me up" messages - however, I'm interested in this deal - but would need some advanced notice as I would be traveling from Texas! My parents live in Delaware, and I was going to go and visit them last October/November, but things got out of hand out a work and I wasn't able to make it.

I'm planning to be up that way in the spring when the weather might be a tad warmer.

Remember that April 8th is Easter, so I wonder if that might create any problems for a group to get in and move around?

As soon as you guys can work out a final weekend day, please let me know and I'll see if I can make arrangements to be there.

Thanks

Chris Neel