Christmas 2013

It is embarrassing that it has taken me a year to put up a water tower picture from last Christmas.

We made a quick trip to Raleigh over Christmas and grabbed one of the many Richmond, VA water towers. It was a great sunset view.

Ever been to the National Christmas Tree in DC? It has a really big model train around it. And every model train must have a water tank. Not quite a typical water tower pic but I couldn't resist. 

Water towers from around the DMV (District, Maryland, Virginia)

It cracks me up when radio stations, newspapers, etc. refer to our area as the DMV. I always think of the Division of Motor Vehicles. They could have done MDV or VDM, but no - DMV. It also is very close to DMZ - De Militarized Zone which also doesn't have a good connotation in my mind. Be that as it may, we have tried hard to find water towers close to us. There are not many. In 2011, a year after we moved here, I posted some fruits of our labor from the area. This is only my second post in 3 years showing water towers from the DMV area.

However, on previous vacations to DC we have found others. Links to those are here -
1. 2005 drive from NC to MD for a friend's baby shower
2. 2006 Thanksgiving in MD with same friend that had baby (you know who you are!)

Providence Hospital in Northeast DC -
You might think I visited here, as I am accident prone, but we just drove by it.

Rooftop tower off NY Ave -
This is on our way to our favorite spot - The National Arboretum

Maplelawn, MD -
My friend lives up this way. It is a new planned community with all the appropriate big box stores.

Prince William County, Manassas, VA -
I took my interns to visit the local landfill and recycling center in Manassas and low and behold there was a great water tower near by. This picture is cluttered by I love showing all that goes on at a landfill. The school bus took us to the top of the landfill face.

Prince William Forest Park, Manassas, VA -
One day Millie and I just got in the car to go hiking and found this great park.
I was so surprised to see it had an old water tower there. 

Vienna, VA -
This was a true water tower hunting weekend. We drove to the end of the Metro's orange line - Vienna - and found a water tower sporting the local high school mascot.

Work Trip - Carolina Recycling Association Conference - Asheville, NC - March 2012

I was afforded the opportunity to speak at the Carolina Recycling Association conference in March of 2012. Owen and I took the dogs, visited Raleigh, stayed at our favorite Asheville cabin and then headed home to Washington DC via the TN and VA mountains. What a beautiful trip. We saw some very cool towers also.

Kingsport. TN. This is a horrible picture but it looks like a great tower . We'll need to head back and get a better close-up picture. 

Wytheville. VA. Owen got this one. Very colorful.

Mount Jackson. VA. The best tower was this one of an apple basket. The top needs to be repainted but we had a great time exploring it. 

Bowman Apple Products. In Mount Jackson makes apple sauce and cider. Go figure. No wonder the water tower has an apple basket on it.

The town of Water Towers - Richmond, VA

Last Christmas on our way home from NC we stopped in Richmond, VA to explore their water towers. They have so many. I was drooling every time we drove through there. I was so happy when we took a couple hours to really explore and take pics of all the great locations. I think back fondly of that trip each time we have driven through their since.

Sonoco Paper Recycling Plant. Fitting, don't you think?

Lucky Strike. This is very similar to the one in Durham so I didn't crop it to be close up. Richmond is very much an old tobacco town.

Speaking of tobacco . . . Check out this great art deco building along with a water tower. This was a real find. You don't see it off the main interstate. We were just checking out the south side of town and found it. 

This says Southern Stove Works. The old factory building has been turned into a  set of condos. How cool would that be to have a condo with a water tower outside of it? Almost as good as my old view from my Elizabeth City apartment?

Interbake Foods. This tower was a cool find also. We had never seen it off the interstate. It made a good picture with the old building, the old sign and tower.  After a little research I find they make Girl Scout Cookies!! Richmond is their corporate headquarters.

UHaul. This you can see from the interstate. Not a bad billboard?

Towers by James River. Then we crossed the river and went to the east side of Richmond. Historically the black community. They have done some great renovations of different old factories into condos. Owen said this photo with the fence looked good so I've included it.

From top of hill. We of course had the dogs with us. We took them to a park at the top of a hill overlooking the James River. Trying to post these pics 6 months later, I don't remember the name of the park, but it had great views of all the water towers by the James River.

The park had a nice old photo from the 1900's showing the James River, the railroad, the factories and the water towers. Much hasn't really changed. 

As the sun set, we headed home.

Watertowers around DC, VA, MD - 2011

We have been here over a year. We've traveled quite a bit to take the dogs out and visit new places. It's been hard to find watertowers though. The few that we have found are below.

Ellicott City, MD - This is near Bob and Em's new house

Old industrial tower on our way back from Sugarloaf Mountain, MD

White Post, VA - On our way to Front Royal near the Shenandoah Valley

Arlington, VA - On our way to Target. Not exciting but we pass it regularly

Washington DC - near Union Station. I see this every time I take the train

Fort Myer, Arlington, VA - Another nondescript tower. However, we did get to visit Fort Myer (a working military base). It has a thrift shop that is open to civilians twice a month. It was a small town. Reminded me of Boys Town in Omaha.

Charles town, WV - We got this tower on our way to Harpers Ferry, WV. A very cool place to visit.

Watertowers on I-85 and I-95 between NC and DC

In the fall of 2010 I worked 2 jobs for 2 months. I worked 3 days in NC and 3 days in DC. I got to know I-85 and I-95 well. Here are some pictures from that time.

Louisburg, NC - This isn't actually on the interstate, but close.

South Hill, VA - Just on the other side of the border

Somewhere in VA where they were painting a tower

Caroline County, VA - between Richmond and VA

Dinwiddie County, VA - From Emily

Dinwiddie County. VA.

This picture is from 2005 (maybe one of my oldest pictures that didn't get posted on time). I have in my notes that Emily, my friend who moved from NC to MD, sent it to me. Dinwiddie County is on Interstate 85 between Raleigh and Richmond. I'm assuming she took while driving between the 2 states.

Now that we've moved to VA, we've driven by this a few times also.

Remember Dinwiddie County is "A step ahead".