This latest trip to the U.S. continued on a nostalgic theme with a visit to a very special house in Rockville, Maryland.

Three weeks ago I attended a Peter Fampton concert on the outskirts of Cleveland and some 37 years after attending the ‘Frampton Comes Alive Tour’ concert in Sydney.

A week ago Tour Miss and I arrived at the front  gates of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and 36 years since good friend, Joe Sroba and myself had done the same but on a much colder November’s day in 1979 as he and I were driving west to east across the continent on our very first visit to the States.

Then on Monday I again revisted, and just over four years since a prior visit during the 2011 US Open, the house in Rockville, Maryland where Joe and I were eventually headed so many years ago.

It was the house rented by my parents located at Gerard St, Rockville and their home for three years with my father working for the Department of Navy at the Australian Embassy in nearby Washington D.C.

Joe and I spent some wonderful weeks there including enjoying what was then the first Christmas outside Australia.

Of course, we visited all the main Washington tourist destinations such as the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Air and Space Museum, Ford’s Theatre, Arlington Cementary and attended RFK Stadium to see the Red Skins NFL team compete.

From Rockville we also branched out to travel north to Gettysbury plus we headed to a frozen Niagara Falls and across the border and into winter-gripped Canada.  We also ventured south to Florida to catch a flight to the sun-splashed Bahamas that included a visit to the local Barcadi distillery where Joe and I were treated to copious quanities of the company’s gold label product but that’s another story.

On this journey to Rockville Tour Miss and I were headed north from Greensboro, North Carolina to this week’s Barclays Championship here in Edison, New Jersey, and with the town renamed in honour of the famed Thomas Edison who invented the electric light bulb along with a thousand other inventions.

Upon reaching the Washington area we branched west off the I-95 and west onto the I-295, and then taking the 270 in the direction of Rockville getting off at the Falls Road exit and then turning right into Fallsmead Road and past the Fallsmead Elementary Primary Schoold where my younger brother, Brian first attended school in travelling with my parents to the U.S.

The school is located on Gerard Street and a few hundred yards on the left is 1415 Gerard Street where we would relax reading the Sydney newspapers and savouring bottles of Caltron Draught stored in the garage, and at that time of year they were colder than sitting in the fridge.

It yet again brought back many very fond memories standing in front of the house knowing my younger brothers and sister had spent a similar wonderful time residing in 1415 Gerars Street at varying times over the period 1978 to 1982.

But moreso it brought back a reminder how much my mother enjoyed her years living in D. C. and despite some close family sadness just prior to leaving Australia.

Cnr Fallsmead Way & Wootton Parkway, Rockville Maryland.

Fallsmead Elementary Primary School on Gerard Street, Rockville.

Fallsmead Elementary Primary School.

View looking down Gerard Street, Rockville

Mum & dad’s residence at 1415 Gerard Street, Rockville, Maryland.

1415 Gerard Street, Rockville.

The trees have grown considerably since 1979 but the house where mum and dad resided remains very much unchanged.

Bernie returning to Gerard St, Rockville and first visited in late 1979.

Our Jeep rent-a-car parked in front of 1415 Gerard St, Rockville.

Gerard Street, Rockville