It all began with brake work on the motorhome at a shop in the Charlottesville area, while we waited inside our unit. They finished about noon. Then we were off for a planned visit to our great nation's capital!
And the rains began, and were fierce, and continued off and on for the entire trip to Washington, D.C. As we approached the city and the highway widened to five or six lanes, traffic slowed to a crawl. We spent about an hour traveling the two or three miles to our turnoff, after which another accident slowed our progress. Finally we reached the last multi-lane highway on our route and sped along for a mile or so until a third accident blocked the flow. An awful experience. Since our last rest stop I had been driving for over six hours, with no way to pull over - not an ideal bladder situation with an older gentleman behind the wheel.
But our campground is a nice one, just outside Washington, in the town of College Park (so named because the University of Maryland is within its borders).
We were excited for a chance to meet up in Washington with our dear friend from Santa Cruz, Nancy Wainer, who was visiting her son Andrew. Andrew, who lives in the city, is the Policy Research Director of Save Our Children and a fine political writer.
In order to get together with them, we had to use the subway system to take us into the city, since driving around the area had somehow lost its charm. We bought Senior Passes, which offer discounts. A little complicated figuring out how to use the Metro machines to add fares to our cards for each trip, but before long we were old pros at it.
The Washington Metro system is quite impressive - efficient, clean, and fast.
Andrew lives in a very nice condo in downtown Washington, surrounded by all the exciting amenities of that great city. It was wonderful to see him and Nancy again. Nancy's husband Mark, who's on a photography trip in Oregon, called while we were there. The Wainers and the Wilsons, together again! Brought tears to our eyes and made us just a little homesick.
Since rain was still falling, we took an Uber ride to one of Andrew's favorite restaurants, Maple, and had an outstanding meal. Nancy told us about what's going on in Santa Cruz, and Andrew filled us in on life in Washington, D.C. We spent a great deal of time discussing politics, which of course is the lifeblood of the city.
Afterward, with the skies finally clear, Andrew and Nancy walked us back to the Metro station. It was fun passing through all the beautiful neighborhoods. I must admit, I was fantasizing a bit about how cool it would be to live in that city with its great restaurants and entertainment. Of course D.C. is uncomfortably hot and humid in the summer and cold and snowy in the winter so there would be definite tradeoffs.
Incidentally, some weeks ago I had sent in a sample of saliva to AncestryDNA.com, in order to find out where my ancestors hail from. Unfortunately, the results were rather boring and exactly what I expected - 60% Great Britain, 31% Scotland and Ireland, and perhaps a smidgen of Scandinavia. I was hoping for something a bit more exotic - Eastern European, Jewish, African, Middle Eastern, or Japanese. But it was not to be. I was impressed that something in the DNA told them that I probably had past ancestors in Mississippi or Louisiana - and indeed I was born in Louisiana and had not informed them of that fact.
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