April 2024

A crazy busy month with another eclipse trip, three very long drives, lots of jewelry making, and homeowner chores.

Folks might wonder why I don’t blog as often as I used to. It’s easy: my life is keeping me very busy.

That said, this post, which is long overdue, will give you an idea of what I’ve been up to and why I haven’t been blogging as regularly.

The Maintenance Saga, Resolved

My Great Loop Adventure

If you don’t already know it, I’ve got another blog where I go into details on my Great Loop trip, which began back in October 2022. It’s called My Great Loop Adventure and I’ve been updating it a bit more frequently than this one. So if you’re wondering what all this boat talk is about, you might want to check out that blog. In it, you’ll also find links to YouTube videos from my trip.

In my last blog post, I whined about having to deal with boat maintenance issues — mainly, getting my boat to a reliable shop that could provide the services I needed when I needed them.

Those issues were pretty much taken care of when I arrived at Eastern Bay/Seven Seas Yacht Services. These are actually two different companies owned by the same folks in the same location. I get them confused. One does the maintenance and one provides marina slips and dry storage. In any case, these folks are very good to me. They worked within my schedule and, on Thursday, April 4, they hauled my boat out of the water for me. While the owner, who was driving the TravelLift at the time, was probably disappointed that my boat didn’t need its bottom painted, I was thrilled. Honestly, the bottom was so clean that I didn’t even think it needed the power washing I got for it. I have a feeling that doing 12-15 knots for hours on end in choppy salt water has its own cleaning benefits.

That doesn’t mean nothing needed to be done. The prop zinc, which I’d had replaced in Florida by a diver, was gone. The other zincs needed replacement. And I still needed regular engine maintenance. All that would wait, though.

They moved the boat into one of their yards and parked it on blocks for a month.

On the Hard
Do It Now on the hard on Kent Island. I can’t see any reason to leave a boat in the water for more than a month if it has to come out of the water anyway.

The Eclipse Trip

Meanwhile, I’d already packed everything on the boat that I no longer wanted on the boat, along with some stuff I’d need for the month. My friend Jason — you may remember him from my “Cruising with a Companion” post (as well as other posts in My Great Loop Adventure blog) — came with his pickup and we loaded everything on board. I had a lot of stuff, including my Lectric bike in a box — more on that in a moment. It’s pretty amazing that I’d had so much stuff on the boat. Jason said it floated higher out of the water with all that stuff off-loaded.

After a great sushi dinner on Kent Island, we went back to his boat — he’s a liveaboard in Washington DC — for the night. The next morning, bright and early, we added his luggage to the truck and headed out on the first leg of a road trip together: to Texas to see the total solar eclipse.

This would be the second time I traveled to see a total eclipse of the sun; the first was back in 2017 and I blogged about it in some detail. I saw that one in a National Forest in Oregon. This one would be on a friend’s 60 acres in Texas, just south of Dallas. My friend Rick, who also worked with me as a cherry drying pilot before I retired, happened to live right on the eclipse path. He was having a party and I was invited.

The drive was long and boring, mostly because the main goal was to cover a lot of miles and get to Rick’s place the day before the eclipse. We took turns driving, each getting about 3 hours or 230 miles in before we’d stop for gas, bathroom breaks, lunch, or the night. The highlight might have been stopping at the largest gas station in the country, a Buc-ees outside of Knoxville, TN featuring a 75,000 square foot convenience store, 120 fueling positions, and 20 EV charging stations.

Yeah. That was the highlight. It gives you an idea of just how dull the drive was.

Eclipse Sign
We started seeing these signs when we were still hundreds of miles from Rick’s place.

We wound up going a lot farther than expected on Saturday, mostly because the closer we got to the eclipse zone of totality, the more the motels started price gouging overnighters. When we couldn’t find a motel that allowed dogs for under $130/night and were just 200 miles from Rick’s place, we decided to just finish the drive.

(Now you might think that I’m being cheap here and I’ll agree that I am. But when I’m in drive mode for a long trip, I don’t like to pay a lot of money for lodging. After all, I’m spending about 10 hours in the room and not doing much more than sleeping and possibly showering. My spending limit is usually about $100/night, which is sometimes difficult when you travel with dogs and some motels want to hit you up for $20 or more per dog.)

Rick was happy to see us early, although we didn’t get in until right around sunset. We set up Jason’s rooftop camper and climbed in for the night. It was cozy.

At Rick’s

I spent the next day working on videos for my YouTube channel. Rick’s home is also his place of business and there was a nice employee lounge where I could get things done. That was after Rick showed us around town and took us to the airport to see his airplanes, one of which he’d sold to a mutual friend in Wenatchee. We had a great breakfast at a local restaurant and went back to Rick’s place. Jason went for a run while I worked. Then we drove around Rick’s property in a golf cart.

Sometime in the afternoon, Rick told us he wasn’t feeling well and he went in for a rest. His grandson, just 21 years old, offered to take us for a helicopter ride. The catch: he wasn’t actually a pilot yet and needed a pilot on board to be the PIC. So, for the first time in nearly a year, I climbed into the front seat of an R44 with a set of controls in front of me. Jason climbed into a back seat for his first helicopter ride. Rick’s grandson — and I can’t remember his name! — did all the flying, showing us around a flat Texas landscape dotted with ranches, residential neighborhoods, and small industrial complexes. The skylines of Dallas and Fort Worth were off in the distance.

Helicopter Ride
Jason took this photo from his seat in the back of the helicopter. I think he enjoyed this first flight, but I wish he could have sat up front.

Jason and I ate some of the food we’d brought along from our boats for dinner.

Eclipse Day

The next day was Eclipse Day. I took a shower while Jason put away his truck tent. We went into town for coffee and breakfast and to top off the truck with fuel.

Fireplace Pups
My pups found a comfy place to sit inside an outdoor fireplace — before we pulled all those cushions out for the outdoor furniture.

Back at Rick’s place, things started hopping around 8 AM. Rick’s employees, family members, and friends started showing up. Outdoor furniture was moved around, grills were set up, and the employee lounge was filled with food. There had to be at least 40 people there. The only one not around was Rick; he was feeling very ill and stayed in all day.

Rick’s son Chad pulled the helicopter out of the hangar. I worked as the loader for passenger rides. But soon he needed to take a break for fuel and he headed off.

Meanwhile, the weather had been overcast all morning. It wasn’t a surprise; the forecast made it seems as if we had a less than 50% chance of seeing the eclipse at all.

Sure enough, as the eclipse began to happen — the disc of the moon began blocking the disc of the sun — we only caught glimpses through our eclipse glasses as the clouds wizzed past overhead. We could clearly see most of the sky and it did not look good for us. But by the time the moon was half blocking the sun, the sky miraculously cleared. I don’t even know where the clouds went! One minute they were there and the next they were gone.

Total Eclipse
My view, through a 300mm Nikon lens, of the total eclipse.

We ate and talked and took photos. Music played. And then everything got dark and everyone settled down to watch.

This was my second total solar eclipse. I don’t know if it’s because it was the second or if it’s because someone left the music playing loudly or if its because I wasn’t experiencing it in the beauty of a national forest in Oregon after having camped out in my own camper, but it wasn’t quite as special as the first one. Don’t get me wrong — it was still amazing and I did not regret going through everything I had to experience it. But the first one seemed darker and more magical.

And I can’t say this enough: If you’ve never seen a total solar eclipse along the path of totality, you’re really missing out.

We watched intently until the diamond ring appeared on the other side. There were cheers. And as the landscape around us brightened, everything went back to normal, even though the sun was still mostly covered by the moon and the entire event would not be over for more than an hour.

The helicopter rides started again with Rick’s other son doing the loading. They didn’t last long. Chad claimed there was a power issue on the helicopter and decided (wisely) to stop the rides until it could be checked. The symptoms sounded like a sticky value, but it could also have simply been his attempt to fly a fully loaded helicopter with full tanks of fuel on a 90°F day.

We ate some more and started packing up our stuff. It was just past midday and although so many media outlets — and temporary road signs — warned of high traffic that day, we decided to head out anyway. Rick’s wife assured us that Rick’s condition was not something to be concerned about. She made sure we had lots of leftovers, including her excellent salsa, to bring with us.

We were back on the road, heading northwest toward my home in Washington, at about 2 PM.

The Lectric Bike Saga

I need to take a break in the narrative here to talk about my Lectric bike. I’d bought the bike to replace my MATE bike back in September. It was supposed to be lighter and it was definitely simpler and cheaper. But otherwise it was remarkably like the MATE. This is what happens when your Danish design is shipped to China for manufacture: the design is stolen and every foldable electric bike is pretty much the same damn bike.

This one did not have gears or a good suspension, but it did have fatter tires. I think it weighed the same as the MATE, which I sold to a sales guy at Pocket Yacht for $150. (It had issues, but it still ran and the battery still charged.)

The problem I’d discovered with my new bike was that if the pedal assist was turned on — which it usually is — and I was pushing the bike, say across a street, the pedals would turn on their own. That would engage the power assist and the bike would try to take off. If the power level was set to 1, I could easily hold it. But if it was set to 2 or 3, I could not. This had caused me to drop the bike with my pups in a basket on back on one occasion and had caused me to fall on the bike, hurting my knee, on another.

My old bike had never done this. Obviously, there was something wrong with this bike’s computer or something else. I wrote an email to Lectric with the subject line “Your Bikes are Dangerous” and detailed what was happening, requesting that they send me an updated computer if/when the problem was resolved.

They wrote back and offered to send me a new bike.

I’m not an idiot. I said yes.

And that started the process of getting the old bike back to them. You see, I was in Carolina Beach, NC when all this came down and I needed the bike as ground transportation until I took my break for the eclipse and trip home. I didn’t have the original box so they needed to send me one. Then I needed to get the bike in the box, put a label on the box, and get the box into the hands of FedEx.

And that’s where the comedy of errors began.

I told them to ship the box to Jason, since he’d be picking me up at the boat. They shipped the box to the marina where they’d originally shipped the bike. That would have been okay if I’d known I was going there, but I did not. So they had to ship out a second box, this time to Jason. Keep in mind that these boxes are not small.

Boxed Bike
Here is one of the pictures I sent to prove that I’d used their packing material properly to pack the bike.

When Jason joined me at the marina — which, by the way, still had the box Lectric had sent there — I packed up the bike. I looked for the label in my email and saw that they required me to take photographs of the way I’d packed it before they would send a label. We had no time for that. So we threw the bike into the back of Jason’s truck and drove it all the way to Texas with us.

At Rick’s place, we opened the box and took the pictures. I sent the pictures. The next day, I got a FedEx label that had the marina as the return address. I was told FedEx would pick it up. Thinking FedEx would go to the marina, I didn’t give Rick the label for printing but pointed out the error. The weekend came and went with no answer. We left the bike at Rick’s; I’d email him the label.

On Tuesday, I was told that the label I had was okay as it was and that FedEx would pick it up at Rick’s on Wednesday. But I didn’t get that message until Wednesday — I was on the next leg of the trip. By the time Rick got the label, the bike had already been picked up.

How could that be? It didn’t have an unused label on it.

But somehow FedEx used the existing label. And instead of sending it back to Lectric in Arizona, they sent it back to Jason’s place in DC, where it was delivered to the marina office.

After more scrambling to get a new label, the bike was finally shipped from DC to AZ. By that time, I was already home and the clock was ticking for getting the new bike before I had to get on my way again. It wasn’t until the day we left my Washington home that they had inspected the returned bike and were ready to send out the replacement. I had them send it to the marina where my boat was, which was the same marina I’d received the original bike and the same marina they’d sent the original return box.

Spoiler alert: It arrived at that marina before I left with the boat in May.

Texas to Washington

The drive from Texas to Washington state was long.

We got to Vernon, TX the first night and stayed in a crappy motel where our next door neighbor played loud music until late at night. I had to call the office twice; the second time, at 11:30 PM, I suggested that the clerk call the police, hinting that if she didn’t, I would. That did the trick.

On Tuesday, we got as far as Page, AZ. I’m pretty sure Jason worked from the car that day, doing meetings and working on his laptop while I drove. We stopped in Albuquerque, NM for lunch at a Mexican place that was authentic and a little spicy. (Jason liked it a lot more than I did.) Our route then took us through the Navajo and Hopi nations, which I’d spent a bit of time in when I lived in Arizona. I was very sad to see that the shop where I’d bough my kachinas had been converted into a coffee shop.

Marble Canyon Sunset
We stopped just before sunset at the overlook on Route 89 just outside Page, AZ. Marble Canyon and the Colorado River are down there somewhere.

With the time change, Jason was starting work very early in the morning, so he had Zoom meetings at the nice Motel 6 in Page where we’d overnighted while I got us coffee and then went down to Wahweap Marina at Lake Powell to see whether they could accommodate my boat in October. I was assured that they’d have a slip for me and assistance getting the boat launched and retrieved.

One of the folks there remembered me from when I’d wanted to buy a used rental houseboat there years and years ago. I told him I’d shed a husband since then. I was now fully in charge of my life and able to have some fun. Putting my own boat into Lake Powell for a month would be a blast — provided the water level came up a little more. (I’m watching this closely.)

We headed out of Page at around 10 AM and climbed into the mountains of Utah. We stopped at a gas station near a summit so Jason had a good cell signal for another meeting. Then on to Bryce Canyon for a short walk and look down at the hoodoos. Then back in the truck for the drive down to Salt Lake and beyond.

Bryce Canyon
We made a side trip to Bryce Canyon — pretty much the only side trip on the whole journey.

We stopped for fuel in Bountiful and wound up buying what would be dinner at a DQ there. Although I’d been hoping to get to Burley, ID on I-84, we wound up at Tremonton, UT at another Motel 6. If you travel with dogs, Motel 6 is an easy option for a relatively cheap hotel along the way. All Motel 6s allow dogs and they don’t charge extra. The trouble is, they range in quality, and you never really know what you’re getting until you get there. This particular Motel 6 had been an old, family owned motel in excellent condition that had been converted to a Motel 6 franchise. The rooms looked like Motel 6 rooms inside and the quality was generally pretty decent. I’ve been in better and I’ve been in worse.

The next day, we were on the home stretch. After breakfast at a coffee shop, we headed out again with me at the wheel while Jason worked. We covered miles quickly, but it was still a long day. It was around 4 PM when we drove into East Wenatchee. We made a few stops for groceries, Thai takeout, and a handful of other supplies and drove the final 10 miles up to my house.

It was good to be home, but it was very good to be done driving.

Two Weeks at Home

There were three main reasons I’d come home in April:

  • I wanted to remove large items from the boat and stow them in my garage. This included the Honda 2KW generator I’d had on board since buying the boat but had never used. It also included a ton of extra linens and clothes and jewelry making supplies that I simply didn’t need on board.
  • I needed to get my irrigation system up and running for the summer. Yes, I live in Washington State but the entire state isn’t as rainy as Seattle. The entire east side of the Cascade Mountains is high desert with a climate very similar to Flagstaff, AZ. The natural vegetation is sagebrush and bunchgrass; I had planted trees along the road and had a lawn that all needed watering. Every autumn I blow out the system for the winter and every spring I get the system running again and make sure all the drip nozzles are dripping.
  • I needed to make jewelry. I had sold much of my jewelry inventory to a new wholesale client on Bald Head Island and had very little left. I needed to make new inventory and then get some of it in the hands of my Winthrop wholesale client and a gallery in Ellensburg I sell at. I also needed some more inventory of a brighter, seaside nature to sell to new clients along my boat travels.

So that’s pretty much what I did while I was home.

Sonoran Sunset Tibetan Turquoise
Sonoran Sunset Azurite & Malachite
Here are four of the pendants I made while I was home.

Jason worked on weekdays while I mostly worked in my jewelry shop. He also helped me get my irrigation system running smoothly — it was great to have someone better able to climb down the steep areas next to the road to check and change the drips. On weekends, when he was off, he either went to visit friends in Yakima or in the Seattle area or did other things on his own. He spent a lot of time working on his truck in my garage to install some lights in his camper; I think it was a bit of a luxury for him to be able to do that in the shade, off a city street. One day we took the Jeep out, got a personal tour of the Rocky Reach Dam, and explored a mountain road between Wenatchee and Cashmere. I had lunch with my friend Kriss one day and we met up with other friends at their home or for dinner in town on other days. Jason even came with me to the neighborhood coffee gathering once.

Jason and the Cheese
One night, we dined on cheese, crackers, and other goodies in my living room. Great food, great company. What else could a person ask for?

My big disappointment came when I was trying to arrange a trip to Winthrop with my fellow artist friend Cyndi. The same shop buys both of our work and I was hoping to make a big sale to them. But they were on vacation for the whole week and I was unable to meet with them. So all the new jewelry I made eventually got loaded into the truck and brought back to the boat. At least I had a lot to bring with me.

The Trip Back to DC

We had arrived at my home on Thursday, April 11. On Saturday, April 27, it was time to start the drive back.

Why such a short trip? Well, I got my Captain’s license back in October and I had two clients waiting for Ranger Tug training in the Baltimore area. Both were very interested in getting the training done soon and one was already disappointed that he had to wait until I returned. These were paying gigs and if there’s one thing a freshly retired member of the gig economy loves, it’s paying gigs. So I was highly motivated to get back quickly.

Jason was motivated, too. Working from the car wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t a good solution. And if we left on Saturday, he’d be able to split the driving with me for the first two days, rather than leave 75% of it to me while he worked enroute.

Spotless Home
My house was absolutely spotless when we left.

So after giving the house a final cleaning, we got into the truck and headed out.

For some reason, we thought we might be able to make the trip in just three days. That notion was swept aside at the end of the first day in Bozeman, MT. We’d gotten a late start and then were delayed at lunchtime along the way. But we were determined to get there in four days.

The next stop was in Sioux Falls, SD. I think that’s where Jason found us a La Quinta for the night. Much nicer than any Motel 6, although it cost a bit more, too. I don’t think they charged us for the dogs, although they should have.

Then Indianapolis. Another La Quinta. This one had a nice Japanese restaurant across the street and we treated ourselves to a good sushi dinner.

Finally Washington DC. Our last fuel stop was in Frederick, MD, where Jason took over the driving for the final stretch. I can’t tell you how good it was to pull into a parking space and know that we were done driving.

Morning at the Wharf
What a pleasure to spend the night on a boat and wake up on the water.

Would I ever make the drive again? Yes, of course I would. But would I do it in four days? Hell no. The next time I make a long, cross-country drive, I’ll do it at a much more leisurely pace, taking in the sights along the way.

I should mention here that we put more than 7000 miles on Jason’s truck.

More Boat Service Woes

Meanwhile, a few things were going on with the boat, which was on the hard on Kent Island in Maryland.

First was the total failure of a marine electrical contractor to get his shit together for my solar upgrade. He’d had an entire month to come up with a proposal, get it approved, order the parts, and get the work done. He’d dragged his ass on the proposal, claiming that he was waiting for me to complete and sign a form I never got. In mid month, he sent the proposal and “resent” the form. I approved the proposal and sent back the completed form with a 50% deposit. We established a date to get the work done — which would be right before I returned. Then, when I was somewhere between Sioux Falls and Indianapolis, I got a call from one of his guys saying that it would be 10 days before they could receive the solar panels. That would delay the job by more than a week. By this time, I was having trouble imagining them actually getting the job done at all. I told them to cancel. Then the boss called and said they could get the panels quicker from Amazon and install them with only a few days delay. I looked up the panels on Amazon, realized they were upcharging me more than 100% for parts, and told them not to bother and to refund my deposit.

I got my money back and nothing was done to upgrade my solar setup. I’ll get it done when I get the boat back to Washington state.

At the same time all of this was happening, the guys I’d hired to detail the boat had noticed that one of the trim tab parts was messed up. He sent me a picture. I sent the picture to the yard. They said they don’t know how they missed it. Yes, they could fix it, but it might take time if the system needed to be bled. I told them to get started; I wanted every part of my boat to work the way it should.

Returning to Do It Now

All this affected my plans when I returned to the boat. Originally, Jason was supposed to drop me off at the boat on Thursday. (We’d gotten to DC on Tuesday.) But now I had to start shuffling things around. I couldn’t drive my boat to Baltimore to meet my clients if the boat wasn’t ready to go. We also had bad weather in the forecast and it wouldn’t be good for doing the training I’d planned for that weekend.

I shuffled a lot of stuff around and, in the end, decided to get a one-way car rental to drive myself to the boat and then be able to commute by land to the clients for their training. The money I got from them would cover my expenses.

But by then it was May and that’s another story.

How I Spent My Autumn Vacation, Part 3: In Washington DC

I take in a few amazing museums.

(Continued from Part 2: The Farewell Tour)

Third Trip is the Charm

This was my third trip as a tourist to Washington DC and only my fifth trip ever. (Two trips were for work and I didn’t really get to see anything.) The first trip was when I was around 10 years old; it was a family vacation. I still remember parts of it: visiting the Mint and seeing stacks of uncut money and my dad surrendering his service weapon (he was a cop) at the White House after they searched my little purse. I also remember running into my third grade teacher on a street corner. (How weird is that?). The second visit was many years later with my future wasband and, oddly, I don’t remember much of that at all. This would be my first solo trip and my first opportunity to make all the decisions about where to go and what to do.

The next part of my trip started long before dawn. I was dead asleep when my brother woke me up at 3:30 AM. So was Penny, who reacted by jumping off the bed and barking her little brains out. Jolted to consciousness, I rushed from the bed to grab her so she wouldn’t wake my brother’s neighbors. That’s when I ran full speed into the footboard at the end of his bed. The bruise I got on my right thigh would haunt me for the next few days.

The Train Ride

A while later, he was dropping me and a small carryon bag off at Metropark Station in Iselin, NJ, which isn’t far from where he lives. I was catching a 5:12 AM Amtrak train to Washington DC. He was going to work and Penny would be starting five days as an apartment dweller.

It took me a few minutes to figure out where I had to go. I waited on the wrong side of the track for about three minutes, then got directions to the other platform. I walked down, through a tunnel under the tracks, and was honestly surprised that I didn’t smell urine. (New York has conditioned me to associate that smell with any tunnel near train tracks.) Then I was up on the other side, waiting with a handful of other people.

Iselin Station Before Dawn
Iselin station, before dawn on a Monday morning.

A few commuter trains came through and stopped to pick up some of the folks waiting. Other folks arrived. Then my train pulled up and the doors opened. I stepped inside, then followed another passenger back through three cars to the Business Class car. I chose one of the few seats facing forward with a table between it and a rear-facing seat and settled in.

I’d bought a Business Class ticket because I’d always upgraded my rail fare when traveling by train to Washington. Back in my early freelance days, one of my clients sent me there occasionally. Since I flew on airliners so often for them, I decided that on short trips I’d take the train from Newark. (I lived in Northern New Jersey at the time.) They’d buy the ticket and I’d spend an extra $50 for the “club car” update. That was a very pleasant experience, with La-Z-Boy style swiveling recliners, small tables between seats, and waiter service with food and drinks. I thought that Business Class would be the same thing. I was wrong. (Silly me.) It’s just slightly nicer seating at the back of the train that’s less crowded because fewer people pay for the upgrade.

Speed Info
In just six minutes, the train reached a speed of 124 miles per hour. Eek.

I didn’t realize the train was the Acela until we started zipping southwest bound along the tracks. I thought we were going fast, but I didn’t realize how fast until I fired up one of my hiking apps for the current speed: 124 mph. Shit. It reminded me of riding on the Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island. It isn’t the drops that scare you — it’s the ricketiness of the old wooden tracks and the constant through that they could break and send you careening off into oblivion at any moment.

Nighttime faded into a dreary day with occasionally rain. After crossing New Jersey in about 15 minutes, we took a more southerly route, making a few stops along the way. More people got into the Business Class car. A man sat in the seat opposite mine and unpacked some work on the table. I killed time by writing in a journal I’d started for the trip. Later, I walked up to the very disappointing dining car and got the free drink I was entitled to — an orange juice; it was too early for alcohol — and a microwaved sausage sandwich. I ate back at my seat.

There was some confusion as we neared Washington DC. Apparently a commuter train had some mechanical issues and we were taking on passengers waiting for that. Announcements made it sound as if the other cars were really jammed with passengers. When a woman tried to sit in our car, the conductor told her she needed a Business Class ticket and made her move.

Then we were at Union Station in Washington DC. Because another train was at the platform in front of us, we had to climb down train stairs and make a very long walk on the extended platform to the station. It was drizzling and rather depressing. It was also only around 8:30 AM — a lot earlier than I would have arrived if had I left my brother’s house at 4:45 to catch a plane.

As I left the station, I noted a Verizon Wireless store that was still closed.

The AirBnB

I’d be staying at an AirBnB studio apartment on 11th Street SE for the next few days. Although the host wanted to charge me an extra $45 to check in early, she did agree that I could store my bag on the floor in the “living room” — which was the only room — when I arrived in town. So I caught a shared Lyft — which is really so much cheaper than Uber — and headed over there right from the station.

Row House
The house I stayed in in Washington DC during my visit.

The place was on a very nice tree-lined street, one of a row of attached houses with a few steps leading up to the front door. It wasn’t until I took this photo the next morning that a resident of the area told me that the homes were known as Philadelphia Row and had historic significance. (I’ll let you follow that link or Google for yourself to learn more.) All I cared about was stowing my bag so I wouldn’t have to carry it all day. I followed the access instructions, which required me to open two doors with two different key codes, peeked inside only long enough to make sure the place wasn’t a dump — it wasn’t; more on that later — and left my bag on the floor near the door. Then I locked up and headed out.

The Metro

I chose the Metro for transportation. It was supposed to be close to the AirBnB unit I was staying in. “Close,” however, is a relative term that depends on the person doing the walking and the weather she’s walking in. It was drizzling but warm. I’d donned my old motorcycle rain jacket, which fit over the fleece jacket I’d brought along on this trip, and was able to keep dry during the six-block walk. But the jacket had a rubber lining that made me sweat in the warm, humid weather. Ugh.

I descended underground at the Eastern Market Station. After figuring out how to buy a Metro pass and how much to put on it, I headed for the turnstiles. Soon I was on the platform, waiting for any train that would take me to Smithsonian Station.

It turned out to be a quick, pleasant ride. I got off at my station, climbed up to the surface, and blinked in the bright light of the gray day. It was still raining. I got my bearings and walked the rest of the way to my destination.

The Castle

I had decided to start my visit at the Smithsonian Castle, which is the original Smithsonian Institution Building on the Mall. Although it once housed the museum’s treasures, it’s now an information center with Smithsonian offices. What also makes it a good place to start an early visit of the area museums is that it opens at 9 AM; the other museums open at 10. It was still before 10 AM; hard to believe I’d started in New Jersey just a few hours before.

Smithsonian Castle
The Smithsonian Castle is a great place to start any museum trip to Washington DC.

Follow the Links

I could make this blog post about 20 times longer than it already is by providing details about everything I saw, but do you really want to read that? I hope not because I don’t have the time to write it. Use the links I provided to get information about the highlights of my visit. And then do yourself a favor: schedule your own museum tour in Washington DC one day soon. Bring your kids or grandkids over age 8 if you have some. You won’t regret it.

I spent about an hour there. I spoke to a woman at the information desk, got a brochure that listed all of the Smithsonian museums in the area, got a Metro map, and followed her suggestion to see the permanent exhibit in the West Wing called “The Smithsonian Institution: America’s Treasure Chest.” It included a sampling of items that could be found in the various other Smithsonian Museums. I couldn’t decide which was more impressive: the actual collection or the architecture of the room it was in.

West Wing of Castle
The West Wing of the Smithsonian Castle houses a permanent exhibit of sample items from all Smithsonian Museums.

By the time I was ready to move on, I’d decided on my next two destinations: the National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of American History, both of which were right across the Mall.

National Museum of Natural History

I visited the National Museum of Natural History first, primarily because it was the first one I came to when I crossed the mall. There was a slight moment of panic when I thought that a group of about 30 school kids would be coming in with me, but they realized, right before they reached security, that they were in the wrong museum and left. Phew.

Inside, the first thing I did was find a locker for my shoulder bag and rain jacket. I was toting around my Nikon with its medium lens and it was heavy. The only reason I brought it on my trip at all was because there was a tiny scratch in my iPhone 7’s camera lens and I wanted to make sure I could get good pictures my trip. But the iPhone photos weren’t that bad and I didn’t want to lug the heavy Nikon around.

Main Hall of Natural History Museum
The Main Hall of the Natural History Museum. There were a lot of interpretive displays related to that big elephant, perhaps to make us feel a little less bad about killing and stuffing a big elephant.

Seeing Museums on my Own Terms

As I hinted in a sidebar near the beginning of this post, I really enjoyed being able to visit museums on my own terms. Not only could I decide which museums to visit, but I could decide which exhibits in each museum I wanted to visit and how much time I wanted to spend at any exhibit I wanted to see. There was no rush to finish up with things I cared about to see other things I didn’t care about. I made incredibly good use of my time and saw just about everything I wanted to see. After this trip, I can’t imagine visiting a museum any other way.

I was primarily interested in seeing the Gems and Minerals exhibit, which had been recommended to me by many friends who know about my interest in gemstones. Known officially as “The Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals,” it’s a permanent exhibit on the second floor. The Geology part was extensive and informative — I got a real kick out of seeing a display of columnar basalt just like the cliffs behind my home. Wandering on, there were exhibits about mines and mining and then, finally, the rocks I’d come to see: hundreds of specimens of beautiful gemstones from all over the world. I took numerous photos with my iPhone, sometimes setting it right up against the glass to eliminate glare. I wished they had book or website that cataloged every single one; it would be incredibly useful for identifying the specimens that I come across at rock shows.

Colored Rocks
This display, called “So Many Colors,” arranged rock specimens by color. Every single specimen was identified.

Black Light Rocks
This display shows the features of rocks in regular and then black light. (Yes, that’s my reflection in the back of the display.)

More rocks
More rocks.

I could share all my photos with you, but I won’t. If you like rocks, you really need to see this exhibit.

At the end of the exhibit hall were some famous gems, including the Hope Diamond, which was in its own rotating display with its own extra guard. Although a lot of folks had come to see just that, I really enjoyed the rest of the exhibit, which had taken me well over an hour to walk through.

Afterward, I visited just one other exhibit, and I didn’t stay long: “The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World.” I didn’t stay long, mostly because the place was full of kids on a school field trip — different, younger kids than at the entrance — and I was developing a headache that I realized was likely due to caffeine withdrawal. I hadn’t had any coffee that morning.

Tyrannosaurus
The Tyrannosaurus was just one set of bones on display.

I did stop at the gift shop, where a saw a lot of rocks like the ones I collect for a lot more money than I usually pay. I also saw gemstone jewelry, most of which wasn’t nearly as nice as mine. Then I found my way down to the ground floor where there was food. I bought a small, remade sandwich wrap, a bottle of water, and something that really saved me: an Awake caffeinated chocolate bar. Holy cow. I ate half the bar right after my sandwich and my headache was gone 15 minutes later. Seriously: I need to buy these and take them with me when I travel.

The Museum of American History

It was nearly 1 PM when I left the museum and walked next door, to the The National Museum of American History. I followed the same drill with security and then stowing my stuff in a locker.

This museum is famous for housing Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers (from The Wizard of Oz) and Archie Bunker’s chair (from All in the Family), neither of which I saw. There’s way much more in its three floors. I didn’t really have anything specific I wanted to see, so I started at the bottom at the hall of Transportation and Technology, specifically, the exhibits about transportation by water and land, electricity, power machinery, and money. That alone took over an hour, with lots of stops to really look at the exhibits and the signs that explained them. I took a few pictures, but not many.

Tucker
If you haven’t seen Tucker: The Man and His Dream from 1988, watch it. You’ll get an idea of how ahead of its time this car was.

The American Enterprise exhibit focused on American pioneers in business and industry. It seemed to me that they made a special effort to include as many women and people of color as they could. That’s a good thing — it introduced me to a lot of American businesspeople I’d never heard of.

I skipped the food exhibition and, therefore, missed Julia Child’s kitchen. Oh, well.

I did go to see the Star Spangled Banner, which used to hang behind a protective screen in the main hall. Now it’s in its own room, laid almost flat, behind a pane of glass. I raised my phone to take a picture and the guard said, “No photos!” I assured her my flash was off but she just repeated, “No photos.” I can’t quite understand why I can’t take a photo of this particular relic, especially if my flash it turned off. I’d share a photo from the museum website, but I can’t find one there, either.

I wandered around a handful of other exhibits but, by that time — late afternoon — I was tired. I decided to grab a Lyft to a restaurant near the AirBnB and call it a day.

Ambar

I wound up at Ambar Capital Hill, a Balkan restaurant. I had never had Balkan food and since it was walking distance from the AirBnB, eating there was a no-brainer for me.

I sat at the bar, as I often do when I’m traveling alone. They had a few happy hour specials of small plates and that’s what I went for. Veal soup, bread basket with traditional spreads, drunken mussels, and Balkan Kebab. All excellent. I tried the Sarajevo Old Fashioned (plum rake, bourbon, bitter, and cane syrup) and later tried an apricot rakia. It was an excellent meal and, as usual, I stuffed myself.

I needed that walk back to the AirBnB.

The AirBnB

I made my way though the two locked doors and finally got a chance to really look at the AirBnB unit I was staying it. It was on the ground floor of the row house with two windows facing front. There was another window facing a back yard, but it was blocked by the full-sized refrigerator in the tiny kitchen.

It wasn’t a bad place, but it certainly wasn’t the “five star” accommodations the host kept reminding me it was. Although both front windows had blinds, only one of them had curtains and neither opened. The double (or maybe queen) bed was shoved up against the wall and had no headboard so the pillows kept falling into the space between the window and the bed. I actually made a list of all the things wrong with the place and sent it to the host at the end of my stay, mostly because every single time he/she sent me one of their long, canned messages it reminded me that the place deserved a 5-star review. That really bugged me. I gave them 4 stars but only because of the value for the money. I got what I paid for. All I did there was sleep, wash up, have coffee in the morning, and reheat some leftovers. It was clean enough and convenient enough. But the $95 cleaning fee really irked me when I found the previous guest’s hair in the shower. Ick.

AirBnB
You’re looking at more than half of the room I stayed in. I don’t see Five Stars here, do you? As I told my host in the private part of the review, it has all the charm of a freshman girl’s dorm room. You can see three of the six fake plants; not sure what purpose they served other than to increase tackiness.

My New Phone

In the morning, after coffee, I took another shared Lyft back to Union Station. I was the first customer at the Verizon store.

I wound up buying a new iPhone XS. The smaller screen one. I really liked what I’d seen about the camera. My iPhone 7 was nearly two years old and the camera lens had a tiny scratch. It didn’t make sense to spend $80 to replace the camera in a phone that old.

They had a 55 and older special going that gave me a second phone worth up to $900 for free, including free data, calls, texts, etc. All I had to pay was sales tax (which they didn’t tell me up front). So I also got a red iPhone 8 max. It’s still in its box. I don’t even know its phone number.

They sold me the insurance on both phones but I later canceled it. I figured that if I broke the new iPhone, I’d use the second one as a spare. Free insurance. Whatever.

On my way out of Union Station, I took my first pictures with the new phone. They came out okay.

The National Postal Museum

The National Postal Museum was right across the street from Union Station. I used to be a serious stamp collector. Now I just buy stamps I like and eventually use them. (I’d love to sell my old stamp collection if you know anyone who is interested in first day covers, commemorative blocks, and other mint stamps.) I walked over to the museum to take a look.

Inverted Jennys
Safely displayed behind glass with a light that goes on only when someone is standing right in front of the display. This is one of the most valuable stamps in the world. The history of its release into the world is fascinating.

The museum has a good display of interesting/historic stamps — including a block of four Inverted Jennys behind glass that I was allowed to photograph — as well as larger displays downstairs for the various ways mail is transported. There were planes hanging from the ceiling and an entire mail car from a train.

Postal Museum
The lower level atrium exhibits at the National Postal Museum.

Postal Train Car
Interpretive signs help visitors understand how mail was processed on-the-go inside train cars like this.

I spent a lot more time there than I expected to, really taking in the exhibits and learning a lot about all kinds of things related to the mail. It might sound dull to you, but I found it fascinating. But then again, I’m interested in a lot of weird things.

It was well after noon when I finished up with the Postal Museum. Before leaving, I stopped at the post office inside the building and bought a bunch of really neat stamps to use over the coming year. In the gift shop, I bought a refrigerator magnet of the Inverted Jenny.

Then I set out, on foot, to the next museum on my list.

The Newseum

The Newseum is the only non-Smithsonian Institution museum I visited on my trip to Washington. It was a must-see for me and my only regret is that I arrived there so late in the day.

I also arrived hungry, which is not a good thing. I decided to buy a ticket for the guided tour to get an overview of the museum’s highlights. While I waited for the tour to start, I went into the ground floor cafeteria, which Wolfgang Puck has put his name on, to have lunch. I had a very disappointing meal of fried catfish and sweet potato fries.

There was just me and an older couple on the tour. (I suspected that they were Trump supporters when they challenged the guide’s description of Fake News at a small exhibit dedicated to that topic.) The guide started us on the top floor and we worked our way down. There is a ton to see. The tour gave us some good highlights and insight, but it wasn’t enough for me and I wound up returning the next day to revisit many of the exhibits. My favorites:

  • Today’s Front Pages are the front pages of newspapers from all over the country and world. Not only are they in a long, narrow exhibit on the top floor, but the exhibit is repeated outside every day so you don’t have to pay to see them. (You can actually view 700+ of these online on the Newseum’s website.)
  • Pictures of the Year has award-winning news photography from the past 75 years.
  • News History
    Here’s an example of a document from the News History Gallery.

    News History Gallery shows 300 newspapers (and their predecessors) dating back to the Middle Ages, with interpretive signs that help you understand the significance of each.

  • Broadcast Tower
    The 9/11 Gallery is very moving in an eerie sort of way.

    9/11 Gallery includes the broadcast tower from the top of the World Trade Center, along with front pages from all over the world. It’s a pretty intense display, especially the section that shows the possessions of a journalist who went in with some firefighters and was killed when one of the towers fell.

  • First Amendment Gallery has displays related to the five freedoms of the First Amendment.
  • Internet, TV, and Radio Gallery traces the history of the spread of news information.
  • First Dogs is an exhibit of photos of Presidents with their pets. It was a fun break from the reality of today’s news cycle.
  • The Berlin Wall is a two-story exhibit that the Newseum building was actually constructed around. It includes several panels from the Berlin Wall — more gathered in any single place outside Berlin — and most of a guard tower, as well as many exhibits explaining what the wall was all about and how it curbed the spread of information.

Berlin Wall
Sections of the Berlin Wall on display at the Newseum.

As I mentioned earlier, although I got a glimpse of many of these things during the guided tour, I actually came back the next day for a much better look. In between, I had dinner at the Carving Room, which a friend recommended. (The food wasn’t bad but the service sucked.) I wound up taking half my meal back to the place I was staying. I did a lot of walking that day, but when it came time to go back to the AirBnB, I used Lyft again. The shared ride service was incredibly cheap and a lot more convenient than the Metro.

The next morning, I returned to the Newseum to really focus on the exhibits that I wanted to see. Honestly, if you’re the kind of person who walks through a museum just looking at the exhibits without reading the signs that go with them, you’re missing half (at least) of the experience.

It was a really beautiful day — the first day of my visit with plenty of sun and bright blue skies. I started my visit to the Newseum with a trip up to the outdoor patio on the top floor. From there, I could look up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. I’d revisit that spot later in the day, before leaving to visit my next stop just to take in that view one more time.

Newseum Patio
The view up Pennsylvania Avenue on the Newseum patio.

A Quick Walk through the National Gallery of Art

My next intended destination was the Air and Space Museum, which was on the other side of the National Mall. I had two ways to get there: I could go the long way east on Pennsylvania Avenue to Fourth Street, walk south across the Mall, and then walk west up Jefferson Drive. Or I could cut pretty much straight through the National Gallery of Art and follow the walkway across the mall right to Air and Space. I took the shortcut.

Fountain
This fountain stands in the main entrance hall for the National Gallery of Art.

I really didn’t intend to spend any time looking at art, but the shortcut required me take a bit of a roundabout route through the building. Along the way was the gift shop, which I think I spent 30 minutes touring. I wound up buying a book and getting some ideas for a jewelry design. Then I made my way out to the south exit, stopping briefly to a few photos of the amazing architecture in the building.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

I’ll admit it: the main reason I came to Washington DC was to see the National Air and Space Museum. The first time I came to Washington, when I was a kid, it might not have even existed. The second time, when I was still a relatively young adult, I had limited interest in aviation. Now, with almost 20 years as a pilot under my belt and some experience with rebuilt or replica antique aircraft, I was very interested in aviation. I had been itching to visit Air and Space for years.

The National Air and Space Museum has two locations. The main location — the one most tourists visit — is the one in Washington DC. That’s the one I’d see that day. The other one is called the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center — named for its benefactor — is in Chantilly, VA. I’d see that the next day.

But first I needed lunch. Always eager to try different ethnic foods, I walked over to the National Museum of the American Indian next door. I’d heard very good things about its cafe. The museum itself looked interesting but I admit that it was not on my list of things to see, mostly because living in Arizona for 15 years, visiting various Native American museums (including the excellent Heard Museum in Phoenix and the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City), and spending an unusual amount of time on the Hopi and Navajo reservations had pretty much overdosed me on Native American culture. But the thought of trying some unusual native food enticed me into the building. The cafe was split into regional areas, each one serving up some native food. I had something from Central America — I can’t remember what — and it was good. Of all the museums I visited, this one definitely had the best food, although it was typical cafeteria style serving.

Next door, at the Air and Space Museum, I went through security and then checked my bag and jacket again and began exploring. I’d been wanting to see a planetarium show for a while and there was a planetarium on the premises. The only show on the schedule that looked interesting, Journey to the Stars, was showing just one more time that day in just a few minutes, so I bought a ticket and got on line. Soon I was seated near the wall in the round planetarium, eager to see that machine in the middle do its magic. I was disappointed. Instead of giving us a true planetarium show, they showed a specially formatted movie on the domed ceiling. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t what I had come for.

I think that set the tone for the rest of my visit. Don’t get me wrong — there were a lot of really great exhibits and displays. The Spirit of St. Louis hung from the ceiling. The real original Wright Flyer sat in its own exhibit room. There was an extremely informative exhibit about time and navigation. The Golden Age of Flight told the story, with plenty of aircraft on display, of the period between the two world wars, when aviation first began to thrive. Pioneers of Flight covered “firsts” for pilots and aircraft. Apollo to the Moon was an extremely informative display about the moon missions.

Main Hall
The Spirit of St. Louis is hanging from the ceiling at the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC — with a lunar lander right below it.

WrightFlyer
A panoramic image of the original Wright Flyer. This is the first aircraft that attained controllable, self-powered flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903.

Pangborn
Herndon and Pangborn could be found on a plaque in one of the galleries. Wenatchee’s local airport is named for Pangborn. Did you know that it had such a place in aviation history? Only they didn’t land at the airport because it didn’t exist yet; they landed at Fancher Field, which is now a housing development called Fancher Heights.

Docked Spacecraft
I loved the lighting in the museum — natural light through huge windows. This is one of the last shots I took during my visit.

I wandered around and took a ton of photos. Along the way, I noticed what I thought was a disproportionately large percentage of displays designed for children. Explanations were over simplified — no, I didn’t use the phrase dumbed down, although it did come to mind — and questions were left unanswered. There was a lot of touch this, push this button, slide this drawer, compare this to something you know kind of stuff. There were entire galleries I didn’t bother going into because they looked as if they were for kids. Not having kids and not really enjoying their company — especially noisy school groups — I stayed clear. But it left me feeling somewhat disappointed. I didn’t know what was missing, but I felt as if the museum could have been a lot better.

747 Nose
I think this is an example of one of the gee whiz dumbed down displays: a 747 nose poking out of a wall. Although I’m sure there was a plaque about it somewhere, I didn’t see it. The plane could not be accessed by visitors. It just hung there.

And then I was done. I’d seen everything that looked interesting to me and was ready to move on.

Scooting to Lincoln

I retrieved my things and stepped outside. It was still a nice day and it was definitely too early to go back to my AirBnB cubbyhole. It was also my last day in Washington DC so I wanted to make it count. I thought a trip up to the Washington Monument might be nice and thought I’d try walking. It wasn’t far — not even a mile — but it was hot out. The humidity, which I’m not used to at all, was killing me. (Not literally, but you know what I mean.)

My GoPed

Back when I lived in Arizona many years ago and had more money than I knew what to do with, I bought myself a a gas powered scooter called a GoPed. The idea was to fold this thing up and take it with me in my helicopter so I’d have ground transportation when I arrived. And that’s what I did — but just once. You see, I took it to Sedona and climbed aboard to ride down from Airport Mesa into town. Along the way — fortunately, near the start of the ride, was a cattle guard. That’s when I learned that a scooters tiny wheels are not compatible with cattle guards. The scooter stopped short but I didn’t. I landed on my face and broke my nose — a fact that I’ve keep pretty much secret for the past 10 years. I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my life, but that was the dumbest. After that, I wasn’t very interested in riding the GoPed. I wound up giving it away to someone in exchange for him removing the surveillance cameras from my hangar before I moved to Washington.

And, in a weird twist of fate, surgery to fix my crooked nose was not necessary because within a year I had another accident: I tripped over the JetA hose at the airport while fueling a Lear jet. When I landed on my face again, the resulting broken nose actually fixed the first break. Truth is stranger than fiction. The way I see it, I was gypped out of the nose job that I’ve always needed.

So when I saw the row of five Skip rental scooters, I stopped for a closer look. I’d been seeing lots of people scooting around Washington DC on these electric vehicles. With just a long stretch of fine gravel “sidewalk” along the side of the mall and a few street crossings, it didn’t seem as if it would be a difficult ride. Why not give it a go?

After struggling a bit to make the app I downloaded work, I was heading west along the south side of the Mall, moving at a good clip. No, I didn’t have a helmet on. Although they say you have to wear one, there wasn’t one available with the scooter. But you can bet your ass that I was keeping a sharp lookout for potholes. (Cattle guards were unlikely.)

Washington Monument
The Washington Monument was deserted that day because it was closed.

The ride was quick and very enjoyable. The breeze cooled me down and the humidity stopped bothering me so much. But I was disappointed when I got to the Washington Monument: it was closed to the public. Apparently, they’re upgrading the elevator and it won’t be open again until spring 2019.

So I kept going. The Lincoln Memorial wasn’t far beyond it and I was having fun. I scooted up there, stopping once to get a shot of the Monument framed by the trees along the path and a fountain I didn’t realize existed between it and the Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln
Although Republicans like to point out that Lincoln was a republican, I truly believe that today’s Republican Party would horrify and disgust him.

Once I reached the Lincoln Memorial — which was a lot more crowded on that Wednesday afternoon than I expected it to be — I found a place off the path near a bike rack filled with rental bikes to leave the scooter and tapped the appropriate buttons on my phone to “return” it. Then I walked up the steps, past dozens of people sitting in the shade, and visited the big statue of Mr. Lincoln. As I looked up at his wise old face I wondered what he would think of “the party of Lincoln” today, led by a barely literate, narcissistic conman who spreads hateful messages that divide the country he fought so hard to keep together 150 years ago.

I walked to the north wing of the building where Lincoln’s second inaugural address had been inscribed on the wall. (The Gettysburg Address is on the wall in the south wing.) Although it touches on many religious themes and quotes Jesus more than once, it finishes with words that I wish a real president would take to heart sometime soon:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Lincoln was a wise man, but I can’t see anything he had in common with today’s Republicans.

Afterwards, I went outside and sat on the steps. The sun was setting on the other side of the building so the steps were in the shade. A lot of people were gathered, sitting around, chatting, resting. I saw the spot on one of the landings where Martin Luther King, Jr. had made his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963; someone had splashed the letters engraved there with water.

Reflecting Pool
In case you’re wondering, this is what Lincoln is looking out at.

Getting a Lyft from there back to the AirBnB took a long time with three scheduled drivers cancelling before one finally arrived. When I got back to the tiny apartment, I ate leftovers from the day before. I was asleep before 9.

Going to Virginia

I checked out of my AirBnB unit around 8 AM and headed toward the metro station on foot carrying my bags. Every time I take a small bag without wheels I swear I’ll use a wheelie bag next time but I still find myself using shoulder bags. That wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t buy so many books along the way.

Breakfast
This was the best breakfast of my trip. The coffee cup was the size of a small soup bowl.

I stopped for breakfast at a cafe near the Eastern Market metro stop. They gave me a huge cup of coffee with my smoked salmon omelette.

Then I used the Metro card I’d bought on my first day to hop on a train bound for Virginia. I made sure I got on the right train so I wouldn’t have to change trains. It took at least 30 minutes to get to Wiehle-Reston East station. Once there, I called a Lyft and took that to the Steven F Udavar-Hazy Center, which is right near Dulles Airport.

At the National Air and Space Museum’s Udavar-Hazy Center

SR-71
In your face: an SR-71 is the first thing you see when you arrive.

It was raining pretty hard when I arrived. I walked in, went through security, and checked all of my bags in a locker. Then I walked into the biggest hangar I’d ever been in and let my jaw drop. I mean, how could I not? I was standing on a platform overlooking the hangar floor with a SR-71 Blackbird right in front of me and a space shuttle in the room behind it. Parked on the floor and hanging from the ceiling on both sides of me were well over 100 aeronautically significant airplanes.

Completely overwhelmed by what I was seeing, I decided to take a free guided tour. I went down to the tour meet-up area where a bunch of people were already waiting. They split the group in two and I went with one guided by a retired aeronautical engineer. When he learned that I was from Washington State, he began stressing the world Boeing and looking pointedly at me every time he said it. (Boeing is based in Seattle. I don’t live anywhere near Seattle.)

He spent 90 minutes showing us around, mostly in the pre-1920 Aviation area and military aviation areas covering the period up to the end of World War II. It was the tip of the iceberg. When he let us loose, I walked the entire floor, reading plaques for anything that interested me, and taking dozens of photos.

Discovery
The Discovery Space Shuttle is in a room surrounded space stuff. When I put a few photos on Twitter, a Twitter friend of mine asked if a computer unit he used to work on (The IDEX II Workstation) was still on display; I went back to this room, found it, and sent him a photo.

Planes
Planes, planes, and more planes. This is the commercial and general aviation side of the building, with a Concorde, Boeing 707 (367-80 or “Dash 80”), and I think a DC-3(?) with all kind of planes hanging around them. The Vertical Flight area was in the far corner of this room.

World's Smallest Plane
This plane was so small that it fit under the wing of another plane.

I won’t share all the photos. (Seriously: after reading this far you must be exhausted.) I will say this: if you have any interest whatsoever in aviation, you must go visit the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. Honestly — it will blow you away. This is an aviation museum designed for real aviation enthusiasts. Kids would likely get bored within an hour, but if you are fascinated by aviation and want to see and learn about all kinds of aircraft, this is the place to visit.

I spent nearly the whole day there. By 3 PM, I was hungry and very disappointed to see that the only food available was at the McDonald’s inside the museum. (Really? Is that the best they can do?) I bought some sort of chicken thing that actually contained chicken, some fries, and one of their cheap hot-fudge sundaes.

After my late lunch, I made my way up to the observation tower to watch the planes coming in for landing at Dulles. It was a perfectly miserable day with low ceilings and heavy rain. The jets came out of the clouds not far from the tower, which has 360° views of the surrounding area. There was an aviation radio tuned into the approach (but sadly not tower) frequency. I stayed for about 20 minutes; while I was there a group of high school students came up with sketch books and sketched various part of the tower’s inside.

Watching Planes Land
What a miserable day, eh?

Winding Down and Heading Out

By about 4:30, I was ready to go. I called the Fairfield Inn, where I’d booked a room, and arranged for a shuttle. Soon I was in a very comfortable business style hotel room that looked out over the hotel’s front entrance. I settled in to watch a movie on HBO. I was exhausted.

Later, I found a Chinese restaurant online that delivered and ordered enough food to meet their delivery minimums. I was surprised when the delivery guy brought it right to my room. It was really good but there was a ton leftover. I stowed it in the room’s little fridge.

In the morning, I woke early, as I usually do. I washed all of my dirty clothes in the laundry room on the premises. While I was waiting for it to finish, I checked out the free breakfast. I was absolutely appalled by the mess left by other guests and not tended to by any hotel staff. I’m talking about food on the floor and countertops, abandoned meals, lack of forks and napkins, empty coffee urns. And that was less than an hour after breakfast opened! It was a real shame; the hotel was nice and very comfortable, but they completely dropped the ball on the breakfast.

By 10:30, I was heading out in the hotel shuttle. Rather than go all the way back into the city for a return train ride, I’d booked a flight on American Airlines to Newark. I could carry on my bag. By some miracle, I got TSA Pre√ so security went quickly. The flight was short and I tracked our progress on ForeFlight along the way, seeing a lot of familiar territory from the air.

My brother met me at the airport and we went back to his place where Penny was very happy to see me.

We ate that leftover Chinese food for dinner.

(Continued in Part 4: Killing Time in New Jersey)

Autumn 2018 Trip Postcards: Philadelphia Row

So I’m sitting on the doorstep of my Washington DC AirBnB, waiting for my Lyft ride back to the Newseum, and a man coming out of the house two doors down sees me taking this photo of the front of the house.

Row house in Washington DC.

The front of the home I stayed insuring my trip to Washington DC.

He tells me about an amateur photographer named Helen Betts who has a photo of this row of houses, which is called Philadelphia Row because of the architectural style. He leaves and I Google it. Here’s what I found.

Of course, this proves two things:

  • Sometimes it’s actually quite enlightening to talk to strangers.
  • When you travel alone, it’s easier to meet new people and learn new things.