Mr. Obama's office.
This may be the extent of our sightseeing.
You couldn’t pay me enough to work in D.C. The drivers are crazy; the pedestrians all harbor secret death wishes, neither of which knows that red normally means STOP! We mistakenly drove into D.C. yesterday to try to get the feel of the land and information to plan the rest of our trip.
We like to stop at visitor centers to pick up brochures and ask questions. Did you know visitor centers, even in a city that claims tourism is a major revenue producing industry, close down, move a lot and forget to tell any of their city employees where they are located? Five hours and 5 stops later we finally found the D.C. visitor center. By this time I was so frustrated that the young man behind the counter left to get reinforcement from his manager - Mo. I actually took a deep breath before going in and thought I was very nice….considering how my morning was going. We walked out of there with 3 renditions of the metro system, an armful of brochures and Mo's phone number who told us "if you have any questions while your here, just call me." I'm sure he thought we just got off the farm!
They tell me people in D.C. actually own cars. Why? There is no place and I mean no place to park it. So they have this nice metro system. I dreamt of blue lines crossing yellow lines crossing orange lines! My first thought when I woke up this morning was do I really want to go into the city to sightsee some of our countries most beloved sights? And my second thought was thank the Lord we live on wheels.
We were able with the help of a nice Metrorail employee to figure out how to get our fare cards/smartcard for the system. She asked if we were Obama fans....ummm….tough question considering where we are….well it turns out if you use a certain machine you can get a fare card with his picture on it. Well I’ve got to say…that made my day!
The Cardinals are in town!! One of our hopes while we travel was to see the Cardinals in every major stadium. After being so proud of myself for finding box seats for $35.00 instead of the normal $55.00, a screen pops up and asks you if you want to reserve a parking spot. YES….that would be great. Then the price pops up…$50.00….huh are you kidding me? I could not bring myself to pay over 40% more than the ticket to park for 3.5 hours. My first clue should have been when the lady at the first visitor centers’ comment when we asked how to get to the Nationals stadium was…”oh my that’s not easy”. So much from a goodwill ambassador of the city. She obviously is not a baseball fan; she had to call her husband to get the route. You first have to park at a commuter lot that fills up by 6:00 am and doesn’t begin to clear out until 6:00 pm. If you actually do find someplace to park your car, you then get on the blue route, transfer to the yellow route, transfer to the green route then walk over .5 mile to the stadium. Then we’ll have to find our way back ….wish us luck. Now I know why the Nationals are in last place in their division…fans can’t find or have the energy to attend any games to lend support. I will forever be more appreciative of Busch Stadium, where there is parking, more reasonable costs, and a system that can get 50,000+ fans in and out safely in a reasonable time frame.
Friends, Tom & Sue, use to live in Maryland and Tom worked with the Secret Service. When we got in I texted them for some tips on unusual places to see, where to eat etc. Toms first tip was “don’t go!” Now I know why. However, they did give us some good ideas of what to visit and information to get us started on traversing the town.
When we got back to the coach I had to decompress and what better way then with a nice, cold Bud…..I would have to join AA if I lived here too long.
The only way to visit D.C. is to fly in, shuttle to a downtown hotel close to all of the attractions and become best buddies with the concierge as soon as you arrive.
I should have known a little black cloud was following us here. The campground we are in is expensive (remember I’m from the Midwest) at $52.00 a night and that’s after I had to call them on their Good Sams discount they advertise but didn’t want to offer. The layout is hilly and they have logs lining the already narrow roads and tight turns. Well…in order to not hit a parked coach we had to hug the right side and got a log caught up under our coach. We should have unhooked the car when we first got in but they insisted it would be easy to pull in with the tow. This campground actually has an escort to your site because the roads and sites are not marked, but she is on foot and not helpful with the maneuvering like other campgrounds are. The log ripped a hole underneath and now we have insulation etc. hanging down. I thought duct tape solved all the problems of the world…but it will not stick.
Any of our RV buddies out there, or anyone, if you have any ideas on how to make a temporary fix, let us know.
Well it’s time to start our trip into D.C. :(
Hope all is well
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