Wednesday, May 22, 2019: Day 11, Ft. Belvoir, VA to Washington, DC
Departing the comforts and relative sanity of Ft. Belvoir around noon, I mistakenly thought I would have the I-95 and the I-395 connecting beltway post morning rush hour traffic mostly all to myself and an easy-peasy drive…but not in this mortal life, apparently.
Road construction funneling multiple lanes of traffic into fewer lanes sunk that fantasy not more than 3 miles from home base…and when we finally reached D.C. we had to circle back around to park in an underground parking garage (remember the tight hairpin ‘training’ turns coming off the Blue Ridge Parkway?). Oh, and it was apparently mating and calving season for migrating tour buses as they seemed to be EVERYWHERE, all looking for any available parking spot to disgorge millions of visiting students from EVERYWHERE!
Once safely parked 5 stories below street level, the 13-block walking began toward the U.S. Holocaust Museum & Memorial. Lori and I bypassed the endless lines of excited students using our military IDs to score tickets reserved for veterans and first responders into the permanent exhibit…only to encounter ZILLIONS more students excitedly fltting from one exhibit to another. After an hour we decided to visit the cafe to raise our glucose levels beyond being ‘hangry’ and to walk to Union Station to take the twilight tour on the Big Bus.
2.5 hour later Lori and I walked back the parking garage to make our way back to Ft. Belvoir…only to find our favored gate locked for the night. We finally made it to an alternate gate opened 24/7 and finally back to our hotel room to prepare for our next journey using our Explorer day pass.
Deep, restful sleep will come easy tonight!
Raven Tales 