I am disappointed to report that we did not get to attend the rally. Oh, we did make it to Washington DC, but....
I am terribly afraid to drive on freeways so I and my granddaughter coaxed my son into agreeing to drive the whole 1400 mile roundtrip. He undertook the first half of the trip after driving all day for his job delivering mail! What a guy!
Now you have to understand that we live in a rural area in Ohio that entails the worst driving hazards amounting to getting stuck behind an Amish buggy on a 2 lane road.
The trip was without incident UNTIL we reached The George Washington Memorial Parkway in VA. Do not miss...and I repeat, DO NOT MISS ONE EXIT on this road!!! We would have had an easier time finding a Dairy Queen on the moon. We found ourselves in a neighborhood of VERY expensive mansions on a gorgeous tree lined 4 lane road when we saw a sign that said something about the CIA! That's when we got nervous and expected to see armored tanks emerge pointing mortors at us.
The jokes started when we finally spied a 7-11. After asking for directions and getting back in the car my 12 year old granddaughter said, "See, I told you, they ALL talk like that at 7-11!
Lost again, we ended up going through a small unmanned 3 lane toll thingy that everyone else just drove through but bells started going off on us. My son stopped, walked back and dropped 50 cents in the bucket. We found a cop who actually told us to do a U turn at the BIG NO U-TURN SIGN. He must have felt our frustration. We had estimated our arrival at 11:30 PM and it was now 1:00 AM.
The second cop we stopped knew the motel and...PHEW.. .we made it by 1:30. We saw the big purple CRISPE bus and knew we were there!
NO SMOKING in the rooms! AHHHHHH! Talk about needing a cigarette!!!
The bed my granddaughter and I shared was nice and neat when we awoke but my son's bed looked like he wrestled with the sheets and blankets all night. Poor thing!
OK, so we awake to a beautiful morning all set to go. I go out on the balcony to have a smoke and watch Rev. Ron running around getting people organized. I did manage to get a Hello from him. = )
So, we head into DC, crossing the awesome Potomac..... .and get lost again! We managed to find a parking lot but there was no way a 64 year old woman was going to walk 5 miles carrying lawn chairs, coolers, teddy bears, backpacks and protest signs. Have they never heard of PARKING in DC??? I mean, come on, why do they have all those monuments if they don't want anyone to PARK, get out and enjoy them?
Back on the road and driving at least 4 loops around and through DC, I spy the Iwo Jima statue and cynically think to myself, "Yeah, yeah....you don't know what brave is!"
Oh, and we did see this impressive building that said "Visitor's Center", but guess what.....NO PLACE TO PARK!
When I saw my son's white knuckles on the steering wheel I knew it was time to throw in the towel. Then I realized.... .we had to find our way back to the motel!!!
I must give a warning here......when you print out a mapquest road trip.....print out a REVERSE trip, too! With that said....yep, we got lost again somewhere in Maryland. I'm not going to complain this time though because we found ourselves in a beautiful place called Catoctin Mountain Park. It was refreshing not being allowed to drive over the 30 mile speed limit.
We arrived home, exhausted but safe and sound at about 6:00 PM on Saturday.
We're disappointed in not being able to attend the Rally but we did our best toward the effort and we're patiently waiting for all the news. I hope it was a HUGE SUCCESS!!!
Sally in Ohio |
