October 20. Cherokee, NC to Washington D.C. Starting Mileage 30,238.
We drove all day on October 20. From Cherokee, it was a northeasterly route, through ridges and gaps in North Carolina, cutting across the pointing-finger-tip of Tennessee, and following the valleys between the Appalachians, Shenandoah, and Blue Ridge Mountains up through Virginia, and on into Washington D.C. We’d drive over 500 miles this day. First lesson of this adventure: the road is the trip too.
Because of our dilly-dallying in Cherokee in the morning, and a few picturesque stops long the route, we ended up driving in the dark and not arriving at our hotel until after 8 p.m.
In Cherokee, I’d hauled our many bags into the hotel room two-by-two. Same thing loading out. When we arrived into our DC-area hotel, I pulled up out front to unload the bags into the lobby. Mama would wait there with the bags while I parked the car in the garage. When I came up from the garage–dreading, but ready to make at least three trips back and forth to get our bags to our 8th floor room–a nice man behind the counter smiled and said, “Luggage carts are right around that corner.”
What?! Luggage Carts?!?
I sleepwalked around that corner, and saw four of the most beautiful objects parked in front of me–LUGGAGE CARTS! Thick brass arches with hooks across the top for hanging garment bags, wide carpeted flat-beds that would fit at least three bags, and wheels that spun around for amateur maneuvers. I almost skateboarded my chosen one back into the lobby! We stacked ALL of the bags onto the magic luggage cart and drove it like drunks to the elevators.
Dizzy tired and hungry, and giddy about the ease of loading in, I forgot to take a picture of that blessed thing. I should have taken a portrait of each and every one of the magic wheel carts we used for the next seven weeks. Lesson #2 of this trip: Always look for a magic luggage cart and appreciate the invention of wheels.
October 21-23. Washington D.C.
During our days in D.C., we took a tour of the Capitol, saw the Library of Congress, sat on the columns on the porch of the closed Supreme Court, walked the length of the Mall to the Washington Monument one day, and to the Lincoln Memorial and World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials the next. We walked and walked and walked. And talked, explored, and learned.
The importance of parking
It was important during the trip planning to find a hotel with safe parking for the car and close to public transportation so that we could get around with ease. Lucy is nearly 80. And though she gets around good, I didn’t want to wear her out. We walked a lot in Washington D.C. And we also took frequent little breaks–sitting on the Mall, resting by the Kilroy was Here graffiti, and lingering under a tree in Autumn yellow leaves near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. What peace in those sitting-to-rest times. Lesson #3 of this trip: Sit for a spell. Rest and observe. There was no where else we needed to be, but right there together.
Arlington National Cemetery
On the final day of our stay in D.C., I was studying the map, and suddenly figured out that we had just enough time to visit Arlington National Cemetery on our way back to the hotel. We hustled, made our connecting train, and made it there in time for the last trolley tour, and the last changing of the guard at the grave of the Unknown Soldier. Silence but for the clicking of heels walking back and forth, standing watch over those soldiers “Known but to God”. And later, we walked in silence up the knoll to the eternal flame and graves of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Poignant places in our nation’s capital. Lesson #4: Life is short. Seize the moments. Cram it in and go, go, go.
Click these links for more about the start of our road trip, and the merits of going old.