Stopover Washinton, DC

We are not allowed out on the platform when train speeds exceed 70mph. On the northeast corridor the tracks are very well maintained. We easily clocked over 100 mph. It was just as good watching from the lounge area of the car.

Garmin in the lounge section:

New York fades away on a gray afternoon:

Lounge:

We had a smooth trip to Washington, DC where we were uncoupled and moved to a siding. We will be coupling onto the Sunday southbound Crescent.

Scott, Dudley and Russell stopped down to meet everyone. I was able to meet them and sneak them on to the car. It is a maze to find your way around the bowels of the station. It is most important to NOT walk over the RR tracks. There are paved areas for passage over the rails.

It was very awkward as the car lost power. It turned out when the car had the inspection before the trip the side lights at the front were never turned off. That resulted in running down the battery. Because the battery was run down the generator would not turn over. We got hooked up to power at the station which kept dying. In the morning Bill tried one more time to turn over the generator. It had warmed up enough where the generator turned over. It was so good to have lights and heat.

Scott, Dudley, and Russell got the car tour by flashlight. They were still very impressed by the car.

Rich, Ian and myself took off for seafood at Hank’s Oyster House. Steve, Nancy, and Dennis were on their own. Dennis abhors seafood so the Oyster House was not a good choice. I rode with Dudley and Russell, which gave us a chance to get caught up. Driving in DC is maddening to me. So thankful I was not behind the wheel. There was actually a parking spot. We were just at the restaurant when Scott and the boys showed up in a Lyft.

We all had the best time. I got the mussels, which were out of this world. It has been a while since I’ve had them last. Scott got us a Lyft back to the station.

The driver never spoke and I got upset (internally) when he pulled into a return lane for rental cars in a parking garage. It worked out to be a shortcut to the station.

It took a bit to make sense of the directions down to the siding where the car was stored. We met up with Steve, Nancy, and Dennis on the way, which greatly simplified matters.

We were all pretty beat and went right to bed. The power kicked on and off during the night which resulted in sleeping in my long johns.

Sunday morning we were on our own as far as breakfast went. I’m so thankful Steve is up on all this. He takes us out to walk the mall.

Seeing the capitol building I was transported back in time to the MYF field trip to Washington back in 1964. Our group had our picture taken on one of the ledges.

Union Station:

Capitol:

Washington Monument:

Lincoln Memorial:

Korean War Memorial:

The Vietnam and Korean Memorials really drained me. The last thing I want to do is be political but those wars and the ones that followed were and are still such a waste of human life. Those who do return are forever changed.

My good friend Ray lost his dad in the Korean War. He died in a POW camp. The memorial was particularly haunting to me as the sculptures have such a ghostly appearance coupled with the just discernable images etched into the wall. The reflections of the bronzes in the wall is so moving.

It was time for a break after this so we headed back to the food trucks. There were not a lot of people this sunny but cool afternoon. Got a Philly Cheesesteak which was passable and we stretched out on the nearly dry grass to eat….