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Trip journal part 2
Jul. 29th, 2003 06:28 amI'm writing this from a Holiday Inn in Willkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It's interesting: even budget hotels feel required to provide free Internet access and free breakfast. It's a good thing.
So, what happened after my last post? Well, the next morning, Sunday morning, we packed up the car, and got time-stressed, which we always do before a trip. The trunk door fell on my head, twice, so I've got a line-shaped bruise on my forehead. We thought we'd lost a couple minor items (wet-naps and the like). We found them the next day.
We met Josh and Missy for breakfast at a local restaurant; we were on the road by quarter to nine or so.
Sunday was basically just driving. We got to see a Pilot Travel Center, which is basically a family-oriented truck stop -- they've clearly got two groups of people they're catering to -- truckers, and families traveling with children. Useful. Most everything that WE would need on the road would be used by ONE of those groups or another. Still, it's a little odd to be in a shop with displays of Disney movies on DVD next to the display of folding fighting knives.
I'm not entirely certain which of those displays was for which clientele, though. . .
Lis wanted to stop at a Dairy Queen at some point during the day. And we passed dozens of them. But at each one, we didn't particularly want to stop at that point. So we didn't get to one.
Why does the South have so many more strip clubs than New England? Lis suggested that it's because, in the south, it's hotter, so people are wearing fewer clothes, anyway. Then she suggested, seriously, it's because New England was settled by Puritans.
We stopped for the night at a reasonably nice hotel in Fayetteville, which is about an hour south of DC.
In the morning, we went to a Waffle House (a chain we don't have in New England) for breakfast, and were underwhelmed. We don't see a need to go to restaurants in which I can make everything they make, much, much better. In any case, there's a diner down the street from home which does that type of food cheaper and far better.
We got to DC around 10 or so, and had no difficulty finding the parking garage that Lis had been planning on parking in. It was RIGHT across the street from the Government Printing Office, a few blocks from the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and Folger Shakespeare Museum, and had a daily max rate of $11. It was perfect.
It was full.
We spent probably a good minute laughing at ourselves for never even CONSIDERING the possiblity that the garage would be full when we got there, and then tried to figure out what to do from there. Eventually, we decided to ask the attendant at the garage where the nearest other garage was. So we did. He looked at us, decided that he liked us, and told us to go in, there were still a COUPLE parking spaces down there. We found one no problem -- a "FULL" garage in DC apparently has more parking spaces than one with vacancies in Boston.
The Folger was nifty. I'm sure that Lis will write about it in her journal, so I'm not going to write too much about it. But we saw the Elizabeth exhibit -- we saw the Sieve Portrait, and portraits of Essex, lots of neat stuff. Found out just how big Folios, Quartos, and Octos are; they had books of all three types on display. The basic sheet of paper was something like 14 inches by 20 inches, so a Folio is about 14 inches by 10 inches, a Quarto is about 7 by 5, and an Octo is about 3.5 by 2.5. Octos are SO CUTE!! They were used for mass-market pamphlets and the like -- Knox's First Blast of the Trumpet was published that way, for instance.
We didn't get into the LoC or the Supreme Court, mainly because I was fading by then. And because I carry knives on my belt, but the reason I didn't go back and put them in the car was because I was tired and just wanted to get on the road.
That Government Printing Office didn't have stuff on DEEP DISCOUNT, because that office wasn't closing. So we didn't buy anything.
We got on the road at maybe four, four-thirty, and got here about 9, before it was full dark. We could have gone further, but we decided to stop at this Holiday Inn, instead, go to bed early, and get on the road on the early side.
So, I should go wake Lis up, and take her to COMPLEMETARY BREAKFAST! and get driving. We've got maybe four and a half, maybe five hours driving. We could be home by midday.
If we killed the entire morning, we could go to the Harry Houdini museum in Scranton (Scranton's like ten miles down the road), but that doesn't open until 12:30, which is after when we could possibly be home by.
The Breakfast Room is two sleeping rooms they've decided to use as such. It's clear this is a feature they've JUST added.
Anyway, I'll get going.
So, what happened after my last post? Well, the next morning, Sunday morning, we packed up the car, and got time-stressed, which we always do before a trip. The trunk door fell on my head, twice, so I've got a line-shaped bruise on my forehead. We thought we'd lost a couple minor items (wet-naps and the like). We found them the next day.
We met Josh and Missy for breakfast at a local restaurant; we were on the road by quarter to nine or so.
Sunday was basically just driving. We got to see a Pilot Travel Center, which is basically a family-oriented truck stop -- they've clearly got two groups of people they're catering to -- truckers, and families traveling with children. Useful. Most everything that WE would need on the road would be used by ONE of those groups or another. Still, it's a little odd to be in a shop with displays of Disney movies on DVD next to the display of folding fighting knives.
I'm not entirely certain which of those displays was for which clientele, though. . .
Lis wanted to stop at a Dairy Queen at some point during the day. And we passed dozens of them. But at each one, we didn't particularly want to stop at that point. So we didn't get to one.
Why does the South have so many more strip clubs than New England? Lis suggested that it's because, in the south, it's hotter, so people are wearing fewer clothes, anyway. Then she suggested, seriously, it's because New England was settled by Puritans.
We stopped for the night at a reasonably nice hotel in Fayetteville, which is about an hour south of DC.
In the morning, we went to a Waffle House (a chain we don't have in New England) for breakfast, and were underwhelmed. We don't see a need to go to restaurants in which I can make everything they make, much, much better. In any case, there's a diner down the street from home which does that type of food cheaper and far better.
We got to DC around 10 or so, and had no difficulty finding the parking garage that Lis had been planning on parking in. It was RIGHT across the street from the Government Printing Office, a few blocks from the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and Folger Shakespeare Museum, and had a daily max rate of $11. It was perfect.
It was full.
We spent probably a good minute laughing at ourselves for never even CONSIDERING the possiblity that the garage would be full when we got there, and then tried to figure out what to do from there. Eventually, we decided to ask the attendant at the garage where the nearest other garage was. So we did. He looked at us, decided that he liked us, and told us to go in, there were still a COUPLE parking spaces down there. We found one no problem -- a "FULL" garage in DC apparently has more parking spaces than one with vacancies in Boston.
The Folger was nifty. I'm sure that Lis will write about it in her journal, so I'm not going to write too much about it. But we saw the Elizabeth exhibit -- we saw the Sieve Portrait, and portraits of Essex, lots of neat stuff. Found out just how big Folios, Quartos, and Octos are; they had books of all three types on display. The basic sheet of paper was something like 14 inches by 20 inches, so a Folio is about 14 inches by 10 inches, a Quarto is about 7 by 5, and an Octo is about 3.5 by 2.5. Octos are SO CUTE!! They were used for mass-market pamphlets and the like -- Knox's First Blast of the Trumpet was published that way, for instance.
We didn't get into the LoC or the Supreme Court, mainly because I was fading by then. And because I carry knives on my belt, but the reason I didn't go back and put them in the car was because I was tired and just wanted to get on the road.
That Government Printing Office didn't have stuff on DEEP DISCOUNT, because that office wasn't closing. So we didn't buy anything.
We got on the road at maybe four, four-thirty, and got here about 9, before it was full dark. We could have gone further, but we decided to stop at this Holiday Inn, instead, go to bed early, and get on the road on the early side.
So, I should go wake Lis up, and take her to COMPLEMETARY BREAKFAST! and get driving. We've got maybe four and a half, maybe five hours driving. We could be home by midday.
If we killed the entire morning, we could go to the Harry Houdini museum in Scranton (Scranton's like ten miles down the road), but that doesn't open until 12:30, which is after when we could possibly be home by.
The Breakfast Room is two sleeping rooms they've decided to use as such. It's clear this is a feature they've JUST added.
Anyway, I'll get going.
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