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Wednesday, 05/21/03; Baltimore, Maryland
“Rain, rain, go away!”
We had had a relaxing and pleasant repose at the Bakers the past two days, but now we must continue our quest. It was barely sprinkling when we pulled away from the lakefront home at 0730 this morning. However, it soon began to come down in earnest – long before we reached I-95 heading for Fredericksburg and Washington. We haven’t been successful in stopping all the rain from running in the windshield seals, so it was not long before there was a dripping and dropping in the front of the Smith’s car. Joann began stuffing blue shop paper towels in the cracks around the top and bottom of the windshield to absorb the rain.
The drive over the country roads to the I-95 was pleasant, in spite of on and off rain. Once on the Interstate, it was a different story! The spray kicked up by the trucks definitely impaired the visibility. Although it was Keith’s turn to take the lead, Dennis was in front until we reached the Interstate. His car had been running a bit rough and he had done some adjustment at Jim’s, so he wanted to check it out and set the speed of our drive. At the Interstate, Keith took the lead and we finally found our selves crossing the Fourteenth Street Bridge. We had stopped for gas and picked up a detailed map of DC before getting on the Interstate, but when we got off I-95 we had difficulty getting oriented. Keith led us around in countless circles until we finally discovered our position, southeast of the Mall. Armed with this information, we hoped to finally work our way to some DC landmark where we could park nearby and take a photo to prove to our family and friends that we had made it this far. After much gnashing of teeth and gears we finally happened upon a parking lot off Constitution Avenue near the Washington’s Monument. This would have to do, as it was raining, but not too hard to have a photo op.
Parking lot off of Constitution Ave.
Left to right: The Capital is all wet; Cars at Washington Monument
After the Monument, we continued down Constitution Avenue in hopes of getting a chance to “shoot” the Capital Building on the fly. The traffic and rain made this difficult, but we believe that we were successful. We had anticipated spending at least half the day sightseeing in DC, but were totally turned off by the rain. We had planned an escape route that would take us out of DC and into the Baltimore area. We intended to make our way into Delaware to spend the night. Getting to US-50 and then the I-95 was really a chore, but we made that in spite of traffic, one-way streets, a broken down bus, a blown fuse in the Olson’s car and the rain. However our problems were far from over once we reached the Interstate. We again had to contend with rain, traffic and poor visibility due to fog and truck spray.
We were really in the need of a potty break. (We had stopped at a filling station prior to the Interstate to wait for the Olsons to fix their fuse problem, but the station didn’t have any public rest rooms. Unlike California, we are finding that many states do not require their businesses to provide such facilities.) Finally, we could wait no longer and left the Interstate in search of “facilities.” It wasn’t a good day for a picnic and we hadn’t prepared sandwiches in advance, so we decided to look for a restaurant, as well. With much difficulty, we located and parked at an IHOP where we took care of our needs. Then we had to fight a bad traffic pattern to reach the filling station across the street and thence onto the Interstate.
Progress was slow and nerve-racking, so not long after we sought a location to hole up for the night. We couldn’t locate any motels in our coupon books, so it was “any port in a storm.” Keith lead us off the Interstate at a “non-productive” exit and after much maneuvering we got back on and found an exit touting at least one Super Eight Motel. However, fate wasn’t through with us yet! It was one of those situations where you could see the motel sign, but couldn’t figure out just how you could get to it. Get to it we did -- even though it wasn’t easy.
So here we are for the evening. It appears there are no restaurants within walking distance, so we may have our picnic today, after all – for supper! In spite of all the problems and the bad weather, when we checked our odometer, we found we had logged some 170 miles today – not too shabby!
That’s all for today -- thank goodness!
Wet, weary, but undaunted!
The Four
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