We got up fairly early again, even though Saturday morning is the traditional 'sleep in' day for the working world. Because:
A) P.'s friend K. had offered to give us a ride into town so the co-worker/people who were leaving, driving, back to east TN, could take the computer along for a road trip. She did not want to haul it through TSA, take a chance on damaging it in transit, so when she found her cohort was driving, the computer hitched a ride to meet her at the Convention Center when we got there on Wednesday.
B) Those trains we had been 'commuting' on for the past three days were out of service on the weekend. Only the one that would take us to and from the area where we were 'living', so that put a minor glitch in our travels. There are five different commuter trains that zip along, mostly underground, around town, traveling all around the suburbs, to the outer edges of the DC boundaries. And - just our luck, with a bit of Murphey's Law thrown in, the one we needed to get us back and forth from the stop nearest K. was on the 'out of service' line: working on tracks, or escalators, or re-doing tiles on platform, or lighting, or whatever... There were shuttle buses that would pick up at the last functioning stop, and jump you to the next functioning stop, or dump you in the parking lot of the non-functioning stops.
But since K. so kindly offered, and P. accepted, we got a ride down to the hotel near the convention center, where we passed off the computer - then off to a day of sightseeing. K. told about a street market on the south-side of town, with lots of local vendors who would be there on the weekend, displaying crafts. Under dozens of little pop-up canopies, we saw: handmade cutting boards, wooden outdoor furniture, clothing, art, lots of jewelry, and a huge thrift market I knew we did not need to even glance at: don't look or you will get lured in, tempted to buy stuff you will have to take back through TSA. Bought a souvenir print of a watercolor of the Capitol, and a gift for the person who got up to take us to the airport at the crack 'o' dawn on Wed.
Then went back into downtown, monuments area. We'd decided to get a one-day pass on those big double-decker buses that offer lots of stops, and opportunity to see all the memorials, highlights of the city with occasional commentary/guides or recorded messages to provide some tidbits/trivia/info. about scenes as you drive by. We took the bus in circles numerous times, occasionally on purpose, and often accidentally. Went to Arlington Cemetery, and got directions for finding a site she wanted to take a photo of, walked a couple of miles to get there/back to the bus stop. Somebody got really sunburned sitting on the top of the bus!
We knew getting back to pick up our luggage would likely be a hassle, and confusing with buses substituting for the trains we had mostly, pretty much, generally figured out how to access to our advantage.Wandering through neighborhoods, taking us places we had not been, and did not want to go, using time we did not have to squander. So after all that mess, and we got our suitcases, rolled back down the hill to the Metro that had become a bus stop instead of train station, prayed (how appropriate: kneeling buses!) that we were getting on the bus to go to the end of the Metro line, where we would get back on the shuttle bus to Baltimore.
That plan did not entirely work out, and we ended up taking a (holy cow!) $45 taxi ride from Greenbelt, on the northeast edge of District of Columbia, to the airport in Baltimore. Probably got there quicker than the bus driver would have done, as we whizzed along on country, two-lane, back roads that took us through the USDA testing facilities... lots of farm land, planted with crops, and dozens of very sturdy (government issue-quality) brick buildings with huge identifying numbers prominently placed for easy identification. They (gov't) love to count, number, keep score, re-count, evaluate, analyze, juggle, crunch, question, wiggle, etc.. making the statistics come out to confirm what ever they wanted to prove.
The reason for the overpriced ride: anxiety about getting to the gate before they closed the Delta door at BWI. We got boarding passes printed, trekked to the farthest reaches (Murphey again - the gate you need to be at is always the one that is the greatest distance away from point A) and got there in ample time to get the 7:00 flight to ATL. Uneventful. Hoping that arriving a few minutes early would get a space on an earlier shuttle to Chattanooga - but no such luck. We both left ATL about 10:00 p.m., going in different directions: P. to TN, and me, with rappers, saggers, partiers, creatures of the night on the Marta to Underground.
All tracks cross at Five Points, below the surface. Population on trains pretty thin by that time of night, which could be a good or bad thing. I got off, and checked with a guy wearing a shirt that said 'security', and could have been a casual passer-by, thug, or legitimate - to be sure down there, in the rabbit hole, in the dark, with no sense of direction - I was getting on the one that was going east.
I finally came up for air in downtown Decatur, dragging a reluctant suitcase.That will likely be replaced before I go anywhere that requires taking more clothing than overnight. It kicked and bucked and stalled any number of times over our adventure, almost as if those tiny little solid plastic wheels could have a flat. I have pulled that little fiend up the last flight of stairs it is traveling with me!
I hauled a hard back library book all the way to Washington and back, and nearly got it finished. I had to make myself stop reading several times, to make it 'last' all the way home. And got so immersed last night, I stayed up too late - crazy since I knew I would be waking up at 5:30, and had to drive home. And go to work today.
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