By Shelby
This week was a more relaxed week. We’d been doing so much these past few weeks it felt nice to have time to relax. The weather is getting colder and we got hit by some rain caused by Hurricane Ian. Monday, we worked from the library in Chantilly, Virginia. Unfortunately, Monday and Tuesday it didn’t open until 1 PM. In the mornings, we worked from a local park. The library was nice but also very loud. Right across the street was a high school, so when school got out, the library was flooded by students. After work, we just relaxed. Tuesday and Wednesday, we did pretty much the same – work from the park in the morning and the library in the afternoon.
Thursday, we went to the secondary unit of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. This facility is located outside D.C. near the Dulles International Airport, which was only a 10 minute drive away from where we were staying in Chantilly. The museum is located in a giant hangar. We spent pretty much the whole day there. My favorite exhibits were the SR-71 Blackbird, the Concorde, and the F-18 Blue Angel.
Spencer’s favorites were the Space Shuttle, a coast guard helicopter, and the observatory, where you could watch planes land at Dulles Airport. It was very cool to see the Space Shuttle. I definitely learned a lot. Seeing all the planes and spacecraft made us want to watch several movies such as Apollo 13, The Martian, and Transformers 2 where they visit the museum and the SR-71 transforms into the Decepticon Jetfire.
After we finished up at the Air and Space Center, we drove to Great Falls Park, which is maintained by the National Park Service, but apparently is not a national park. The falls are part of the Potomac River. We walked to a few overlooks over the falls. They were very unique. The rock formations in the water were unusual. We saw a few kayakers practicing paddling at the base of the falls. It looked kind of dangerous.
Once it got late enough that rush hour was over, we drove into DC to see the National Mall at night. We parked right in front of the Capitol building. There was a large group of people playing glow in the dark kickball on the front lawn. We walked down to the Washington Monument. As we walked, we saw a bunch of semi-trucks lined up next to the grass. They were part of Ten Four D.C., a yearly event where truckers from all over the country go to D.C. to display their trucks and share their issues in the industry with the public. It was very interesting to see.
After checking out the Washington Monument, we continued on to see the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. It was really neat to see them all lit up. We were planning on staying parked in front of the Capitol building for the night. Parking was free from 10PM to 7AM. But we couldn’t find any open bathrooms. We ended up going back to Planet Fitness in Virginia for the night. Oddly enough, people started leaf blowing near the parking lot around midnight.
Friday, we drove into Baltimore to Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. This is the fort where Francis Scott Key saw the flag flying and wrote the Star Spangled Banner. It was very cool to see all the parts of the fort that the song is about, like the ramparts and the cannons. And our America the Beautiful Pass got us in for free, so that was pretty nice.
For lunch, we drove to a park in Reisterstown, Maryland and made tacos. It was pretty cold, so we went really fast. It was probably a new record for us. We did get a few interesting looks from people walking by since we set up right in the parking lot. One lady said it smelled good. That night, we stayed at a Planet Fitness that was open 24 hours. There was a security guard that kept driving around the parking lot which made me a little nervous, but we didn’t get knocked on or anything.
Saturday, we drove about 25 minutes north to a different Planet Fitness in Westminster that didn’t have a security guard driving around. There was a very loud street sweeper cleaning the parking lot at 4AM that woke us up. It seemed like he was driving circles around us. Hopefully that was a once a week thing. We spent a few hours at the library playing Minecraft and just relaxing and doing nothing. After the library closed at 5PM, we went to a local park for a few more hours. For dinner, we got Roy Rogers, a fast food restaurant.
Sunday, we did laundry. I really dislike how some laundromats require you to buy a reloadable card to use with the machines. There’s really no way to prevent wasting money that can’t be used. Since we’re just passing through, we’re never going to use the card again. I much prefer coin machines when traveling. After finishing laundry, we went to a college in town that had a library open for public use to work on the website. We’re tentatively planning on staying in this town for at least a few more days before spending two weeks in Pennsylvania.
Fun Facts from Week 23:
- The National Air and Space Museum is the largest of the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, with a location in DC and in Virginia.
- During the Civil War, President Lincoln commanded that Maryland must be kept in the Union through whatever force is necessary. Thus, cannons in Fort McHenry were not only pointed at the harbor to protect the city, but also pointed at the center of Baltimore to keep the city under control.
4 responses to “Week 23”
Now that it is getting dark earlier do you find evenings more difficult and long finding things to do and making dinner?
Definitely! We have to make dinner much faster before it gets too dark. A lot of public parks close at dark, so that limits where we can hang out after work. We’re looking forward to traveling down south.
Is it possible to work some evenings if library is open laterwhen it is darker and do something in the morning? Probably not just a thought
It seems like most libraries are open during normal business hours and close early, which is kind of odd. I would think they would get most of their business after most people are done with work. So unfortunately, we usually have to work during the day vs evening.