Skip to main content

Day 25: Washington DC

A relatively short drive today from Allentown to Washington DC. The break from long drives daily was welcome and much needed. The destination today was my nephew's house in central Washington DC. 

Washington DC is not one of the 48 states I am covering in this road trip. It is a district, created in the constitution as the seat of the US government. Its odd status is captured well in the tagline on their license plates - "Taxation Without Representation". 

Driving through the eastern states, a big difference compared to California is the widespread usage of tolls on the freeways. Most places have done away with the toll booths and now use electronic tolling like E-ZPass. I don't have one, so I have been driving through without paying. I am supposed to get a bill in the mail to pay the tolls from the various states I have gone through. Remains to be seen if this will all work out cleanly. 

I reached my nephew's house late afternoon. It is in central DC, surrounded by bustling streets,  restaurants, nightlife and of course, traffic. I loved the energy and excitement, which is a big contrast to the sedate, suburban living in large houses with big backyards. 

We walked around some of the neighborhoods on our way to dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. The food was delicious, but very spicy.  We continued our walk through other city streets and made our way to a Comedy Club. It had a long line of amateurs, trying to engage the audience during their brief 5 minutes on the stage. A lot of the jokes fell flat and I couldn't help wonder - this is a much harder job than software development.

 

Tired after our long walks through the city streets, we took an Uber back to his home and retired for the night. It was wonderful meeting, chatting and catching up with my nephew and experiencing Washington DC in a new, non-tourist way.

The raw numbers for the day:

  • 190 miles driving, 6600 steps walking
  • 1 Tesla supercharger stop
  • 3 states - Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC

 Next:  Day 26: Shenandoah National Park (Sept 29, 2022)

Comments

  1. ManeeshaOctober 2, 2022 at 8:22 PM

    Hey, hey. There is lot of comedy in engineering as well. Do a google search for "recursion". It says "Did you mean: recursion "

    ReplyDelete
  2. VisheshOctober 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM

    Nice! Seems like a uniquely low-key and enjoyable day. I remember being impressed by the variety of cuisines available in DC when I interviewed there. I ate a lot of Ethiopian food. :)
    (Also I like how you added in DC but kept it italicized & didn't count it; nice stylistic choice.)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

USA48 Road Trip: The Whole Story

  The whole story of my road trip across USA in a Tesla, captured in a series of blog posts below. My six-week adventure was from Sept 4, 2022 to Oct 15, 2022.  The links to the blog posts below are in chronological order. Best viewed on a larger screen  of a computer, not on a phone. Click on the photographs in the blog posts to see larger images.   Road trip across USA - Why? What? (July 10, 2022) Road trip in a Tesla - will it work? (Aug 11, 2022)  Day -2: Road Trip Delayed (Aug 27, 2022)  Day 0: Starting Road Trip Tomorrow (Sept 3, 2022)  Day 1: The Adventure Begins (Sept 4, 2022)   Day 2: A drive through Oregon (Sept 5, 2022) Day 3: Mount Rainier National Park (Sept 6, 2022)   Day 4: Reminiscing in Seattle (Sept 7, 2022) Day 5: KOA Cabin in Glacier National Park (Sept 8, 2022) Day 6: Hiking galore in Glacier National Park (Sept 9, 2022) Day 7: Drive from Glacier to Yellowstone (Sept 10, 2022)  Day 8: Yellowstone and G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 5: KOA Cabin in Glacier National Park

  A long drive today from Spokane to the West Glacier KOA Resort, which is close to the Glacier National Park entrance. I had to slow down or stop many times during the drive due to road construction underway at multiple places. There was also a traffic jam to deal with at one place. Lastly, I had go past the most direct route for about 15 miles to get to a supercharger in Superior, MT and then retrace back.  I reached my destination for the day, a cute looking KOA log cabin in a beautiful KOA resort surrounded by mountains. The cabin has electricity, heater, refrigerator and a microwave. Not too shabby, changed my perception of what a KOA kampground is like.  The nearest supercharger from Glacier National Park is over 120 miles away. The primary reason I chose to book at KOA is because they provide access to a NEMA 14-50 220V charger. A timeslot for the single outlet they have needs to be  reserved ahead of time. I was very relieved when all of this worked and my...
3 comments
Read more

Kashmir Great Lakes Trek, 2024

Kashmir Great Lakes Trek (KGL) has been on my bucket list for many years. It is known as the most beautiful trek in India, definitely one of the most popular. After lots of research and prep work, finally did the trek from July 29 - August 4 this year, along with four of my hiking buddies from the Bay Area. It was a dream come true - spectacular hiking with wonderful friends! The trailhead for the KGL trek is near Sonmarg. We carried only small daypacks during the 7-day trek. All supplies and luggage are carried by mules/horses. We had a support staff of 6 (guides, cook, etc.) for our private group of 5 hikers. Under overcast skies and the fog rolling in, we hiked past these shepherd huts at 9000 ft. These huts are used only in the summer months by the Kashmiri Gujjars (gypsies). A few hours into the hiking on the first day, we had a heavy downpour and the raingear came out. The locals were happy to see the first decent rainfall after a dry spell of 2 months. An auspicious start to our...
Post a Comment
Read more