Days 11, 12, and 13 - 5/18-5/20/07 (Washington, D.C.)

Our first day in DC was filled with Ian's graduation. The ceremony was at McDonough Gymnasium, where Georgetown basketball plays some of it's exhibition games (their regular games are played at the Verizon Center where the Wizards play) which was kind of cool. I only fell asleep once during the graduation, which I thought was pretty good. Later that night the whole family went to a very nice dinner. I had steak mmmmmmmmmm. Then Ian, Lisa, Eric, and I were off to meet some of Ian's fellow graduates to celebrate.

Saturday we had a bbq in Ian's backyard to celebrate Mother's Day (since I was on the road and Ian was in DC...Eric was doing it for the second time). It was a nice day and a lot of food, so that is pretty much all I needed. We spent the late afternoon/early evening watching a Heroes marathon. I think we saw about 6 consecutive episodes. We even ordered dinner in so we could continue watching. Now that's Simpson Quality Time. After this it was once again off to celebrate more with the other graduates. Ian's friends were really nice and it was interesting to hang out with other business school students and see the similarities to my friends at school.

Sunday I met up with Avi and Jeremy and we went to the Nationals game. It had been a while since I got to catch up with either of them, so that was fun. The game was pretty boring and in the 8th inning, with the Nationals down 3-1, we decided to leave to beat the crowd on the metro. I am staunchly against leaving games early, but decided to make an exception this one game since I wasn't too in to it and I knew the metro would be crazy if we waited till everyone else left...and wouldn't you know it? The Nationals came back right after I left to win 4-3. That will teach me.

After that we attended another bbq and then it was home to relax and pack for my flight at 6am the next morning back to LA...thus ending my little two week adventure.

Final Thoughts

I had a great trip. I am so glad I did it. The driving was actually much easier than I ever would have imagined. I was driving at a pretty consistent 80 mph the whole time, which was over slightly over the speed limit as most places were 70-75 mph. I was pretty happy to get out of the trip without a ticket. I thought for sure at some point I was bound to get pulled over, but it never happened. The fastest vehicles out there were actually the trucks. I'm used to driving up the 5 to San Francisco where the trucks are really slow and always in the right lane. On this trip I saw plenty of trucks going well over 80 and passing me.

I had a few other observations that stood out in my mind: There is a Jack FM in every region; Not all states have motorcycle helmet laws (it was so weird to see a guy riding down the freeway with no helmet); Drivers didn't seem to make as many aggressive moves as I'm used to in LA, but they still drove bad in their own way by just not looking where they were going; I enjoyed traveling by myself, but think it was a good thing that it was during the NBA Playoffs. My nightly ritual consisted of checking in to a motel, finding a nearby bar to get dinner at while watching the game, and then going to bed. If I didn't have that I might have gotten bored and lonely;...I'm sure I have others, but they aren't fresh in my head right now.

Now I am working again, far from the scenes I experienced last month. Instead, I get to explore Irvine, which is where the office is. Same thing, right? One positive is that the average 5 hours of driving I did on my trip make my 3 hour roundtrip drive to work seem almost short...right?

Below are some final fast facts about the trip, including a broad price breakdown. It definitely turned out to be a lot more expensive than I had planned it would be. A third of the price though is related to "souvenirs" I purchased on my trip. Another consideration is the fact that I traveled alone, as opposed to splitting gas and hotel with someone. That would have reduced my trip by another third.

Fast Facts:

Lowest Gas Price: $2.79 (Kentucky)
Highest Gas Price: $4.54 (On the way to Vegas)
Total Mileage: 4,018
Longest Mileage Day: 715 (Day 4 - CO to KS to OK)
Shortest Mileage Day: 217 (Day 9 - SC to GA)
Food/Drink: $600
Gas: $517
Gambling: $120
Hotel: $577
Souvenirs: $791
Signs about Jesus: High 20s
Anti-Abortion Signs: 12 (about)
Distilleries Visited: 3
Baseball Games: 4 (including one in LA and one minor league game)
National Parks: 4
Car Troubles: 1
Museums Tracing 1 Person's Life: 4 (Bill Clinton, Colonel Sanders, Elvis Prestley X2)
Memorial Museums: 2 (Civil Rights Museum, Oklahoma City Memorial)
Friends Visited Along the Way: 3
Pictures Taken: 967 (edited down to 292)
Districts Entered: 1
States Entered: 14 (click here to see the map in detail)
Cross Country Trips: 1

See all 292 pictures from my trip by clicking here