Why, hello there! So great of you to join us for another installment of 26 Sundays. We’re once again set up for business in YET ANOTHER Starbucks – this time in Waynesboro, Virginia. It’s been quite the week so let’s get right to it.

Our home for the few days we spent in Baltimore was a rest area in Laurel, MD. This is where we headed after Brian’s previous post and where our post for this week begins. The place was great – very welcoming to travelers and very generous with the length of time they allow you to stay. Teeechnically, Maryland state law allows stays up to 3 hours. This was signposted at the Laurel rest area….in only one place, away from the restroom/vending machine section where the majority of the foot traffic goes, and in teeny tiny print. They clearly don’t hold to it very strictly. Police patrolled the area throughout the night and it felt very safe and friendly, with several other vans/RVs/assorted passenger vehicles also pulling in to rest overnight. Thanks, Maryland, for making our journey smoother and giving us a safe convenient place to sleep!

We awoke at the rest area on Monday morning with plans to visit downtown Baltimore. We had to stop at a Walgreens for some tape beforehand, as we use it to secure our window blinds and had run out. During this journey we reflected on how similar the business complexes we’ve seen across the states have been; the place we found a Walgreens was incredibly reminiscent of North Western Las Vegas…minus all the cacti. We found a giant moth friend outside the Walgreens and rolled our eyes at the fully stocked Christmas shelf above the Halloween shelf. They waste no time!

Downtown Baltimore differs from Las Vegas in a lot of ways, despite similarities on the outskirts of the city. For one thing, Baltimore has tons of one way streets – hilly, windy one-way streets. Parking rates seem to follow no specific order, with meters on opposite sides of the intersection advertising parking for $2.50, then $2.25, then $3 per hour. Luckily we found a space a little farther out that only cost $2 per hour. Our destination was about a 3 minute walk up the street so that served us just fine. Which destination, you ask? Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, final resting place of Edgar Allen Poe!

His grandfather is buried in a separate lot in the same graveyard. Eddie’s particular tomb is shared with his wife/cousin and aunt/mother-in-law (are these guys part Targaryen or something?)

We spent as much time as our dwindling collection of quarters could afford us wandering around this historical and eerie little hall. That amounted to about 40 minutes. In that time we learned about Poe’s life and his affinity for Baltimore, which appears to be a mutual feeling. The city honors him in several ways, including in the name of their NFL team (which was fun news to me!) Poe lived, and has since been memorialized, in several places that we’ve visited recently and we’d been a little disappointed that we were ultimately unable to visit the other houses/landmarks in the Bronx and Philadelphia. But at least we got to see his spooooky graaaaave! He probably would’ve liked that the best anyway.

By the time evening began to fall, we set our sights on the Inner Harbor, a nice little tourist trap in the middle of Baltimore. We decided we’d better get some crab cakes so Phillip’s Seafood, right on the water, seemed as good a place as any to achieve that task. Luckily our arrival was only 10 minutes before happy hour. We decided to peruse the menu for a little while and then took advantage of the discounted prices. We had a couple of local beers – I had a Lot No.3 IPA and Brian had a Primal Pale Ale, both from Evolution Brewing of Salisbury, Maryland. We also split the Double Canon Double IPA from Heavy Seas Brewery of Baltimore. To eat we had crab dip and french bread, and then we split a crab cake dinner. The cakes were moist and fresh and delicious and afterward we were all crabbed out!

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We walked back along the harbor at a brisk pace to make sure we got back before our parking expired. We made it with 2 minutes to spare, hooray! The last stop inside the city that we wanted to check out was the Holocaust memorial. We had a bit of a situation trying to pay to park at a meter that ate Brian’s quarters and didn’t even acknowledge having done so. Very rude indeed. Brian spent a few minutes on the phone, keeping guard at the car so that nobody would come along and ticket us while we tried to remedy the situation. I took the opportunity to go and have a look at the memorial. It was haunting. The main section of the memorial represents two freight train cars, the foreground modeled to look like several train tracks all converging in the center of the cement side of the memorial grounds. Behind was a “green pasture” of sorts, visible but blocked off and inaccessible from the freight cars. I’ll post pictures because I don’t think words can really do it justice. We never got the meter issue resolved and we lost 2 quarters, but at least I got to see what we were there for…albeit not for long.

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Having spent so much time in Starbuckses over the past week, we began to feel a little separation anxiety… It was back to the bucks for a couple more hours to wind down the remainder of the evening. Brian crunched out some more remote work and I consumed some delicious visual trash on Netflix. Mmmm, drama! Intrigue! Scandal!

After a nice, cozy night at that lovely Laurel rest area, we ventured out on Tuesday morning for our final point of interest in Baltimore – the Cylburn Arboretum! This place was like something out of Alice in Wonderland. The grounds contain huge gardens, woodland trails, water features, a stream, and more trees than you could imagine. It’s a great area for bird watching and there are squirrels everywhere! We spent some time following winding trails, getting back in touch with nature and watching critters dart in and out and up and down the canopy of trees overhead. I wanted so badly to see an Oriole. I mean, what better place than Baltimore? We may have seen one or two, but didn’t distinctly recognize any of the little orange-brown flashes of light between bushes as orioles for sure. We did see a few cardinals and watched a squirrel make a daring leap between tiny branches, clinging on for dear life! Such DRAMA!

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Soon it was time to leave the treeotorium as it was getting late and chilly. We decided we didn’t have any other distinct plans for our time here, so we’d do some housekeeping stuff in the form of laundry. After a mild mishap of loading the wrong amount onto a laundry card and requiring the help of a kind employee to fix the issue, our bag o’ stinks was on the way to being fresh and clean again! We read while we waited…we’ve got lots of books to get through. After laundry it was back to the rest area for a dinner of bowties, tomato sauce, green beans and soy protein while we listened to the Democratic debate. MORE DRAMA, goodness gracious. It felt good to listen live (thanks NPR!) It’s easy to fall behind with the goings on of the world while traveling, though the ability to check out is kind of the beauty of traveling as well. Tonight, for a change, we were able to experience in real time the event that would undoubtedly be clogging up our news feeds for several days to come.

And just like that, the night passed and it was time for us to leave the rest area for the last time. We made some oatmeal in the rain and paid our respects to this lovely place we’d been hanging our hats for the past few days. Today we were off to our next stop – Washington DC! But first we’d be stopping by a Planet Fitness for a much needed shower, and perhaps even a little pumping of our guns and/or buns. The day’s forecast gave rain pretty much nonstop which put a bit of a damper on our plans, so to speak. Fortunately we had about two days’ worth of activities and three days in which to get them accomplished. After PF we stopped by a local park and made some chili mac in the sheltered picnic area, contemplating our options of where to stay overnight. There was a rest area on the opposite side of the freeway from the one we’d utilized that very morning, but it was a little ways out. “Stealth camping”, aka sleeping in the car, on neighborhood streets is an option anywhere free overnight parking is allowed, but we haven’t done it yet on the trip. The possibility of perturbed residents is a bit off-putting if we have other options. It was decided that we’d try out the other rest area. Hopefully they’d be just as accepting of us weary travelers as their counterparts across the freeway. For the rest of the evening, though, it was back to a Starbucks for some wifi with which to plan our next couple of days.

While at this ‘Bucks, we figured out the most cost-effective way to travel around DC without having to drive the stress-inducing downtown streets. Brian did a little remote work, but this was indefinitely curtailed by a conversation was struck up by another patron across the table from us. We didn’t get his name, but we did end up deep in conversation about human nature and observations on US culture from someone who has done much more traveling around the world than we. He was from West Africa, spent time in Europe (specifically living in France for some time), and had made his way to the US. I’m not sure what sparked the conversation but I’m glad for it nonetheless. This trip has had no shortage of kind strangers who have stopped to chat and impart nuggets of wisdom upon us as we make our way around the country.

We stayed until closing and headed to the rest area for the evening. This one was laid out similarly to its Southbound counterpart, but seemed to have more separate areas for cars to park in. We nestled between two other cars whose windows were covered up and cracked for the night. A truck pulled in near us in the middle of the night and sat there idling…for hours. Y’all. Don’t do that. It’s illegal and wasteful as heck and NOISY! This uncool fool left before morning so we didn’t have a chance to kick his butt. Lucky for him.

Another morning at a rest area…another serving of oatmeal and instant coffee. When we were adequately fueled up for the day, we began our journey into DC! Weee! Our plan was to park at the Greenbelt metro station and ride the rails down to the National Mall, then hoof it all day until it was time to go back to Greenbelt again. It was a pretty cost-effective plan and we even got discounted parking for paying with our metro card! The train took us right to the middle of the Mall (the L’Enfant Plaza stop, if any of you nerds are interested). The best way we saw to tackle the huge beast that is the National Mall and accompanying museums, memorials and exhibits was to focus on the East side of the Mall on day 1, then the West side on day 2. Nice manageable chunks!

Our first point of interest was the Capitol building. We hadn’t really planned to spend much time here, as it’s closed to random visitors and requires you booking a tour (the tours are free, but you know we don’t have that much forethought!) Unfortunately we were lured over by the view of a small crowd congregating on the front lawn. As we got closer, however, we started picking up on a few signs: red hats; American flag-covered clothing; a general sense of restricted minority rights in the air… etc. Yup, we’d walked right into a crowd of Trump supporters. We hung around at a distance and tried to pick up on the reason behind this meeting and to figure out the attitudes of those involved. I started getting a tummy ache seeing all the “women for Trump”, “immigrants for Trump” signs. Sigh… I tried to suppress the roiling rage and disbelief in my blood. We stood close to a couple of people in a debate and tried to identify who was on which side. It took a grand total of 15-20 seconds. Suddenly an older white dude approached me and asked if I knew what was going on. Without thinking, I said “I don’t know, just a bunch of Trump supporters I guess” and rolled my eyes. He said “huh” and we watched the MAGA crowd in front of us for about 5 seconds… All the while I was anticipating his possible responses to my clear distaste for the Cheeto-in-Chief, as I had no idea of this dude’s stance. Soon he shrugged, said “well who knows, must be a bunch of idiots eh?” with a smile, and wandered off. Phew. Sincere or insincere? Who’s to say. Non-confrontational either way? You betcha! What a relief. I’d had enough partisan-related stress for one day so we scooted our booties on to the next stop.

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This was Brian’s first trip to DC and my third. A must-see stop on both of my previous visits had been the Jefferson Library of Congress, and Brian was eager to get a look with his own eyes! We wandered the fabulously decorated building and took in the current exhibits: one called “Exploring the Early Americas” with information about the early exploration of North America by the Europeans and featuring tons of old-world artifacts, including maps, books and pottery; and another called “Shall Not Be Denied“, which detailed women’s suffrage in the US from its early days around the civi war era all the way up to continuing struggles of our modern era. We learned a lot and it got me PUMPED for our caucus in February 2020! Especially considering the shenanigans we’d witnessed earlier on the lawn. Your vote is your voice! Inaction is an active choice.

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Our next stop on the day’s agenda was yet another place I’d come on both of my previous DC trips – The Tune Inn! It’s a classic dive bar with great, though a little greasy, typical American bar fare. Deer asses on the menu dictate their signature dishes. Apparently Guy Fieri likes the place? For what that’s worth. It has tons of history, good beer selection, and a catfish po’boy that keeps me coming back each time I’m in town. Unfortunately this one was the greasiest one yet and was thus not quite as delicious as the ones in my memory… but I think I’d still go back and give them a chance at redemption if I happened to be in the area again!

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When we were certifiably stuffed, we began to make our way back down the National Mall on the north side. The congregation on the lawn had mostly dispersed by now. It was just after 5pm, so swarms of people slowly started to leak out of all of the buildings that border the grassy middle of the Mall. We walked along, people- and squirrel-watching. By the time we were approaching the Washington Monument it was almost sunset. We decided to sit on a bench nearby and enjoy the sunset behind that big pointy obelisk. This proved to be another great spot for people-watching as plenty of others saw the opportunity for a “golden hour selfie” in this picturesque spot.

Our feet were getting tired but we mustered up just enough energy to head down to the White House for one more stop on our sightseeing adventure. It was a pleasant time of evening in all aspects but one – the traffic was INSANE. Why does anyone drive in downtown DC? Don’t you people know what you’re getting into? There were gridlocked intersections all over the place, horns blaring from every corner of the Mall, angry drivers yelling at pedestrians disobeying the traffic lights…what a nightmare. Luckily we only had to cross one major street and then it was almost all footpaths to the White House. Legend has it, according to Brian, that before the famous burning of the white house by those damn unruly Brits, the House wasn’t actually White. But what color it was remains a somewhat elusive fact. Maybe grey? But that’s boring. Let’s keep the mystery alive and assume maybe it was pink.

Cute, right?

After grumbling in the direction of the White House, then feeling bad and clarifying that the negativity isn’t directed at the house itself, rather the inhabitants, we decided to call it a day.

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The walk to L’Enfant Plaza, train ride back to Greenbelt, and drive to the rest area took about an hour and a half in total. We passed out pretty much as soon as we set up our bed.

Day #2 in DC was to be focused on the West side of the National Mall. We’d reviewed all of the Smithsonian museums in the general vicinity a couple of days ago, and a little more that morning. The museums all close at 5:30pm so, in order to thoroughly explore and enjoy, we decided to stick to 2 locations – the Smithsonian Institution Building, more commonly referred to as “The Castle”, and the Natural History Museum.

First things first – breakfast! We’d woken up late so we decided not to waste time cooking breakfast and instead to head to a place that would cook it for us. Our choice was the Silver Diner just outside of Greenbelt. Kudos to them for carrying Beyond sausage patties! We fueled up for the day with some sausage and egg biscuits and coffee and took in the cute ’50s decor before heading downtown.

The Castle was our first stop as it was located nice and close to L’Enfant Plaza. We read about the Smithsonian as an institution, as well as its founding by James Smithson. Smithson’s remains are located on-site so we got to see another spoOoOoky toOoOomb!

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As well as general information, The Castle has little tastes of all of the individual Smithsonian institutions in this location. We wandered through a variety of displays from the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of American History, the Postal Museum… the list goes on. They even had a live panda cam feed from the National Zoo! Adorable.

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Thankfully, despite the variety of information, the accessible areas of The Castle are relatively small and don’t take a lot of time to explore. We were able to wander until we were content and still had several hours left to cross the Mall and explore the Museum of Natural History. This is something we’d both been looking forward to. From the moment we entered and were stared down by a giant African elephant to the moment we exited past that same elephant’s giant butt, we were in awe.

We set our sights on a specific handful of exhibits. It was unlikely we’d be able to pay every exhibit as much attention as it deserved. Our first stop was dedicated to marine life. The variety of specimens was unbelievable, from tiny critters that had to be viewed under a microscope to a giant whale looming overhead. The back section of this exhibit is dedicated to marine conservation, emphasizing the need for all of us to work together to make sure our oceans continue being able to support life. I got teary-eyed looking at a poor baby albatross with a tummy full of plastic trash while a child next to me complained to his parents that “this museum is BOOORING! When can we go HOOOME?” Hey, kid! Can it! This stuff is important! Thankfully he was one of two kids and the other seemed actively engaged and interested, asking the parents questions about some of the displays. You win some, you lose some.

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After being reminded how we’re destroying our oceans I was thoroughly depressed and in need of some cheering up. We set out in search of the butterfly pavilion! I had fond memories of this area of the museum, having visited it with Maddison several years prior. Walking through an indoor garden with pretty fluttering friends all around me sounded just delightful. The rest of the museum is also filled with COOL STUFF, so our walk to the butterflies was mighty enjoyable. We passed animal remains and taxidermy displays, an exhibit on contagious diseases, human artifacts from long lost civilizations, dinosaur fossils, and a hallway of little creepy crawlies in glass cases. I was particularly enamored with an orange-kneed tarantula. We also got to see a brown recluse! Yucky! Now I know what to look out for back in Vegas to avoid death by spider.

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To my delight, the butterfly pavilion was located right through the hallway behind all of the other insects! To my dismay, they’ve started charging for entry to the butterfly pavilion! THE NERVE. The line was a bit bonkers and ticket prices were more than we were willing to spend, so we walked past and peeked in to watch other people enjoying the experience that I’d so looked forward to. Oh well. We’ve been in plenty of natural (free) outdoor (free) pollinator gardens on this trip so far, so I hardly feel like I haven’t had my fair share of butterfly closeness! We shrugged and headed off to another exhibit.

The last exhibit we got to explore in any great detail was precious stones and gems and sparkly thingies. This museum is home to the Hope Diamond, one of the most famous sparkly guys in the world! It’s also apparently cursed. We watched people oohing and aahing as it rotated in its little case. We also saw absurdly large crystal balls, offensively sparkly jewelry, and all manner of human-sized mineral and gem specimens.

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It was about this time that the museum staff began ushering us out, as it was closing time. We were ushered in one direction, and then met by a crowd of patrons being ushered in the opposite direction. Madness! Eventually we found our way out and proceeded down the Mall, again crowded by other folks recently ousted from museums. As the sun began to set, we headed in the direction of Abe.

The walk from the Natural History Museum to the Abraham Lincoln Memorial takes you past the Washington Monument and the World War II memorial. We also covered the length of the Reflecting Pool, glancing back every now and then at the Capitol building off in the distance. From across the pool we could see a huge accumulation of folks on the steps of Abe’s memorial. We wondered what we’d be in for this time!

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As we got closer, it became clear that these crowds were just tourists. It seemed to be a pretty popular time to go admire Honest Abe and read some of his old quotes etched into the wall (including the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address). We reflected on his hopes for the nation and put them into contemporary context. What do you think, Abe? How did we do?

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There are several other presidential memorials on the way from Abe’s to L’Enfant plaza and we made it our goal to see as many of them as we could in the dwindling evening light. We followed a Lutheran school field trip group of children in MAGA hats (😤) and tried to linger close enough to get a feel for what they were taking away from these memorials, including MLK Jr., but not so close that we made it weird. Somehow the leader of the group managed to gloss over all the MLK quotes lining the walls of his memorial and talk about Ronald Reagan… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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We lost the kids somewhere between MLK and FDR. The Roosevelt memorial was ENORMOUS. Unfortunately it was very dimly lit and night had fully fallen by the time we arrived. We stumbled about in the dark trying to make out the quotes engraved on the wall with our phone flashlights. Luckily the sculptures themselves of FDR, Eleanor and Fala were all illuminated enough that we could enjoy them even at nighttime.

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This was our last evening in DC and we just about squeezed everything in. There’s always more to see than we have time to see things in, but that’s kind of the theme of the trip. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we prioritized getting a quick bite to eat before heading South to a new rest area for sleep. Pizza Boli’s was our choice for tonight and we devoured a small veggie white pizza in the car.

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On to the next location! The Cars Only rest stop in Dale City was a perfect in-between stop for us to get some sleep before heading down into Charlottesville, VA. On the way we hit another Planet Fitness for some exercise and shower time. We’d be staying in “CVille” with a friend of mine named Matt whom I’d met at Bonnaroo, 5 whole years ago now. I’d been to visit in DC the following year, but we hadn’t seen each other since that trip in 2015. We met at Tilman’s, a quaint little wine and cheese bar/restaurant where Matt works. We caught up and Brian got acquainted, and we were soon off for an evening of trouble!

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Our first stop was a rustic little dive bar called Durty Nelly’s. We shared a pitcher of PBR and swapped stories, catching up on life developments since the last time we’d hung out. We saw throngs of people in UVA football gear leaving the game that had just taken place down the street. Apparently UVA won so everyone was happy. We made our way to Fry’s Spring Station across the street for some whiskey, then back to Nelly’s as the Fry’s vibe wasn’t quite as favorable. We sat inside at Nelly’s and sipped and talked to some other friends we’d made, whose names I don’t remember but who were great fun! There was a band playing (I think?), a raucous-but-friendly crowd, a fire and a general cosy atmosphere. We decided food might be a good idea, not having eaten since breakfast. We shared some deviled eggs, mac salad, and a veggie sub from the adjoining deli. It was the best food I’d ever eaten (at the time)! When it was time to wind down and head home, we walked the mile-ish through cute little streets and along train tracks. Don’t ask me how I felt in the morning as it is UNIMPORTANT!

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Needless to say, the next morning was a late starter. We sat together and pieced together the previous night’s exploits over tea and apples. Brian and Matt discussed whether hot dogs are sandwiches. The title of this post was born. Feeling fully revived, it was time to head to Tilman’s for some wine and cheese. The cheese selection was incredible and Matt’s coworkers made great suggestions and let us sample a few cheeses before making our choices. We stayed here for a while chatting and then decided to explore a little more of the downtown mall area.

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Over the next few hours we ended up stopping at 3 more bars, all of them unique. The first was a third storey smokey pool hall in a bar called Miller’s. The dimly lit hushed atmosphere reminded me of the Snooker club from days of yore. Remember that, fammies? We didn’t spend long inside, instead opting for the downstairs patio to people watch. It was sprinkling at this point and to our delight we saw not one but TWO dogs in raincoats walking by! Adorable and worth the wet butts from rained-on seats.

Next stop was a bar on the UVA campus called The Biltmore. We hung out upstairs with the bartender who wanted to know all our favorite spots from the trip. We ate some nachos, had a beer and vaguely feigned interest in the Ravens game on the TV behind us (those Poe-y guys!) We also ate some of the bartender’s chicken wings while he was away…teeheehee. Don’t tell!

Third and final stop for the evening was a bar called Holly’s Diner. We sat inside, then outside. We talked with the bartender, then split a delicious black bean quesadilla on the back patio in the dark. We had a nightcap and talked and laughed about horoscopes and travels with another couple sitting outside. It was a wonderful tour of Charlottesville and great to see friends, old and new. Matt had a lost phone panic moment toward the end of the night, but we were relieved to discover that it had been left on the counter in the kitchen when we arrived home again. D’oh!

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That takes us through Sunday evening, which is where I’ll leave you. Brian will pick up next week with our journey through Virginia out into the woods. We’ll be out of touch for a few days, so don’t worry about us if you can’t reach us! We’ll be back with lots of lovely mountain stories sooner than you think.

❤️