Roadtrips suck.

[izeveryboyin]

I just came back from a not so relaxing week on the East Coast of our wondrous nation for a family reunion. Of course I was saturated in the hugs and cheek bumps of a vast number of strange people who claim to have last seen me when I was "yea high". Of this experience I will say only one thing: too much cologne and perfume makes Kayla a nauseated girl. The highlights were, of course, the precious few moments spent sightseeing where I could ooh and ahh so that I could have an excuse not to make small talk. I saw the monument, Lincoln's Memorial, Veteran's Memorial, World War II Memorial, and every other memorial you can think of in D.C, as well as the future home of Barack Obama. Now that famous place presented a whole series of interesting sites all of it's own. In front of the white house, there is a squadron of no less than one million police and armed guards whose job seems to be to just stand around and look sinister with their arms folded. And fear not American taxpayers... they do this job well. There is also an obviously septuagenarian man sitting in a poster-laden contraption with a speaker blaring out Pink Floyd trying to get the attention of a man who spent a whole week thinking Hurricane Katrina was the name of a new dance craze. Bless him for his perseverance, but I must admit, it seems a bit in vain.There is also the technological wonder of the retracting dividers on Pennsylvania Ave, and the other surrounding streets that allow presidential personnel and the bevy of law enforcement to enter and escape at will along the streets that us regular American citizens can not be trusted to travel. Another wonder of the Capital Hill District, is the other squadron known as the street vendor. On every corner, of every street, there they are. Every possible monetary exploitation of the U.S capital is available in T-shirt form. And, as a capitalist, I couldn't be more proud. I also got to see quite a bit of the Maryland suburbs... which are vast, mountainous areas, with houses that are separated by nothing more than a small firewall and a different coat of paint. Oh the curious wonders of modern architecture. We stayed with my second oldest great uncle Richard, whose house is, and I am not exaggerating, a two-story, with a garage and a picket fence. He's a Vietnam veteran and a retired school-teacher. He IS the American we are all supposed to be. A loyal taxpayer, a vicious rule-abider, and he only drinks one beer a night. The trip would have been an amusing character study if it wasn't for the 15 hour car ride, which took the amusement right out of everything. My talkative grandmother, my fellow man-hating aunt, Myla, and my on-my-period younger cousin all shared the cramped quarters of the same car, there and back, in brutal agony. The whole ride both ways I kept saying over and over to myself, "I hate roadtrips, I hate roadtrips, I hate roadtrips". And I'm sure that I was often heard muttering that I would never go on another one again. Ever. Period. Upon return to the dismal casa de granny, I could not breathe the proverbial sigh of relief. As I sat on the dingy couch watching Satellite cable instead of Comcast, hearing the moans and groans of the 17 hundred other people with whom I was forced to share space with, all I could think was "God I wish I was back in Maryland."

[Doreen Peri]

You were here and you didn't look me up? *sob*



Oh well. I hope we'll have another time to meet. Sounds like you were very busy.

Nice write up, Kayla.

[gypsyjoker]

Washington DC kills me
The marble mausoleums to democracy
The Broad boulevards
Even more interesting to me is the lead water pipes.
Amazing

http://www.wri.org/stories/2008/03/lead ... dc-mystery

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/de ... &tid=10943

You do ennui so well. I think that is the word I am trying to think of.
Thank you for writing izzy
.

[izeveryboyin]

D!!! Fabulous D!!! Forgiveness, please. IT was very last minute... didn't know I was going that way until about a day before, packed up the young'un and myself and shoved into a rental car that I was not authorized to drive. Totally thought of you, but there were obligatory family activities EVERYDAY! I would still like to swing up there after the young'un has her first b-day. What say you?

well, there's a dark side to anything GJ. Especially in Washington.

--k

[Arcadia]

yeah... more than two persons in a car in long trips always end being too much!!

nice to know about you!!!!!!!!

[Doreen Peri]

Of course! I understand and of course you are welcome after Myla's first birthday or any other time you and I can arrange it! Hope one day to fit it in! I'm very glad you had a spontaneous visit and enjoyed DC. There's so much to do there, culturally! As I told you before, i'm a really lousy tour guide... lol..so it's all good, for sure... that you got to see the sites here!
xxoo

[mnaz]

Yes. Covering long, long miles on the road with even the most cherished of friends and family can prove to be quite the natural ordeal. Maybe some day I'll again suffer that natural ordeal. As to the more general claim of "Road trips Suck", well again, that is true. But when I went solo, I at least had enough time to try and write out why, and to change course if necessary. And God bless T shirts and bumper stickers..

[Dave The Dov]

Talk about your "National Lampoon's Vacation" then. Been to DC twice now. Last time I was there. They were setting everything up for Son Of A Bush's father's inauguration. Did you get one of those T - shirts that said "I went on a road trip that sucked and all I got was this lousy T - shirt".
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[izeveryboyin]

Dave, no... but I should have. I certainly should have.

Mnaz... I didn't have room to breathe deeply, let alone write. Twas a luxury I could not afford.

D! I'm sure you'd make an excellent tour guide. We''ll ride around in the car and you can point and say "there's the monument, there's the white house, there's Lincoln memorial..." It'll be great. I would love to really dig into the more cultural side and get touristy, see more than just capitol hill. So perhaps you can arrange that?

Arcadia... one person in a car on a long trip is too much. LOL.

[Arcadia]

you´re right, izzy!!!!!

[Nazz]

Indeed. Traveling well takes both time and 'space'.
Otherwise it's just another task.

[Dave The Dov]

Now if there was a way to shorten the length. Then there would be more time to enjoy for the space.
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[judih]

and i like roadtrips because they help me appreciate getting there.

[Doreen Peri]

D! I'm sure you'd make an excellent tour guide. We''ll ride around in the car and you can point and say "there's the monument, there's the white house, there's Lincoln memorial..." It'll be great. I would love to really dig into the more cultural side and get touristy, see more than just capitol hill. So perhaps you can arrange that?

Umm... well... i've told you this several times and I'm really not kidding. I make a very bad tour guide. Why? Because even though I have lived near DC most of my life, I rarely go there because I'm not much of a city person, I get lost easily, and city driving makes me a nervous wreck.

I do know how to get to the Mall driving but every time I've driven there to show a guest around, I had a hard time finding a place to park anywhere near the Mall. I know where some of the monuments and buildings are like the Capital, the Wash monument, some of the Smithsonean buildings, the National Art Gallery, etc. Is that what you mean by culturally?

But I still wouldn't want to drive down there. I drove to the 2 Cabaradio shows we had downtown but did it very reluctantly and only because we had to carry equipment with us and that was the only way to do it. After one of the shows, it took me almost 2 hours to get back home because I got lost in the city. Embarrassing. I'm only 20 miles west of the city. Two hours? haha

I would definitely prefer the subway if you come again if that's OK with you and will suggest the same to anyone else who might visit, including those who may come for the 5th anniversary party we're starting to plan for next summer. And as for tour guide doing that, well, we'd drive to the subway station which is like 20 minutes from me, park and look at the names of the stops and decide where we want to go. (Smithsonean station, for instance). I'd be almost as much of a tourist as you.

Just being honest, Kayla. We could maybe find the locations of some spoken word poetry spots and figure out which subway station they're near. If you want to do anything else culturally, you could tell me what you want to see, and just like a tourist, just like you, I'd find it on mapquest and figure out what subway station it's near and then we could go.

Seriously, tour guide I am not. I'm really not very good at it.

[Dave The Dov]

Mostly everything in DC is around the Mall. So it's easy walking distance. Although what I saw on CBS' "Sunday Morning". There was a news item on how it's falling apart and is in need of repair.
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