Richmond, DC and the End of the Road
We had a leisurely morning, having breakfast with Steve at his home. We are so fortunate to have friends open their homes to us! Thank you all who have offered to have us over or have met us along the way of our trek across America. We are sorry that we didn't get to see everyone, but we had to get to Maryland so that Yvette would make her return trip in time. After breakfast, we packed up and made the very short trip into downtown Richmond to visit the Virginia state capitol.

After that, it was about 100 miles to the Washington, D.C. Luckily, we found parking right next to the Washington Monument which was our first stop. For those of you who have been there, you know how rare that is to find.

There are more famous landmarks in this city then anywhere we have been. So we did our best to see the big ones like the Lincoln Memorial:

The Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial:

We did our best to see the White House, but security is so strict around there now, we couldn't find parking close enough to walk over to see it. By the time we got to it, it was rush hour. Rush hour in D.C. really limits your parking options. If you are parked on the street in a restricted area after 4pm, they ticket you and then actually tow you car up onto to the curb to open up traffic lanes. There are so many cars to move that it's too difficult to tow all of them away, so they just drag them all up onto the curb. Anyway, we only caught a fleeting glimpse of it the White House. Maybe we can go back and see it later while we are here in Maryland.

Unfortunately, leaving D.C. in the middle of rush hour didn't make it easy to get out of the city. The spectacular thunderstorm at the time probably didn't help matters much either. Once we got out of the city, however, the roads opened up and the sky cleared. So we had a pretty nice drive the rest of the way to our destination, finally arriving in Columbia, MD around 7pm at mile 3885.

While we were out for dinner with family that night, Yvette caught her very first firefly. Like many of you west coasters, she had never even seen a firefly before last night near Richmond, let alone caught one before. For those of you that don't know, during the summer this is a favorite activity for children (and adults!) in the evening. Fireflies, or lightning bugs as they are sometimes known, come out just as night falls and use bioluminescence to emit a yellowish glow to attract mates and prey. They fly slowly enough so that anyone can easily catch one. Little biology lesson there.

With a belly full of Maryland crab, we were able to settle down for the evening and get the full nights sleep we had been missing on our week long journey. No need to hit the road so early the next morning for a long day's drive this time.