(25) Back to DC

Saturday, November 22nd: We left Brooklyn around 9:00am for our 228 mile(4409 total miles) drive back to Washington, DC. Caroline, Jill and I were in the van and we listened and sang to musicals most of the way home. Once back at the Kennedy Center, we unpacked the truck and took everything to storage. We then went back to the office and had a short post mortem for the first leg. Even though everyone was exhausted, we went back to the hotel and Jill made a fantastic lasagna dinner with some bread and salad and Caroline made some pumpkin bread for dessert. We drank and ate and relaxed and had a great evening to finish up a long day of work.

Sunday, November 23rd: Caroline, Rudy and I woke up really early and left around 7:00am to get in line at the Washington Monument to get tickets. We stood in line for about 45 minutes in the FREEZING cold waiting for the booth to open. We got tickets for the 9:30am tour group and went over to the nearest Starbucks to have some coffee and warm up. Eric also met up with us at Starbucks. We went back down the Monument just before 9:30am and were soon riding the elevator to the top observation deck. It’s pretty awesome to be able to see that far around the entire Washington, DC area. I could have stood there for quite a while just looking if we had had the time. Eric was leaving for the airport early that morning, so we went back to the hotel. Caroline and I went down to the Kennedy Center in the afternoon to take the vehicles back with David Paige. It was some nice closure for this leg of the trip. That afternoon and evening was just some lounging around, watching tv, packing and relaxing.

Monday, November 24th: I checked out of the hotel and took my luggage down to the Kennedy Center. Caroline and I had breakfast with David Kilpatrick and then I went out to do some holiday shopping. I went back to a few places I had already been in DC(where I won’t tell you because you may be getting a present from there!) and went to a few more fun souvenir shops. After a couple hours, I made my way back to the Kennedy Center where I finished up a couple of things and then headed to the airport! My first flight was to Dallas and left around 5:40pm ET. The flight pulled out of the gate and taxied towards the run way before stopping. The pilot came on and said that they were now experiencing some troubles that they didn’t have at the gate and we would be returning to the gate so the ground crew could fix them. Everyone on the plane was a little annoyed but knew there was nothing they could do about it. We got back to the gate, they opened the door to the plane and 2 police officers came on and escorted a gentleman off the plane. Everyone was very calm and nobody paid a lot of attention even though everyone knew what was going on. After that, we taxied back out and took off. Once in the air, the pilot came back on and told us that the gentleman who was escorted off had been arguing with the gate and flight attendants and they had decided that he wasn’t worth dealing with. The plane landed safely in Dallas and my second flight took off without any problems. I landed safely in San Jose just after 11:00pm PT and Michelle was there to pick me up.

FINALLY, I made it back home to San Jose to start my “winter break.” Hopefully everyone has enjoyed this leg of the tour. I fly back to DC on January 1st to start the second leg of the tour and will start writing again once we get back on the road. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is planning a nice Holiday Season and a safe New Years!