My second trip out of Cleveland was to the suburbs of Washington DC. I spent many summer vacations there visiting relatives as a kid. I even lived there for a couple years back in the 90’s. My good friends from Seattle moved there the previous year and since I was in the general area and they have a spare bedroom and an amazing collection of fine scotch, it was time for a visit.
First, I had to get there and as usual, no easy feat. The night before departure, I took a break from not preparing for the trip and went to the pub. I had a couple of $1.75 beers. My favorite beer, BTW. That led me to a new twist on an old habit. Procrastinating. This time I decided to procrastinate drinking cheap beer by packing up the car. It worked because in the morning I was ready to roll. At least until I got to the Costco to fill up the tank. No credit card to pay for it. And no wallet to hold any of my credit cards or cash for that matter. Not enough coins in the cup holder to get across Appalachians either. 
I dug thru the car, checked the condo and searched a few parking lots before I began hoping that I did leave it at the bar and people that drink $1.75 beers are honest enough to not help themselves to some top shelf beverages. I stopped by the bar but it wouldn’t be open until noon. What kind of bar that servers $1.75 beers is not open at 7am?
That 4 hour wait was painful. As I said, I had no cards or cash and there was not enough coins in the cup holder to get a tank of gas. I could afford a cup of coffee at the discount grocery store so I sat and read magazines and drank free (in my opinion) refills for 3 hours.
Finally the wait was over and the bar was open. I went in with high hopes and low expectations. High hopes that I tipped really well and not expecting that that I did. The search of the lost in found came back with………………. a big fat wallet. Whoo Hoo!!! Wait a minute, my wallet isn’t fat, keep digging please. Now Whoo Hoo, there it was. And there was still money in it and a month later, no weird internet shopping bills on my credit card bills.
I had lost 4 hours of driving though and wondered if I should just wait until the morning. After all, there were $1.75 beers really close. I wised up, finally and headed out. I got to Pittsburgh just in time for rush hour traffic. Not an Oxymoron either. Who knew there were still people with jobs in Pittsburgh? I spent 2 hours on the bypass. I almost got a room there but the traffic eased up and I headed into the mountains just as it was getting dark. A couple of hours later, I popped out the other side but it was late for a restaurant in the Appalachians on a Tuesday night. So I ate McDonalds and found a cheap room to crash for the night.
I was up early and made it to DC in time for Happy hour and a few days of catching up and loads of walking around.
It was nice to be back in DC. I strolled around the monuments, visited a couple of museums and generally enjoyed a nice stroll around what I think is one of the prettiest cities in the world. Except for its 9% drink tax on top of the outrageous bar prices, it has become a nice place to be.
35 years later. Just one homeless guy hanging about.
Christmas Eve came quickly and I needed to get back to Ohio. But first I stopped in Cumberland Maryland to see how it had changed since I was there in 1981. Eeek!!! Our car broke down and we had to stay over until the mechanic could get the parts to fix it. We didn’t have any money and had to stay in the Salvation Army’s homeless shelter. Not the Ritz but once you get past the black lung cough all night long, it was fine.
It was still there but the poor city has not fared well. Probably no chance of finding an open bed there now. I didn’t stay long as Santa was on his way.
It was a quick trip from there and I was home for Christmas for the first time in 35 years. It seemed very loud but it was good.
