Dennis joined us for the Amherst to Vienna VA leg of the trip, a most welcome second driver. We had one stop — lunch with Stanford ex-pats Becky and Bob, now in Berlin CT. Here is Becky sporting the traditional bandeja de cesta en cabeza for the occasion.

On the way south, we started to notice a number of places by the road — rest stops, that grassy areas by exit/entrance ramps — where folks, families with children, had set out lawn chairs and were all facing east, seeming to be waiting for something. This was across many miles of highway, so we were looking for regional or perhaps celestial events to explain what the sightseers might be doing. Please pause here to form your own theory.

Turns out they weren’t facing east but simply facing the road. Dennis asked a woman at a rest stop what was going on and … “the NASCAR trucks drive by today!”.  Seems that NASCAR Hauler Spotting is a fun family fan activity in some parts of the USA.

We arrived at the Feeney residence (John’s sister Ellen’s house), which had one contribution to the theme of this blog … this gauntlet we needed to squeeze through to get John from the garage (down a step through the door at the right) to the room we were sleeping in, still one step down from the living/dining/kitchen room area.

John climbed it once, but after experimenting, it turns out that tilting him back enough means you can pivot him on the big wheels despite the rather constrained turning spaces, and just do a series of single steps.

The next day we drove into the city to see the Roosevelt and MLK Monuments next to the Tidal Basin, with the Jefferson Memorial across the water. We finished the day’s outing at the National Building Museum, housed in the historic Pension Bureau building built after the Civil War. It has a magnificent interior courtyard the full height of the building, with giant columns topped by ornate Corinthian capitals (among the largest in the world) and has been the site of several inauguration balls. It was very innovative for the time — the interior courtyard meant every office had an exterior window and opened up to the interior space for ventilation.

A big family dinner the first night ended with a bear hug from John’s younger brother Jerry:

A good portion of our second day was spent at the Steven Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles airport — a major expansion site for the National Air and Space museum.  Photographs do not do justice to the scale of the place, but to give you an idea, that’s an enormous stealth fight in the foreground, and the Space Shuttle Discovery back in the distance. I have also included  my artsy shot of the tail of the shuttle:

Dinner was with our friend Scott and Marian — Scott and I were in the same suite our freshmen year at UVa.  A few steps up to the house posed no problem with a little teamwork, and I promised to mention the corn that was lovingly removed from the cob by the chef so John had an alternative to holding the cob.

Tomorrow our time in Vienna/Washington area comes to an end.  One friend will be sorry to see John go.