D.C. driving, roads, and parking

Sorry about the long time wait. We're here and the internet has reached us, and with it, civilization.

On Friday last, while cruising toward D.C. at 70 miles per hour, we were suddenly stuck in traffic just inside Frederick Maryland (yes, just 45 minutes from our new home). After 15 minutes shading the same patch of asphalt, some folks got out of their cars and started tossing a frisbee. We flipped channels, trying to find a traffic report. Finally we discovered that a car had lost control and run itself into a guard rail or something. A one-car accident shut down the whole road and all but one lane of the other. We got out of the car, and found a patch of grass for Lizzy. We chatted with the people from other cars. After an hour and twenty minutes, the airMed left and the ambulance and fire department and towing companies cleaned up, and we were on our way. Eeeeek. I think driving may not be a day-to-day thing if we can get away with subway.

The founding fathers spent the first year after the constitution was ratified trying to decide where to put the capital. For a bit it was in New York, and then in Philadelphia. Then they decided to relocate to a collection of cow paths on the banks of the Potomac River. They started driving their buggies up and down the cowpaths and then started calling those cowpaths "roads". This was the birth of the asphalt maze that surrounds the nation's capitol. Some of those original cowpaths are 12 lanes wide now and change names 4 or 5 times, merging and dividing as they go.

Confession: I have not yet gone to a place for the first time without having to double back at least once because I took a wrong turn or failed to take a right turn.

Later I'll tell you about towing. We now have some experience with that.