You know what is super awesome? Washing and drying all of your clothes and then arriving at your destination to find the spout on your cooler has mysteriously opened, draining the icy cold water on the bag you just put all of your washed, dried and now folded clothes in. Thankfully, the bottom four t-shirts in the bag absorbed most of the water and were able to dry out with a night of a fan blowing on them – but still, not the ideal arrival. Our departure from D.C. was not so graceful either. We started the day with a liquid softener spill in our laundry supplies bag which was followed by a battle with the D.C. freeway system…the freeway system was winning at first, but we overcame. I blame the signs (or lack there of) on the D.C. streets. It’s crazy, because if there is a sign at all, you are lucky to see it behind a tree branch that is
blocking your view of the sign or the sign is so small that there is no point in attempting to strain your eyes to see the white lettering. It would have been nice to have more obvious signs while making our exit out of D.C., but there was one sign we saw and understood very clearly. While doing the laundry (that later took a swim) in a Laundromat that was 1 mile away from our D.C. hotel we came across an interesting request. Behind the washers in the dirty, sketchy, establishment was a sign that read the following: “No drugs or alcoholic beverages at any time.” Now, call me crazy, but gosh, I figured at most places you probably shouldn’t have to be told to leave your paraphernalia or illegal narcotics at home, but of course we picked the business that felt the need to remind their customers of this once-assumed common sense rule. We weren’t really worried about our choice of Laundromat until we ran across this sign, after our clothes had already started a wash cycle. So there was really no leaving at this point, unless we wanted to finish the trip with the clothes we had on – with over 2 weeks to go that was not an option. (Not that this mattered, but we were the only white English-speaking customers in the store. The other people there were not threatening, but it was somewhat unnerving.) After a couple of hours of washing and drying clothes, we finally left the Capitol city for another Capitol city – not of a state or country, but of the financial & tourist world, the Big Apple.
One thing that we did not plan on budgeting for was tolls. I’ve been through a few toll roads in my life, all of which have added up to a few bucks. But had I known that half our budget would have been spent on the toll roads going from D.C. to New York, I may have tried to pick up another 3 or 4…dozen substitute days. Okay, maybe not half of our budget, but we spent almost $20 going through toll booths yesterday. What happened to the good ole’ days of 35 cent tolls? Oh well, I guess even the tolls keep up with inflation. Driving in to our New Jersey hotel was not as bad as I thought and thankfully, our NJ hotel room does not smell like some foreign cuisine that’s been burnt in the stove, or like a smoker’s delight room that needs a good wall scrubbing. It actually smells like a hotel should smell, and overall it has been a great hotel experience thus far. We grabbed some dinner at the little Italian restaurant attached to the lobby of our hotel and were treated kindly by the Italian manager who sounds like he was straight off the Sopranos. The next few days should be very interesting as we attempt to take on the largest city in the United States. Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Times Square, the World Trade Centers site…all of it’s on the table for a trip to New York City. Hopefully it’s as pleasant as the other cities have been so far. More from NYC soon…
From the Road Less Traveled,
Rachel & Josh
Leaving DC/NYC Day 1 Highlights: Broadway musical (Wicked, which we’ll venture into on tomorrow’s blog), Rockefeller Plaza, sweet new Conan shirt for the broski, Nintendo World (Pikachu!!!), getting in and out of NYC (although getting back was an adventure, yet another blog story for manana), good hotel, the NBA Store (another home-away-from-home), cool place to eat called Stardust.
blocking your view of the sign or the sign is so small that there is no point in attempting to strain your eyes to see the white lettering. It would have been nice to have more obvious signs while making our exit out of D.C., but there was one sign we saw and understood very clearly. While doing the laundry (that later took a swim) in a Laundromat that was 1 mile away from our D.C. hotel we came across an interesting request. Behind the washers in the dirty, sketchy, establishment was a sign that read the following: “No drugs or alcoholic beverages at any time.” Now, call me crazy, but gosh, I figured at most places you probably shouldn’t have to be told to leave your paraphernalia or illegal narcotics at home, but of course we picked the business that felt the need to remind their customers of this once-assumed common sense rule. We weren’t really worried about our choice of Laundromat until we ran across this sign, after our clothes had already started a wash cycle. So there was really no leaving at this point, unless we wanted to finish the trip with the clothes we had on – with over 2 weeks to go that was not an option. (Not that this mattered, but we were the only white English-speaking customers in the store. The other people there were not threatening, but it was somewhat unnerving.) After a couple of hours of washing and drying clothes, we finally left the Capitol city for another Capitol city – not of a state or country, but of the financial & tourist world, the Big Apple.One thing that we did not plan on budgeting for was tolls. I’ve been through a few toll roads in my life, all of which have added up to a few bucks. But had I known that half our budget would have been spent on the toll roads going from D.C. to New York, I may have tried to pick up another 3 or 4…dozen substitute days. Okay, maybe not half of our budget, but we spent almost $20 going through toll booths yesterday. What happened to the good ole’ days of 35 cent tolls? Oh well, I guess even the tolls keep up with inflation. Driving in to our New Jersey hotel was not as bad as I thought and thankfully, our NJ hotel room does not smell like some foreign cuisine that’s been burnt in the stove, or like a smoker’s delight room that needs a good wall scrubbing. It actually smells like a hotel should smell, and overall it has been a great hotel experience thus far. We grabbed some dinner at the little Italian restaurant attached to the lobby of our hotel and were treated kindly by the Italian manager who sounds like he was straight off the Sopranos. The next few days should be very interesting as we attempt to take on the largest city in the United States. Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Times Square, the World Trade Centers site…all of it’s on the table for a trip to New York City. Hopefully it’s as pleasant as the other cities have been so far. More from NYC soon…
From the Road Less Traveled,
Rachel & Josh
Leaving DC/NYC Day 1 Highlights: Broadway musical (Wicked, which we’ll venture into on tomorrow’s blog), Rockefeller Plaza, sweet new Conan shirt for the broski, Nintendo World (Pikachu!!!), getting in and out of NYC (although getting back was an adventure, yet another blog story for manana), good hotel, the NBA Store (another home-away-from-home), cool place to eat called Stardust.
