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Friday, 9/23 The alarm went off at 4:00 AM. I caught the light rail at 4:55. My plane was supposed to take off at 6:00. I arrived at the terminal at around 5:20 and we got the announcement that our flight was delayed due to a mechanical issue. At 6:10 the flight got canceled. There were a lot of travelers going to Boston, Dallas and New York and the counter people got them new flights first. Eventually, they got to the four of us heading to Baltimore. Even though I waited for the line to go way down, I waited in line quite a while.
My new plan was to fly out of MSP at 9:10, then fly out of Midway on a later flight. OK, fine. Then that flight got delayed. And delayed some more. Pretty soon, they were scrambling to find flights for the folks on that flight. Eventually, it got too late for me to make my connection to Baltimore. I waited in line a lot longer. When I got to the woman behind the counter, I told her I'd go to Washington, DC or Baltimore; it didn't matter. So I got on a flight that was supposed to leave at 12:26. I think that one left just about on time. I arrived in Chicago in time to board the next plane, which was supposed to leave at 2:40, but got delayed. I don't even remember when I finally got to Washington, DC, but I think it was around 6:00. I flew in to National. By now, I knew that ATA is pronounced "ghetto." We were in the shabbiest terminal imaginable, and the luggage carousel didn't turn. A guy stood where the luggage comes out and pulled it out and distributed it by hand.
I hopped on the Metro (wrong way at first), which rules. My cousin Susan met me at the Metro station with salmon spread, crackers and a plate of Indian food. I was very tired and very hungry, but in remarkably good spirits.
I laid low that night, but somehow managed to get to bed later than almost everyone.
The pitter-patter (read: clump-thump) of little (and big) feet woke me up way too early, but that was what I figured would happen.
Everyone was headed in different directions. Some went to the zoo and I don't know where the others went. I went to the war protest. There were the usual nutjobs and of course, preachy hippies. Most of the people looked like and acted like (and probably are) your neighbors. It was a very varied crowd. To my mild annoyance, there were all kinds of factions representing their various causes. (I thought a 100% focus on the war would have been nice.) I ran into John, someone with whom I've celebrated New Year's. We chatted for a while. Then I was looking for the Quakers, because they were giving away cool signs. I was about to give up, when I looked ahead of me and thought I saw... could it be? I'll wait to hear her talk, which if it's her, won't be long. I sidled up next to her without her noticing me. She asked her friends a question. I answered. heh. It was Mel all right! We worked together in Des Moines and she moved to Iowa City my second year there. She was one of my best friends in both those towns. I hung out with her and her friends the rest of the day. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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That night we celebrated Uncle Ray's birthday. I didn't feel well, but figured it was sunburn.
I woke up feeling horrible. Not rabbit fever, though. My cousins' cousin's wife led a worship service for the family. It was short and sweet. We went to Great Falls and saw the Potomac where it's quite narrow. We climbed around on the rocks a bit. It was beautiful.
I think we must have relaxed the rest of the day. As with the night before, there was talk of going downtown to see the monuments or going out for a beer, but it never panned out.
My flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00 PM, so my plan was to go downtown and see the sights, or as many as I had time for, anyway. I think I managed to get into most of the Smithsonian buildings. I whipped through most of them pretty quickly. I spent the most time in the art museums.
Here's a part of Emmanuel De Witte's The Interior of Oude Kerk, Amsterdam. I think the reason I took this picture is fairly obvious...
I caught the Metro to National. Guess what? My plane left on time! We got to Midway a little earlier than the scheduled time of 7:58. My flight to MSP was supposed to leave at 9:35 PM. Guess what? Delayed! How long? I noticed that it was delayed in Newark. We finally got word: 12:25 AM. Nice. Eventually, that got pushed back to 12:50. After my miserable day on Friday, I was a little ticked off. So what do you do? Find a bar and chat with a writer named Jim all night.
I arrived in Minneapolis at around 2:00 AM on
Kassie picked me up at the airport. I just might hate ATA, but I love DC and I had a great time with my family.
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