In 2020, my church was planning a trip to Washington, D.C. as part of our Seniors travel. We had taken a trip to see the Ark in Kentucky a few years before, so this would be the next big trip for us. I really wanted to go, because I had not toured Washington since 1964, even though I had been there other times but just not to tour. The trip was called off, when the pandemic hit.
Two years later, it was announced that we were going to try again. One thing that I was dreading was taking a tour bus. It wasn't because of the comfort of the bus, but rather it was going to be a long ride. Having been on trips with these folks before, I knew we would have to stop several times along the way to go to the restroom. That was the nature of going with seniors. Rest Stops! So, I decided to get prepared. I started recording a bunch of music onto an MP3 player. I got some stuff off of the internet as well as my vast cd collection. Everything from Jazz to Disco to Rock to Soundtracks to Folk. Bob Dylan, Steppenwolf, Village People, Chicago, Kiss, James Bond, The Beatles, Woodstock, Prince, The Who, The Bee Gees, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and so much more. It took me several months to get it together. I also got some cheap noise-cancelling headphones for the trip. I was ready.
When we got the itinerary, it showed that we would leave the church at 6am on Thursday, but we had to be at the church at 5:30 to load up. Much too early for me. I started training my body a week ahead of time to wake up at 4am. I also knew I would have to call an Uber to get me there, since the buses didn't run that early. Back in 2020, I had bought a couple of pieces of Luggage that were from the Presidential days. I got a hanging bag that had the seal of the National Security Council from the George W. Bush administration and a computer bag with the seal of Air Force One from the Bill Clinton administration. They were originals. I thought it would be cool to impress the hotel workers. When I boarded the tour bus, I went toward the back to sit and found that the bus was equipped with a restroom. The only stop we were going to make along the way would be for lunch.
As the bus pulled away, the first thing on my player was the soundtrack to "A Star Is Born" from the 70's. It was great! We went through Richmond on the way. I was there last in 2008 for a family reunion and saw some familiar places from the highway. We stopped for lunch about an hour outside of Washington. We had a little over 40 people on our trip, so we had to go to a few different restaurants to be able to get back to the bus within an hour. Easy Peasy!
We got to downtown Washington around 3pm and headed toward the Smithsonian. A couple of us wanted to go to the Washington Monument, but we were told that there were no more timed tickets. The Smithsonian was cool. American History in a nutshell. I was looking forward to seeing the Entertainment section with memorabilia from TV and the movies. That part was closed for renovations, which made me very disappointed. After a couple of hours there, we boarded the bus and went for supper at a sports bar near the Potomac. Breakfast and Dinner were included in the trip, so they knew we were coming. The food was good. We then headed to the hotel to check in. It was located in Arlington near the Pentagon and Reagan Airport.
The next morning, I went down to breakfast and found about 200 middle school and high school students in line for breakfast. The middle schoolers were from Indiana and the high schoolers from Chicago. I talked to one of the chaperones, and they told me they had flown in the night before. I hoped it was a charter plane and not commercial. Imagine working on a plane with that many kids. I asked the chaperone where they were going. She told me the Spy Museum and Arlington National Cemetery. I asked if I could go with them, but she said no.
Our first stop was the Bible Museum. My hip was hurting from all the walking the day before, but I trudged on. This museum was beautiful. There were frescoes on the walls and ceilings made of Tiffany glass. The exhibits were too many to take in with the time we had, but we saw a lot of old Bibles and some multimedia presentations. It came time for lunch. They had a restaurant in the museum. One thing I realized was that the air was warm inside the museum, even though it wasn't cold outside. I started getting faint while waiting in line to get my food order in. I needed to get to a restroom to put cold water on my face. I got out of line and looked for a chair to sit down. I then stood back up to look for a way to the restroom. I realized I couldn't make it, and I fell. Thankfully, our tour director saw I was having trouble, and he caught me as I was going down. I hit my elbow on the floor but not my head. A woman came over and put her purse under my head, and they called for help from the museum staff. They asked me if I had hit my head, and I said no. After getting back up in a chair, they brought me some ice and water. The tour director took me to the restroom, and I started to feel better. I had some french fries and felt I could continue.
Most of us left the Bible Museum, although a few people in our tour stayed. Some of the folks wanted to go to the Holocaust Museum. That sounded too depressing to me, so I went with others back to the Smithsonian. The tour director wanted to stay with me to make sure I was okay. He was nice, but I had other plans. A friend's husband was a record collector, and they were going to a used record store near the Capitol. I asked if I could go too. They had gone on to the Natural History Museum, and I was to meet them there. I asked several locals where it was, and each person said it was next door or across the street. I finally found it, and I hooked up with my friends. We were going to ride the Metro over there, and I had to be reeducated how to get a Metro Card.
When we got to the address, we didn't see the record store. I went into a bank and asked someone, but she didn't know. We found a bookstore. I asked the workers where the record store was. They didn't know either. It turned out that the store had closed during the pandemic and had been replaced by a gaming store. We then found that the Metro train didn't go back to the Smithsonian stop, where we were to meet our tour bus to go to dinner. We took it as far as we could and began to walk. My hip was killing me, but I had to keep going. We walked through a downtown mall and found ourselves in an unknown place. We were never going to make it back in time, so I told my friend that we should get an Uber. She had never done that before, so I walked her through it. The Uber came, and we hopped in to get to the restaurant.
It was after 5pm on a Friday in downtown Washington. Traffic was very heavy, but our Uber driver must had one time driven in NASCAR. He flew through the city streets, and we got to the restaurant before the tour bus did. It was beautiful Italian restaurant with autographed pictures of patrons on the walls. I saw a Frank Sinatra signed picture that would have looked great in my apartment, but it probably had an alarm on it. I chowed down on the food, since I hadn't had much to eat all day.
We left the restaurant and did a tour of the monuments by night. We went to the World War II Memorial; the Lincoln Memorial (where I stood on the spot where Dr. King had given his "I Have a Dream" speech; the Vietnam Wall (which was very emotional for me, because I had been in the Anti-War Movement back then); and the Korean War Memorial. I was glad that a friend suggested I bring a winter coat for this portion of the tour. I needed it. We then drove by the White House from two blocks away. It was as close as we could see it. We also saw a small motorcade drive fast past us. It was probably the White House Chief of Staff. I was exhausted, when we got back to the hotel. It was overall a good day.
We left the hotel Saturday morning at 8:30 to head back to Columbia. We had all thought we really needed one more day of touring up there, but we were glad we went. I listened to music all the way back. We stopped twice. Once for gas and the other for lunch. We got back around 5pm. I took an Uber home. It was an amazing trip, even though I did have that health problem. One thing that was a takeaway from the trip was that buildings don't believe in air conditioning. If they had, it could have been better for me. When are we going back? I still have a lot of music I haven't listened to.
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