Also, he let me know they'd be going to Busch Gardens that Saturday So I packed my bags.
The plan was, initially, very similar to what I'd done the previous year: I'd stay a day or two at his house and hang out, low key, just this time with an amusement park thrown in. But I'm happy to say that all of us - so, including his wife - were willing to let the adventure take us wherever it willed. I am glad we were.
The drive was about 10 hours, with my lunch and gas stop somewhere I'd always wanted to visit: Charleston, West Virginia. I didn't take any pictures and only got to see the mall food court but it's a very pretty town. Put that on the list for future entries.
Anyway, I arrived in the evening and got escorted in through the gate by Clay to his new home. It was nice! Still a number of boxes strewn about but that's to be expected. So no pictures of inside the house. But here's the back porch:
And Chip, the cat!
D'aww.
The next day I got up way early, as I was still off kilter vis-à-vis jetlag, and wandered around the house a bit until Clay got up and we did a quick drive around the base, like last time:
Then around 11:00 it was time for the big outing of the day: Marshall's to pick up a pillow!!
Then Busch Gardens
Only took a few pictures since I was busy enjoying the rides and whatnot:
By late afternoon, we had reached one of the most iconic rides there, Escape from Pompeii. Megan declined to ride it, since she didn't wanna get wet. I thought that was a silly concern, and insisted on riding it, so Clay came along too.
After the first brief hill climb, the bow of the boat dipped just slightly too low, and water rushed into the boat, soaking everyone's feet and ensuring that walking would be supremely annoying for the rest of the day. Megan 1, Me 0.
For dinner, we went to the Oktoberfest place in the German section of the park. I don't know if I knew going in that the park was divided into European countries. I don't know if I'd forgotten or just never noticed.
We were ready to go after dinner, and I was perfectly fine with that, given my still-present ambient levels of China-induced malaise. Back at the house, with a mercifully dry pair of socks now on my feet, I half-jokingly tossed out the idea of going to bed right then and there, before then sun had even set, and Clay offered me some sleep aid type drug to help me do just that. A little wary, but desperate to reset my clock to American time, I took him up, and went to bed at 7:30 PM.
I didn't wake up until maybe 8 the next morning. It was glorious. I felt like my old self. This feeling probably contributed to the adventure we would go on later that day.
The original plan was to drive to IKEA, the nearest one being about 2 hours to the north, to pick up some furniture for the new house, and it was merely lucky that me and my big car happened to be visiting, so that I could take them and return with their very long boxes in tow. Once we got up there and got the shelves and whatnot all purchased, the question of where to eat lunch was brought up, and I happened to remember a fabulous place called Duck Donuts that's only in the NC/VA area of the country. Insisting that they would love this place, I convinced them to go, the nearest one being about 10 minutes away.
That one turned out to not be open yet. Of course! But there was another, maybe 20 more minutes north, which would then take us virtually to D.C. So, I proposed an idea: let's do it. Let's go to this donut place and then cross the Potomac and see our nation's capitol. Make a day of it. Spontaneous!
I don't know how, but I got em to sign on.
First good sign: they both conceded I had been right about Duck Donuts:
About 15 minutes further down the road, and we arrived in D.C. Found a parking deck near the mall then set out on foot. First stop: Lincoln Memorial:
With a view of the mall:
We headed in the direction of the Washington monument, hitting various memorials along the way:
Got to Washington:
Next, we headed around the lake to Jefferson, which I thought would be a quick jaunt, so I insisted upon it. It ended up adding like an hour to our day. Whoops!
We attempted to get an Uber to drive us to the Capitol building, which was the last thing I wanted to see before leaving town. We had decided to try to leave in advance of the 5 o'clock traffic, and we were quickly running out of time to make that happen. The Uber never showed, though, for some reason - the driver said they didn't have a good place to pick us up where we were or something like that, so they dropped us. So we began the walk back to the mall with a hurried pace.
Getting back to the Washington monument, Clay decided he didn't care so much about seeing the Capitol, so he volunteered to go get the car and meet us there. So we parted ways and Megan and I continued on.
Finally, we got there:
....to find it under construction and not open for tourists. Dang!
But we did get to look out over our accomplishments of the day:
Then we sat and waited for Clay by this statue:
Who took a long time to show. I called him to let him know where we were, but he told me he had only 2% battery left, so the call had to be short. I texted after a while longer, to no response. Megan and I now worried that his phone had died and he had no way of letting us know where to meet him. Eventually, he responded, saying he was behind the Capitol, having been diverted by traffic. We found him but...that was close!
Had dinner on the way home, got back, unloaded the furniture from that morning. I went to bed at a more reasonable but still early 9:30-ish, and woke the next morning to find much of the furniture assembled. Clay had apparently stayed up until 2AM to put it together.
A fairly low key final day. Megan was spending the day with friends, so Clay and I ran errands and just hung out. Watched some TV with them that night, then went to bed. Headed out on my 10 hour return journey the next day. Though I had been still wearied from China, I had an excellent trip. And it's always great to go on an unexpected adventure.
Bonus Chip pictures:
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