I knew I wanted to do something in DC that you can only do in DC to make the trip worthwhile. I could have sat in a hotel room anywhere. I’ve been to DC a few times but I don’t think you can ever see everything, and there’s plenty worth seeing more than once. I took the metro back down near the National Mall and went to the Newseum. I had seen it the last time I was here, but we didn’t go in. Apparently it’s one of the most popular museums in Washington, it has better reviews on Tripadvisor than any of the Smithsonians. I dunno if I thought it lived up to that hype, but it was a neat place. They have some special exhibits – one featuring John F. Kennedy, and one on 9/11, but the best parts for me were the big collection of old newspaper headlines and the display of every Pulitzer winning photograph since 1962. I’d seen several of them, stuff like Elian Gonzales, the starving child with the vulture, but there were so many more great photographs that I hadn’t seen. After I was done there, I walked a mile or more down to visit Abraham Lincoln before heading back to the metro and making it back to Union Station.
I wasn’t quite sure where I was going to stay, I thought about trying to walk a whole 10 miles to a shelter before dark but water was scarce in that stretch and I kind of wanted to keep it close to a zero day. I ended up walking maybe a mile to the neighboring town of Knoxville, MD where there’s a hostel called “Harpers Ferry Hostel.” Turned out the to be the best lodging bang for the buck of the trip so far. It’s not a normal hostel in that it’s run by an international organization rather than one or two people. The bunk room is air conditioned, the bunks are actual mattresses complete with sheets and a pillow, there’s a full kitchen, ice, and create your own all you can eat pancake breakfast – all for $20. Landon and Miranda showed up a while after I got here and Lauren and Elliot are at Harpers Ferry tonight as well so quite a few people I know caught up to me while I was in DC. Looks like maybe one more day of ridiculous temperatures, but the heat wave is breaking. Time to start part two – the North.