day two, the exorcist, getting off course, and a visit to the white house

Today I was signed up for the 12K. I figured 10 one day, 15 the second, 10 the third. Instead Bonnie thought it would be fun to do the 21K—13 miles. It turned out to be 24K plus.

The day began with opening ceremonies. I was quite disappointed that Surgeon General didn't come. She sent a Lieutenant. Walking is one of her initiatives, so I thought since it was in DC this was a must attend event. Apparently not.

After signing in, we left the hotel and began the walk the same way as yesterday using overpasses and pedestrian overpasses. Then we headed over The Francis Key Bridge and into Georgetown.

Remember when I did the 50K, I couldn't find The Exorcist stairs? Today, there they were. Right in front of me. We went up them. The Belgium walker passed us. He's wearing the blue jacket in front of Bonnie.

We reached the top and Bonnie said the Belgium walker didn't come back down. He might know a shortcut. We tried. We got close but then ran into Georgetown University. A maze with no street names. We had no campus map. We had the map they gave us at the start that was poop. After an hour of walking we were two blocks from The Exorcist stairs.

Back on course, we headed into the woods. It said it was Rock Creek National Park. It was a rustic trail. Hard to walk on, with few other paths. We walked about two miles with minimum signs, and no crossroads. I didn't even think we'd ever get out. But we did. Then we crossed a street and went back into the woods. Repeat a mile later.

Finally we emerged near the National Cathedral. There we found Bill, another member of the Wanderers. (he'll be testing my South Bethlehem walk.) We walked together till the cathedral. Then he continued and we went in. It's beautiful. I was there many years ago and had forgotten how beautiful it was. We also met up again with the singing Germans.

We exited the Cathedral and headed down Massachusetts Avenue past all the embassy's. The checkpoint was the Danish embassy. I've never checked in with a cop standing by. (Actually I think he was secret service.). Then it was about six miles down Massachusetts. Massachusetts has a bunch of circles. We got off course and ended up on Connecticut.  Poop. Off course again. Instead of backtracking we decided to look at the lame map. It looked like Connecticut ran straight thru and met up with Massachusetts again. We got some burgers and headed off with positive energy and full bellies.

Connecticut ended at 15th. The road was blocked. Lot's of cops. And restricted signs. The White House was dead ahead. We went to visit the Obama's and tried to get our bearing again. Just when we thought we were lost yet again, there was the Washington Monument—Constitution Avenue. We were only 14 blocks from the next checkpoint! While we were deciding which way to turn a really cute guy asked if we were lost. He confirmed that we were going correctly and walked with us for several blocks. He's an aide to the Republican senator from Maine. (She helped broker the compromise.)

By going our way, off course, we ended up seeing a lot more of DC. We actually were on the Federal Heritage Trail.

We came back Independence, thru the Smithsonian's, and stopped to ride the carousel across from the castle.

Another check point was ahead. The check points were spaced quite odd this time. At the Monument we turned down 14th and headed back to Constitution.  Out Constitution then up Virginia to 25, and past the Kennedy Center. We missed most of the monuments on the mall and that was disappointing. Apparently that is one of the year round walks.

Several times during this journey we considered taxis, busses, subways and bike rentals. We kept walking.

At the Kennedy Center we entered a bike trail that ran adjacent to the highway, crossed Roosevelt Island, and returned to the hotel.

My pedometer read 41,960. The first time I've crossed the 40K mark.