On the road again

8 A.D.

Anna was with us for about 10 minutes before she discovered there was a spare bed going in a room with some friends she’d met the previous day, so she took it. Did we care? Not one bit – a private room for us! We spent a quiet evening on the netbook planning some future routes for the next few weeks and weighing up which towns to try and hit. We also took care of our Niagara Falls dilemma, but more about that later. Just as we were winding down and thinking about hitting the hay, the clock struck 10.30 (the time things always seem to happen) and the door to our room flew open and in burst Hannah and Mike to destroy the tranquil peace we’d established. Claiming to be no more than friends, Hannah was extremely loud, Mike was very mild-mannered, and to be fair they were both very nice, if a bit full-on. The Grayboys made conversation for a while, but our hearts weren’t in it and we couldn’t help but wonder if H and M were in the mood for a party. Fortunately they weren’t and we all got off to sleep peacefully, with no rogue noises or movements to disturb the communal slumbers.

[ A great place to live???]

We allowed ourselves a lie in next morning and awoke to find Hannah and Mike had left as quickly as they’d arrived. This day held the latest in a line of challenges for us – we would be booking onto the night bus to Niagara Falls, leaving D.C. at 6 p.m. and getting into N.F. at 8 a.m. the next morning. We were a little dismayed to see that to get there we had to travel back through New York! Re-tracing our steps, maaaan! The plan was to grab some sleep here and there and then check into our hotel at midday and grab some more snoozies. But plans are always subject to change....

[The next hotel we will be staying at.]

We checked out of D.C. Lofty at 11 (stripping the beds as per the rules) and left our backpacks in the corridor, displaying a massive amount of trust in our fellow travellers (should they be able to break through our numerous padlocks!) Our time in Washington was almost up, but before we left we wanted to see the western suburb of Georgetown, which our aunt and uncle raved about when they came here. And it was certainly pretty, with a colonial, almost frontier-like feel to it, but it didn’t make us rave. Maybe we’ve seen too much good stuff already? Or maybe the continuing heatwave experienced by northeast America was creating an anti-rave factor! We ate lunch at Subway for the first time since arriving. I loved it.

[James gets stuck into some light reading over breakfast in an Arabian coffee house / bookshop.]

We returned to D.C. Lofty just before the first Euro 2012 quarter final kicked off, so we chilled our beans in front of the big screen for a bit. It was then a tough trek to the bus terminal and we made sure we didn’t pass through the same dodgy area of two days ago. And that’s you up to date, dear reader. By the miracle of modern wi-fi technology I am writing and posting this on the Greyhound express service to New York. Hope you slept soundly last night, England.