Driving to D.C.

It’s been a long time since I last posted. Everything is still relatively on track. Mia is running alright. The truly hilarious thing about the whole car repair situation is that it will be repeated once more. About a month after I got Mia back in my care I received a letter from Kia stating that my subframe was being recalled due to road salt deterioration. Ya think? Anyway, Mia has been taken to the doctor once again and will get a completely new subframe. And, I have sent in paperwork to get reimbursed for the other repair. I’m on a waiting list on both accounts to get this resolved. I prefer to look at this as a win win situation. I get a new subframe and I get my money back – I hope.

Knowing that my car is probably not the best to drive on long distances Alejandro and I chose to drive his car to Washington DC for vacation the first week of July. We debated about which city would be the most entertaining to visit that week. We had three options. We would take our passports and check out Toronto, a ten hour drive, or drive to St. Louis, a four hour drive, and Washington D.C., a ten hour drive. The appeal of crossing the border into Canada was quite strong. I asked Alejandro a week or two before we left which city he was most interested in going to and his answer was Toronto. We started our planning for the trip and I just couldn’t get the nagging thoughts out of my head that I have always wanted t o go to D.C. and it would be great to do that near Independence Day. So, we went.

It was a long drive, but we got to drive around a few more states than we had before. Alejandro’s car didn’t like the mountains of West Virginia or Maryland too much, but we got there. It was great to make the drive into D.C. and drive past CIA Headquarters, the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, and other monuments. It felt like all of a sudden the pictures that I already had in my head began to be connected to one another.

We set-up shop in the Capitol Hill Suites, next to the Library of Congress and a couple blocks away from The Capitol building. We fit so snugly into the townhomes and the historical buildings that it was easy to imagine living in the area. For the next few days we walked, took the Metro, and drove to several of the sights. D.C. and its surrounding areas have an interesting character.

One of the things I noticed that wasn’t too surprising was the nature of the vehicles we saw most often. Especially around the CIA Headquarters and the Pentagon there were quite a few four door sedans that were practical, non-descript, and slightly expensive. Sometimes stereotypes are true. It made me re-kindle my love for the BMW. I’m sorry to say that Mia is a cheap version of the BMW and I lust for the real thing, among other cars of course.

Spy fantasies aside, it was a good trip. We drove back on July 3rd to be here in time for the family get together at my brother’s house. It was a rainy holiday, but we managed to blow a few things up by the time the weekend was over and it was good to see everyone. And now we must plan for our next vacation ….