We got our extremely fun two-way radios (the trip would have been unbearable without them) and headed on our way. First stop: Hartford. In traffic. For two hours. With an almost empty gas tank. That was lots of fun. At least we were able to amuse ourselves with the couple in the car between us (who got there, incidentally, by cutting in front of us from the "don't drive in this" lane from the carpool lane.) The lady driving kept opening her door and sticking her head out of it for something or other. At one point she actually got out of her car and made some guestures to a guy helping someone else with car trouble. It looked to me like she was actually expecting to get her out of the traffic jam or something, but I'm probably just making that up.

We lost Sam and Leen after Hartford, but thanks to the help of out wonderful radios, we were able to find them again and take an exit to get some food and much needed gasoline! We were very lucky to not run out of gas, because what would we do if our car wouldn't BUDGE? Gas in Connecticut was $1.77 a gallon. I'm not going to complain about gas here anymore, that's for sure. We put eleven plus gallons in our tank, which only holds twelve. What was really weird was that we had just filled the tank the night before. We assumed something had gone wrong then. Oh, I forgot to mention that our gas gauge was broken. It showed all the way past full right up until it was empty. That's not a fun thing to deal with.

Hmm...this is getting way too long, so I'll skip ahead a couple of hours. Sam and Leen got pulled over! Leaving Harrisburg, PA, they were following us since I knew those roads well. At one point they ran a red light to keep up with us, and a cop happened to be sitting right there. I felt really awful, but they said he was very cool and only gave them a verbal warning. The trip was pretty much uneventful after that until we got to the hotel around ten-thirty that evening.

Iss and Jacqueline and famous were already there, but they had gone out for dinner. Darien and Leen and I stayed at the hotel while Sam went to pick up Dave from the airport, and right when we were heading out to get our stuff from the car we found everyone else coming back from dinner. Leen and I jumped around and ran and I think scard everyone. ^_^

After unpacking a bit, Darien and I tried really hard to stay awake until Sam got back with Dave. Right after we gave up, we heard everyone outside our door, so we got up again, and we all hung out for a while. We got yelled at to be quiet by hotel staff at one point, which was rather amusing since there was pumping base audible throughout much of the hotel.

The next morning we all met in our reserved room. Balanthalus had shown up that morning, and I found out that he's from only a couple of minutes away from where I grew up! We even know some of the same people. That rules so much! I got a little giddy. But then, I do that. Anyway...we played some games, and Darien and I won all the prizes. What can I say? We rule! Oh, and Stephen's spirit was there (courtesy of Darien), and it hit Dave a couple of times.

I have to pause to interject something here. I was so impressed by Leen's model horse stuff! I never realized they would be that detailed! No wonder she's a national champion. ^_^

We went to lunch at Ruby Tuesday's, which was pretty uneventful except that we were really loud. Then we had the poetry reading, and I was able to depress everyone because my poems do that. But we cheered up right quickly after Dave's rendition of some of Darien's poems. Balanthalus had to leave during the poetry reading, which was sad, but it was really cool that he was there for even a sort time. After he left, though, Darien went back to being the youngest person there.

Then we hung out in famous' room and played some games. Darien and I played this really neat game called Tikal with Iss and Jacqueline that took a while to figure out, but turned out to be really cool.

We went to dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. The best part of that was playing with the Legos while we were waiting for a table.

When we got back, we watched Sinbad of the Seven Seas, which was absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately, I slept through the end of it.

BUDGE!!!!!!!

We went to bed after the movie, planning to meet at eight-thirty the next morning to head into D.C. At twenty after eight I was still trying to get Darien up, so I enlisted the power of Sam to make him BUDGE! We managed to head off to the city by around nine. Darien and I were all packed up and checked out so we could leave that afternoon. We were very inconspicuous in our matching RinkWorks shirts, and of course we didn't look a bit like tourists.

We saw the Lincoln, Vietnam, and Korean memorial, as well as the Washington Monument, which we didn't go up since we would have waited until at least three in the afternoon to do that. We also ran into a memorial to the signers of the Declaration of Independence by accident, which turned out to be very neat.

We then headed toward the Smithsonian. We went into two of the museums; the Modern Art and Sculpture and the Air and Space museums. We only had time to spend about an hour in each before Darien and I had to go. Giving up our radios was very sad. :-{

So Darien and I headed back to the Metro station and on our way home, bereft of companions for the ride home.

Guessing about how much gas is in your tank is not fun, so we stopped more often than necessary to fill up, just in case. Plus, how can you bypass gas for under $1.50 a gallon?

We were doing fine until the engine started acting funny at about two in the morning, an hour out of Albany. We tried to find a gas station, but the best we could do was a closed Mobile, so we pulled over to check our oil. Sure enough, it was just about gone. Right as we got back into the car, a NY state trooper pulled up to see if we were ok. He directed us to the nearest gas station and then -- get this -- he showed up at the station to make sure we got there ok. We did, of course, and got some donuts in the deal. ^_^

It's a darn good thing I didn't go to work, because it would seem I got a little dehydrated after drinking nothing but coffee on Sunday and nothing at all on Monday. Monday evening I was feeling not good at all, but I'm pretty much better by now, in case anyone was worried.

BUDGE!!!!!!