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2-12-02 // 9.48 pm (don't go back to) rockville I left Sunday afternoon for a 36 hour business trip to Washington DC. Well, I didn't actually ever set foot in the city itself, but I had various places to visit in the Maryland and Virgina suburbs. So Sunday night, after enduring a delay in my connecting flight from Philly, I arrived at Dulles. Managed to make my way across the place to the little driveways where the shuttles pick you up to take you to the rental car lots. I found the Avis section of the curb just as a shuttle drove away faster than I could chase after it. 15 minutes later another one came and got me. So I picked up my car, a way too big for one person Grand Am. Armed with directions printed out by the computerized kiosk in the rental agengy, I set off in search of my hotel in Gaithersburg. I got lost. The directions didn't look so difficult. Though I ended up first overshooting the exit I needed to take to get to the proper interstate. Then, once I turned around, I ended up taking (as instructed by my worthless robo-directions) a bunch of tollway exits that dropped me off in the middle of nowhere. Finally, I just asked a tollbooth operator where the hell I-495 was. He sent me back in the direction I'd originally headed off in...though this time I was armed with the info that I just needed to keep going and not attempt to take one of the exits the directions erroneously instructed me to take. Got to my hotel, finally. I was starving but didn't feel like venturing back outside. So I settled for a distinctly non-dinner big plate of bar nachos and several pints of Bass. The hotel room was notable for the gigantic bed. This thing was seriously big enough to fit like three or four people in it. Quite nice. Up early the next morning. The work stuff went just fine at both locations. Though I must say, I wouldn't mind if I never had to drive in northern Virginia ever again. I'd been to the area before, about five or six years prior. But I didn't remember things being this jammed. Compounding the sluglike rate of traffic movement, traffic signals were always red, and they stayed that way for what seemed like forever. Also, 9 times out of 10, highways weren't marked. I just needed to find state road 28 and stay on it. The driving directions insisted I was on or near it, though driving the road, there was absolutely no way to tell. Several times I ended up going the wrong way, out into residential neighborhoods, simply because there were no roadside markers to tell me which way the highway continued. Insane. After braving the useless roads and absolutely hellish evening rush hour traffic, I finally made my way back to Dulles. Dropped off the rental car, was driven to the terminal by the world's kindest rental car shuttle driver, got checked in, and waited. I was thankfully able to calm my nerves with a marvellous pint of hand crafted Dominion Ale at the aptly named Old Dominion pub near my departure gate. Had a hour-long stopover in Pittsburgh before I was able to continue back to St. Louis. I've never been to the city proper (something I intend to rectify one of these days, it seems a great place to visit), but every other time I fly, I seem to end up with a brief layover at the airport. Or should I say Airmall... Seriously, this thing is like the embodiment of the American dream. Jetliners, going to and from any destination in the world, cross-bred with an honest-to-Zarquon shopping mall. Sbarros pizza, at reassuringly normal prices. And Iron City beer! Not the world's finest, but a classy, refreshing brew. Oh, and last but defintely not least, the airport's finest little quirk. Stuffed into little alcoves throughout the departure concourses sit old arcade video games. My last time in Pitt, it was a vintage Ms. Pac man machine. This time, in what I think was roughly the same place, sat an ancient looking Centipede game. Creaking roller ball and flashing player select buttons and all. Just another little touch at a place I seem to love far, far too much. Made it back to STL about 10 o'clock in the evening, then waited for and then took the metro home. A long, hurried trip -- I was so happy to be home and to let my head hit the pillow. And with that, I'm off to disconnect myself from the computer for a while. My eyes need rest.
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