From here to there

[resqgeek]

As I was leaving work early last week Wednesday, I told one of my co-workers that I had to go to the airport to pick up a "fair dinkum Aussie". I must have gotten the accent close to right, because he kind of stared at me with a puzzled look. "What did you say?" he responded.

And so I was off to little airport with the very big name, the Ronald Wilson Reagan Washington National Airport (most commonly referred to simply as "National" or by its three letter code "DCA") to pick up BookCrossing's most widely traveled member, skyring. I had worked out a plan to arrive at the airport about the same time as his plan was scheduled to land, park in the hourly parking, pick him up and be on our way out quickly. The only problem with this plan was that I failed to anticipate that the hourly parking would be full. In fact all of the garage parking next to the terminals was full. So, it was off to the remotest reaches of the airport property to the economy parking lot. By the time I found a parking space, caught a shuttle bus to the terminal and made my way down from the departures level to the arrivals level, I was much later than I had planned on being.

As I approached the baggage claim area, I noted that the carousel for American Airlines was empty, and there were no people standing around it. Could the flight have been delayed? That didn't seem likely, as I had checked the status before I left home, and it had taken off on time. Then I glance to my left and spotted our intrepid traveler, standing alone near an exit, his bags piled around him. I apologized for being late, but he didn't seem terribly concerned. We dragged his luggage out to the curb to await a shuttle back to car.

After squeezing his bags into the back of our rather diminutive car, we headed for the house. Along the way, I took a rather circuitous route through the Old Town portions of Alexandria, showing off some of the city's colonial era neighborhoods and historic buildings. When we reached the house, my wife and daughters were off at the piano instructor's for my older daughters piano lesson. Skyring got settled into his room, and we headed off to pick up pizza and drinks for dinner.

This is the second time Skyring has visited my home, and I still can't decide who is more charmed by the visits, him or my daughters. They are fascinated to meet someone from so far away, and are full of energy and enthusiasm when he's around. Unfortunately, Skyring's energy reserves had been heavily taxed by his week and a half of heavy traveling, and all too soon it was time to say good night.

Since bookczuk had invited us to participate in a radio interview the next afternoon in Charleston, we needed to drag ourselves out of bed early on Thursday morning. We grabbed some quick breakfast, through our bags and my boxes of books into the back of the car and we were on the road by 6am. The sun was just coming up as we merged onto I-95 southbound, and the light glinted off the metal and glass of thousands of vehicles jammed in the northboud lanes as we sailed the other way. Skyring was puzzled by the signs that read "Bridge Ices Before Roadway" until I mentioned that the lack of ground under the bridges allows them to cool faster than the regular road surface when the air temperature drops. He also seemed intrigued by the I-95 HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle or carpool) lanes, which run down the center of the expressway, behind barricades, and have reversible traffic flow according to the time of day.

We made good time along the way, stopping at the North Carolina welcome center to stretch, release some books and take a picture of Ringbear. By 11am we were approaching the South Carolina border, and I knew we would have to stop at South of the Border which is a completely tacky tourist trap, but is also somehow quintessentially American. We spent a little time just wandering around the place, Skyring taking pictures as we went. We also grabbed lunch while we were stopped. I ordered a chili dog, and when it came, Skyring said "So that's what a chili dog is!"

As we got back into the car, I pulled out my road atlas to decide how we wanted to proceed. It looked like we had plenty of time, and we were both tired of the expressway. You really can't get a good look at the countryside from the Interstate, so we thought we'd give the surface roads a try. It turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant drive. U.S. Route 52 south from Florence to Charleston is a wide flat and empty road and we continued to make good time, while enjoying the towns and countryside we were passing through. We did make a couple of observations, though. South Carolina seems to have developed a fetish for naming bridges and interchanges. Every single one we passed had a sign identifying it as a memorial to some person or another. A bit strange for someone not familiar with the area, as none of these names meant anything to us. I believe we also counted something like 573 churches! Okay, I made that number up, but there were LOTS of churches along the way.

As 3pm approached, Skyring called Bookczuk to confirm the details of the interview. Looking at the time, I realized we were cutting it close. It was time to get back on the Interstate. We raced to the end of I-26, through a bit of Charleston and across the Ashley River to the shopping plaza where the radio station was, arriving only slightly late, where bookczuk flagged us down and pointed us to a parking space. We had arrived, and the fun was just getting started.

Comments

[elhamisabel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this. I wondered what the Aussi was doing. He seems to start a summary, then his flight is called on and h enever finishes. ;-)

[skyring.livejournal.com]

It comes from my peculiar travel habits. Just grab a bit of internet here and there, and you make the most of it. And, of course, as soon as you get into the flow of things, speeding along an interstate, describing the meet'n'greet, that's exactly when

[elhamisabel.livejournal.com]

I see, I see. ;-))

[antof9.livejournal.com]

And here you are (and Pete and Steve) at the radio station after a VERY successful interview:


Love this write-up. It makes me smile :)