Last day downtown

Day 253
​Washington DC

We have saved the best for last. Three days of cruising the streets of DC makes this the easiest trip to town yet. We know that free parking is in Potomac Park and that the 1.3 mile walk to the museum isn't that bad. Shirley finds a spot and we get to walking. 

Lunch seating for the offices in the area

The National Museum of Air and Space is left for last. In scale, it is smaller than some of the other air museums we have been too. The Airforce Armament Museum in Panama City blows this place out of the water in terms of content, history, and presentation. What this place lacks in size it makes up for in authenticity and the rarest of rare items related to the field. Below you will see a Curtiss motorcycle. This dude was in the bicycle business and saw the future of air travel being a lucrative one. During the same time period he was manufacturing motorcycles and decided to start making airplanes. The test bed for his airplane engines was one of his very own two wheeled machines. In 1906 he set a land speed record of 137 mph riding down Ormond Beach. I don't believe the seat is original, there isn't enough room for his massive balls.

Moving past the exhibits are lots of other original works of art. Charles Limburgh's spirit of Saint Louis hangs from the ceiling. Amelia Earhart has an entire section dedicated to her breakthrough of the gender gap in flight. Keep trekking through the crowds and a gallery awaits visitor with a section dedicated to the Wright brothers. You know the ones. The two crazy guys from Ohio who were the first to sustain powered flight. Guess what? That historic plane is here for everyone to see.

 Further on in the exhibits are rockets, lunar landers and the original modules from the apollo flights. V2 rockets boom through the levels and a full size replica of the Hubble telescope is awaiting starry eyed kids who are dreaming of space instead of sports. We spend two hours cruising through the museum and call it quits. Look I get it if you are wondering why we wouldn't spend the whole day here reading every sign. That's an easy question to answer. We're both tired and pretty much worn out with touring the capital and seeing all this stuff. What we both want is to go home and take out a chair to sit. Just sit around for a couple of hours and relax. 

The walk back to the Jeep is another 1.3 miles. All total we have already eclipsed the 7 mile mark and it is only 130 pm. I'm always on the lookout for stupid stuff to share with you guys and I see the slogan of D.C.'s license plates. 

Turns out the residents of D.C. pay taxes like everyone else but don't have any representives for them. It is considered a federal district not a state. So they can vote for the president, a mayor, and 13 board members who decide all the local laws. There isn't any congress or senate members to stand up in legislative meetings to say what these people want. The citizens of D.C were pissed about it and somehow got it onto there licences plates. Congratulations federal government. Your local citizens are giving you a big middle finger for every tourist in the world to see. Welcome to America.