Cambridge, OH to Washington, D.C.
Today was a bit stressful. The first few hours were pretty good, driving through eastern Ohio was nice and then in to West Virginia (for not long at all) and finally in to Pennsylvania. In fact, we found a really cool town in Pennsylvania off US 40. Brownsville has this cool bridge on the western side of town and several old churches so I got a more than a few good photos! After Brownsville though, things got bad. For some reason, my car does not like steep grades at all now. I had to downshift into 4th and even 3rd in a couple places to make it up some of the hills/mountains. The stupid thing seems to do ok in normal traffic but simply balks at grades. Even I-68 was bad at times. I know the grades are steep but the loss of power just seems very out of the ordinary. It was very frustrating and I believe that due to this trouble we will be skipping our tour of a part of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. Emily isn’t happy about this (at all) but I just don’t feel comfortable driving down I-81 and I-77, much less Skyline Drive. Anyway, it’s late and I should end this. Before I do, we’re staying at a Sleep Inn tonight in Rockville, Maryland, a far cry from the Hampton Inn we stayed in last night, but it has beds and a shower so we’ll be ok. We’ll start tomorrow off with another “quick” jaunt into D.C. to take some more pictures before heading south. It’ll be a long day but I’m sure it will be worth it. Well, it’s after midnight so it’s officially December 31st. Tomorrow I start my own personal Project 365 so stay tuned for updates on my progress there. Also, I’ll post about today, later tonight perhaps, or sometime tomorrow!
Oh, one more thing. We saw President Ford’s motorcade and the hearse when it passed in between the Lincoln and Washington monuments. It was intersting and I really haven’t had a long time to process it, but it was cool nonetheless.