One Fast Drive!

Apparently the border is much closer than we thought! On the map, it looks like a vast distance.

Funny though, I figured there would be a bit more security at the border instead of just a caution tape.

Okay, okay. Just joking. That isn't the border. It was a sign on the National Mall from the Folklife Festival. The country featured this year: Mexico, go figure.

On Thursday morning, we put on our tourist hats and visited the American History Smithsonian, and on the way back to the Metro (which I definitely will not miss), we saw a photo op we couldn't pass up.

Friday morning, we were on the road before 8:30 a.m., logged about 515 miles and decided to save the taxpayers a few dollars and set up camp with my parents. The farewell tour continues this evening as my friends and family will come and wish us "bon voyage" (or the Spanish equivalent), and then we get back on the road tomorrow morning.

This first leg of the drive was a familiar route, as we got to wave good bye to some of the oddities of western Maryland, such as the road sign pointing us to "I-68 to Ohio and all Points West," which as this site points out in the last two sentences, I-68 doesn't go to Ohio, and the re-creation of Noah's Ark. How am I just now finding this Web site? Hilarious. I've been driving this route since 2002ish, and the "ark" hasn't been altered in the slightest.

All of these sights, we expect to see. It will be interesting what we see en route to the border as we traverse roads for the first time, or the first time in a very long time.