How quickly things can change...

Saturday, August 7^th - Well, after breakfast, we headed into Washington and drove by the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building. The line-up at the International Spy Museum was huge, and it hadn’t even opened up yet. We got a chance to drive through the National Mall area and get a glimpse of the Washington Monument and the White House, and then decided to head someplace to find a motel room for a couple of days. Well, after checking out a few hotels that somehow just didn’t appeal – might have been because of the neighbourhood or the people we saw walking out of them – we decided to head closer to Andrews AFB, having the impression that it might be safer to be where the military and their families might be found. Well, we found a hotel sure enough, but we are also finding out what it would be like to live in Washington. Years ago, I wanted to travel to places in such a way that I would see them as the inhabitants see them. Well, now’s my chance. I am now able to find out just how to deal with things as if I lived here....sigh. I pulled in to the parking lot of a hotel to check out the rooms, and backed into a gate pole, you know, one of those arms that hides upright and then drops mysteriously when you least expect it because you don’t even know that it is there. It was a bit unreal, as the kids and I realized that the back window was completely shattered. I went in to talk to them, and everyone was quite helpful – and equally as surprised as I was. I saw that we could get internet access, so I booked and paid for the room for 3 nights, only to discover that their internet was down. On the other hand, once I was able to get in touch with MPI, I was able to get information on how to deal with a claim down here. Then, I called CAA/AAA & was referred to an approved repair shop close to our hotel. So we trekked down there, where they gave us a repair estimate and put some collision wrap on the back window. Unfortunately, the MPI out-of-province office doesn’t work on weekends, and I can’t get my claim processed until Monday morning – this is Saturday afternoon. So here we are, sitting in D.C. with a vehicle with no back window, in a hotel with no internet.