JDPFu.com 2025

So I had the grand plans for today – I was going to refresh all my photos of the Washington Mall area over a 2 hour period. Then go for a hike back in Maryland Patuxent Research Refuge.

I took the Metro from Shady Grove, MD into the city. That took about an hour. Then I got in line at the National Archives – I didn’t bother with this ten years ago, but decided that seeing the Bill of Rights and Constitution was worth it. An hour later and I was entering the building. The exhibits explained the type of information the archives retained. Nothing too exciting there, except the Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, and Constitution.

So now it is 2pm already and I haven’t started the walk on the Mall.

Head towards the Capitol – lots of construction out front.

The Mall has some Cultural Festival – Indian, Buhtan, and NASA? Huh? NASA has a culture? I snap a few photos of buildings on the southern side of the mall and a few sculptures before heading into the center to the NASA exhibits. I chat with the guy that builds and places the video cameras on the shuttle and SRBs for those great photos during launch, SRB Sep and MT Sep. Next to the launch control room at KSC, but for non-shuttle launches. Then to the JSC tent and to a CalTech exhibit – how to cheaply get some soil samples out of a crater. And we are walking ….

Washington Monument, White House, WW-II Monument (nicely done), Korean War, Jefferson, Vietnam memorials and back to the White House since it is on the way to the Metro station with the RED line.

I’m obviously hot, sticky and still sweating. I’ve been careful to drink about a gallon of water to prevent heat stress. Hat to prevent sunburn – that wasn’t enough.

Almost all the signs around the town were in both English and Spanish. What really bothered me was that snow fencing was up around almost all the green spaces and that the fields were mostly covered in clover and weeds.

Dinner (leftovers from last night) and I’m out. I’d walked over 7 miles according to the pedometer – calibrated to be accurate for my gate over the months, so it should be fairly accurate. My legs haven’t ached like this in a few months.