Day 4: Walking Through History

July 8: It never did rain during the night, but as I was tucked until my tarp sleeping away, I was woken by a couple of bikers who started setting up camp at my campsite! I was off to the side where there was a good place to set up my tarp and I don't think they saw me in the darkness, but I told them that the site was already occupied and they moved on to another site. I didn't really mind them joining my site, but they might have preferred that I not be in the site they wanted to use! And only 2 of the 5 sites had been occupied--they certainly could have one of their own.

By 5:00 in the morning, it wasn't scorching hot, but it was probably a comfortable 70 degrees or so. It didn't bode well for later in the afternoon when temperatures were expected to hit 94 degrees with high humidity. Why the heck did I choose to do this trail in the middle of the summer?

So I got as early of a start as I could hitting the trail near sunrise. The group of kids were already up and moving around when I left, but the bikers didn't come out of their tents. I had a hunch that they'd be sleeping in late given how late in the night they had arrived.

A couple of women on bikes heading in the opposite direction stopped to ask me about my stroller and chatted for several minutes. "That's brilliant!" one of them exclaimed. "But there's not really a baby in the pack, is there?"

I joked that I left a hole in the top so it could breath, so not to worry. =) They suggested that I should pimp out the stroller with bigger wheels. That's an option?! I had no idea! I'm not an expert on strollers. I knew I could buy a stroller with bigger wheels, but I didn't know I could upgrade them after the fact. But I wasn't sure where that would be possible on the trail either. Not to mention that it might be more than I wanted to pay. This stroller was disposable in my book. I was willing to spend $10 to acquire it, but I certainly didn't want to invest much more than that in it.

Another bicyclist I met had started his ride in Pittsburgh five days earlier. Just five days ago! I was expecting to take another couple of weeks to walk the same distance. But then, I was pushing a stroller. This guy wasn't. *nodding*

Throughout the day, though, the palms of my hands continued to grow increasingly sore from pushing the stroller. I'd try pushing the stroller with my knuckles for a bit, or pushing it using the bottom of my palms near the wrists which weren't so sore. They were awkward, though, and I kept shifting my hand position every few minutes never finding a comfortable place for them. When others on the trail asked how the stroller was working out, I told them that the palms of my hands were really sore, but it was kind of awkward to admit that. When you tell someone that the palms of your hands are sore, they tend to get the wrong idea....

This trail is so easy, even a slug can do it! =)

I soon passed the first hiker/biker campsite of the trail, which included a pump for getting water. I started making a habit of taking off my shirt and soaking it in water every change I got to stay cool. It dried quickly, but for that first half hour after soaking the shirt, it felt absolutely wonderful.

A few hours after I started, I passed the 22 mile marker. Which isn't particularly significant except that the C&O Canal is no longer maintained for functional beyond that point. The steady, reliable canal of water on my right was no longer there, and instead it was usually covered with thick trees that provided shade. With trees on both sides of the trail of the towpath, I spent a lot more time in the shade and less in the sun. Yeah! =)

Most of the day was sunny and clear, but ugly clouds started rolling in by about 2:00. It was hot and humid, but at least the clouds cooled things down. A little bit. I heard thunder in the distance and pushed onward.

An hour later, I had reached White's Ferry--the last of the many ferry crossings that used to carry goods and people across the Potomac. The building next to it had food and cold drinks, which I had every intention of indulging in and been looking forward to for the whole day. Cold drinks... Yes! The building had several lines painted along its heights marking the high-water mark of several floods, including the flood of 1972 which reached the third floor of this three-story building. Wow, that's a lot of water! I couldn't even imagine the Potomac reaching such heights!

All day long, I'd been following my progress in my history guide, learning about the canal and multiple Civil War encounters that took place along it. The canal had been damaged and drained multiple times by Confederate soldiers, and the bulk of Lee's army crossed the Potomac at White Ford about two miles away in his first invasion of the north that culminated in the Battle of Antietam--a battlefield just a few miles away from the C&O Canal. A nearby plaque added that "The invaders passed the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal via road culverts and bridges erected by their engineers. Walls of the canal were breached to disrupt commerce and the enemy's supply lines, but efforts to destroy the Monocracy Aqueduct were unsuccessful."

Overlooking the Potomac River

Just a couple of miles downstream was the Balls Bluff battlefield with Harrison Island visible in the distance. It was one of the earliest battles of the Civil War and relatively small by comparison to the battles that followed, but it was a vicious battle. Of the Union army, over 50% of the nearly 1,700 soldiers fighting became causalities.

I looked over the Potomac, imagining the invading army crossing the river and cannons firing their terrible payloads just a couple of miles away. Americans fighting Americans to the death. Although hot and humid, it seemed at odds with the quiet and peaceful setting I saw today. There's a lot of history on and near this trail.

My weather forecast didn't show rain for the afternoon, but a light sprinkle soon started. Argh! I hadn't really packed my pack with the expectation of rain. Generally speaking, the stuff that couldn't get wet--electronics, paper books and such were near the top of my pack, so I pulled out a trash bag and just put it over the top of my pack in the stroller. It didn't quite fit completely over the backpack, but the stuff at the bottom of the pack could get wet without any problems. I decided to skip the hot food and cold drinks, wanting to get into camp before the worst of the rains started.

I arrived at the campsite at around 4:00--and it was sunny and clear again. It never really did rain--just a very brief, very light sprinkle that I didn't even need an umbrella for. The trash bag over my pack wasn't necessary either, but I couldn't have known that at the time. My biggest regret was skipping the hot food and cold drinks back at Whites Ferry in my rush to get to camp before the rain.

When I arrived at the Marble Quarry campsite (named for a marble quarry that used to be located nearby), a dayhiker was out shooting a BB gun. I was pretty sure those weren't officially allowed out here and I found it kind of annoying listening him taking shots, but I wasn't really inclined to pick a fight with him either. He did have a gun, after all, even if it was only a BB gun. He offered to let me shoot it around a bit, but I declined. I just wanted to set up camp. I'd covered 21.6 miles on this very hot day and I was done!

I set up my tarp. Despite the skies clearing up, the weather forecast did call for rain during the night.

The campsite was lovely. Each of the hiker/biker sites are situated well away from trailheads so car campers are never around. It's specifically for people who hike or bike the trail (although I suppose someone paddling the Potomac could use some of them as well). Each of the campsites included a grill, firepit, a water pump, a porta-potty and a picnic table. And much to my surprise, the campsite was covered in nice, lush grass. I had expected on a busy trail like this, the campsites would be worn down to dirt but they looked absolutely pristine! The area by the firepit and picnic table was worn down to dirt, but the rest of the campsite was full of lush, green grass. The campsite I was at the night before was a bit more worn around the edges, but it wasn't a hiker/biker site and car campers could use them.

As dusk approached, the fireflies came out again, so I enjoyed just watching them flit around. Being from the west coast, fireflies are still somewhat of an exotic experience for me. I don't get to enjoy them very often!

I kept expecting more people to show up--the trail had been plenty busy with bicyclists who were traveling long distance along the trail, but as it turned out, I was the only person to sleep here tonight. I had the campsite entirely to myself!

The lower 22 miles of the canal are working and maintained, so this lock (lock 24, a.k.a. Riley's Lock) was the first one that I could actually go into the canal and take a photo from inside the lock. All of the other locks until now had been filled with water! Historical fact: In 1863, General J.E.B. Stuart seized the C&O Canal between Locks 23 and 24, hoping to disrupt commerce and an important Federal supply line. Cavalrymen turned a barge lengthwise for an impromptu bridge. Capturing at least a dozen boats with Union soldiers and grain, they burned nine, damaged the wooden gates at Lock 23 and Guard Lock 2 and drained that section of the canal by breaching the towpath embankment.

This is the first of 11 aqueducts that were built to carry the canal over large streams flowing into the Potomac River. The Seneca Creek Aqueduct, or Aqueduct Number 1, enters directly into Lock 24--the only one on the canal to do so.

My stroller sometimes had a little trouble getting through bits of mud like the patch here. Here, the stroller stopped suddenly in the mud and my pack fell out. I moved it out of the mud before taking this photo, though! I should have strapped it in! At least I now know better if I ever have to push a stroller with a baby in it! =)

Water pump at one of the hiker/biker campsites.

My shoe's view of the trail!

An old guard lock that links the Potomac River with the C&O Canal so boats could switch between the two.

General Joseph Hooker's 75,000 man Army of the Potomac crossed the Potomac River here at Edwards Ferry between June 25-27, 1863, on the way to Gettysburg. The army crossed on two 1,400-foot-long pontoon bridges. It was also used by Confederates multiple times during the war for several (minor) surprise attacks.

Most of the trail was in pretty good condition, but there were these occasional small patches of mud. This was one of the larger patches, but even it wasn't a big deal to get through.

When it started to sprinkle, I put this trash bag over my pack to keep the contents dry!

White's Ford, near here, was were 35,000 Confederate troops crossed the Potomac on the Antietam Campaign of 1862. Just downstream is Harrison Island (see it?), adjacent to the Balls Bluff battlefield.

My guidebook said the store at White Ferry had hot food and cold drinks! But I'd skip it in an attempt to beat the rain to camp....

Holy crap.... those flood lines are awfully high on that building! The whole second floor of the building was underwater!

The Marble Quarry hiker/biker campsite.

View of the Potomac from the back of the campsite.

Day 3: Meet the Stroller!

July 7: I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:00 AM, so Amanda could drop me off at the metro stop by 4:00 AM, so she could get to the airport and return the rental car and catch her flight by the time it left. It's an awful time of morning to have to get up.

I packed up and Amanda dropped me off at the metro stop at 4:00--an hour before the first train was expected to arrive. I pulled out my pack from the back of the car, and a stroller out from the trunk. Yes, a stroller.

Amanda threw me out at 4:00 in the morning with
nothing but the clothes on my back and the gear
in my stroller!

A couple of weeks earlier, I'd gotten an idea in my head to thru-hike the C&O Canal and GAP while pushing my gear in a stroller. I can blame Blueberry for this idea--in part, at least. He had posted a photo on Facebook of a hiker he had met the year before on the Appalachian Trail who was walking around America, and he was pushing his pack in a stroller along the shoulders of a long, straight road on his way to Glacier National Park. I saw the photo and was a little envious. I want to hike with a stroller! I thought. Then I remembered in just a couple of weeks, I'd be hiking the C&O Canal and GAP--both of which are immensely flat. The first being a canal tow-path that mules would pull barges up and downstream, and the second being a rails-to-trail system that had initially been built for railroads. The trails might not be paved, but they were wide and flat. I could push a stroller along that, right?

Of course, I couldn't be certain if a stroller would hold up along 350-or-so miles of gravel road, and I didn't really want to be out of a lot of money if the whole system didn't really work out well. But Amanda found a stroller on Craigslist for $10 which we thought might do the trick. I walked over to the guy's place and kicked the proverbial tires. I didn't see anything obviously wrong with it, and the stroller had cup holders! Cup holders! I could go into town, buy a Big Gulp and sip it all the way down the trail! =) I purchased the stroller.

I didn't tell the guy what I had in mind for it. I didn't know if the stroller had any sentimental value for him since he had used it to push his own kid around in it for who knows how many years, and basically, I expected to destroy the thing in the next few weeks then junk it. He didn't ask what I intended to do with it (although he probably had assumptions!), and I didn't offer to tell him. We were both happy. =)

To date, I hadn't actually pushed the stroller with any of my gear in it. Walking around Washington DC, I figured it was easier just to carry a light day pack. Going through security or up and down stairs was a lot easier without a stroller. And I had a hunch that security would look extra close at a stroller that didn't actually have a baby in it!

So I pulled out the stroller from the trunk of the car where we had stored it, then plopped my pack down into it. Amanda took a few photos before driving off to the airport, never to be seen again. (Just kidding--we'll be seeing her again in a couple of weeks!)

It was 4:00 in the morning, but temperatures were already comfortably warm. It didn't bode well for the rest of the day. I'd also have to sit around and wait for an hour before the first train of the day arrived, which I used chatting with a couple of sisters on their way to New York City. They were amused at my stroller idea, but not at all judgemental about it. =)

Crossing the Potomac on Key Bridge shortly before sunrise.

At around 5:00, the first train of the day finally arrived, and I boarded pushing the stroller in front of me. I exited at the Rosslyn stop where I had left the trail two days earlier, then proceeded to push the stroller through town, over the Key Bridge and to where I left the C&O Canal. I was back on the trail by 6:00 AM. I was sweating bullets already, and the sun wasn't even up yet. It was gonna be a hot day.... I took off my long-sleeved shirt. I typically wear a long-sleeved shirt as a "jacket" to stay warm in cool weather or to keep the sun off my skin when I'm outside, but the sun wasn't up yet and it was way too hot to be wearing it, so I took it off.

Although the sun wasn't up, it had gotten just light enough that I could start taking photos and didn't have to delay my walk any further. It was time to get some miles done! The first campsite of the trail was about 16 miles away. I would have preferred something a little shorter for my first day on the trail, but I guess the Washington, DC, area was too developed to squeeze in a campsite along the trail. Most of the rest of the trail had campsites every five miles or so.

At my arrival to the trail, I had to navigate about a half-dozen steps, and I picked up the stroller in its entirety to get down them. They were the only steps I had to deal with the entire day, though.

Although the trail was largely flat, there would be a fairly steep rise of about 8 feet at each of the locks. The locks were used to raise and lower boats through the canal--about 70 locks in all--and they typically lifted or lowered the boats about 8 feet at a time, and the trail would curve up a slope to the new level. I had to really get behind the stroller and push quite aggressively to get the stroller up the slope, but just for a few seconds before the trail leveled out again.

On the C&O Canal and ready to go!

Because I was pushing my gear in a stroller and not carrying it on my back, I took a couple of luxury items I didn't really need. One thing I bought was a bear canister. I didn't expect to see any bears, but I figured a busy trail like this one likely had campsites stuffed with people and the rodent problems that often came with people. I wanted to use the bear canister to protect my food from squirrels, mice and other vermin. And since I didn't have to carry it, why not?! I also had my laptop, although I could have lived without it.

I also brought my new backpack. Although I didn't plan to carry it, I wanted it for two reasons: First, to have an easy way to keep all my gear together in the stroller, and two, just in case the stroller broke or didn't work, I wanted a back-up system to continue my hike.

I wasn't sure exactly how fast I'd travel with a stroller, so I made a note of the mile markers and my time to pass them, quickly settling on the fact that I was covering about 2.5 miles per hour. On flat terrain like this, I'd probably walk marginally faster carrying my gear in a pack--perhaps about 3 mph--but it was wonderful not having a heavy pack on my back! I could live with that. I also didn't have to set my pack down or pick it up when I wanted to stop and take a break which was also nice. =)

The trail had a lot of other people using it--I wasn't alone by any stretch of the imagination. Huge numbers of joggers and bicyclists early on. The further I got away from the DC core, the more the people thinned out. I met one older gentleman, on foot and carrying a large heavy pack walking in the other direction. "Are you a thru-hiker?!" I asked, excited to stumble on another one so early.

But no, he wasn't. He had only been out for a few days, doing an out-and-back that covered a mere 20 miles or so of trail. He asked about my stroller, though, and said I was by far the coolest person on the trail. *nodding* Yes, I could see how he might think that. =)

At two points during the day, I took hour long breaks. I lay down in shady areas and try to take a nap on a bench. I was so tired. Not just the relentless heat and humidity, but the 2 1/2 hours of sleep the night before was wearing on me.

The heat and humidity were so bad, I never did put my long-sleeved shirt back on, even after the sun came out. Most of the trail is shaded from the trees that line it, and while I had no trouble wearing those long-sleeved shirts in 100-degree weather through deserts in direct sunlight, it was insufferable in the shaded humidity of this area despite temperatures barely reaching 90 degrees. Enough of the trail was exposed to sunlight, though, that I knew I'd likely be getting a sunburn without applying sunscreen.

Looking back towards the Key bridge and Rosslyn

Let me give you a little background about the C&O Canal--just so you know a little something about the trail. C&O is short for Chesapeake and Ohio--the Ohio River at Pittsburgh being the ultimate destination that they wanted the canal to reach. It was never completed to Ohio, however, and only extended as far as Cumberland, MD, about 185 miles away. It was built in stages from 1828 to 1850 and followed alongside the Potomac River the entire distance, rising 605 feet (184 m) from end-to-end. Imagine that--a 185-mile trail that rises, on average, about 3 feet per mile. Very flat and easy trail! The canal used 74 locks to raise and lower boats, 11 aqueducts to cross major streams, more 240 culverts to cross smaller streams, and a 3118 foot (950 m) tunnel.

The canal was severely damaged from floods multiple times over its history and primarily carried coal downstream during its history. Almost immediately, the B&O Railroad competed against it for shipping, and as trains became larger and more powerful, the C&O Canal became less and less competitive. After a devastating flood in 1924, the canal was finally abandoned.

In 1938, the United States obtained the abandoned canal and has since been turned into the C&O Canal National Historic Park which is why it's now a hiking and biking trail with regular campsites located along its length. Boats used to be pulled up and down the canal by mules on the towpath, and the towpath is now the hiking and biking trail.

As the trail approached Little and Great Falls, the number of people on the trail picked up dramatically--a lot more day hikers and bicyclists. I took the 1/2-mile detour off the C&O Canal to see Great Falls--a wondrous sight that I had never seen before. A sign warned that bikes weren't allowed on that side trail and I wondered if I'd have trouble taking my stroller along it. Were there steps or other issues that prohibited strollers too? I didn't want to leave it unattended back on the C&O Canal--it had all of my worldly possessions in it! So I pushed on with the stroller, prepared to turn back if necessary before reaching the viewpoint. But no, I made it to the viewpoint, although the trail was marginally more challenging to navigate with a stroller than the C&O Canal towpath had been.

Near this location, a scandalous murder occurred!

Along the way, I read from The C&O Canal Companion, which had all sorts of interesting history about the trail and the area, conveniently labeled with the mile markers I'd be walking past. Much of the history has to do with the canal itself--when the locks were built or where the material for the locks had been quarried. But it also pointed out interesting things that happened along the trail--for instance, murder!

Just a few kilometers into the trail, the book told me about this sordid murder that occurred on the trail:

On Oct 12, 1964, Mary Meyer, the divorced wife of a CIA officer, was shot twice in broad daylight in the head. Meyer had had a brief affair with President Kennedy, and had been intrigued by the possibilities of psychedelic drugs and might have even "dropped acid" with the president, all of which contributed to later speculation that Meyer was assassinated to keep embarrassing information from coming to light.

The hunt for her diary turned interesting as well when James Jesus Angleton, the 'dark eminence' of the CIA's counterespionage department was discovered in her apartment, along with lock-picking tools, and took custody of her diary.

And perhaps the last person to see her alive was her friend, Polly Wisner, the wife of one of the founding fathers of the CIA. Frank Wisner, who had been a spy in Romania, was a target of J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist investigations and would commit suicide two and a half weeks later.

It's certainly an interesting case! I can't do a full accounting of it in this space, but if you want to learn more about it, check out the Wikipedia article about Mary Meyer. Or a few Google searches! The case was never officially solved....

Late in the day, I finally arrived at my destination for the night: Swain's Lock (lock #21). There are five walk-in campsites available on a first-come, first-serve basis, and I was somewhat surprised to discover that nobody else was there! Would I have the entire campsite to myself? There's a nearby place for cars to park with other campsites for the car campers, but I figured these walk-in sites by the river would be easy enough for car-campers to walk to as well and it's on the Potomac River! How could all of these sites be empty?! I wasn't complaining, though. Nope, I was quite happy about the situation! =)

One unexpected problem I had was that my hands were very sore by the end of the day from pushing the stroller. I hoped it wouldn't get much worse, and that my hands would harden the way my feet do at the start of a long-distance walk. I wondered if a less gear would have made pushing the stroller easier on my hands, but it's not like I was going to throw out gear on the side of the trail. I was stuck with it now.

Although the weather was currently clear, I set up my tarp since the weather forecast called for a better than 50/50 chance of rain during the night.

About an hour after my arrival, while cooking a meal of Hamburger Helper for dinner, a large group of about a dozen kids showed up taking a nearby campsite. My peace and silence was gone, but they weren't particularly loud or obnoxious kids. Just a large group of them.

After sunset, fireflies popped up all around camp which I enjoyed very much! =)

View by Little Falls, which wasn't as impressive as I had expected....

This kayak run is in the river channel formed by High Island. Some of the best kayakers in the United States train here year-round to take advantage of the temperate weather.

You'll be seeing a lot of the Potomac River on this hike since the canal follows alongside it for its entire 185-mile length. You might not always be able to see the river through the trees, but it's always close....

Lockhouses were were the people who ran the locks lived. Since they were on call 24/7, their houses were typically located adjacent to the lock that they ran.

Lock 7. The lower 20-or-so miles of the canal have been restored and are fully functional.

Lock 8, with the canal towpath to the left.

The American Legion Memorial Bridge, a part of I-495, was opened in 1962 and carries the Beltway over the canal and the Potomac River. It was built directly over lock 13, which is the structure you see under it.

Not only did I push a stroller, I had this flower on it to keep me company. It's wilting a bit in the heat and humidity, but still managing to smile! =)

A side channel on my way to see the viewpoint at Great Falls had its own set of impressive falls!

Great Falls!

The Charles F. Mercer is named after the first president of the canal company, and generally operates from Wednesday through Sunday, spring through fall. So if you actually want to go for a ride through the locks, this is your chance! But it didn't appear to be running when I passed by.... =(

This building served a dual purpose as the lockhouse for Lock 20 as well as an inn for visitors to Great Falls. Now it's a park visitors' center with interpretative displays and a bookshop.

My campsite for the night, overlooking the Potomac River!

View of the Potomac at dusk.

Day 2: Spy Games

July 6: After the rough start to the trail, I decided it was time for a zero day! Just kidding.... about the rough start to the trail, at least. I did, however, decide to make my second day on the trail a zero day. =)

Today, Amanda and I would become spies at the International Spy Museum.

Mostly, it had to do with Amanda's schedule. She needed to leave at an ungodly hour of the morning tomorrow, and the easiest thing to do would be to drop me off at a nearby metro stop for me to find my way back to the trail. But if I continued the hike today, I'd wind up well away from all metro stops. It would be inconvenient for Amanda to drive me to where I'd need to be to drop me off, and it would be inconvenient for me to sit around in the dark half the morning waiting for sunrise before I could start hiking.

So, I took a zero day. Tomorrow morning, Amanda could drop me off at the metro stop (still at an ungodly hour, though!), and I'd take it to Rosslyn where I'd get out and walk back to the C&O Canal over the Key Bridge. That was the plan.

Which meant.... what to do today? =)

I got the idea to visit the Spy Museum in Washington, DC. I'd never been there before. Amanda said she'd been there years ago, but was willing to humor me. So we drove to the metro stop and took the metro back into Washington.

It was an interesting museum with lots of exhibits about all things spying--from real life spies like Alger Hess to fictional ones like James Bond. We probably spent a couple of hours wandering around reading about all of the exhibits and such. Not directly related to the museum, but a wonderful true-life story about spying in Russia is The Billion Dollar Spy. I was absolutely fascinated to read about actual spies and the tricks of the trade and how it operated. At least back in the Cold War days. Spies are certainly still running around--especially in places like Washington, DC--but we probably won't be able to read about those modern-day spies for years unless something goes very wrong. I had read The Billion Dollar Spy several months earlier and it was exciting for me to see some of what I read about on display at the museum.

After we finished the tour, we stopped (almost!) next door at the Shake Shack for lunch. Temperatures were brutal. Another hot and humid day, and in the air-conditioned museum, it wasn't a big deal. But we weren't done with spies and espionage, however. No, we decided to do the "Spy in the City" tour where we would run around the city looking to complete a secret mission. It sounded kind of hokey, but who cares? It might be fun! Maybe more fun if it weren't so danged hot outside, but let's be spies for a day! =)

Amanda thinks Daniel Craig
makes a better spy than I do. *frown*

We were given an iPad-type of device, with a touch screen that could play video and a GPS that could tell where in the city we were. We were on the track of a woman selling state secrets or something.... I don't actually remember the details anymore and didn't think to write it down. The details weren't really important, though. The device would send us out to a location to search for a clue of some sort.

One of the more interesting places it sent us was to the National Archive and a monument in front of it. I had walked near this very monument the day before and hadn't looked twice at it since it was a plain, large, rectangular block. Our mission had us use a plaque in front of it as a key for the next part of the clue, but it was the plaque that described this most particular monument:

 In September 1941 President Franklin Delano Reoosevelt called his friend, Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter, to the White House and asked the justice to remember the wish he then expressed:

"If any memorial is erected to me, I know exactly what I should like it to be. I should like it to consist of a block about the size of this (putting his hand on his desk) and placed in the center of that green plot in front of the Archives building. I don't care what it is made of, whether limestone or granite or whatnot, but I want it plain without any ornamentation, with the simple carving, 'In memory of _______'".

He got his wish! (And would probably be horrified to see the more modern FDR memorial.)

The monument that FDR had always wished for....
...isn't actually all that exciting!

By the end of the adventure, the heat was really bothering Amanda and we were starting to argue about some of the stuff. One point pointed us to a safe in the window of a nearby store, and we needed the number that the safe was pointing to. I was convinced it was 12, but Amanda was just as convinced that it was 83 or something. Amanda kept wanting to race off even before the video on our device finished playing, while I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything important.

Most of the time, when we had to make a decision about something, the right answer was pretty obvious. It would be something like, "It's your mother's birthday. What do you do? Select A if you take her out for a nice dinner. Select B if you assassinate her."

"I think we choose A," I'd say to Amanda. "What do you think?" And she'd readily agree.

But there was one point when I wasn't sure what the right answer was.... We were supposed to purchase some secrets, but our quarry demanded more money. Did we agree to pay her more money? I wasn't sure.... Amanda said to go ahead and promise all the money she wants. The government is paying for it, after all. It's not coming out of our pocket.

Good point! Yes, give the woman all the money she demands. =)

In the end, we finally caught the woman we were after using a "false flag operation." And the mission was based on a real guy who had been caught using the false flag operation.

But, I was surprised to learn at the end, that we hadn't gotten the highest score we could because apparently we had taken a bribe. What?! When did that happen?! I think I missed something important in Amanda's rush to finish because I certainly don't remember clicking any options for, "Yes, please accept a bribe from the spy we're trying to catch." I'm convinced it had something to do with agreeing to pay more money to the spy than had been initially agreed to. Did we skim something off the top by inadvertently clicking a wrong choice? But I was still baffled because I had no idea how I could have taken a bribe without actually knowing I took a bribe! Oh, well. Good thing I'm not a real spy. (Or am I? *raised eyebrows*)

The spy museum was the only thing we really had planned to do in Washington, though, so we headed back to the metro and back to the hotel. We stopped at the grocery store where I'd buy supplies for most of the C&O Canal and spent the evening repacking my food into Ziplock baggies and watching the Carbonaro Effect all night long. =)

One clue took us to the safe in this store window. We needed the number that the dial was pointed to.

I thought the number was 12 (where the notch at the top of the dial is pointing at), but Amanda thought it was 83 or something (where the "handle" is pointing at).

Cute little candy hot dogs and hamburgers at the grocery store.....