Radiology Conference, where cars go to die.

Once in a while I get a wild hair idea. Like: "It would be fun to drive to DC. There is a lot of country between here and there that I would love to see." 28 hours, 1900 miles. Our diesel VW used to get 49 mpg. (The past tense is foreshadowing.)

And if I drove, I could bring my bike. It was only 8 miles from the place I was renting to the mall.

I biked down to the mall a couple evenings that first week.

After church the first Sunday, we (Randy, one of the other residents in his program and I) went to to Gettysburg. At least they got to spend time with the VW on the last day of its life.

The trunk on the VW stopped latching, so I was driving to the dealership to get it fixed. I am glad that the crash happened before and not after I got it fixed.

I will miss 49 mpg. I will miss going over Colorado passes in 5th gear. The diesel never even felt like it was working hard.

Smithsonian castle.

Randy drove us (Huckleberry, my coresidents, and me) to Mt Vernon, George Washington's home. This is the view from the back porch.

Then after church we went to Manassas. The north calls these the first and second battles of Bull Run. The north named the battles after nearby rivers or creeks and the south named them for nearby intersections or settlements. It is hard to wrap your head around that many people dieing is that short a time.

Stonewall Jackson got his nickname here at the first battle of Manassas. Trying to rally his troops, another commander said, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall".

The natural history museum was open until 7:30 one evening so I rode down. Steg and Steg.

I found a Suby wagon the last week of the conference. Now I had a chance to get on the water. The Potomac runs right between DC and Virginia. Killing the car reminds me of my own mortality. So, I am still a little gun shy. Consequently I picked easy class II-II runs.

Saturday I drove up to the Youghiogheny. Pennsylvania is beautiful. It was nice to get out on open roads away from all the crazy drivers. I found a couple locals boaters willing to let me tag along. The rain brought the river up over the last couple days. It was a fun class III. Good play. Mostly one hit wonder waves, but a few waves with eddie access. 3.9 ft on the scale, probably 2k cfs.

On the way back, I stopped at Antietam. The bloodiest battle of the civil war. 23,000 killed. It is just unfathomable.

At Gettysburg they had a graph comparing the number casualties in the civil and world wars. There were more people killed in the civil war than WWII. But the total population of the country at the time of the civil war was much smaller. Comparing the WWII to the civil war is like comparing a recession to a depression. In a recession you know someone who is out of work. In a depression someone in your family is out of work.

In WWII you know someone who died. In the civil war, someone in your family died.

Sunday, Randy and I went to Arlington and saw the changing of the guard.

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The Air and Space Museum at the Dulles airport is huge. This is the gliding training shuttle. In a couple months, one of the real shuttles will reside here.

P-40 Flying Tiger

Corsair

SR-71. Randy and I were like kids in a candy store.

Second to last day of the conference.

By the way, my case won best of neuroradiology. It was a case of primary spinal melanoma.