Another day's travelling done, near D.C...

We're safely ensconced here at the Day's Inn in Arlington, VA. We got in at about 7:40 local time, although it seemed like it was later than that. I guess that would have a lot to do with all the driving we've been doing that past couple of days. Seems like it's a lot of driving till we're completely tired out, and then just sleep when we get here. But we've certainly seen a whole lot of stuff.

After our little lunch break in Salem, we got back on the road with me driving. The girlfriend took a bunch of pictures out of the car when she wasn't taking a nap for an hour or so. There is a whole lot of nice scenery to be seen out in the Virginia countryside, and the weather has been gloriously clear. Traffic was a little bit of an issue for an hour or so, but it cleared out pretty well. I think we might have been passing fairly near one of the moderate sized cities when the traffic picked up, but it wasn't really much of an issue.

Here are the pictures the girlfriend took out the window:




You can tell how light the traffic has been in this picture...









I thought the fence design looked pretty cool on these:



We stopped at the little town of Marshall, VA, at about 6:30 local time to get gas and to switch drivers, since it was getting fairly close to the DC area. It's just a little town off the freeway, but they have a lot of nice old architecture there. I snapped this picture of an old church, but it didn't come out all that well because the light was already failing:


After we were gassed up, we continued on toward our motel here in Arlington. I had mentioned that I wouldn't mind stopping at the Manassas Battleground park, which we did, but it wound up being closed and dark. Not too unexpected, since it was about 7:00 local time when we got there. There wasn't a whole lot of photo opportunity in the parking lot, but I snapped this picture of one of the old fences as we drove down the little access road:


I would have snapped a few more pictures of things, but we had a car behind us on the two-lane road, and we had to get back on the road anyway. At that point, we were still thinking that we might ride the subway or bus into Washington this evening, although we didn't wind up doing so.

The remainder of the drive here was pretty uneventful. I tried to take pictures of a few things along the way, but most didn't come out well because of the light dying. I did snap one of this crystal sculpture looking thing that was right off the freeway exit when we pulled into Arlington itself:


The service here at the Day's Inn has been great. We got a few recommendations from the desk clerk for restaurants to eat at. We decided to just eat at the Thai restaurant they have attached to the motel, and the food there was pretty good. It wasn't really something to write home about, but it was definitely the best thing we've had on the trip so far. Service at the restaurant was good, too. The room itself is clean, appears to have a working shower, and has high speed internet available. In general, I'll give this one a thumbs-up. Hopefully the bed will be comfortable, because it's just about time to try it out...