Saturday, May 29th, 1999

0257

Coming straight from Arlington, Ft. Myer..a hop skip and a jump from Washington D.C....Room curtesy of the US Navy and Hubble, a friend of Johnson's...

We saw most of downtown DC--the white house, the vietnam war memorial, the supreme court building, several of the smithsonian buildings, the washington monument...all via my car.  Hubble gave us a rolling tour.  Tomorrow (um, today) the plan is to get into the White House tour (hopefully) see the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier...Hubble is in the Old Guard, but he doesn't do the tomb details (they call details "missions" here and they are *not* average details...)

The drive was gorgeous countryside Virginia and a good chunk of North Carolina...trees that don't previal much in CA...Stopped at a cigar outlet that had much more advertising promise than was actually delivered.

We played cards and drank a lot of beer (with a lot of cigarettes and a few cigars I'd purchased specifically for the trip down in Fayetville.) A friend of Hubble's we played cards with got "caught" pissing out the window (4th floor) and the CQ SGT came to investigate the matter...the man eventually owned up to the deed but the Sgt razzed us out and threatened mucho detail for Johnson and I...a thought that had us quaking in our boots...but all turned out well, the sgt was cool and let us off the hook with just a stern lecture...a lecture that gave me much to admire in the man...

The jump wednesday night?  Scratched at the last second...an engine went out on the plane so the  pilots turned it around...pissed I was because until I actually make my cherry blast, I am not on jump status here and not getting payed...

Washington is beautifull downtown, swept and clean of trash and free from *most* of the homeless and beggers prevalent in SF and elsewhere...This Base is beautifull as well--we saw General Reimer's house, Mr. Caldera's house, and SMA Hall's house...all beautifull.  The grass is green and well manicured.  The buildings are all well kept brick (on the outside, though I've seen worse insides in the army so far...) The street signs are bass relief brass plated lettering on brushed black metal...a gorgeous effect...

Being in the nations capital today, I was awestruck--like a child I could not believe where I was.  To think that for 22 of my 23 years, this is the place where everything in my life has been mandated, laws, policy, foreign contact...where Reagan planned the summit talks,  Clinton got himself into trouble with Lewinsky, where JFK is buried...Where Boothe shot Lincoln...
I'm still excited about being here and I don't think I will enjoy leaving much...

1115

White house tour is off...no tickets left for today (go figure) and there are no tours tomorrow or monday...again, no surprises there...had breakfast at Ed and Edith's diner...this little coffee shop diner near the base...Hubble had mail room duties this morning but he's done and we're about ready to be off to the tomb and lincolns and all sorts of other sight seeing things...beautiful day...

Washington DC...the fact of the matter still amazes me after about 5 hours sleep. I was commenting to Nadine that I'm thinking the opportunites to see this coast look excellent for me now...Baltimore is only about 45 min north of here, then boston, philadephia, then new york...everything is so close being as Ft Bragg is about the exact center of this seaboard...

so now we're about ready to scat...