...was not too bad! It was pretty uncomfortable and a bit cold but I had parked outside a 24h supermarket so I was able to go in at 4am to use the bathroom and refill my hot water bottle from the hot water in the tap.
Nobody bothered me - or at least I don't think they did. I dreamt that someone tapped on my window (maybe a policeman) and that I explained why I was there and they left me alone but I can't be sure that didn't actually happen - my sleep talking is pretty pro.
It did make me feel a little homeless but overall it was ok - I was in a really good happy mood so I don't think it mattered where I slept. If I'd been having a bad day the Hilton wouldn't have been good enough.
Swimming
Once I'd decided I was going to sleep in my car I figured I could splash out (so to speak) on a swim at a proper pool. I went to the YMCA purse in hand but the lady working there let me go in for free! I later found out she should have charged me $15 which is pretty neat. I think she was just a little overwhelmed because Santa was in the lobby handing out candy canes.
I swam 50 lengths before feeling a little sick which is ok considering I've not swum properly for almost three months but a little disheartening when I think of all the swimming I'm planning on doing when I get back to London.
I met a nice older man there who got chatting to me while I was rearranging my goggles (in that way that only older people who don't swim very fast and therefore never warm up enough to notice how quickly you can cool down if you stop swimming for a chat can) and asked me where I was from. When I said I was from London he said "oh, well you all did a great job on the Olympics!" to which my response was, of course "funny you should say that..." For those of you that don't know me very well the reason I have the free time to do this trip is that in September I finished a 19 month stint working for the London Organising Committee. For those of you that don't know me at all - I was Seb Coe. I orchestrated the whole thing. As we speak there is a statue being erected in my honour in East London.
Sunrise
When I woke up I went straight to the beach to see the sunrise (I'm not sure I've explained I was on one of the thin strips of land off North Carolina called the Outer Banks) It was pretty cloudy so I sat through what I figured was the underhwelming bit of the sunrise for ages until the sun finally broke through the clouds - way up in the sky! I guess some days there just isn't a sunrise show.
The good thing though was that while I was waiting for this non event of a sunrise to take place I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be... wait for it... DOLPHINS!! (or porpoises but let's not interrupt the aaaahhhhs because I can't tell the difference) There were three of them swimming together alongside the shore. It was pretty cool and more than made up for the lack of exploding sunrise colours.
Breakfast
After the dolpoises I headed north towards Washington. On the way I saw signs for a cafe serving breakfast. I followed the rather insistent signs ("Keep going! It's really worth it!") and was most surprised to find that the place I had been guided to was a golf club, of all things. It was all posh and swanky and surrounded by, well, a golf course! Fortunately the people working there were really friendly (not at all what you'd expect from that kind of setting) and made me feel very welcome - even offering me a free coffee to take with me! I took a photo of them, I'll post it when I find my camera cable (I think it's in my car)
While I was there I was able to FaceTime with my parents which was cool - my mum has a knack for setting her phone up in a way that you can see her, her surroundings and generally get a nice fuzzy feeling like being at home. I, on the other hand, always end up with the camera in my face and looking like a "before" shot in some extreme makeover show.
Virginia
I feel a bit bad for Virginia because I just drove through it on the Interstate, something I've tried to avoid doing on this trip whenever possible because it seems plain rude. In fact, I've taken such weird routes that I'm struggling to fill in my map with the actual way I've gone between some places and now it's missing a bunch of my trip... ooops.
I did make a point of detouring via the Pentagon which is HUGE. I parked up and took some photos before (and, let's be honest, after) seeing the big sign saying NO PHOTOS.
Washington
I came to Washington eight years ago and hated it. It must have been a Sunday... I've decided to fully embrace giving it a second chance this time and oh man - I really like it!!
My dad (who hitherto has been pretty unfussed about my safety) keeps telling me how dangerous Washington is. I don't know if that's because he used to live here (I think he went to Georgetown University) or if it's objective fact that I'm more likely to be killed to death here than in South Dakota. Hmm. In any case I feel very safe here, it actually reminds me a lot of some of the newer nieghbourhoods in Madrid - big wide avenues, blocky buildings, empty retail spaces, not much atmosphere and a shedload of skinny trees looking like they're trying to convince themselves that they can shiver their way through one more winter.
I decided to go to the movies and see the Spielberg Lincoln movie so that when tomorrow I go to his memorial I know what I'm looking at. I did my research, I found a cinema near my hostel, I sat and had some dinner to kill some time before the film started and THEN I went to buy a ticket. I think you know how this ends... it had sold out!! I had been sitting next to the cinema for two hours!! What a doofus.
While I was eating dinner I'd seen on the news that there was a candlelit vigil being held outside the White House for the kids killed in their school yesterday so I decided to go there. As it happens, they'd been slightly misleading on TV and I think the images they'd shown were from last night and not live as was implied, so when I got there there were only eight ladies but I joined them anyway.
I was surprised to see that the stands for Obama's inauguration are already being built. I remember laughing during the election when someone suggested that 70 days between election and inauguration was not enough time to make the necessary adjustments. In the UK I'm pretty sure the new Prime Minister moves in the next day which makes perfect sense to me! I guess we don't use as many balloons and those take time if you don't want to end up with a puffing headache.
Baby
Yee-hah!
I decided that it would be cool to drive my car like a horsie. Here is how I did it:
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