First of all, just to let you know, I did go to the protest, though I wouldn’t consider it to be as successful as many would have liked. I’ll discuss it in more detail later, because I want to look at the photos and movies from it first.
Otherwise, though, this was the Sable’s 31st trip to the DC area (my 85th since starting going to DC regularly in 2004, but who’s counting), and it was not looking all that nice after the trip was over.
The reason was the snowfall we had on Sunday. The area where I live, as well as the Washington DC area, was hit by a snow and ice storm on Sunday, January 21. As a result, the roads were salted. With the snow and ice on the ground, I took the Sable on two back-and-forth trips to work on Sunday and Monday. It still looked all right after that. And then on Tuesday, it went to northern Virginia. I-81 and I-66 were perfectly clear, though I managed to catch my fair share of residue from snow and snow removal.
I was surprised to see water laden with dissolved de-icer dripping from the ceiling of both parking garages at Vienna (where I was unable to find a parking space this time). That fell down on my car as big white drops.
Now when I left the car at West Falls Church, the car was somewhat dirty, but the both the windshield and back window were clear, as I’d been running the washers as needed throughout the trip, as debris on those two windows is one of my pet peeves. I parked on the top level (level 6), where Metro had been really liberal with the de-icing crystals. Seriously, it was thick up there. Now when I came back, the car was covered with a layer of salt slime. Seriously, the windows were dirty, and the car itself was dirtier, too. Go figure, I suppose. I was parked on the west end of the roof of the garage against the wall, with the front of the car facing the wall. The back end was facing traffic. How it got slimed like that, I don’t know. Maybe it was from the salt on the concrete. Maybe it got blown over from some other source. Who knows.
I do know one thing, though – once I’m fairly confident that the snow is gone, the car’s getting a bath at the car wash of my choice to wash all that stuff off, because if nothing else, it looks gross and feels rough to the touch.