I am pleased to say that I am home safe and sound once again, back from my 87th DC trip since I started doing these things back in 2004. This trip was moved up two days due to an impending snowstorm, and even then, I was fully prepared to abort the trip and return home should the weather have turned sour while I was up there. But thankfully, the weather held, and I accomplished all of my objectives for this trip. The weather in DC was beautiful, too. It was cold, but it wasn’t windy, and the skies were clear well into the afternoon.
The trip home was not so nice, though. I encountered light snow briefly around Front Royal, and then I encountered the heaviest snow from just north of Woodstock to just south of New Market. From New Market to Harrisonburg, it was wet, and then the roads were perfect from Harrisonburg to Stuarts Draft.
I also made excellent time going home despite 25 miles of snow, through which I was going 45 mph on the interstate. I made such excellent time in part because I really blew right through my two stops. Seriously, I was in and out of Sheetz in Haymarket and Wal-Mart in Woodstock in record time. All part of making hay while the roads are clear. Especially when I don’t have the luxury of two off-days back to back this week.
And I’m quite pleased that I didn’t have to abort the trip due to weather. Winter weather has only thrown a monkey wrench in my DC trip plans twice. Once was February 24, 2005, where I had a trip planned, but snow the night before forced its outright cancellation. Then the other one was January 17, 2004 (see the Journal entry about that trip), where I got through my trip as far as Pentagon City (so about mid-evening), when it started sleeting. I ended up aborting the trip on the spot and returned to Vienna to go home. Then there was one more trip where snow was a factor, but that was J20, and there was no way I was going to abort that one. Despite reports from friends and family of snow at home, and bad weather approaching DC, I ran that one to completion, and then had a stressful drive home.
Then for this trip, I’m glad I ran it early. I got a few follow-up photos that I can incorporate into the J27 photo set that’s currently nearing completion. I also got some photos of Borf graffiti along the Red Line. So fun stuff!