Well, from the suburbs of the city of brotherly love, at least. I’m not in Philadelphia proper. Anyway, though, I made it. I am spending three nights in Fort Washington for a class in Blue Bell.
What’s weird, though, is how the locations go. I live in Montgomery County, Maryland. Then I traveled however far it is to Philadelphia, to end up in… Montgomery County. Pennsylvania, mind you, but a Montgomery County, nonetheless.
And then otherwise, it cost $11.75 in tolls to get up here. Every time I looked, it seems, there was a guy in a yellow safety vest with his hand out. The Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore cost two bucks. The Susquehanna River bridge cost five bucks(!). Then the Delaware Turnpike, the short stretch of I-95 in Delaware, cost four bucks. Then driving a few miles up the Pennsylvania Turnpike cost another 75 cents.
I’m just glad that tolls are few in the DC area. The only toll road I know of in my area is the Dulles Toll Road.
I did make an interesting observation, though. As you know, I take Metro to and from work every day. And Metro has orange-brown hexagonal non-slip tile on their platforms. Look what I found at a rest stop in Delaware:
And this really is outside WMATA. Here’s the tile in context:
That was an odd sight to see, seeing the WMATA tile in a completely different setting. Just like seeing the video of the Bredas on the Los Angeles Metro, which have the same motors as the Rohrs have in DC.
Otherwise, though, the hotel is awesome. There’s not only an indoor pool, but there’s also a hot tub. Pretty cool. Then there’s a big flat-screen TV in the room, and the room is really big as hotel rooms go. It’s a bit wider than most. It seems the same front-to-back, but it’s definitely bigger side-to-side.
Then meanwhile, I’m set around here. I have Lappy and Jeff, PC and Mac. One for personal use, and one for work. And amusingly enough, it’s like the “Get a Mac” commercials the way I’ve got them laid out. The PC is on the left, and the Mac is on the right.
So, yeah, this ought to be interesting this week. Now mind you, Wednesday night won’t be fun, though, as I’m driving back home directly from the last day of the class. I-95 after a day of Mac class, and then work the next day, normal time. Fun stuff.