Pine Knot to Washington DC

Mary Ann and I were on the road just a few minutes after 5:00 this morning and spent the first couple of hours in the darkness and in fog. We were pretty well past Knoxville before the daylight dawned and the fog lifted. The rest of the trip saw moderate temperatures and on-again, off-again rain.
Eastern Tennessee and Western Virginia are lovely. The terrain changed to include much higher hills (still with rounded tops, mind you) and as we entered the Blue Ridge area we even saw some taller hills or small mountains. Once we passed through this little range however, the scenery was pretty much boring. It's about a 10 hour drive, so there was lots of time to eat everything we packed as well as to answer dozens of trivia questions and solve many of the world's problems!

We entered Metro DC and faced a lot of traffic -- 8 lanes with freeways veering off to the left and right. Needless to say, I managed to miss a turn, so Susan (our trusty GPS) took us on a long, circuitous route to this International Guest House. The drive for much of the way was along a huge park, so it was really not unpleasant.
This guest house is not at all what we expected. To say it's "minimal" would be stretching things. We have a funny little attic room on the third floor. There are two twin beds and one skimpy towel each. The shared bathroom is one floor down, and we don't have so much as a sink in our room. There are numerous rules posted around the room -- "Turn off the radiator or air conditioning before opening windows"; "The cups are for your convenience. Please do not throw away or take them with you." and a big long story about the environment and how we should reuse our towels -- etc. etc. We actually took the car out and looked at a Motel 6 by Walter Reed Medical Center and tried to reserve for the next two nights, but they didn't have a room for both nights. It gets complicated to try to find something else. Mary Ann's knee is a bit sore so the climb up and down the stairs is a nuisance for her. We're not sure, but at this point we're thinking we will just tough it out and stay here. It is reasonably convenient to the bus at least. We'll plan to spend all day down town tomorrow anyway.
Pictures tell some of the tale: