The Ride Home From Hell

It’s the time of year that we check whatever is going on around in the city to decide if we should stay in or leave from our house for errands, lunch, appointments. On Saturday we always go for brunch in McLean and then do grocery shopping. I thought we would be safe even though the baseball game and cherry blossom parade were scheduled in the early afternoon. But by the time we started to head home, we thought we would take an alternate route to avoid the baseball traffic on I395. What a mistake. I did not have in my calculations the Emancipation Day parade nor the march for science. On top of that it was a beautiful warm and sunny day for the first time in days. It was okay when we drove along MacArthur Blvd in Palisades, the Whitehurst Freeway straight on to K Street. But after that it was all downhill. What usually is not more than a 25 minute ride turned in to 90 minutes or more. It was so bad near the courthouse I was getting claustrophobic. My husband usually drives on the way out of town and I drive back to come home. Aside from the usual downtown messy traffic and pedestrians, we were at a complete standstill. People were turning around and getting no where. There was no police assistance. It’s times like this that I really hate living here. I don’t know what I was thinking. I never want to leave the house again!