On Sunday morning, we pulled out of Washington, D.C. and headed toward our home in Tennessee. Obviously, this meant spending quite a bit of time driving the interstates of Virginia. Along the way, I learned quite a bit about that state.
The state troopers are serious. We saw a motorist pulled over as soon as we left D.C., and we saw another one pulled over a mile from the Tennessee border. In between, we saw a ton of state troopers sitting on the side of the road just waiting to get someone. Seriously, we expected to see blue lights around every bend.
I also noticed that these state troopers caused a trend. When they were not around, the traffic flowed smoothly. When one of them appeared, the traffic congested as people hit their brakes and tried to get into one lane. In short, I think everyone would be better off if there were fewer of them out there.
Another Virginia revelation. People like to drive down the interstate with their arms hanging out the window. This is something you might see someone doing on a city backstreet or a country backroad, but you rarely see it on the interstate. Not in Virginia. There were arms dangling everywhere. When I am on the interstate, I like to keep all arms and legs inside the vehicle.
Oh yeah, James Madison University has a nice football stadium just off the interstate. It would have been cool to go over and check it out.
Anyway, those are a few of the things I noticed while driving home. However, I also spent some time looking back on our trip. When I started this series of travelogue posts, I wrote that I was nervous about the trip.
First, I was not sure about the timing of our stops. This is a crucial aspect for any road trip. It turns out the distances worked out well. We got to Lynchburg in time to have a relaxing dinner in town. We even got my stepdaughter to the hotel in time to watch her favorite show only to discover that they did not offer that channel. The best laid plans and all of that.
It was the same thing going into D.C. We arrived at the same time as the people we were meeting. It also gave us time to unpack; have a nice dinner; and stroll to the White House. Unfortunately, we cancelled the Virginia Beach part of the trip and do not know if the timing would have worked. I think it would have, though.
Second, I was not sure about sightseeing for three days in a major city. I had never done it before and was not sure how to do it. We saw a lot of cool stuff, but I am not sure we planned it well. The walking idea was good for a while but quickly turned tiresome. We also crammed a lot of things into the three days. Looking back, I would have cut out the museums and spread everything else over the time.
Third, I wanted my family to like the experience. I think they liked the places we saw and the things we did, but it tired them out. They would like to have had some lying around time built into the agenda. Removing the museums would have accomplished that. Hopefully, they did not get too tired because there is a lot of cool things to see out there in the world, and I want them to see it all.
That wraps up our D.C. Road Trip. You will get some regular posts for a while, then I fly to the great Northwest. There is no telling how many posts I will get out of that one. In the meantime, I leave you with one of the last pictures we took. It also happens to be one of my favorites.
I hope you enjoyed reading about our Washington, D.C. adventures.
SBI: A Thinning Crowd 
My husband says you should never travel on national holidays — that’s when the troopers are out in full force (traffic tickets are a big part of our state budgets) — or at the end of any month because all the troopers have ticket quotas to fill. Around here, the roads are crawling with staties the last week of every month.
I also heard that I-81 through Virginia is considered one of the most dangerous interstates.