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01/24/2004 Archived Entry: "Washington, DC and New York City"

Today has been a good day so far. Despite the chilling temperatures in New York City (upper teens and low twenties), I'm warm and happy even though my coach is cold. I found a parking space on 11th Avenue just a couple of blocks from the Public Library for the Performing Arts by the Lincoln Center at 62nd and Tenth Avenue. There is no parking on 62nd Street by the Lincoln Center today -- the whole street is closed to parking for some reason (seems to be that way more often than not anymore), so finding a spot on 11th Avenue is a lucky break. My laptop is with me as usual, and I'm posting this from one of the library's several computer centers with free high speed Internet access. And it's warm! Now if I had some food and coffee here, it would be perfect. Guess you can't have everything!

Thursday I drove for a church group marching in the Right to Life March in Washington, DC. Tens of thousands went to march, most of them in motorcoaches, a large proportion of which parked at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (photo at right, bus parking across the street in photo above). The parking area supposedly holds 100 buses, and I arrived early enough to get a good space, but dozens of other buses were turned away despite many of them having parking permits issued in advance to park there. Parking permits were supposedly required, and I had one, but no one was checking. According to another driver I spoke with, parking at Union Station was going for $50 (rather than the usual $20), and, even then, only IF you had a reservation. Capitalism is alive and well in the Capitol. Many coaches were parked on the streets, often illegally, with cops happily writing $100 parking tickets if you were unlucky enough not to see them coming down the street. You'd think some accommodation might be made on a day like that when there are far more buses in the city than usual for a special event. But if there was, drivers weren't aware of it. My day in the city ended with a slow crawl to Union Station at the 5 o'clock rush hour to rescue two teens who had taken the Metro downtown but couldn't find their way back to the Shrine. Fortunately, even though we arrived two hours late for dinner at the Old Country Buffet in Laurel, MD, the restaurant still welcomed us and everyone was fed, including the hungry driver.