I live just one block off of Washington Blvd near Lyon Park in a basement apartment. I did the green thing on or about March of 2009 by giving my car to my daughter in Louisiana when hers died. I surmised that I could do the Metro thing using a combination of bus and train to get me to and from my job in Alexandria. It all worked well until yesterday....when it snowed.
I normally take the 77 ART (Arlington Regional Transit) bus to Shirlington, a neighborhood of Arlington where my employer provides shuttle service from the Arlington campus to our Alexandria campus. At a total cost of $3.00 a day I am on the verge of coronation as a bonafide "skinflint" due to the lack of monies spent on my commute. Sometimes, if running late, I will catch the 42 ART bus to the Pentagon and take the Blue or Yellow line to King Street to accomplish the same purpose. This usually adds a couple of bucks more to the commuting cost but I am still ahead of the game financially.
Yesterday, the snow began sometime while I was deep inside the bowels of my building, but when I emerged to leave at about 4:15 pm snow was steadily and wetly falling (read big flakes that went 'splat"when they hit). Time to break out the umbrella I won in a raffle at my recent training class. While another lady co-worker and I were waiting for the shuttle, we noticed that the driver turned left and proceeded down a side street like the proverbial ' bat out of hell". We looked at each other and I voiced the thought that 'maybe he went for a coffee at 7-11". We both traipsed to the corner and noticed 'no driver in sight' and determined to catch the train.
Upon boarding the train, I decided that I would exit at the Pentagon and take the 42 bus since it would pass by my house and save me about a four block walk. After an hour wait for the bus, it finally arrived and I boarded said bus for the 15 minute ride to my destination. We left the Pentagon lot and headed for Army-Navy drive. Upon the turn onto Army-Navy Drive, we encountered a parking lot and remained in this parking lot for the next hour. In that hour we had proceeded up the street to the west side of the Pentagon (where the plane crashed) between the Navy Exchange and the Air Force Memorial. With traffic going nowhere, I decided to hike out towards home and so I did. I trudged up the hill and past the AFM and continued on my quest with quite a few other folks who had the same idea. The source of the traffic snarl; two Metro buses had locked up on the hill, thus blocking any traffic from moving. At this point, my decision to take the bus is whipping my ass.
While not familiar with the area from a walking perspective, I was sure that after trekking up Columbia Pike all I needed to do was to make a right hand turn and head in the direction of my house. From Google maps I have determined that this is about 2.6 miles as I walked up Columbia Pike to S Fillmore and turned north to my destination at S Fillmore and Pershing Drive. I made the trip in about 1 hour and 40 minutes considering I had to stop once for a bathroom break and trudging through un-plowed snow takes a bit out of the old legs.
I got inside and peeled off the wet clothes and shoes, hopped in the shower. Once warmed and dressed for bed, I made dinner; blueberry pancakes and bacon with a small dose of pure maple syrup and settled in to watch Criminal Minds and Blue Bloods. I don't remember the ending to Blue Bloods but I did get a good nights sleep.
The moral of this story is...ride the damned train and walk the four blocks to home. Why is hindsight so enlightening?
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