My July 12–17 segment was a wonderful combination of physical preparation, unexpected travel logistics, friendship, productive work and classic Washington sightseeing.
July 12 — Charlotte: Preparing the body for the road
As I passed through Charlotte, North Carolina on my way north toward Washington, D.C., I made another stop at Restore Wellness. The visit provided a deliberate reset before the long drive ahead, with three treatments:
- Whole-body cryotherapy
- Red-light therapy
- Infrared sauna
Rather than simply pushing through another long driving day, I used the stop as an opportunity to recharge and prepare myself physically for the next leg of the expedition.
July 12 — An unexpected night in Washington
When I arrived in Washington, D.C., my original plan was to stay at my friend Annie’s home. But her flight was unexpectedly canceled, leaving me without a way to access her house. Fortunately, Annie found a very traveler-friendly solution. As a frequent Hyatt traveler, she used her points to arrange a room for me at a Hyatt hotel in Washington DC. What could have been a frustrating travel disruption instead became a relatively seamless overnight stop—and a good example of the advantages of having a well-traveled friend who knows how to solve problems on the fly. I slept in, had a great breakfast and did some blog posting.
July 13 — Moving into Annie’s home
On July 13, Annie and I were finally reunited at her home, and the next four days became a combination of friendship and a surprisingly ambitious home-improvement set of projects. I spent considerable time helping Annie transform and finish different areas of her home:
- Hanging artwork
- Installing new kitchen hardware
- Installing new hardware in the master bedroom
- Hanging bathroom hardware
- Installing and hanging curtains
There is something particularly enjoyable about this kind of visit because I wasn’t simply being a guest- I was actively helping my friend make her home feel more complete and personal.
Exploring Washington, D.C.
Despite the work around the house, I also made time to experience some of Washington’s most iconic landmarks. My sightseeing included:
The White House – one of the most recognizable buildings in America and the symbolic center of the U.S. presidency.
Washington Monument – the enormous obelisk dominating the National Mall and one of the defining landmarks of the city.
Jefferson Memorial – particularly memorable for its setting along the Tidal Basin and its connection to Thomas Jefferson and the founding ideals of the United States.
Lincoln Memorial – a grand neoclassical national monument dedicated to the 16th U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln. Designed by Henry Bacon and dedicated on May 30, 1922, the building resembles a classic Greek temple with 36 columns representing the states in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death
The Reflection Pool — the iconic body of water stretching between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. Its extraordinary perspective toward the monuments makes it one of the quintessential Washington experiences.
Food, friendship and Bastille Day
The Washington visit wasn’t all work and sightseeing.
Annie and I also enjoyed a special Bastille Day dinner at a French restaurant, along with some of her work colleagues, an appropriately European celebration in the middle of America’s capital. https://www.ameliewinebar.com/dc. This was followed with another enjoyable evening out for Vietnamese food.https://www.doimoidc.com/. Those meals add an important dimension to the visit. The four days weren’t simply about completing projects around the house or checking monuments off a sightseeing list. They were about sharing experiences with a friend.
The larger perspective
The result was a visit that combined wellness, adventure, friendship, service and exploration. After the intensity of getting my truck ready in Jacksonville Beach and the long miles of the early road trip, Washington provided a valuable change of pace: I wasn’t just traveling through a city – I temporarily became part of someone’s home and daily life.
That makes July 12–17 a particularly rich chapter in the larger story of my 160-day journey around America.