I’ve really been enjoying reading this thread! You have a lot more energy than I do.
Yeah, that’s what I thought. When I switched on it was about the end of the 3rd period and Vikings were in a large hole of their own making. That it was a replay didn’t affect the drama for this NFL newbie
To give credit where credit is due, most of the energy has come from 87octane gas and Rog.
You really display your newbie-ness by calling it a period. 
Quarter or half. Periods are for ice hockey.
Yeah, I’ve got a friend who recently got into baseball and calls it points, not runs.
You mob end sentences with a period. We call them full stops.
Countries/cultures divided by the same language.
If I’ve taken 30+ posts in this thread to out myself as then I reckon I’ve done rather well. 
You outed yourself in your 1st post with “for those who can give a toss” and “innit”, and in your 3rd with “I have buggered up my itinerary”. But I’m not complaining! It’s a lot of fun (for me at least) to hear idioms and usages that are new to me.
Count me as among those non-Americans who have run into the zip code conundrum when visiting the United States. I’ve had some success with using 90210, as in “Beverly Hills 90210”; or 14209, which is in Buffalo and was the address of a TV station that had a kiddie show we all watched and wrote in to; or 60609, which is in Chicago, the home of the famous Speigel catalog that was featured on many game shows. Some suggestions for you and the OP and anybody else who has to deal with this, anyway.
Aside: Why do so many places in the US want your zip code anyway?
To the OP: I’ve really enjoyed reading your adventures—thank you for posting them! I’m looking forward to your travels across the northern part of the US, since I’ve never spent much time in the places you’ve been so far. But I’ve been to the northern parts. Safe travels!
22:00 Eastern Washington Day19 nasal.craft.planet
Another day based in Washington.
Spent most of the day either perambulating or recovering from the perambulation.
My hotel is on corner of L and 9th and walked to the Whitehouse down and back via The National Mall and detours through a couple of Smithsonians so that’s a reasonable milage for a day which was reasonably hot and unreasonably humid.
It takes a while for this town to wake up in the morning. About 9:30am I could have fired a cannon down Pennsylvania Ave without hitting a vehicle, man or beast until you got to about 13th St. From there on a lot of equipment vans and police cars with lights flashing had congregated with frenetic activity and the roads blocked to traffic. Might be preparing for some special event? 
Spent about 4 hours in the NMAAHC and MAH which is barely 10% of the minimum time required. As a wonder bread whitey from Australia I’m barely conversant with many details of African American history barring the broad outline and headlines. One exhibit I could relate to was the statue of the Black Power gesture by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico Olympics 200m medal ceremony. The third guy on the podium is Australian Peter Norman who split Smith (who set a new world record) and Carlos for the silver medal. Norman’s time remains a national and Oceania record. Norman was sympathetic to their cause and protest action. All three were criticized and sanctioned for their protest. When Norman died in 2006, Smith and Carlos were among his pallbearers.
Had lunch in Piccolino along Palmer Mall (bedecked with rainbow umbrellas overhead and a bubble machine) of Polpo Panino. excellent! Which brings me to the topic of Coffee. Australians have a bit of a reputation as coffee snobs. We could blame the Italian immigrants in the aftermath of WWII. But we have adopted it full in. The flat white is apparently “invented” in Sydney in 1985. We pour buckets of the barrista stuff down our necks. In the shopping centre beside work there are over a dozen specialty coffee shops. That number does not include the Starbuck outlet. Conversely there’s that ubiquitous drip filter stuff often served up here which, to my taste anyway, is simply ghastly. Have needed to swallow my pride and visit Starbucks occasionally on the trip to remind my palate. However, what I got at lunch was a latte (or actually lattes plural) and simply the best I’ve had on these fair shores which restored my faith substantially.
Took dinner in the hotel with catfish and grits, washed down with a couple of local beers. Which would be the second time I’ve eaten catfish in my life. The meal was very good but there’s no point acquiring a taste for it because you don’t see catfish on the menu anywhere back home. With the singular exception of trout, the fish we see is all ocean fish.
Believe I have my Staten Island parking problem resolved. I guess if that strategy become unglued I can always find my way back to Newark and park at the airport.
An anecdote from earlier in the road trip. Stopped for fuel just out of Scottsville, VA a couple of days ago. Already parked and fuelled was a blue Jeep Wrangler with BIGFOOT EDITION stenciled on the front cowling. Virginia Veterans plates. Two American flags unfurled over the cabin and MAGA front and rear bumper stickers. So you sort of get a pre-concieved notion of the driver. Then I notice that along the dashboard are about a dozen rubber duckies. Incongruous. Then the uniformed driver walks out of the pay station. Female. About 5’4". Slightly built. Cute as a button. 
Then there was my first exposure to a US style intersection. Four roads. Each two lanes dual carriageway. Each with a left hand turning lane. Single traffic light flashing red. 10 cars waiting in various lanes. Playing who goes first. Gazooks! So much land spare out there, can’t you guys simplify things with a roundabout?
So that leaves the Washington bucket list as the Smithsonian Natural History and a ball game tomorrow. Reds at National starting 6:05pm which seems a curious time.
Then on to Gettyburg.
I think it’s to make sure they can get the fireworks in if the game goes long. Because the ballpark is in a residential area, there’s a limit on how late they can set off fireworks. Also, they’re playing an 11:05am game on Tuesday.
There are regions of the country where they’ve been installing more roundabouts, in recent years; in my home state of Wisconsin, they’ve gone kind of overboard with them, IMO. Though, at least there, they tend to use them for intersections with moderate traffic; bigger intersections will still likely have a full stoplight setup.
Part of the issue here with roundabouts is that, because much of the country either (a) doesn’t have them at all, or (b) only recently started adopting them, a lot of drivers don’t know how to use them properly, and it leads to confusion and frustration.
Baseball seems to like those odd starts. 5 after the hour, or 20 after the hour, isn’t uncommon.
“Yes, stewardess, I speak Brit.”
I once attended a Toronto Blue Jays game in Toronto, where the game start was stated on the ticket as “1:07 PM.”
Weird, but I guess it’s because the TV broadcast starts at 1:00 pm, and the seven minutes allows the commentators to introduce themselves, the teams’ starting lineups, and to make a few comments about today’s game.
To the OP: Please, it is a “North American style” intersection. We have the same thing in Canada, and they are perfectly negotiable, if you know what you’re doing. And if you don’t, signs explain.
However, our provincial government seems hell-bent on putting roundabouts everywhere they can, to the extent of tearing up perfectly good intersections to rebuild them as roundabouts. “They’re safer, and because traffic keeps moving, it’s better for the environment!” Yeah, until somebody who doesn’t know how to use it, gets T-boned by somebody else, by cutting across three lanes of traffic. Which has happened, many times.
Incidentally, we don’t have “dual carriageways” in North America (and yes, I am going to include Canada, as our roads are basically a mirror of the United States’, using the same signs, markings, etc.). We have “four-lane roads” (two lanes each direction, even though there are hiccups such as left-turn lanes, making the road five lanes). A two-lane road (one lane each way) is sometimes called “two-lane blacktop.” A freeway, thruway, or expressway, are just those: typically limited access and egress.
And then there is Highway 401 through Toronto, which has been called the “Evil Death Highway of Doom,” which is 16 lanes wide at its widest. I used to take it to get to work daily. Definitely not a “dual carriageway.”
Good luck in and around NYC. I’m sure you will manage just fine, but as a foreigner who has done the same, it’s not easy. Be alert, follow the signs, and make sure that you are in the correct lane for where you want to go. Again, good luck, and enjoy NYC–it has much to offer the visitor.
Holiday weekend, we tend to clear out of the city and leave it for the visitors. If you could fix a Metro escalator while we’re gone, that’d be great.
I haven’t been in the rest of Canada recently, but I was in Quebec last week and their 4-way-ish stops were signed a lot more intuitively. Instead of saying “4 way stop”, they had a sign under the Arret/stop sign warning that it was a wonky stop, and then a diagram clearly labelling which ways had to stop and which didn’t.
For a four-way stop, this arrives at the same result. But for 4 way intersections where only some of the lanes need to stop, the signs in Quebec seemed a lot better, since in the USA, instead of a diagram, it would say something like “3 way stop - right side does not stop”, which takes more processing time for my brain to process.
And the diagram also takes care of the use case where there only 3 roads and all of them need to stop. You’ll only see 3 roads on the diagram in Quebec. Whereas in the USA, you’d see a sign merely saying “3 way stop” and wonder where the three roads are and if there is a fourth road that doesn’t have to stop that they forgot to mention.
For a couple of years, the White Sox had a sponsorship deal with the local 7-Eleven convenience stores; it had them starting home games at 7:11pm.
And a couple commercials.
22:00 Eastern Washington Day20 nasal.craft.planet
Last day based in Washington.
Spend the morning and early afternoon at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History which starts with a 12MT elephant in the front foyer and takes upwards from there. The MNH of course do have a cracker of a story to tell and they tell it with exemplary attention to detail, showbiz and a twinkle of humour. I couldn’t nominate a favourite and I didn’t see nearly enough of it but the minerals and gems area was really well done. If anybody spent two hours at MNH and didn’t find something to tweak their interest, I’d question their credentials with humanity.
The Smithsonian Castle is closed for renovations. Lunch was a return to Piccolini.
Then after a bit of a freshen up it was down to Naval Docks for a MBL game at Naval Docks where Cincinnati were visiting Washington. The commute via the Metro was a breeze. Get on the Green Line at Mt Vernon. Get off a handful of stations later. Then a gentle walk to the stadium. The return leg went equally swimmingly.
Then a problem. I was pulled out of the queue by a wiseass wearing high vis who behaved as if he was military police. Apparently, and unbeknown, backpacks are prohibited in MLB baseball stadiums. He told me I had to take it back to my car. I said my car was back in Australia but he wasn’t amused. So I had to hire a locker which cost USD25 for the privilege. I took everything out of the backpack and made my may in using a clear plastic bag for precisely the same purpose.
The gate staff were all cheerful and helpful. One picked up my accent, asked if I’d been to a game before and then directed me to customer services who gave me a certificate and a badge. I had some thought it might identify me as an easy mark and didn’t wear it. Made my way to section 126 which is about 1/3rd the way to 1st base. I passed on the opportunity to spend USD200 on a shirt with somebody’s name on it.
The area 126 marshal’s name was Mary, an ex Dodgers fan who’d come over East since she’d retired as a librarian. She thought the job was ideal for a retiree and obviously enjoyed her ball games. She was a mine of general information about the operation of the venue and home team prior to the bulk of people who arrived much closer to the schedule start. Apparently, umbrellas are frowned on, there’s bugger all shelter and I only had some inadequate wet weather gear. But I lucked out and there was only a sprinkle of rain in during the evening. If it gets really wet the game gets suspended and the crowd get to play sardines at the back of the stands.
The efforts of the ground staff to manicure the gravel/sand was intriguing. There seemed to be about 20 of them gainfully employed in the task with rakes, buckets and aerosol cans. Then most went and stood beside some rolled up sheeting on the third base line. I’m guessing that was to cover the infield in case of rain. There was a bit of cloud about and some threatening weather so the start was delayed 30 minutes. No rain eventuated so they then watered the infield.
There was a crowd of a bit more than 36,000 in house who seemed to be in generally good humour. The announcer did his bit to weep, bellow and cajole the crowd into making noise. There were a few laps of The Wave. The odd Charge! and a send-off for the visitors starting pitcher when he was retired.
There was a foot race between mascots dressed up as ex-presidents. Teddy Roosevelt beat Washington, Lincoln and another. During the timeouts a golf buggy decked out as a Nationals cap did a lap of the field to particularly enthusiastic cheering. I didn’t get the significance. I asked the guy to my left some questions about game strategy and got dismissive and unhelpful answers. The guys to my right were all wearing Washington regalia but seemed to be barracking for the Reds. Only one flyball came in my vicinity. It was dropped cold by the lady two rows in front of me and picked on the rebound by a guy in the row in front of her. She gave the guy a mouthful of abuse. He fired back.
The locals started well but a 2 run home run by Joey Votto proved to be the difference in a 2-3 win to the visitors. Nationals had a guy on base in the bottom of the 9th but couldn’t convert. The game, well it’s a bit like Bazball but not so many runs scored. Apologies but not a convert. Will see if Yankee Stadium is a more engaging experience next week. I’ll be better prepared at least.
Next stage is two nights at Gettysburg then on to NYC.
And speaking of holidays: when you depart DC, make sure your route avoids the Mall as much as humanly possible: people start showing up for the fireworks insanely early, and it’s highly likely roads will be blocked off well before that.
Since I volunteer for the Arizona Museum of Natural History so I naturally had to visit the National Museum when I was in DC and left with e definite case of exhibit envy. Shows what you can do with a budget about a hundred times bigger.
When showing things to people I mock grumble about our brass copy of the Tucson meteorite. Found circa 1845 it was used as an anvil until it was carted off to the Smithsonian in the late 1850s and they won’t give it back. I made sure I stopped in the Winston Collection room and, ignoring the Hope diamond, made sure to look at it in it niche.