Day -1: Tourists in DC (2/2) - NZ lad riding coast-to-coast in the US - CycleBlaze

May 12, 2023

Day -1: Tourists in DC (2/2)

No cycling today, but more museums.

We woke up this morning and went to our first American diner. Natalie had pancakes and I had sausage and waffle. I think I can see myself starting the day with a diner quite a bit more often once I start biking.

We took the metro out for a long ride towards Dulles airport for the larger parts of the Air and Space museum. It took us almost 2 hours to get out there, and the sun was beating down on us in the strange suburban bus stop we transferred to. But it was worth it. I saw aircraft there I've never seen before. I enjoyed a lot of them but here are my highlights:

The space shuttle discovery
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Mercury landing capsule, with bits missing from the ablation shield from reentry
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SR-71 Blackbird, I'm amazed that we got so close we could touch it.
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Bill ShaneyfeltYou can touch the one here in Dayton too as it sits next to "the" B-70.
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Joint Strike Fighter. The predecessor/prototype to the F-35 Lightning II that I was hoping would be in the museum
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After viewing all we wanted to we saw a short line for the flight simulators, so we had a flight in a fighter simulator that can roll 360°. I had to test it out with a barrel roll and I don't think I have to do that again. It was not a nice feeling being strapped into a box upside down while enemies were shooting missiles at us. Would definitely reccomend it but it was a violent ride.

After a long metro ride back to the Smithsonian we grabbed a hot dog each for lunch and finished off our exhibits at the Hirshhorn art gallery before wandering home for a night in and some packing for the train.

Tomorrow starts our big tour. No more cities, just riding from the coast at Yorktown and more riding for nearly 3 months.

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