Friday was the 4th and the day I had been most excited for. I loaded up the bike for a possible late night run out to Maryland to meet Brendan and set off with my backpack for the Capitol Mall. Every year around Independence Day, the Smithsonian Institute puts on the Folklife Festival. I had been to one of these as a young kid with Art and Mary Linda but was anxious to get down there and see it as an adult. I am a sucker for American History as it is, and for this even to be held on the Mall makes the whole experience that much more exciting. Even approaching on the Metro was impressive because I had to walk through the towering Eisenhower building. Security was pretty intense for the 4th celebrations, but I have no idea how they were able to reasonably process 300,000 plus people. Hats off. The festival was a massive event crawling with people. Every twenty yards or so there was a new tent that had a new exhibit on one of the featured cultures. The country of Bhutan was featured and seemed like an incredibly beautiful place. A Buddhist and Hindu culture, you could really tell how seamlessly religion is woven into their way of life. It had a role in almost all aspects of Bhutanese life that were on display. Definitely interesting to see some of the differences between a very homogeneous culture like theirs that embraces religion in the public square, and ours…which doesn’t really have that ability. The art was vibrant and life seemed to be very balanced.

Also on display were the state of Texas and the NASA agency. This was definitely disjunct, but it was cool as it prevented some of the mental fatigue that can come with seeing the same type of thing over and over again. Up to this point in the day ~3pm~ the weather had been gorgeous, but pretty soon the sky darkened and it quickly started to rain. I had had enough of the folklife and had taken up a comfortable spot near a tree so that I could listen to the sox-yanks game and read a book. As soon as the rain drops started, I pulled out my poncho and set up a little lean-to. This was clutch as it allowed me to continue to relax through the sporadic rain. My goal was to make it until the fireworks at 9pm but as I made my way over to the reflecting pool near the Washington Monument, it became pretty clear that the rain was only going to get worse. Weighing my relatively mediocre enjoyment of fireworks with my severe non-enjoyment of sitting in an open field wearing a poncho while it rained…I decided to head out to meet Brendan at a party in Maryland. Motorcycling was out of the question without rain gear, so I wound up on the D.C. Metro. 25 minutes later i was enjoying the holiday festivities with some games, laughter and most importantly, BBQ. All in all, a great 4th of July

We were supposed to be on the road a few days ago and while I’m getting cabin fever now, it’s my fault that we’re not riding. My jacket which is being replaced for free by that awesome company British Motorcycle Gear is stuck in a Maryland warehouse and won’t be available until monday morning. I called UPS and apparently they didn’t know “who I am” or some crap like that. Either way, with baseball games to watch and the eastern market to pillage, I’m sure I’ll make it work.