Day 75, Zero, total miles- 1018.1

Today I was going to Washington DC to visit with family. I had got an Amtrak train ticket online. The departure time was 10:55 am. I wanted to get to the train station by 10:00 just to be safe.

When walking to the train station I would pass the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. I stopped there to have one last look around. Before I went in, a girl with a backpack on walked up. She was a thru hiker. Her name is War Cry. She asked me how she went about signing in and getting her picture taken. I told her how it works. I went in and looked at the album with the current thru hikers, to see who else had come into town after me. I also looked briefly at the 2012 album to see if I could find any of the people that were doing trail magic that I had met. I only found one guy in the short amount of time that I looked. I then walked to the outfitters that is across the street from the train station. I looked at their hiking shoes again and other items as well. I had over an hour before the train was to arrive. I then walked around the train station. There isn't anybody working at this station. You have to get your ticket online. It's just a building to wait in. I left my backpack inside. I walked around inside and out looking at the building, the many pictures and reading about the history of this very old station. The there were two other thru hikers and three section hikers waiting for the train too. The train arrived at 11:30 am. We were off.

My next stop was Union Station in DC. From there I took the Metro subway system to Pentagon City. I had to make one transfer to get there. As luck would have it, I got on the wrong line heading in the wrong direction. After several stops I realized I had made a mistake. I asked a couple people for directions. Within 15-20 minutes I was on the correct line headed for my destination. Soon, I was at Andy and Jenn's apartment building. They were waiting out front for me. I had called them when I was a few blocks away.

In the evening Jenn was going to a cookout. The principal at the school that she works at was having an end of the year cookout for the staff. Jenn asked me if I would like to join her and Andy. I said sure. I hadn't had a haircut or shave in 2-1/2 months and I had limited clothes, but Jenn didn't mind. The building Jenn works at is for kindergarten and first grade only. I believe there are 8 or 9 classes per grade level. She said it's a very nice district. A little like Madeira or Wyoming schools, but larger. Her principal, whose name is Kathy, has a beautiful home. There was a large crowd. I told a few of them about working at Madeira Schools and about how nice of a district it is. I also told them about talking to the third and forth grade students about my hike and the letters of support that I had received from them. Before the evening was over, I had talked to several people about my thru hike in detail. Many of them seemed very interested. They also had a lot of great food, so when we left, I was full. It was fun!