Dr Bob goes to Washington

I rather foolishly had a flight organised to Washington...in hindsight going by train would have been easier and probably cheaper. Dulles airport is a real hike out of DC proper – the shuttle bus cost $50 and took ages to get me in. Still, it was an uneventful trip though the traffic in Washington pretty busy even though was a Sunday. I was staying about three blocks from the Whitehouse so a pretty good spot though mainly a business district – not too much night life after everything closed down. Had the first day, Monday, as a tourist and despite the rain and being quite cold, I got onto the Metro – very good – big, clean, not that crowded – and headed off to the Library of Congress. It’s opposite the Capitol and all the major government institutions and is rightly impressive – magnificent buildings – looked great and lots going on. Of course the camera decided to pick that moment to have a flat battery so no actual pics of the place. Close by LC is the Folger Shakespeare Library – one the great resources for studying 17th Century European culture with – strangely enough – an emphasis on the Bard. They had quite a good exhibition about 17th century life in England but oddly, nothing at all (except early editions of his plays) about Shakespeare. If you didn’t know much about him before you went there you certainly wouldn’t have gained a lot of knowledge here…odd. It was a large, quiet, libraryish type space where most people would have felt it incumbent to be quiet...but not this young woman who sat on a seat the entire time I was there (maybe 30 mins) conducting two phone calls on her mobile. And she was obviously mad…one bit I caught was how she was currently on a prayer and fast vigil for a week because of something…didn’t learn what…maybe penance for being irritating in public. Americans can be very different sometimes – she made no effort to keep her voice down at all.

Then walked up the road – Museum Mile – past the major museums as time was pressing and plumped for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was t’riffic. Packed with people (a rainy Monday afternoon) and it’s free – couldn’t believe it. Exhibitions wonderful – including a V2 for my War Memorial readers. Lots of other rockets and missiles, aircraft and lunar module/space stuff. Sadly, camera battery still flat…. The really big stuff is held in another facility in Virginia – about an hour away – more on this later. Walked back to the hotel – a solid walk but a nice cool evening, rain clearing and a good way to see the city.

My big day – and sunny though still cold. Walked down to Avis and picked up the rental car – with GPS of course – I am so sold on these. And set course for the Library of Congress’ new a/v preservation facility at Culpeper in Virginia. About a 90 minute drive and didn’t get lost once! It is all very new and stand alone in the countryside and not well signed either. It is fantastic – should be at a cost of $150m plus – just for the building and I think about $80m for fit out was mentioned. Designed for 160 staff, only about 60 there so far as it is all just starting up. Had a fantastic tour round and discussions with Mike Mashon, the head of moving image (note they are still happily using MAVIS!)…have written up the report and lots of photos. They were justifiably proud of the place and happy to show it off. Their vaults were interesting – with 120 million feet of nitrate! And cold store is below freezing… All very state of the art with impressive digital workstations… well worth the trip.

On my way back to DC called in at the Smithsonian for big things which, as I got there late, I had to whiz through. Again, free, wow, and they have things like Concorde, a real Space Shuttle, a Stealth Plane etc in a huge aircraft hanger setup…even a real control tower you can go up and see what is happening at Dulles airport next door. This time camera working! Talk about boys toys… Caught in the Washington rush hour on way home and had to pay a penalty on hire car – but worth it… Washington is full of one way streets as well which without a GPS would make it very difficult. Had dinner at a pub supposedly frequented by Washington Post journos but no juicy gossip came my way.

Final day and out early. To the White House – well about 400 mtrs is as close as you can get – the security is full on and you can’t get within cooee by car. Then a walk down the Mall past all the War Memorials – like a massive Anzac Parade I suppose – to the Lincoln Memorial – pretty impressive. Train to George Mason University – I’d never heard of him either but apparently a rich Virginian along the lines of his more illustrious namesake, Washington. Was met by a really nice guy who is part of the Digital History project and one of the two prime movers behind the 9/11 Archive. This is a purely virtual archive, created ‘by the people’ a good example of Web 2.0 in action with over 120,000 items in it. All in my report! They were really nice and it is a great example of what can be done. They have made the software platform available to anyone and are pushing it with local libraries etc to create their own local or subject based archive – a bit like the thing we did for 2WG in Wagga. Thus they had also created a Hurricane Katrina one as well..the way of the future.

Had to be up at 4.30am to leave Washington – I hate that! But the flight to the UK was great – United have almost (not quite) redeemed themselves. Plane was about one third full so had seats to ourselves and there was actually quite decent leg room. I was glad I didn’t take up the option they offered me at check in of paying $89 more for an exit aisle seat..I thought long and hard and if it had been to Oz I would have done but is only 8 hours to the UK so decided no. And as the plane so empty, I moved I into one anyway with zero fuss! The downside – we left at 9.00am local time and hardly had we got in the air – I kid you not, before 10.00am, they brought round lunch. Beef and mash potatoes etc – weird. And then nothing till five minutes from England. Plus you had to pay for alcohol – not that I was in the mood at 10.00am! I am seriously gonna give them some much needed feedback on their website. Why are they so stupid??