To Washington DC

At 8 am the loud noise of Frank's phone woke us both. It's his girlfriend in Boston giving him a wake up call. Frank trundled off to the campus while I slowly got dressed. A short tour of the campus and soon it was noon. The CMU campus is smaller than you'd imagine. The engineering school erected a memorial to Judith Resnick, one of the ill-fated Challenger crew. She was an alumna (wonder if that is the right word). CMU itself is not well known, but the CS department is.

Pennsylvania is one place you can still smell pine forests. I-48 is quite scenic because I was crossing the Appalachians. West Virginia allows a 65 mph speed limit so I made good time.

At the conference hotel in Washington they told me I'd been bumped. Some guests wanted to stay longer so they had no room for me. They offered me a letter good for a free night in their hotel chain and directed me to another hotel. Later I found the offer wasn't as good as I thought. I think this is shabby treatment because I went to the trouble to make a reservation with my credit card and all that, but not much can be done. I liked the other hotel even less. It didn't have in-house parking and was more expensive. But I had a presentation the next day and all I wanted was a good night's sleep.


Washington is one of my less favourite cities. Only bureaucrats would name streets after numbers and letters. What makes it worse is that the grid system is only faintly rectangular. Streets intersect at odd angles and many of the roads are only one way. The public spaces are grandiose but inhuman to walk. It is overpriced and stinks of yuppies. While I sat eating my dinner, sirens wailed through the streets. On the plus side, it has many excellent ethnic restaurants run by political refugees. Nearly every menial worker (bellhop, parking attendant, maid) I saw was non-white. Not wetbacks I assume. The subway system actually works well.