---Continuing on my vagabond genealogy trip of 2001:
Another day in
Washington DC. I took the Metro into
Union Station. When I emerged from the beautiful building I saw the
US Postal Museum across the street. I couldn't resist so went on a tour of what was once the
Main Post Office in Washington DC. Built about 1900.
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| US Postal Museum - Wash DC |
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| Mail Bag hook |
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| US Postage Stamps on display |
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| Train's Mail Car at the US Postal Museum - Wash DC |
I was especially interested in the exhibit of a train's mail car where they sorted mail and used a hook to get mail sacks at small town train stations. My (step)grandfather,
Roy Senker, and I used to wait for the train at
Los Molinos, California. The men on the train's postal car would thrown off a mail bag, and would snag the one from the station via a big hook snaring the mailbag that hung on a special post. We’d pick up the mailbag they threw off the train and take it into the post office in the pickup truck, and deliver bags to other nearby towns. I learned to drive on that
Chevy Pickup truck - including gearshift on the floor ---"Where's reverse?"
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| Supreme Court Building |
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| Supreme Court Building stairway |
The
Supreme Court was on down the street so I connected with a tour that was beginning. It is another impressive building. The cost of a lunch there was impressive also.
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| Library of Congress Reading Room |
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| Inside beautiful Library of Congress | |
Since I had to leave the
Library of Congress yesterday before I'd seen the reading room, I went back there and joined a tour in progress. One runs out of words to describe the grandeur of these buildings. The
Library of Thomas Jefferson is also on display.
And finally I went back to the
National Archives to do more genealogical research. The most stringent security I've encountered is entering or exiting the Research Room in the Archives. I managed to get more copies of the military pension requests and service records of
Joseph Hague and
Amos Thornburgh in the
Civil War.
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| Volunteer Enlistment and signature of Amos Thornburgh |
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| Marriage Certificate of Joseph Hague and Mary Speer at the National Archives - Civil War Pension File of Joseph Hague |
Time flies when you're having fun, so it was dark before I got to the Metro and to my car - still safely parked at a shopping center near the Glenmont station.
Surprisingly I did not sleep well in the motel. For $50 one would think I should sleep twice as good as at the $25 campsite. But I didn’t. I like the quiet campsite much better – and somehow the bed made of the fold down bench seat at the rear of the van is very comfortable, even if it’s just a little short. 
I hadn’t eaten all day and had thought I’d first get my campsite and then go find a restaurant, but this campground is so far in the woods, I decided to try what I had. So I opened cans of asparagus and a can of chicken, then heated water in the camp bathroom to make instant mashed potatoes – and “wha-la” dinner for a van-person. I topped that off with ice cream from the camp store. This place has internet access, but I didn’t use it. There is a nice big swimming pool here. I found a tick on my neck when I looked into the bathroom mirror, so I decided not to go walking out in the woods this evening.. YIKES. Very few people here, like a ghost-town.
