The last time I was in DC, I didn’t have enough time to spend some quality time at arguably one of my favourite memorials in the city…the Lincoln Memorial at the Potomac side of the National Mall.
Getting to the memorial proved to be one hell of an adventure, though…and it had nothing to do with making several laps around it which is what I did a couple of times when Alex was in hospital for his second surgery and remains an inside joke between Julia and I to this day.
No, this trip was already off the rails when I arrived at my favourite Metro station: Franconia-Springfield.
Now, don’t get me wrong…I really love Metro as the trains and the stations tend to be very clean and using the system is usually pretty easy with a Smartrip card.
Sadly, I had found the Smartrip app was available for my phone which would allow me to use the phone rather than the card to access the system. So I already had the Smartrip card from last year (the blue and green one) so I created the account on their website and linked my existing card soon after arriving at the hotel near the Pittsburgh airport. So far, so good.
Then I went ahead and bought a three day unlimited pass on the website which was linked to the card. The warning message said it’d take 4 hours for the trains to recognise it and 12 for the buses so no problems there.
So, theoretically I should have been able to tap my phone on the turnstile reader at the station and it’d see the Smartrip card in Apple Wallet and the pending pass and I’d be good to go.
Not so much.
I had forgotten to transfer the card into Apple Wallet so here I am juggling the card and the phone on the camera case but eventually it ends up working so that now I can see my Smartrip card in Apple Wallet.
Now I head back to the turnstile and tap the phone again and still no joy. And unfortunately, no station manager for ten minutes as she’d popped out for a wee… 🙁
A few more minutes of fiddling about and showing her that the turnstile is recognising the phone and the card but it’s not loading the pass and allowing me through and she allows me through manually which would become the theme of the day. She’s also the first one that mentioned it can actually take upwards of 72 hours for the pass to properly be ready to activate.
Whilst waiting for a Blue Line train that would never come because the Blue Line is currently suspended, I call the Smartrip call centre for help. And the person I got initially was not only not helpful but actually condescending as well. When she finally begrudgingly allowed me to speak to her supervisor, he suggested tapping the phone on the fare dispensers outside the next station and that should be enough to alert the system that the phone and the pass are in the system and should load it properly. Sadly, their system isn’t designed to let supervisors manually fix this problem and force the pass to be loaded to the card on the phone.
Ah, OK. And whilst at Foggy Bottom/GWU station, I managed to prove conclusively to a rather rude station manager who refused to listen to me that the suggested remedy wasn’t working.
At this point, I’m so over dealing with these people that I’m off to make the hike down the hill to Abe’s Place and figured I’d eventually try my luck elsewhere.
Along the way, I passed by the Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts and caught a couple of potential VIP movements. The first one was right next to the Naval Observatory where the Vice-President’s Official Residence is located and across the street is the HQ for the State Department. I’m pretty sure that motorcade I caught was the Secretary of State coming back from the White House.
As I got closer to the memorial, I caught one of the Presidential helicopters making a bee-line past the memorial toward Arlington.
But at last, I made it to Abe’s Place and was right at the corner of the building where North Carolina’s place in the list of the states by order of admission is carved into the edge of the roof.
President Lincoln was certainly bringing the crowds to bear…it was a very comfortable day but it wasn’t too hideously crowded as it usually is during the height of summer.
My favourite part is when you finally ascend the steps to find the President sitting in his chair for all eternity. I could stare at his face for hours and still not totally understand what he might have been thinking.
I’d like to think that he’d been waiting there patiently for me to come and visit and just breathe in the history and his part in trying to preserve the Union in one of the most fraught times in our history when it was literally brother fighting brother and still remains by far the deadliest war we’ve ever fought.
Maybe he’s hoping that some day we might yet learn the lessons from extreme division and work hard to find that better future that seems more elusive now than it has ever been.
I really wish I knew what he was thinking.
I really wish he had his trademark clever turn of phrase ready to once again provide comfort and hope for the future of our nation.
I really wish more of us could be inspired by his example.
I really wish I could stay and just enjoy being in his presence, even if for a little more time.
But yeah, I really would love to know what he is thinking sitting on that great marble chair having seen what he’s seen most recently from his end of the National Mall and take comfort that what he experienced whilst being President was even worse.
