After a lovely kielbasa and some pop (yeah, I know…haute cuisine in our nation’s capital!), I’ve made it down the mall to the National Museum of American History and sit down on the bench to get a feel for what’s on display.

I was really interested in visiting this museum for one artifact in particular…a 1948 Tucker Sedan.

The Tucker is a special car amongst petrolheads as only 51 of them were ever built thanks to the Big Three auto manufacturers feeling threatened by the innovative safety features of the Tucker that had never been seen before.

Like seat belts!

I kid you not…until the 1948 Tucker came along, seat belts were not installed on cars that were growing ever bigger, faster, and more powerful and more capable of killing people should an accident unfortunately befall the driver.

Nor was safety glass so that if the car is hit, the windshield pops out in one piece rather than shattering in a million pieces that can slice and dice the passengers. This actually was tested (unintentionally) when a Tucker prototype was doing an endurance run and the driver rolled it right at the end and walked away with nary a scratch.

Then there was the third headlamp in the centre of the bonnet that would move in the direction the wheel was turned to give more illumination.

Disc brakes? Standard now but back in 1948, the only car you’d see with them was the Tucker.

Before coming to Washington DC, I had streamed the Jeff Bridges movie where he plays the role of Preston Tucker. Yes, “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” takes a bit of artistic licence but the story it tells of Preston Tucker doing his darnedest to bring his car of the future to market in spite of political and corporate sabotage is broadly accurate.

So my hope was to see a 1948 Tucker in real life so I’m out on that bench looking at the building map to zero in on where it would be exhibited.

Imagine how it felt to discover that the Tucker was not on display!

Yeah…that was about it.

As I was mourning the Tucker not being on display and seriously questioning my choices and game plan for the afternoon, I was roused from forlornly staring at my phone’s screen by an Asian lady with a kid in a stroller who had apparently been speaking for at least a minute and I’d no idea she was there or that she’d said anything.

That was somewhat surprising considering how close she was and I’m usually pretty cognizant of my personal space and things that encroach upon it.

After apologising profusely for having no idea she was there or that she was actually talking to me, she had apparently taken a wrong turn from Smithsonian station and was wanting directions to the Arts and Industries Building.

I’d discovered the day before that it was actually closed for renovations and she was rather disappointed to hear that news. She seemed a bit happier to learn that the Freer Gallery was decidedly closer and the Asian collection would likely be right up her alley.

Once she was safely pointed in the correct direction to Freer, it was time to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my day.

I had originally thought about doing the lap round the White House but I’ve done that enough in past trips that I figured I’d call it a day and head back to the hotel in Sterling where I’d move into a different room for the extra night after packing out of the room I had been staying.

From American History, it was equal distance to Smithsonian and Federal Triangle but the advantage of Federal Triangle is that it was one stop closer to the end of the Silver line so that’s where I headed.

Whilst actually waiting for a train to arrive on the platform (not unusual on weekends that has reduced service), I had some fun playing with the rectangle waffle design of the station ceiling! 🙂