This is it - the last day, and its entirely about getting home. I wake up early - at six my neighbours are apparently leaving and feel the need to slam their hotel room door on their way out. Ass-holes.
I snooze a bit more but by 7 I decide to get up and have a shower. I expect I'm going to get pretty stinky over the next day or so, so this is the last chance to get clean. I have a coffee from the Mr. Coffee machine, triple check I've got everything packed and decide to do it. I check out OK and head to the subway.
Just getting the R train today so I don't need to schlep my backpack too far, just around the corner. I swipe my metro card for the last time and wait for the train. I change at South Ferry to the 2 train going uptown which takes a long time to get to Penn Station. When I get there I'm already starting to sweat in that ridiculous coat of mine - it hasn't rained once, I could have just brought the fleece for the whole fortnight, but never mind.
Penn Station is a fairly sprawling underground complex and I struggle to find where I need to go. Good job I set off early. The train gets delayed by a few minutes, and I also get a bit worried by announcements telling me my luggage must have tags on, so I go to customer services and get a luggage tag. There's no airport style security - it is the train, but there is the threat of random checks, plus a sniffer dog is present on the entrance to the escalator down to the platform.
I get the train and move into the business class carriage. There is bags of legroom and nice fold out backrests so I can type this up. Big comfortable leather seats as well. This is the way to travel.
We go through Philadelphia, which looks like a fairly ordinary city with a few skyscrapers, and then Baltimore. I can see rows of terraced houses which appear to have stone construction at the front, and then an overhanging wooden first floor at the back. I can see a few of these buildings are collapsed - on a few terraces there are just piles of rubble in-between some of the houses. The station is in a cutting, and the rest of the city is obscured behind either the cutting or tunnels.
We get to Washington and I jump off. Union station looks to be a grand old place, really big with fancy marble, but I don't really stop to check it out, I go for a pee, then to the taxi rank. Pat told me the metro apparently goes most of the way to Dulles, but stops about three stops short. There is an oft promised line extension in the works, but for now you have to get a bus to cover the last bit of the journey. His advice - get an Uber. I don't quite do that, I take a regular cab, but it turns out Dulles is a long way from the centre of Washington. The journey seems to go on and on, I see signs for the airport out of the taxi window, and signs for turnoffs, but we never seem to get there. When we eventually do, I have to fork over $80 for the ride and I've clearly paid a lot for the convenience.
Through security, for the last time - I think I've whipped my belt off more times in the last fortnight than since I was a much younger man. I go to pick up my stuff from the conveyor and get a wicked static shock from my laptop. I blurt out an 'ow' and the TSA dude manning the machine shoots me a look. I get away with it, but that could have gone bad quickly. This time there's no silly buses over to the terminal for me, it's an underground train ride. The gate is right next to where I come out, so I grab some food and plonk myself down for yet another few hours waiting at the airport. I play a bit of Mario, but its winning today so I give up. The time goes by fairly quickly. I'm queueing up to board when I hear my name get called for a 'passport verification'. Gulp. Turns out they just want to get the 'hey you're sitting by the exit aisle, if shit goes bad you'll help other people, right?' question out of the way now, but nothing more. I get on and take my exit row seat.