The holiday inn express I stayed at last night was quite nice and worth the extra 50 bucks after a wet and cold day of riding. Had a good breakfest and then headed out. It cost $12 in tolls to get from wilmington to washington dc. Parked the bike underground below the ronald reagan building near "the mall". Had to show photo id and have bike searched (not very thoroughly) just to park. Same routine to go into any of the buildings.
Walked from the monument to the capitol building and then back down the other side, stopping at all the buildings along the way. Was quite along walk. American history museum was kinda boring. Wish I had more time to view the national gallery, but didn't want to stay over night in DC. The hirshorn gallery is worth a visit. Not sure what the newseum was, but didn't have time to check it out. Air and space museum planes seemed alittle to fake. Drove past the white house too. I think I got the gist of the DC tourist experience. Took very few photos.
Tomorrow I will spend the day driving up skyline dr and back, then down the blue ridge parkway. Then maybe do the tail of the dragon and call it a day. It was an absolute beautiful drive into the small town I am staying in. The sun was setting right in front of i-64 west and looked huge. People were literally taking photos threw the windshields with their phones and the like.