Space Shuttle Stalker

The city was crawling with idiots this morning who were driving slowly, swiveling their heads every which way, double parking, illegally parking, making sudden stops, generally causing massive traffic backups throughout the city and on the interstates.

I was one of those idiots.

I had a good excuse though.  I mean, how often is it that a Boeing 747 flies over DC with a space shuttle strapped to its back?  I'll tell you how often. Once. That's it. So for this one day I threw caution to the wind and joined all the other morons who were driving badly.

Originally I'd planned to drive into the city, park the car and join my husband on the terrace of his conveniently located office building which overlooks the Lincoln Memorial. However, the thousands of other people who also had similar plans caused a massive traffic jam getting into the city. When I finally made it onto the Memorial Bridge and saw all the people lined up I wished I could just pull over and jump out.

Instead I started driving along the river. I contemplated joining the line of cars that had parked illegally along the road but aborted that plan when I saw a cop make his way over to shoo the people away.  My head was swiveling every which way, I was hitting the brakes every two seconds and I was completely distracted.  Yes, I became THAT driver, the ones I am always cursing at - although in those cases the drivers are usually texting or applying eye makeup.  At least I was trying to spot history.

Then I saw it.  It flew right past me right over the river and I came to a complete stop (double parked!) and tried to soak it up.  Then it was gone and I continued my stalking.  I decided that it had to come back and I was determined to get myself into position to see it again.

The only problem was the lack of parking.  I circled around a few times and ended up near the MLK Memorial, at which time I heard a man yell "There it is! There it is!" I screeched to a stop next to a sign that said "No Parking", put on my hazards and leaped out of the car.  I stared straight up in awe as it flew right over me. People all around me were running, pointing, shouting - it was almost as if they'd spotted a UFO and were trying to chase it down.

I waited around a bit, got nervous about my illegal parking and got back in the car to continue my stalking. No less than ten seconds later I heard another shriek indicating a third sighting and I pulled over again, this time parking in a handicapped zone.  I jumped out of my car and pointed my camera skyward to record the moment. I was so engrossed in making my little movie that a tour bus had to honk its horn at me to GET THE HE*& OUT OF THE ROAD!

And then it was gone.  Just like that, an exciting historical moment was, well, history. But I was there and I saw it. And I'm still in one piece. Whew.

I was so excited when I picked the kids up from school that I blurted out "Guess what Mom saw today!" the second they got in the car.  Jack replied, "I know, the space shuttle!  I saw it too when I was outside for P.E.!"

How do you like that? I did all that work and my kid got to see the shuttle without even trying. Lucky thing.