I Remember Crystal City (My Washington D.C. Adventure July 1987)

The Crystal City, Virginia Americana Motel is closing. Which makes me slightly sad. Perhaps wistful is a better description. I stayed there once with a couple of friends back in 1987. It was a long drive to get there, but at least I was just a passenger. It was extremely hot and humid. I wasn't even 21 years old. So much ahead and so much behind. Sit back and I'll tell you a tale of subways, La Bamba, Ollie's Trolley, Royals, and Orioles. 

I believe we left Murfreesboro, Tennessee on Thursday July 23, 1987. My friend JD's sister MD had been working for the then Senator Al Gore that summer in Washington D.C.. JD was going to drive up for a few days and then MD would return with him. So he invited myself and Drocam to accompany him up there. My favorite baseball team would be playing the Baltimore Orioles on July 25 so JD said we'd go to that game. So I got some days off from my job at Mazzio's Pizza and I was in. Plus, I had a crush on his sister at the time so it would be a chance to spend some time with her. I packed a few things, grabbed a couple of paperbacks on Zen Buddhism I was reading and off we went in JD's Ford Fairmont. 

The Ford Fairmont was a mid-sized sedan. Not terribly comfortable for a long legged guy like me. That was the least of my worries though as JD insisted we only crack the windows while not running the air conditioner. The temps were in the high 90's and the humidity was typical for that time of year. It was beyond stifling. I wondered if perhaps I had made a bad decision to go on this journey. 

We rolled through Knoxville and then made our way east. I had never been past Knoxville. When I was growing up other kids would go on and on about their summer vacation in Gatlinburg and I thought it was in another world. We got closer to Bristol and this got me excited. I knew that Bristol was in Tennessee and Virginia which I always thought was neat. I think the original plan (wait....there was a plan?) was to get to Washington D.C. in one day, but JD wouldn't let Drocam or myself drive so he ran out of steam somewhere just past Richmond, Virginia so we found some small motel and called it a day. This was the first time I can remember staying in a motel. It was okay. 

We started out early the next day, which was probably Friday July 24, and found ourselves driving right across the Potomac River into D.C. before we even knew where we were. Traffic in D.C. was crazy so but JD managed to get us back over the river into Virginia where we began to look for lodging and luck was with us as the Crystal City Americana Motel appeared. They had a room with a two twin beds. Drocam said he'd sleep in the bathtub instead of using a cot and we were set. There was a Metro subway station just down the street from the Americana. It was part of a labyrinth of underground shops and it seemed like I walked for hours in there over the course of just 2 days all the while the Los Lobos version of "La Bamba" played. We wouldn't meet MD until later in the afternoon so we took the train into D.C. to see the tourist attractions around the Mall. 

We walked from one end of the Mall to the other somehow not going to see the Lincoln or Jefferson Memorials. JD snapped a photo of me outside the White House. Ronnie wouldn't come out to say hey. Maybe it was the atrocious outfit I was wearing that day. The Capitol pool seemed mucky. The drinking age was still 18 in D.C. so I could enjoy a cold beer sold by a vendor on the way to the Smithsonian. It was insanely hot. Sweltering. We went to the Smithsonian just to avoid the heat, but timed it just right to see the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key. I was more interested in Fonzie's leather jacket, Dorothy's ruby slippers, and Archie Bunker's chair. I did fulfill a dream that day by going to the top of the Washington Monument. 

I left JD and Drocam at some point and just wandered alone through the city. I found the Supreme Court by accident. I was stumbling around and there it was with lady justice and her scales. Street drummers were on every street corner beating on old industrial buckets. I made my way back to Crystal City and discovered this food stand called Ollie's Trolley where I bought my first curly spicy fries. It was the summer of Iran/Contra hearings and I found it amusing that I was buying grub from a place named Ollie's. Perhaps Oliver North owned them, I thought. JD and Drocam eventually made it back and it was time to fire up the Fairmont and go pick up MD and have some supper somewhere. 

The traffic wasn't too bad and we made it to the place MD had stayed that summer. It was a ladies only dormitory of sorts. It had a The Facts of Life vibe to me. MD was a cute little curly haired pixie of a girl. I would actually take her on a sort of date either later that summer or the next. She was excited to see us and told us we should go to old town Alexandria to eat that night. We drove back across the river and went south. Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia is an historic district nestled alongside the Potomac. There was lots of people around and I have vague memories of walking around until we finally found a restaurant. I believe it was a seafood place, but I'm pretty sure I had chicken. We were walking back to our car and these 3 teenagers approached us, said they had lost ride and needed money for the bus and that would sing us a song for the dough. They claimed it would be so good they'd steal our girl. Drocam and JD weren't having it, but I told them to sing so they proceeded to harmonize a beautiful tune. I gave them $5. We went on and JD and Drocam were giving me grief for giving the teens money. "You know they were just hustling you, don't you Wally?" "Sure, but they were awesome," I replied. I could tell MD thought it was cool. 

JD drove us all back into D.C. and we dropped MD off. The trip back to the hotel Americana became an adventure. JD's car had some issues. It had worn out bushings in the wheels for one. So the ride was not smooth. It also had been prone to just stop running at times due to an alternator issue. Then there was the fact that JD wouldn't let us roll down the darn windows. We leave MD's ladies home and find ourselves around the Capitol building trying to find the road to take us back across the river when JD goes the wrong way up a one way street. Keep in mind, it's well after midnight and there's no traffic now. But there is a Capitol Hill policemen who instantly hits his lights. JD is a nervous and jittery guy under normal situations, but he's practically bouncing around. If any drinking had taken place that evening it would have been just me so JD was clean, but he was from out of town. The cop was pretty much a jerk. We could hear the tags being run from the radio. Tennessee plates......and so on. JD gets off with a mouthy warning and we somehow make it back to the hotel. D.C. day one is done. But wait, there's more in day two. 

We take the train early in the day when the temperature is at least tolerable. Our plan is to go to the zoo because JD wants to see the panda. I think MD was going to meet us there. We get off at Dupont Circle where the escalator seemed to take forever. I later learned it was one of the longest ones in the Metro system. The panda would not come out and the zoo bored me so I wandered off from JD, MD, and Drocam to find an African street festival happening. I bought a daishiki which I would wear for years afterward. I reconnected with the gang and we found ourselves at the old Washington D.C. post office which had been turned into various shops. There was a jazz band playing in the center which I completely dug. The movie No Way Out came out a few weeks later and it features a fight scene in the old post office. I saw the film in the theater and it made my day to see the scene shot in a place I had just visited weeks before. I believe the old post office is now a Trump hotel.

We left the old post office and Drocam gave a beggar some money after telling me I was wrong to give the teenagers money the night before. JD and I had a baseball game to attend that night in Baltimore. I believe Drocam and MD hung out that night, but I don't recall for sure. I've told the story about my love for the Kansas City Royals before, but here's a quick summary for you. The first team baseball card I got in a Topps pack was the 1974 Royals. Since there was not a major league team near me in Murfreesboro, Tennessee I decided the Royals were my favorite team. They proceeded to become winners from 1976 through the 80's with stars like George Brett and Bret Saberhagen leading the way. So I was super pumped up to see the Royals go up against the Orioles in Memorial Stadium. 

Memorial Stadium was in the midst of a huge neighborhood and when we couldn't find any parking we ended up parking in the neighborhood several blocks away. We'd be lost trying to get out later, but at the time we just wanted to get tickets and get into the game before it started. We made it in and found our right field bleacher seats. Saberhagen had been on a tear so I hoped he would stop the Orioles who had been on a winning streak. There were 3 future hall of famers in the game: Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray, and one of my all time favorites George Brett. Bo Jackson was also in this game. The Baltimore paper featured a nice photo of him arguing a called third strike. My friend JD snapped some photos of the outfield and shared one with me the other day.

The game was decent with the Royals getting the lead, but Saberhagen later grooved a pitch to Murray who slammed it about 6 rows or so behind us to give the Orioles a lead they wouldn't relinquish. I still remember the crazy shirtless old guy that caught the home run ball waving his arm up and down. I'm probably as old as that dude now. The best part of the game was sitting in the bleachers and flirting with this blond lady that sat next to me. She told us she was dating a Red Sox minor leaguer. She was only the second lady I'd ever met that knew anything about baseball. It was disappointing to see the Royals lose 4-3, but it was still loads of fun and only the second major league game I'd seen at this point in my life. 

The drive back to Crystal City and American Motel was an adventure. We had completely lost our way coming in and it was a long walk back to the car. I think it took quite a while just to figure out which side street JD had parked it. It was, thankfully, still there, but now we had no real way of knowing how to get back to the highway. We had a map, but the detail was D.C. and not Baltimore. There was a general summary of Baltimore so we looked the map over and figure if we hit this one artery it would take us to downtown Baltimore by the Chesapeake Bay and from there it would be a piece of cake. This one street we took had us driving for miles and miles through a row house neighborhood that could have charitably been called rundown. JD's car was not the most dependable. It was still a million degrees out even near midnight and if we ended up stranded in a rough neighborhood it could get interesting.  Mind you I wasn't scared, but I was nervous. It seemed like hours before we made it to downtown and then we still needed to get back to Virginia before dawn so we could get a little sleep before the trip back to Murfreesboro. 

We found Drocam asleep in the bathtub when we finally got back to the Americana. I believe he'd been out with MD the whole evening. JD swears he was drunk, but I don't think so. We got a few hours of rest and then it was off to retrieve MD for the trip home. I tried to get her to tell us some good dirt on Al Gore, but she said there was nothing scandalous to tell. JD still wouldn't let us roll the windows down, but at least MD insisted we play rock radio stations. This meant more "La Bamba" by Los Lobos and lots and lots of U2. The Joshua Tree album was a mega hit record which I hadn't even bought yet even though I was a U2 fan. They had hit the point of popularity which tends to turn me off. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" won me over on that long car trip back. 

The story of the Americana closing brought me right back to those few days in July of 1987 when new experiences, new places filled with history, baseball, and music shared with friends made for one wonderful outing destined for memories now bobbing to the surface. When I asked Drocam if he remembered anything about the trip he kept going on about how I had a favorite bridge or wanted to live under a bridge. Hmmmm, maybe JD was right all along. Perhaps Drocam was drunk the night we got back to the Americana after the baseball game.