I think it was Thursday evening when Hubby read to me from the newspaper. He said "Hey at the DC Armory this weekend National Geographic is having a book sale and everything is going to be 25% to 90% off, Wanna go?" I was like "Sure if that's what you want to do, I'll go" and so the event was on!!! So early Saturday morning, we got up and got on our way. We had to stop because Hubby needed food and then we were on our way. Traffic was quite heavy and we finally reached the beltway, we had decided that we would just take 214 all the way in, instead of criss-crossing DC from Pennsylvania Avenue. So we are on the beltway and then we see it a highway sign it read "Accident at beltway on 214 west all lanes blocked" Hey that's the way we need to go. So just as typical drivers we were like "No way" and then we had to pass over 214 to get to the exit ramp, WE SAW NOTHING, until we got on the ramp, non believers that we are, then we discovered that there was no accident and a water main had burst and 214 was a river. so we spent 20 minutes looping under beltway only to end up going back the way we came, fortunately we, both have been here a while and got off on exit 13, Ritchie-Marlboro road and followed the road to Hampton Boulevard and got back on 214 about 100 yards above the water main break, and it was gushing up into the air like a geyser. So then we are back on track, right?? Wrong. In DC around RFK stadium if the road sign says go straight for the DC Armory it really means veer off to the left, going straight bypasses it all and then you have to make an illegal U-turn in South East, so we get turned around and head over to parking lot 3, as per the road sign, and have to wait to enter the parking area because the guy directing traffic with the flag has decided that incoming traffic has to cross over how he is exiting traffic. CLUSTER!!!! Anyway we park, cross the street and we are in the Armory.
Once inside I had to hand my purse to a lady who checked the inside and informed me she was my human conveyor belt and I walked under the metal detector. I was then asked if I had any weapons or liquids. This will be relevant later. So we are through "security" and enter the sale area. We are given a calendar for next year, it is very pretty, and grab a shopping cart. and we browse up and down the aisles of books. True to the newspaper ad the books we at a steal, we got books on all kinds of things, books for $2 dollars, $7 dollars and $10 dollars. we filled our cart. The only long, long, long line was to view the gifts and apparel, that line was wrapping around the hall. The lines were long to check out, but not as long as the gift and apparel line. something here had to give. Whilst we were waiting in line I noticed people who had purchased a lot of heavy books, like we were about to, we going over to a loading dock of sorts and loading up their vehicles, I said to Hubby "want me to go get the car and figure out how to get over there?" and Hubby said "good idea" clearly neither one of us wanted to carry our hoard of books. Off I went to get the car. So I drove around the back and stopped at the first canopy tent and asked a guard where the loading was located for the book sale, he told me go down to the next canopy, well guess what I got the next canopy only to realize that I had passed the loading dock, it is prior to the canopy and in DC you can't just turn around, so back around the Armory I go. This time I back up the loading dock and security guy comes over and I was thinking oh great here we go he said park over here please so the forklift can get through, so I did, and I got out of my car and walked right in. No one wanted to check my purse and no one wanted to ask me about weapons or liquids. I thought that it was funny, since I had exited and then re-entered through different doors. I did all that and Hubby was still in line. HA HA HA!
We loaded up the car and headed home with our haul. It was a nice day and we did get some really nice books.
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