The day started badly with the 11:30 Megabus not leaving until 12:30. The ride itself was frustrating with the person in the seat next to me taking up most of his space & mine. Sylvia in two seats over was in her 70's & on her first bus journey. She delighted in phoning all her friends on speaker phone to tell them. She even booked her holiday to Costa Rica, sounds like a fun trip. Nice that there is a group of them going together! All this meant that I missed my train to Charlottesville by 20mins. The later train was sold out as was the next two the next morning.

Ellen phoned her sister Marti who came to the rescue & offered me a place to stay for the night. It had been a number of years since I had seen Marti, yet we managed to find each other in the metro car park.

We had Lebanese for dinner, at her house in the Washington suburbs. Marti 's son is extremely well mannered young man, clearing & setting the table for us all.

After the bus journey it was so nice to have a lovely place to stay & break up the journey.