January 3, 2004 - Today began in Tampa and ended in Maryland. My sister and I woke up and drove starting at 5:30 AM heading North. We passed through Savannah. I was driving at this point so we actually stopped in Savannah so I could show her around. There were lots of people walking around the city because of the super nice weather. My sister took over driving and we hit some bad traffic. There was essentially 5 hours of 15-45 MPH driving on the highway as we passed through North Carolina. Every time someone was pulled off to the side of the road, either given a ticket, car problems, or a wreck, the highway would back up for miles. The reason for travelling this was way is that my sister's husband's great-aunt died. The funeral is going to be at Arlington National Cemetery because she was involved with the government. I dropped Anna off at the hotel that she is staying at and then proceeded on to Mike Cloppert's apartment in Maryland. The apartment was not that difficult to locate. When I got there we chatted for a while and then went into the bar district that he knew about. There were a million bars and tons of people walking around. Finding a parking spot was the most difficult thing ever. Eventually, after about 15 minutes of driving up and down the same streets, a spot magically appeared and we walked up into the main strip. With so many bars to choose from and Cloppert having only been to a few, choosing one was a random decision. We ended up in some place that advertised a pool table but ended up having a non-functional pool table. Still, we stayed and had a few drinks. Some talkative girl chatted with Mike and I for a bit and then left, leaving us to chat with some guy who just happened to be the same age as me, from West Chester, where I grew up, and now living in DC. We left eventually and drove to a diner that Mike knew of. He highly recommended the biscuits and gravy to me, which I was ready to try, until we found out that they don't make it at night. I got a cheese omelet instead, which was still good. At 3 AM I went to sleep on Mike's couch.