On my way home from Washington I saw an intriguing sign next to the highway: "Dutch Gap Conservation".

I took the exit and followed the signs. It turns out the Dutch Gap is a short cut in the James river that was created in the Civil War by General Dale.

He had been to the Netherlands and had a number of Dutch engineers in his army, which explains the name.

The Dutch Gap canal. The bridge is I-95, the highway I took from Washington D.C. to Richmond Virginia. The highway starts in Canada and goes all the way to Florida.

I arrived at Rosa's place on Friday evening. Saturday morning I had breakfast in a Cosi restaurant in Rosslyn -- I really wanted to have their great Cobb salad again. It was still delicious, but they had changed the recipe somewhat.

Next to my old work a new building is being constructed; it's almost ready.

I had lunch and coffee with friends in Fairfax and Herndon; it was great to see them again. I drove quite a bit through North Virginia; the last time I did that was to practice for my driver's license. Of course I took a few wrong exits but I'm pretty skilled in U-turns by now.

In the evening I went for a very enjoyable dinner with Binish at Kramer's. Around 9.30 pm went together to Prakapalooza: Prakash' birthday party in a bar at Dupont Circle. It was great to see him and other ex-colleagues again and it was a fun party.

The next morning I had breakfast with Rosa and Mila and after a short pit shop in Rosslyn (my good old Starbucks) I went back on the road. There was hardly any traffic and I enjoyed the drive. My 'rule' is that I won't drive more than 5 miles over the legal speed limit (mostly 65 mph in Virginia and North Carolina). That sometimes makes me feel like one of the slower cars on the road, but safety first.