car coming | Michigan | Don''t Mess with Texas | Rock Creek Parkway

Oh. Oh. Over by the bar! See that? A perfect specimen of a media heavy. You can tell by the grip he has around a drink and the hunch in his shoulders as he fingers his BlackBerry. He lives and breathes for the tiniest morsel of information. See? See how that one just ordered another drink without even lifting his head from his BlackBerry? He is undoubtedly squirreling away a very important morsel.

Oh, and that cluster of folks with the "Michigan" and "Don't Mess with Texas" T-shirts? Tourists. Washington, D.C., gets a lot of them. Some of these folks feel they will blend in better if they buy T-shirts off the street that say "Property of FBI." Don't be fooled. Those aren't real FBI agents.

Okay, now we're back outside. Wonder what all that honking is? Well, I am standing in the street at rush hour to show you that if you should drive while you are here in the nation's capital, two things are likely­ to happen. One, you will most likely get lost. Two, you will probably drive head-on into another car.

That's because the direction of the lanes changes at morning and evening rush hours. You will think you are on a six-lane street, with three lanes going one way and three the other. But, in fact, four will be going one way and two the other. And you won't know it until you see a car coming right at you in what you thought was your lane.

There is even one street that changes direction entirely. It's called Rock Creek Parkway. Usually, it is a two-way road. Not at rush hour. In the morning, all of its lanes are closed for cars coming into downtown, and in the evening all of its lanes are closed for cars leaving downtown. It is a trip when you see big white arrows on the road pointing right at you as you drive the "wrong way," which is to say, the right way.