Smithsonian museum at Dulles

I tried to go to the museum at the Dulles airport today. Boy, they do a
good job of hidding that little gem. D.C. easily has the worst roads
for visitors in any city in any country I've ever visited. It is very
hard to find things...

1) Many roads have formal names as well as common names. The map lists
the formal name but the signs often only use the common name (i.e. U.S.
123 is formal but Foobar St. is common).
2) Often turn off signs are located at the turn off or just after the
turn off, no warning. For example, from 66 to 50 there is a sign "50
next turn", however, there is a concrete barrier between you and the
off ramp. You had to predict that you needed to get off before the
barrier begins, but the sign is after the barrier
3) Slower drivers don't seem to have any inclination to stay to the
right.
4) Sometimes two roads will have the same name. For example, when you
get to the end of 66 W you have the option of taking the 66 E ramp.
That ramp takes you North of the hwy and down another freeway entirly,
seeming to never get you back to the original road (also named 66) that
you were just on.
5) Even though the museum is at the airport DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO
NOT take the "Airport road". This is a 7 mile long hell hole with NO
EXITS until you get to the main Dulles terminal. You have to ride it
out both ways. It would be nice if they said "No turn off for 7 miles
before you bought the road. Or even U turn places would work.
6) At one point there was a sign that said "use exit 9B for museum".
Then the freeways splits 3 says. Never did find out which of the 3
roads contained a 9B.

By the time I got there it was 59 minutes before closing and they close
the main gate an hour before closing. So 2 hours of driving all over
the place were wasted. Next time, I'm bringing the laptop with the
built-in GPS and teach my wife to use it.

-Robert, frustrated D.C. tourist

(BTW: If you take the Metro and bring your family, understand that you
can only run your credit card once per day (the system will reject it
after that). So if you have a family of 4 and want to add money to each
person's metro card (each must be done seperately) you must carry 4
credit cards.)

However, all on all, I'm having a great time!!