It is a grueling 16 hours from Tampa to Washington D.C. by car. If, like me, you decide to make the trip with only 22 hours to your necessary arrival time, you'd better bring a driving buddy, caffeine and a hefty supply of beef jerky.

Play your cards right, and you'll pull into DC at right around 8 in the morning. Play your cards like me, and you will immediately blow a tire and have to hitch a ride with a tow truck driver named Ralph.

All the same, about $400 worth of car parts later, my driving buddy Ginan and I were smashed into the back of a metro train from Franconia and well en route to Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity in the national mall.

This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.