Today we said goodbye to our friends in Baltimore (thanks for hosting us!), did some last minute shopping, and hit the road.  We drove south to visit the National Cryptologic Museum adjacent to the NSA campus:

German code machines and the Colossus machine used to break the code:

Various Enigma machines:

In the modern cryptology gallery, this StorageTek Powderhorn robotic data cartridge library was on display.  The robot arm spins between the inner hub and outer rim of cartridges, grabbing the needed data cartridge:

FROSTBURG, a Thinking Machines CM-5 used by the NSA:

Cell phones with NSA software layers to allow for encrypted communications:

Russians gave this wood carving to the US Ambassador as a gift.  It was discovered that a microphone had been built into the carving:

The kids used an Enigma machine to decode a message:

We attempted to visit the visitor center at Goddard Space Flight Center, but unfortunately the visitor center closes at 3pm, so we missed that.

We continued south towards the Walmart where we would stop for the night.  Turning a corner, we either hit the curb or an object in the road.  The rear passenger tire exploded.  We pulled over and changed the tire:

The tire change took eight minutes, not bad!

We limped into the parking lot of the Walmart of Stafford, Virginia.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.