Everything I learned in HS US History is right in front of me...

Location: Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

Last night was a great fun. After a quick cat nap, some surprisingly tasty Papa John’s pizza and a little football, Chris, Dan, Cassie and I geared up for a great evening of fun. Chris and Cassie had a formal to go to so after dropping them off, Dan and I walked through the NC State campus to grab a drink and wait for them. The campus was beautiful, as most college campuses are, but there were a few very unique things about this campus. The most notable was the Free Expression Tunnel (read my Sosauce.com review here). This tunnel is a pedestrian tunnel where university students are encouraged to express themselves. It mostly looks like a wall of junk, but the fact that a university has embraced an idea like this is really quite remarkable. Apparently also during rivalry week when NC State plays UNC, Tar Heel fans often come and express themselves all over the walls of the tunnel.

After wandering around campus for a bit, we found ourselves at a small bar where we had a quick drink and waited for Chris and Cassie to arrive. They came and picked us up and we all headed to downtown Raleigh to check out a great little piano bar called Rum Runners (read my Sosauce.com review here). The place was relatively small, but had a great vibe. Honestly, I’m not sure you can screw up a piano bar, but needless to say, they did not screw anything up. We spent some time singing and swaying and headed home to catch some good Z’s before a long day’s drive to Washington, D.C.

Only we didn’t exactly make it to D.C.

But I’ll back up. So we began our drive a little later than we had wanted to. But we definitely needed the sleep. We headed out of Raleigh just before noon with a quick stop to grab some gas and grub. North Carolina is beautiful, but we didn’t really stop to look around. Once we hit the state line in Richmond, we naturally had to stop and take our picture at the sign which happened to be on the property of the Welcome center. We decided to go in and grab some free propaganda (something I am now a BIG fan of!) and started talking to Hazel, the nice woman working the info desk. Within minutes she had convinced us to reroute our journey completely, taking a westbound highway after Richmond and driving across the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains along a path called the Skyline Drive. We weren’t a hard sell, and after calling my cousin Jennifer (who we are staying with in D.C.) we picked up and headed in our new direction.

Richmond was beautiful. I don’t remember it being this gorgeous. Once we crossed the James River, we got out of the car and took a quick hike to the Boulevard Bridge to see the river and the changing leaves a little more up close. After this we headed North through some really great old colonial neighborhoods, an area called the Fan which, aside from the iPod toting joggers, could fit right inside a period piece. We also stopped at a little lake called Boat Lake which has the most perfect still water reflections of the trees on the horizon. From here we headed northwest towards Charlottesville.

We arrived in Charlottesville just after dark and made a quick stop at Barnes and Noble to pick up a little book called “The Game” (if you haven’t heard of it, look it up – it’s by a guy called Neil Strauss and it’s pretty genius – I’ll let you know how it goes as we read through it) and checked into the Super 8 motel. Tonight we are relaxing. We grabbed some Panera and are watching Monday Night Football. Hopefully I can get some work done tonight and get enough sleep so that we can be nice and fresh for our long drive across the ridge tomorrow!

XOXO

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A Perfect Day for College Football

Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

The journey has officially begun!

I boarded my flight from Tulsa to Greenville about 6 PM yesterday evening (with all of my bags barely packed, but definitely ready to go). My flight went off without a hitch, with a quick layover at DFW I arrived in Greenville at about 11 PM to Dan practically waiting for me at the airport (fantastic timing)! From there, Dan drove us back up to Raleigh where we promptly crashed at his brother Chris’s girlfriend’s apartment.

Today was pretty relaxing. Dan isn’t going to see his brother for a couple of months so we wanted to spend one last day hanging out. We slept in pretty late, but got ready quickly because we wanted to get to the football game early. Today, I was not a Cowboys fan, I was not a Longhorns fan, rather I was a North Carolina State Wolfpack fan. It was a hard transition (as their color is red… which I despise, generally speaking) and we were rooting against a team in Orange (Clemson). I snuck in as a student (thanks Samantha, whoever you are) and we got FANTASTIC seats on the front row of the endzone. Although the game was pretty much a wash, it was amazing fun to be so close to the field, even though we were losing. We battled to catch field goal attempt balls, helped raise the net to catch the extra close ones, took our picture with Mrs. Wuff (the mascot bride) and chatted with the security guards keeping any overzealous fans off the field. The weather was perfect, the sun was shaded by the stadium walls and all in all, it was a pretty perfect day.

On the way home, we grabbed a pizza, tossed the football in the parking lot until dark and then headed in for a quick catnap and some TV football. Unfortunately, neither the Texas, nor the Oklahoma State games are showing out here, so I have resorted to following the score via Sportacular. But hopefully, neither team needs my help.

Today really went off without a hitch. A good relaxing start to a hopefully relaxing trip. My only major blunder today involved a car called Wanda. Wanda is a 1996 (ish) Bermuda Grass Green Ford Escort with as many problems as Britney Spears pre-comeback. Wanda (who I named after the domestic abuse victim from the Dixie Chick song “Goodbye Earl”) has a number of issues. She has attachment issues; her front bumper is held on by twisty ties. She has trust issues; her driver door doesn’t open, so to enter the car, one must sneak in through the passenger side and open the driver door from the inside. She’s not very bright; the interior lights do not work at all. She’s got a bad clutch (not a metaphor) that squeaks and creaks every time you step on it. When she cries, there’s really no stopping it as the windshield wipers are relatively useless and completely have a mind of their own. She also has is incredibly picky, she only has one key and without it, you’ll never get in.

So when I asked Dan for the keys so I could go get my pack out of the boot (my accent and vocabulary transformation has already begun), Dan responsibly reminded me, “don’t forget to not lock the keys in the car because we don’t have a spare!” I walk towards Wanda, laughing and thinking that I would do something like that. I open the trunk, grab my pack (which required two hands and a brief set down of the keys – aw, CRAP! That’s where I went wrong!) and slam the hatch down quick to run back inside the house… But without the keys. Literally less than 30 seconds after Dan had reminded me to steer clear of this very predicament. Fortunately, I had made a mistake earlier in the day that saved us. I had accidentally forgotten to lock the passenger door when I got out of the car earlier, so we (and by “we” I mean Dan) were able to crawl into the car and reach for the keys. Crisis averted.

Not sure about the plans for tonight yet. Probably something relaxed as we begin Dan’s roadtrip tomorrow and drive North to Washington D.C.

XOXO

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