Blacksburg, Virginia

Well, we made it a whole week on our own before we felt the urge to high-tail it out of the state. Our friend Danielle, whom Rachel met in New York doing research, is a Forestry grad student at Virginia Tech in mountainous Blacksburg, Virginia. Danielle has lived all over the place, from Philly to Indiana, PA to Arizona to southwestern Virginia, so she knew what it was like to start over in a new place. The drive took us a little more than three hours, and right when you get to the Virginia border you start to climb back up into the Appalachians, or to be more specific, the Blue Ridge Mountains. Blacksburg was a good ten degrees cooler than we get it down in Durham, and after a week plus of 95 degree or higher temperatures, it felt really good to get to a higher altitude. We met Danielle at one of her favorite watering holes, the Hoakie House, and finished off a couple pints and caught up on our lives before heading back to her house for the night.

The next day begun with a late breakfast at the good old Cracker Barrel, or "White People Container" as Rachel has started calling them. Now, we used to have a Cracker Barrel off of 694 in Brooklyn Center, and I've been there a few times myself, but I forgot just how delicious a fat-filled Southern breakfast can be. Rachel was a Cracker Barrel virgin, so it was kind of a big deal. As a lot of you probably know, I'm kind of a food snob, but it really doesn't get any better than stuffing yourself with comfort food. Especially when you're homesick. Two huge bellies and twelve dollars later (seriously), we were feeling like we could go for another eight hours of sleep, but we had a big day with Danielle ahead of us.

Our next stop was the animal shelter (Danielle wanted to look at dogs). Turns out she found one just right for her, too, and she put down the money for a dog who for a while was going to be named after yours truly. Sadly, by the end of the day, the dog's name had changed from Charlie to Zap Brannigan to Hermes and Food Kitty before Danielle finally settled on George. Charlie or Zap Brannigan would've been waaay better. The funniest thing about this whole adventure was the fact that Danielle didn't have any cash on her to pay for her new friend, so she mooched off us until she could find a cash machine. I don't think very many people have paid for a dog with a few twenties, some roughed up ones and a hand full of quarters, but George has had a hard life so it kind of seemed fitting.

One of the highlights of our trip was driving up to nearby Roanoke for the MicroFestivus Beer Party (or something like that). We were able to try ten beers from dozens of mostly local micro brews, and we also got to check out Roanoke, which is a pretty cool city and a heck of a lot bigger than I was expecting for southwestern Virginia.

The next day, Danielle took us through the Virginia Tech campus. It was definitely a very powerful experience to walk through a place that so many of us only know because of one of the biggest tragedies in American history. To walk on the huge drill field that became the site of a candle-light vigil after a disturbed individual took the lives of over 30 others would have been emotional enough for a regular person, but things like these are a lot different for my wife. Maybe she'll say something about it herself, but she told me that it was important to be connected to other people who have gone through a similar thing as she has. It makes you wonder how the world can be so wonderful and so terrible at the same time.

We'll probably post some more in the next couple of days; have a good night.

At the memorial at Virginia Tech:














The drill field:














The memorial:














Rachel and I in the Blue Ridge Mountains:














The Blue Ridge Mountains: