Time / distance traveled today: 5.5 hours, 301 miles
Total time / distance traveled: 5.5 hours, 301 miles
Noteworthy music: Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction album, Purified in Blood (and whatever their album is called), many bluegrass tracks that I found on Nick's iPod, and the awful country hits radio that is the sole market of southern Virginia.
... and so the trip began!
As I write this I am laying on the luxurious futon offered to me by my host, Missy, who is spoiling me and my expectations for this trip by not only providing me with a roof and flat surface on which to sleep, but also a fuzzy electric blanket (for which she issued and unnecessary apology at not having any more to offer)!!! Win.
The day began with promise, as immediately after writing my prior blog entry I went downstairs to find that the mail had arrived, including my final acceptance letter to PA school (thus signifying that my background check and physical all checked-out... guess none of those dead bodies counted against me)! I could now embark without the feeling of unfinished business left back in Baltimore.
I probably over-packed the car, not so much with supplies but rather with the containers with which to hold the supplies (two half-filled bags where one should have sufficed. Oh well, in theory the supplies should decrease in quantity as the trip goes along, so my sleeping bag shouldn't have to ride shotgun too much longer.
A couple of crucial supplies which I had left-out from the previous post include my Garmin GPS, iPhone, iPhone car charger, Nick's old iPod (which now plugs directly into my car's new head unit), and a 2010 Atlas, just in case of total technical failure, some jumper cables and ice scrapers. All of the above are probably pretty important (though granted, the shovel probably could have done 90% of their work).
After loading the car and bidding my farewell to 1254 Brewster St. (the old one-finger salute), I was off! First stop: work.
Yeah, yeah, I quit my job last week to go on this trip, but I still had more shit to turn in. Plus, my soon-to-be professors were in-house teaching the class of 2012 lumbar punctures, tracheotomies, knee taps, beer taps, etc., so I got to shoot-the-shit with them a little while (all of whom encourage me to go on this ambitious trip and wish me full speed ahead!), THEN I was off. No, wait, I gassed-up and got some Subway first (which set the world record for most botched meatball placements on a 12" roll), THEN I was off.
I've driven worse roads before. The departure from civilization began as I took route 66 (on which I did not, in fact, get my kicks) west, away from DC. This was only accentuated upon turning onto US-81 South (which will be my only friend for several hours tomorrow). All things considered, the rolling mountains on either side, connected only by lush green fields with cows to boot (see my video comments on the matter, as well as the ubiquity of Bruno Mars at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKEexp5A4mg ). Though I've seen much of Appalachia before, something about this particular stretch just seemed so much more serene and welcoming than that of middle-Pennsylvania or western-Maryland. It's possible that I'm just romanticizing the experience due to the somewhat romantic nature of this trip.
So without a single stop (and driving without the aid of GPS) I arrived in Blacksburg, parked and walked around the "downtown" a little. Though a graduate of Towson, a metropolitan liberal arts school with about as much school spirit as it has concern about construction burdens which the current students must bare in order to make possible the improvements which they will never get to enjoy themselves (satirized quite beautifully here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbsdlSpA2GU ), I can see the appeal of a small-town, geographically isolated school environment! All of the restaurants and bars seem like they're trying so much harder to make life bearable than The Greene Turtle and Bill Bateman's ever would! Plus I walked around on Virginia Tech's campus for a while, and not only does their campus actually look like the great American college movie set, their student union has 16 pool tables and a fucking bowling alley!!!
...but I digress.
After walking around for about 20 minutes I get the call from Missy to meet-up and get dinner. Missy is an old college friend who went to Radford (also down in the BBurg neck of the woods) for speech/language pathology grad school, and just got the email that she passed her comprehensive exam while we were at dinner! Congrats Missy! The aforementioned dinner occurred at a quaint little creole-themed restaurant (chosen because Wednesday is 1/2 price bottles of wine night, awwww yeahh!). We had a lovely bottle of 2007 Syrah to complement my gourmet grilled-cheese and tomato soup (actually a fresh mozzarella and tomato caprese complimented by "chicken parmigiana soup"). Not a bad start to the trip!
Well, I may have spoke too soon.
Upon arrival at Missy's apartment, my car keys wouldn't come out of the ignition! The car would turn off, but the keys would remain locked into the steering column. I tried turning the steering wheel, but this son of a bitch was being stubborn. So, like any epic hero would, I consulted the old iPhone, which initially led me to believe that the car would need $300 worth of work done, before finding that the car actually has a hidden latch on the shifter knob that locks the keys into place if for some reason it is disabled. Totally strange, but a quick adjustment and the keys came out! Needless to say, I was sweating buckets for about 20 minutes while fighting this thing.
With crisis averted, Missy and I met some of her friends (most of whom were also excited to find that they had passed their comprehensives as well) for a movie, Source Code. It was a pretty decent take on the whole The Jacket / Groundhog Day / The Butterfly Effect concept, in case that sort of thing sugars your donut.
Then... I came back to Missy's place where I am right now! Good times. I've already spent way too long writing this thing and need to be on the road by 8am tomorrow, so it's time to bid adieu for tonight.
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