Damn it feels good to be a hokie.

It maybe has been almost two years since I posted, but that would be on account of my entire worldview changing when I moved to Denver. While I still name travel as one of my biggest loves, being immersed in a brand new culture and wanting to experience all it had to offer, I no longer sought out places to travel. Instead, I sought out places to experience in my new hometown, all of which I failed to write about here. Whoops. I have also started to realize that there are people who weren't born with the same ideas or priorities as me. 

I've been at my new job for about two months, and one of the guys in my office, who went to a small college in Nebraska, is completely befuddled by my absolute love affair with orange and maroon. I tried to explain to him what it means to be a hokie. 

I couldn't find a satisfactory answer during a google search, so what follows is a series of posts regarding why I love Virginia Tech as much as I love anything in my life, why Virginia Tech is my family, and how I found in a school my primary reason to wake up in the morning. 

Road Trip Day 3!

Today had its downs and its ups. Namely, we were in Kansas...and then we weren't anymore.

But there were a few things about Kansas that are noteworthy! And here they are.

corn...

corn...

wheat!!

corn...

Oz Winery!!

corn...

The Wizard of Oz Museum!

Now, I know that I am being a little bit sarcastic and allow me to insert here that I think Kansas is super important and the breadbasket of the United States is a vital part of our economy and all that but all of those important and truly great facts about Kansas go out the window when you spend 10 hours looking at corn. I LOVE FARMERS!

FINALLY we got to Colorado!!

Where, before we got to see this:

via google

we got to see about 100 more miles of....

corn.

Road Trip Day 2!!

Well, yesterday was QUITE the eventful day. I spent most of it in the backseat of Penny, watching movies (Harry Potter, you helped me get through an intensely long couple hundred miles and for that I am grateful) and making snarky comments when my dad went all Mario Andretti on my poor transmission. Has the poor car not suffered enough?! (speaking of, we had no car issues yesterday. Thank goodness. I think I speak for everyone involved when I say we have had ENOUGH car trouble.)

Today we drove through THREE of the cities on my list, although we have a little bit of a quandary: St. Louis, MO is not on the list but I swear it's bigger than Kansas City, MO, which is on the list. So I am hereby counting St. Louis as one of my cities and...so there.

Anyway, we drove through Indianapolis, which I really liked - it was a lot like Charlotte, at least in my estimation. But I gotta tell you, my photos on this trip are welllllll below par (not that I was all that talented to begin with), so please excuse the low quality. I will not steal images from Google this time, though.

Then we went through St. Louis, where we stopped at The Gateway Arch, which is just gorgeous, but the seats to go to the top were sold out and I am still pouting about it but I got some actual good pictures of it in spite of the lame weather, which shocks me.

St. Louis is my favorite city we've visited so far because it also has...

Oh yeah. You know we stopped here. I haven't waxed nostalgic very much on here about the particulars of my love affair with Jimmy John's...but I would give away many material items in addition to most of my dearest friends for a Jimmy John's sandwich, particularly after a successful night in Downtown Blacksburg. That's all I'll say about it right now, but suffice it to say, JJ's is my favorite (Denver has FOUR!) (FOUR!) (Any interest in a Tour De Denver: Jimmy John's?)

Then finally we made our way to Kansas City, MO, which we didn't visit so much as we quickly drove through it but I decree that it still counts. Quickie skyline photo:

(are those power lines not the most beautiful architectural addition you have ever seen?)

And then FINALLY around 11:00 we arrived in Topeka. In case you were wondering, DON'T ever visit Topeka. Other than the fact that it reminds me of one of my favorite childhood TV characters, Topanga Lawrence from Boy Meets World, there is not a whole heck of a lot in Topeka of interest, which, coincidentally, does not make a visit through the place (city? town?) worthwhile.

Anyway... the rest of Kansas (oh there is a THRILLING blog post waiting to happen) tomorrow, with a final ending in DENVER!

Road Trip Day 1!

Hi all, this is Reggie the Hedgie, reporting from the dashboard of Kat's VW. I will be your tour guide for the remainder of this road trip, seeing as how Kat can't seem to stay awake for more than 20 minutes at a time and I don't want you to miss any of the action! I'm pictured here with my sidekick and Lenny's own mascot, Righty the Elephant, who Kat kindly (if not crazily) invited on this trip so Lenny had some representation.

Well. We had quite the ridiculous 24 hours. It all started when we turned the car on and realize that the speedometer wasn't working....which meant that the cruise control wasn't working, which also means that no mileage was being recorded on the car. So then we stopped at a gas station somewhere near Frederick, MD and checked out the fuses, but none appeared to be broken so we decided to keep going a little longer.

Well that's when the airbag indicator light decided to grace us with its presence, followed quickly after by its buddy the check engine light. Dad decided that this is one light we could not ignore (although I wanted to stop at the first sign of trouble and was soundly ignored), and had Kat look up the nearest VW dealership which, blessedly, was only about 5 minutes from where we were.

::insert pause for 3 hours at car dealership::

Penny is fine! It really was just a busted fuse. It was just that, thanks to VW's Mayan-wall-carving-esque symbols we just picked the wrong one which then blew another which led to a bunch of electronic malfunctions, finally ending with the check engine light coming on and leading us to this dealership. (Could Penny be objecting to the weight of all of Kat's accumulated junk? I think she is.) Here, by the way, is that picture Kat promised of Penny all decked out:

Today we drove through Ohio, including Columbus, where Kat had been before. It was nice to go though - I really enjoyed my time there. Kat tried to get a good picture of the skyline but Lenny was driving, which was not conducive to such things so I will spare you the terrible photo quality and instead use a really really good picture found on google

(see how pretty??)

Then, finally, way behind schedule, we arrived in Greenfield, Indiana, (25 miles East of Indy) where we stayed at a lovely Quality Inn and are now headed out to go see a bunch of places: Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City and a whole heck of a lot of corn.

MOVING DAY!

Well, this morning I take my leave of the East Coast, and Dad and I begin to make our way to Colorado. Tonight we are stopping in Indianapolis, tomorrow we will hit St. Louis, MO and Kansas City, MO, then the following night we stay in Topeka (where the party SURELY will be!), then finally we make our way to Denver by the 19.

Ya'll should straight up SEE Penny all decked out with her U-Haul trailer attached. I have never in all my 22 almost 23 years seen anything as slap-stick comedic as this teensy tiny little Jetta with a trailer attached. She is just itching to be an SUV, I can tell. I'll post pictures later so you can see for yourself (c:

Be on the lookout for pictures and more posts because what in God's name else am I gonna do for the next 27 hours of road trip?

Daily Travel Photo: The Freedom Trail, Boston, Massachusetts

Daily Travel Photo: Bradford Pear in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia