Fall Vacation 2009

People get confused when I tell them about the vacation I just had. The reason they get confused is because of the way I had it planned.

It started with a road trip to visit a friend in Ohio, my father and another friend in Alabama. Then to end the vacation, I would head to Greensboro, NC to get on a train to head back south to Atlanta. That's what confuses people.

"Why do you have to go all the way up to North Carolina when all you needed to do was drive just 2 hours to Atlanta from Birmingham?"

"So you drove 1500 plus miles just to visit people for a few hours and then you came back and went back south?"

Then people's stories got mixed up about my trip...

"You took a train to Alabama then drove to Georgia and canoed to Ohio????"

Yeah, it was more than 1500 miles of driving. First stop was to Springfield, OH to visit a friend. Stayed there an extra night after some major drinking. And because of that, had to cancel visiting my father in Alabama and visit my friend down there instead, just so I could make it to Greensboro in time for the train.

On the way back from Alabama, I was hauling ass. The navigator on my phone had my route going through Atlanta to get to Greensboro. I refused to take that route since my train would follow that same route. So I headed through Knoxville, TN.

Because I was doing 85 to 90 and hardly had any traffic, I was making really good time. I was already 3 hours ahead of schedule by the time I reached the I-81/I-40 junction north of Knoxville. So I I-81 back home to Roanoke to clean myself of the road grime, eat something other than peanuts and slim jims, and to rest.

2 hours later I headed for Greensboro. Got to the Amtrak station at 10:30, met my friend Shaggy there and we loaded the train at midnight and took off.

Atlanta was the main event of my vacation. The Alabama-Virginia Tech game was the highlight of it. What a crazy atmosphere. Not only was the biggest game in college football for that weekend taking place, but also NASCAR races, Braves games, and some very weird Sci-Fi convention called "DragonCon". We encountered people dressed up as vampires, pirates, Ghostbuster characters, Trekies, etc.

One man on the train asked if we were going to DragonCon. We were like "huh?" That's when he explained what is was, said Leonard Nimoy and William Shattner were guest speakers. He thought we looked like the type. Fuck no, we were here to see Bama kick the shit out of Tech. We may be nerds in some ways, but not enough to attend an event called DragonCon.

The Bama game was awesome. The festivities that surrounded it was just as good. ESPN Game Day and a free concert by Collective Soul, the Alabama girls who looked better than the Tech girls, the tailgate parties, the crowd, the media, the parties, the girls, the music.... oh yeah, it was good.

Made it inside the Georgia Dome at 6pm. Our seats were good... lower level, row 35, right at the bottom walkway where we didn't have to walk over people to get out. A vendor was right behind us, so we could walk just a few steps to get food and beer.

We were nervous about being on the Tech side of the stadium. We searched for other Bama fans near us. There was one couple sitting a section over and down some rows. They were the closest. Then Shaggy looks over my left shoulder and shouts "Thank God! More Bama fans!" Sitting next to me was a couple wearing Bama gear. Found out from the girl that she is a friend of my sports anchor's wife and they got tickets from him, just as I did. And this chick's boyfriend or husband was the Alabama fan. We were relieved that we were not alone. The Hokies sitting below us didn't feel that way, especially in the 2nd half when the Tide's offense kicked in.

Final outcome for all those who don't know the score... Blacksburg is once again in mourning like they were after the shootings because they lost the opener.

Shaggy took notes the entire time we were in Atlanta to do a book about our hi-jinks. Lots of crazy stuff went on. "Elephant Shoes" will be out next year... maybe.