Posts Tagged “virginia”

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. Hope none of you thought we were still stuck in Vicksburg! We’ve been home just over a week, and of course I have a backlog of photos to post from the journey.

First of all, we went through Louisiana, and I owe you this:

Also, remember how I mentioned that it was snowing in Vicksburg? Well, here you can see some snow falling on the Super 8 pool (which was open, of course, since the day before had been 80 degrees or something!):

We did eventually get to Jackson and had to continue recovering from being sick. I had a little relapse, etc. I won’t bore you (or gross you out) with the details… but it did, unfortunately, prevent us from attending most of the events we had come to Jackson to enjoy. Alas! We still had a really nice visit with my aunt and uncle, and they took us to a very cool art event hosted by the Mississippi Museum of Art’s New Collector’s Club. It was a talk and studio tour at NunoErin studio in Jackson. They make very cool swamp-inspired, interactive artwork with thermoactive materials — basically, furniture, pillows, and wall panels that change color when warmed by body heat. Here is one of the artists demonstrating how to use a hair dryer to get the color change effect on some wall panels:

It was fascinating and really fun. Thanks, NunoErin!

Eventually we got back on the road to DC… and I have a few more state signs for you, including the elusive Virginia sign!

(By the way, we went through a little corner of Georgia, but they don’t bother to put up a welcome sign there. What gives, Georgia??)

In Virginia, we stopped at the Natural Bridge Exxon and saw this tiger:

It’s a far cry from the Itasca Wampus Cat, eh?

This tiger was made by Mark Cline, a fiberglass artist whose work we always see everywhere. In fact, we have several stories about Professor Cline… but they’re stories for another time.

Anyway, we’re moving to Austin. Wait, what? No, seriously. We are. I got a job. We got an apartment. Movers are coming a week from Tuesday. Soooo things are pretty busy and crazy. But we’ll keep you all posted as much as we can. Keep checking back!!

Hi everyone! We got kind of a late start today, but we still made it to tonight’s Super 8 in Crossville, Tenn. Alas, I have NO state signs for you guys. For some reason, the Virginia sign keeps eluding me. We go to Virginia all the time, but we don’t usually have the camera; today we took I-66 out of D.C. and didn’t see the sign! Then, when we crossed into Tennessee this evening, it was already too dark to get a good photo. Hopefully we can get both of those state signs on our way back home.

Oh. Did I not mention we are on another road trip? The main event this time is Christmas in Jackson, Mississippi, with my extended family (hi, y’all!). Brian and I are adding a few extras, depending on how things go. Right now we’re en route to Austin, Texas, and we’re very excited even though apparently it takes 3 days to drive there!

Here’s today’s route log, courtesy of Brian.

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I thought it might be fun to post maps of the distance we cover each day. That way everyone can see where exactly we are and how we got there.

The first leg of our trip was to Ocean City, Md. (and back to DC).

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Next we drove from Arlington, Va., to Somerset, Pa.!

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Today the plan is to get as close to Traverse City, Mich., as possible. Hopefully the little blue line will be a little longer for that leg. The maps are dynamic, so feel free to zoom in or move around just as you would with Google Maps. If I get ambitious, I might start adding points of interest to them in the future.

As planned, we left directly from my class this afternoon (in Arlington, Virginia) so we could get a few hours of driving behind us. We’re heading towards our first destination of Traverse City, Michigan, recommended to us by the best dentist in DC the universe. Our journey today took us through a bit of Arlington, so we got to enjoy some DC-area sights, including the Pentagon!!

We took the GW Parkway to the beltway. I was really glad Garmin took us this way because something about the GW Parkway really feels very Virginia to me. I guess it’s all the trees.

We stopped at some scenic overlooks along the way.

When we were here I commented that before we come back, all these leaves will have turned for autumn! Crazy.

Then, Maryland!

Our journey took us up through Frederick, Maryland, where there is another scenic overlook that feels really Maryland-ish to me, or at least Western Maryland-ish:

We also came close to Brian’s hometown:

By the time we reached PA, it was dark.

We enjoyed an excellent stop in the unincorporated town of Breezewood, Pennsylvania:

Unfortunately, none of the photos we took really convey the intensity of Breezewood, but please trust me: it is very intense.

Now we’re in the Super 8 motel in Somerset, Pennsylvania, and it’s one of the nicest inexpensive just-off-the-highway motels I’ve ever seen (which is saying something). Bonus points for free wi-fi; well done, Super 8.

Tomorrow the plan is to get as close to Traverse City as we can. We really wanted to get some miles behind us these first couple of days, but I hope I can have some more interesting photos (beyond state signs) to share soon. We have some pretty exciting places on our list for Michigan. Woo hoo!