Meet Virginia

Virginia is a beautiful state. When I jumped into grad school there, I had no idea how much – or how fast – it would grow on me.

Of course, the star of the show is Hollins. It's friendly, supportive, and attracts sharp students and great faculty. And there are horses. Everything a school should be, I'd say.

This is Starlight. She's awfully affectionate and licks whatever's in front of her when you scratch her rump. Go ahead and try it! She loves it!

This is Dreambell. She has lovely blue eyes, and she knows it.

This is Mara, who is one of the most compassionate people I've ever met. She's full of positivity, one of those rare people who light up a room just by being there. In this picture, she's greeting a goat!

We visited friends who have a farm, and on that farm there lives Buttercup the friendly cow. Aww.

Buttercup is all business, but she can party when it counts.

Buttercup and her daughter, Sugarbell.

This is Jack. He's a friendly fellow.

Kitty!

Leigh, who has a spectacular sense of humor, and I visited Camp Alta Mons, a Methodist camp down the road. They had a giant cross by a fire pit.

You git up to some pretty wacky times in the country.

Tim, Melanie, and I went out to lunch. One can't think of Hollins without thinking of them, and one can't think of them without thinking of awesome.

 


Danyel and I did lunch, and it's really true what they (I) say: sweet tea runs like water down here. It even rains it. Yum!

The waitress even asked me, "Y'want some more sweet tea, love?"

Then a guy walked in with a shirt that said, "I like the sound you make when you shut up."

Rebekah and I hit the town. She's planning a fun scavenger hunt!

The Mill Mountain star is the world's largest illuminated, freestanding star. Roanoke calls itself the Star City of the South, and thus the Mill Mountain star exists.

I took a walk through Mara and Leigh's neighborhood. There were so many butterflies discussing butterfly things.

It had been years since I've eaten honeysuckle right off the shrub, but when I found it growing wild, I had to have some. 

 
Quite a few deserted houses in this quiet town.

Heavy rains and thunderstorms were predicted, but all in all, they didn't hit us so hard. It hailed for about a minute.

I made mac 'n cheese in a heart-shaped pan. Aww.

Kyla, Dylan, and Leigh. If this was an album cover, it would be one of my favorite album covers.

Dreambell didn't want me to leave. See you again soon!

Hollins's Eleanor Siddy Wilson museum has an exhibit on paper artists. This is a paper tornado atop a paper town. Some of the creations were pretty creative. Others looked merely like larger versions of the paper snowflakes I used to make, prompting me to wonder how long it would take the museum staff to catch on if I taped up such a snowflake.

Downtown Roanoke. It really is up and comin'!

Melanie has a blanket that has "Wooooooo" stitched into it. That makes it a fantastic blanket.

As for Melanie, herself, she's ready for The Color Run, an amazing-sounding 5K that involves people throwing colorful powder at each other. I want to throw colorful powder at stuff.

It's always tough to leave such a great place...

...made more so true by the fact that my car broke down not five miles over the West Virginia border. In a spot with no cell signal. Thanks to the extreme kindness of many of the locals (shout out to Walt, Roy, Donnie, Randy, Bill, and Susan) for helping me out, I was able to move the car off the road and call AAA.

AAA didn't show up after a reasonable about of time, and I had to call them back. To give you an idea as to where I was stuck, the AAA operator's exact words were, "They went out already but couldn't find you."

Things could've been much worse. I met some truly great and helpful folks, a tow truck driver who called trucks "big dogs," and we found a mechanic in Winchester VA that was open seven days a week.

The car's all fixed, now, and I'm off north!