the winding road to Dixieland, part two

Vienna, VA >> Summerville, SC

Sunday evening, I drove a short distance from Vienna to Stephens City, VA to spend the night at Mike and Colleen's apartment. Those two are friends from camp; I worked with them back in '06 and we've stayed connected ever since. After catching up for awhile, we watched a great American classic - The Goonies! None of us had seen it before [I am ashamed...don't judge us too harshly for that] and it was better than I ever could have imagined. It only stoked my desire to be a pirate captain. Monday morning after breakfast, I embarked on my last big day of driving.

The first half of Monday's journey took me to Blacksburg, VA, where I visited Erin Balaban [better known in Dewittville, NY as Balaban the Conqueror]. Erin's a friend from camp as well, and we worked together a few years ago. We stood outside a grocery store for the first hour of my visit, since her sorority was collecting items for a local women's shelter. This got pretty entertaining, as we met all sorts of people this way. We met everyone from the super friendly to the outright anti-social, who would hastily pull out their phones and pretend to be in the middle of an important conversation as they practically ran by us into the store. And then there were people in costumes...gotta love Halloween in a college town. After this, we grabbed lunch and caught up, then I hopped back in my hoarder car and gunned it for Asheville, NC.

I got to Asheville without a problem, and I eventually found Becky and Justin's apartment in West Asheville. Besides my GPS's inability to pick up the location of their apartment, as the apartment complex is newer, it was dark. Bad combination.

Becky is one of my best friends from Allegheny, and Justin is her husband of 2+ years! They're pretty great. We grabbed dinner at HomeGrown, a fantastic little restaurant in Asheville, and then I caught up with Becky while cutting out things for her classroom. The next morning, I said goodbye to Becks at 6:30 (Yikes! Yet another reason I couldn't handle being a teacher.), went back to sleep..of course..and ended up leaving late in the morning for downtown Asheville.

There, I met up with Dillon, a friend from this past summer's staff at Mission Meadows. Dillon, a native Alabamian (Alabamer? Alabamen?) moved down to Asheville at the end of the summer. I'm not surprised he likes it there, seeing as he's a natural musician who can play any instrument I've ever seen, and Asheville's a great musical/artsy town. Besides that, Asheville's ridiculously gorgeous. It's up in the mountains of western NC, and it's at a high enough altitude that it gets all four seasons.

After Dillon and I met up, we walked..and we walked..and we walked in search of food. We eventually found a crepe restaurant downtown with some killer sweet tea. Let me say for the record that there are some things the South does better. This list includes (but is not limited to): the art of relaxation, comfort food, overall weather patterns, whiskey, pralines, and keeping cars rust-free. There are many things the South does that's just plain crazy (boiled peanuts anyone?! Siiiick.), but I'm sure I'll get into that another day.

My visit with Dillon ended after that, and I jumped back in my car for the final leg of the trip. I drove from Asheville to Summerville in record time, thanks to some good weather, a speed limit of 70 mph (add this to the list of things the South does better), and an impatience to reach my destination. Not only was I looking forward to seeing my parents, but I was also itching to NOT BE IN MY CAR.

Don't misunderstand me - roadtrips and adventures are still wonderful in my book. However, sitting for hours on end in a hoarder car for nearly a week can make a person long for the end of their journey.

Around 5:30 on Tuesday evening, I rolled into my parents driveway in Suburbia, uh I mean, Summerville, SC. My mom and dad were thrilled to see me, which I suspect is largely due to my status as baby of the family/favorite child.

My roadtrip has officially ended. I am in Dixieland for the next two months, which still blows my mind. As in, what do you do with a two month vacation from Real Life? There will be more on that in following posts, I'm sure. Til then, I will try to settle into my new home in the South.

Go Yankees.