Day 1

We departed from Boston at 2:00 am and made our way to the road. Despite the fact that it was wicked early, Licia and I were ridiculously awake. We chatted for the first hour or two about various things, and most importantly talked about how much we missed our third road companion RadGrl. Sadly, she had other pressing engagements and was not able to partake in the adventure.

I fell asleep around 3 and told ‘Licia to wake me up when we hit the Tapanzee Bridge. Right on time, around 4:40 am she woke me up… just as we were heading in to White Plains. Being from NY, and traveling to the city frequently during my childhood, I always get a bit nostalgic when traveling around familiar landmarks.

We got to the bridge at 5:09… where we hit our first ‘bout of traffic. It took us a good 30 minutes to get off the bridge and be on our way.
We made it to Victory, PA before stopping – a whole 300 miles… We got some coffee and gas, and I took the wheel.


PA is full of farms and cows. I was ridiculous always saying COW! I know ‘Licia got sick of that one. She fell asleep a little later, and I kept driving. We had decided that at 9 we would be stopping to grab breakfast at Shoneys restaurant. A whole 5.99 for a breakfast buffet. Whoo-hoo!

Back on the road, back to more farms. We played about a million cds and sang at the top of our lungs to most of the songs. It was completely delightful. Driving and driving, I felt like we were NEVER going to get to Lexington.

FINALLY we arrived in Lexington. The hotel thankfully let us check in early and we showered and got ready to meet up with Justin (‘Licia’s brother). We hit the VMI around 2:30 and Justin showed us around a little. We went on a tour with a fantastically nerdy boy and learned wonderful things about the VMI. We were then ready for the parade to begin. Let me remind you that it was HOTT out. Ok. Maybe not hot. Nice and warm, probably 75 at least.

Here were the poor cadets in their dress uniforms, wool and wicked hot. Having to stand out in the sun. Turns out at least 12 of them had fainted and had to fall out of line. The parade was cool, and it was fun to watch at the VMI boys running around. There were some QUITE attractive ones.

After the parade, we took Justin and some friends (4 to be exact) to dinner at a pizza place in town. These 5 VMI boys all squeezed in the back of ‘Licia’s sturdy Honda Civic. We were even asked at a light if we were Mexican or from the Circus. No Lie!


Now Alicia and I are back at the hotel. Quite sunburned and completely ready for bed. We’re watching a little I love Lucy to get us ready and then it’s a good nights rest for us. We are off tomorrow for Nashville and Jackson.

Thus far I have quite enjoyed seeing the amazing scenery. It is quite beautiful out in this area, and amazingly historical. Yay! See ya’ll later!!