h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That wasn't the primary purpose of this past weekend's trip, but the trees were certainly beautiful, even though the weather was decidedly gloomy for the entire trip. I decided very quickly that most places in Virginia have prettier fall colors in cloudy, misty, rainy, foggy, gloomy weather than Lancaster county ever has, even on a bright sunny day.

As I've complained about before, we seem to only get really dull, muddy fall foliage - most of the trees are murky greenish-brown, murky yellowish-brown or even murkier dark greyish-brown. Things started brightening up somewhat once we were out of Pennsylvania, and I started to notice a definite difference along about the time we hit Thurmont, Maryland. As we travelled on into Virginia, the leaves became brighter and more varied. I was expecting the colors to dull out as we headed eastward towards Richmond, but they really didn't. (I think it must be against the law to have ugly trees in Virginia. ) Even when it was nearly dusk and there was hardly any sunlight on the leaves at all because of the weather and time of evening, they were still brighter and more varied in color than what we have in the Lancaster area. There must have been a dozen variations of yellow, and another dozen variations of red, and still another dozen variations of orange in the leaf colors! There were even leaves that looked almost hot pink (seriously!) and purple.

I have really, really, *really* missed the beautiful fall colors that are normal for Virginia, but now I've had my fix. I just hope it isn't *another* 20 years before I get a chance to see them again.

The *reason* we were headed towards Richmond was so that Shorty could do a tour of the University of Richmond, on her quest to find another uni to apply to, just in case Duke doesn't accept her. We arrived in Richmond after dark, found our motel and spent a restful night, before heading out to see the U of Richmond in the morning. We had no problem finding the University, and it is indeed quite lovely. You can do a virtual tour of the campus here:

http://www.richmond.edu/visit/virtual.htm

It really is every bit as beautiful as it looks on there.

Even better than that, Shorty likes the place, and from what the Admissions person was saying during the information session before the tour, it looks like Shorty's grades, SAT scores, AP tests and SAT2 scores (along with her extracurricular activities and volunteer work) will almost guarantee her admission to Richmond if Duke doesn't want her for some reason.

So after having no trouble finding the campus, we attempted to retrace our steps, heading back out the way we came in. The only problem is that even though we had the directions right in our hands and were following them (backwards, of course, since we were leaving), we couldn't find the one road we'd come in on. We drove up and down the road looking for the place to turn, but either Glenside drive was suddenly and without warning renamed something else during our tour, or it somehow slipped into the space-time continuum. We drove back and forth on that road at least three times trying to find the proper road, but finally came to a road where Shorty saw as sign for Route 64 to Charlottesville, which is where we wanted to go anyway, so we turned there.

We had smooth sailing to Charlottesville. Then there was heavy fog on the mountain between Charlottesville and Waynesboro - and by this time it was early afternoon! I remember one time when my Dad took me to Uni and we drove over that mountain along about mid-day, the fog was so thick you couldn't see 10 feet in front of the car! That was a scary trip, but the fog wasn't nearly so bad this time.

So we finally got to Rt 81 and headed south to go to Radford to visit Amy+ for the weekend, but shortly after we hit 81, there was a big electronic sign that said the road was closed 37 miles ahead. We only travelled as far as the Natural Bridge exit before we could see that traffic was already backed up, so we exited at Natural Bridge, thinking we could just take Rt 11 past the closed area on 81.

Not so fast though... there were about a blue-million other cars doing the same thing. Traffic came to a dead standstill less than a mile off 81. We sat there for ages, then slowly inched our way along, going about 2 miles in the next 1/2 hour. As Rt 11 crossed over 81, we could see that traffic was moving on 81, so we decided to get back on 81, since it seemed to be moving a lot faster than we were, even though it was also rather slow.

Of course as soon as we got back on 81, it also came to a standstill. Well, not exactly a standstill. We'd inch forwards about 1/10 of a mile, then sit there for about 5 minutes, then inch forwards another 1/10 of a mile.

Finally, we reached the location of the accident:

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke%5C12621.html

By the time we reached the scene of the accident, they had one lane of 81 open, so we were able to just stay on the highway. They had the mess in the photo off the road by the time we got that far, but the guard rails were still badly mangled, the debris from the truck was still piled along both sides of the roads, and they were in the process of moving concrete barriers into place where the accident had torn up a bridge railing.

It's just as well that we were able to stay on 81, because in the interim, there had been another accident at the Buchanan exit off 81, and the mess from that was still in the way.

All in all, it took us 2 *hours* to drive about 10 miles.

The rest of the trip to Radford was smooth sailing, although I made the mistake of deciding to go through Christiansburg to get to Radford, instead of taking 81 all the way to the Radford exit, since I felt like I'd spent more than enough time on 81 for one day. I figured, why shouldn't I go through Christiansburg? I mean, it's part of my old stomping grounds, surely I could find my way easily enough... Only it's been 30 years since I did much driving down there, and all the landmarks had changed drastically, so I was totally lost and confused. We did finally find our way to Radford though, and met Amy+ at the coffee shop, went to get something to eat, then settled into her dorm for the night.

Shorty and Amy+ slept in a friend's room, and I slept in Amy+'s room. Well, I use the word "slept" in only the most generalized sense, since I was up until about 12:30, then the roommate came in at about 1:30 (which woke me up, of course). She went to sleep, and I managed to get back to sleep too.

But then along about 3:30 she had a phone call from someone making sure she was getting up and getting ready, because she was supposed to go on a trip to Washington, DC, with the bus leaving at 5 am! So there were various alarms, phone calls and other noises keeping me awake until about 4:30 when she finally left to catch her bus.

Of course by that time I was thoroughly awake, so I got up for a while and answered email until I was finally sleepy again , about 6:30, thinking I'd be able to catch a couple more hours of sleep before Shorty and Amy+ would be downstairs in the morning, since they assured me they'd sleep until at least 8am. But nooooooooo.... They were downstairs by about 7:30. Needless to say, I was slightly tired all day.

Still, I managed to take the girls shopping to get various items that Amy+ needed, and because their bathroom was so disgusting (loads of mildew in the shower, and not even a loo brush in the place, so the toilet was disgusting , and the sinks were seriously stained) I ended up doing a lot of cleaning - If I was going to use that bathroom, I wanted it a little cleaner! At least the girls seemed appreciative of my efforts. Although with all the clorox I'd sprayed in there, the whole dorm could probably tell that there was a mother on the premises!


I also picked up supplies to cook some lunch for Amy+ and Shorty. I made them Garlic Lime Chicken, which was a little more difficult than cooking it at home of course, since the kitchen is in the basement of the building, and you need to drag all your supplies and cooking utensils down there with you in order to cook. As it turned out, the stove was missing it's large burner, so it took longer to cook too. Still, it was very tasty. Of course even though the kitchen seemed fairly clean at first glance, the grunge became more evident as I tried to cook, so I ended up cleaning up some of that too.

After that we got our things together and all went over to Grandma's (Lord Scott's mother), since she only lives 45 minutes away, and spent the night there, where it was quiet and restful.

Except that on our way over there, Amy+ said we should really drive up there via Green Valley since the scenery is sooo incredibly beautiful, so I told her she needed to let me know where to turn, which she did. At least for the first turn, she knew where I should turn, after that we had no idea. However, we saw a sign for Eggleston Road, so we got on that because I knew that Eggleston was where Lord Scott went to elementary school and I felt like I could probably find my way from there. Except that Eggleston Road doesn't actually go to Eggleston, it only goes *near* Eggleston. It actually goes all the way through to Rt 460, which is the road that goes from Blacksburg to Pearsiburg! At least I was familiar with *that* road, and the route we took was incredibly beautiful, with trees in a glorious array of fall colors along the way.

I forced the girls to get up early the next morning, because under the best of circumstances, the drive home from Grandma's takes at least 7 hours (with minimal stopping), and after the terrible backup on 81 on the way down there, I wanted to start early in case we were delayed by a traffic tie-up again, especially since Shorty had to be in school the next day, and there's almost always a backup on Rt 350 near Harper's Ferry in that direction if you arrive there late enough in the afternoon.

We dropped Amy+ back at her dorm and went on our way. This drive was almost uneventful. At least there were no accidents or major tie-ups along the way, although we did miss a turn in West Virginia and had to backtrack a few miles to the proper road.

Other than beautiful trees, we saw a few other things that we don't see every day -

I saw a bald eagle flying overhead someplace along Rt 17 in Virginia the first day. I saw this huge bird with a broad white tail and wondered what it was. Then it turned in flight, and I could see it's white head. I've never seen a bald eagle in flight before, just an injured one being cared for at a zoo one time.

We stopped to get something to eat at Fredericksburg, Virginia the first night, because we saw a sign for a shopping center, and thought surely they'd have a few restaurants or a food court of some kind. This shopping center was called Central Park, and we've never seen anything quite like it. It was more like a shopping city. Not like a center city shopping area, more like a city of nothing but strip shopping centers, big-box stores, and parking lots, divided by actual named roads. It seemed like it went on forever in every which direction! Obviously, we're used to much smaller shopping centers. We finally found a Panero's and ate there before trying to find our way out of the maze of shopping centers, back out to Rt 95 and on to Richmond.

When we exited Rt 81 at Natural Bridge because of the traffic back-up, we hadn't driven far before we saw an odd rock formation in a field off to the side of the road. As we got closer, I could see that it looked an awful lot like Stonehenge. We stopped at that exit on our way home and Shorty was able to take a few pictures, including one of the sign which said "FoamHenge". When we got home, I looked it up online, and it seems that it's a full sized replica of Stonehenge, constructed from foam.

http://www.naturalbridgeva.com/foamhenge.html

It also seems that there are several "stonehenge" replicas in the US, some of them full size, some smaller, some actually work as clocks... and there's even one call "Carhenge", constructed of junked cars.

In case anyone is wondering, Natural Bridge isn't so much the name of a town, there really is a Natural Bridge there.

http://www.naturalbridgeva.com/bridge.html

Rt 11 is constructed on the bridge (so we drove over it twice on our trip), although you can't see it from the road, since they've erected big wooden fences in that area to prevent people from stopping on the bridge. They'd prefer that you pay for the privelege of seeing it from underneath.

We arrived home shortly before 6pm that night. Long day. In fact it was so long that it took me three days to get around to typing out this journal entry.

You know, that's my only problem with taking road trips... traffic! I mean, come on.. .why do all of those people have to be on the road the same time I need to be? It's rude I tell ya!

I'm so sorry to hear about your "muddy" trees Lady S.! It's been a *spectacular* fall here in Kansas City. We have the entire gambit of foliage collors, lime green, yellow, orange-yellow, burgundy, caramel, gold, brown, copper, deep red, bright red, scarlet red, plum, maroon, pumpkin orange... it truly has been one of the MOST beautiful falls we've had in years. My mom and I drove around town last weekend and were just speechless at how beautiful some of the trees and shrubs were! Then we went and visited my fathers grave and were again amazed by the leaf colors as it is surrounded by oaks, pine, walnut & maple trees.

Sounds like you had a lovely trip though! I'm sure the girls loved it. I'm with you on the moldy bathroom bit, I would have doused it with bleach also! YUK!

As for the leaves in Pennsylvania not being colorful enough, I have a couple of impractical suggestions:

1. Paste or tie the leaves back on the trees. Eventually the trees wil realize that they didn't get things right, and they'll maybe brighten up their colors.

2. Leave the leaves where they are (is that a pun? ), but spray them with paint in whatever colors you wanted your leaves to be.

3. Go to Virginia (or Massachusetts, or New York, or any state but Pennsylvania ), and load a truck with the colorful leaves that you want. Then drive the truck back to Lancaster and deposit them on your lawn.

4. Buy some rose-colored glasses, so *everything* (not just the leaves) will look more colorful.

For Bob's sake, woman! ... Write a novel, why dontcha?

Sorry it was so long... It was kind of a long weekend, full of stuff we saw and stuff that happened.

Actually, now that we're back in Lancaster, I'm noticing that the colors do look a little better this year than they usually do, but it really is a matter of not having a wide variety of trees native to this part of the state - we just don't have the dozens of types of trees that turn every imaginable variation of red, orange and yellow.

Oh, there's the occasional bright red or orange tree or bush in someone's yard (we have a scarlet red bush in our back yard), or worked into the landscape in business parks, but what I truly love to see is the side of a mountain that is just bursting with brilliant fall colors. We saw one yellow tree along the side of the road this weekend that was so bright, it was almost blinding.

Actually, I think I might have the perfect solution to my fall color quandry: Every time I come back from Va, I think about how nice it would be to live there again someday.

I drove in a fog one time, it was so thick it was like driving in a cloud. I was driving through the mountains of Northern Alabama. I remember thinking I hope that noboby is as stupid as I am for driving in this. I mean I could'nt see anything. If someone pulled out in frount of me oh well. I guess intelligence is'nt my strong suit at times or that like to test fate. Which is a form of stupitidy all it's own.

Lady Scott, I know what you mean about seeing a bald eagle in flight! Breath taking, isn't it. The first time I saw one, I was in the on the bridge going to Hilton Head. I was speachless, by the time I got my voice back and could point it out to the rest of my friends in the car, the eagle was gone. Luckly, we saw another one later in the week .

The foliage was been the prettiest in years here in east Tennessee, too, just the right amount of rain, not too hot summer... However, it's been windy, so a lot of the leaves are falling just before they hit their peak color. Makes you wonder what the mountains would have looked like, if the leaves hadn't fallen early.

Glad you had a good trip, and a safe one to boot!

Hi!, I just stopped by to read your stuff, and found it delightful reading...This is just my 2ed day in this world...I fell into it my happy accident...I was surfing through the surch engine" ask"..I was looking for info on Hypatia, one of my favorite people......and it took me here.....and I may just spend the rest of my life here.........
*****I.m here in the NW, Oregon.....near the Columbia River...........But I visited Virginia about 3 yearrs ago ..My brother-in-law and his wife lived on Cobb Creek then just a little North of Richmond,,,,,,,,,,,,
****** But the morning is not young any more and it is time for me to grab my bathrob and see what that big bulldozer is doing in my front yard..!!!!
************************************ Gingersnapper ......................

Thanks - I don't think of myself as much of a writer, but I'm glad some people enjoyed my description.




If you're new here, you might not have run across this yet:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml


Fiendishly difficult.

Thanks so much....I have bookmarked it and have e-mailed it to my son....
Have also learned: First things first: Turn on the light.....! Thanks

If you get stuck (you will, trust me you will! ), there is a complete walkthrough for the game online. I have it bookmarked and tried to follow it, but even with that, I still got stuck again... must have done something wrong.

Anyhow, I'll post the link to the walkthrough if you become thoroughly frustrated with the game, maybe you'll have better luck with it.

Good Evening:: When the time comes and this object(Me) comes up against an immovable spot in the hitchhikers' game, I will S.O.S for help...& then you can send me the url for the walkthrough....You are wise not to send it now, as I would be tempted to peek, and spoil half the fun.....Sort of like cheating at Solitare? or reading the last chapter of a good book half way through.... I do not spend much time "playing games" it is absorbing , and time flys so, and there is so little of it and so much do do and the" hurrier I go, the behinder I get"...................................
***ALSO, I have no idea yet what a Geek code is, or how to "get one"/ "make one".....or why I want one, or what to use it for?? .. By now ......

Geek code information and instructions are located here:

A863516

The only place I use it is on my page. I just figure if a real geek comes along, they can figure things out about me by decoding that, instead of reading the actual words on my page.

OH.! My!!.....I need stronger glasses for all that.....But, first things first, I want to find time to learn to spruce up "My Space"....By now ... ..

Since you're not a geek, perhaps you'd be interested in this guide entry on how to spruce up your page: A1000396

Picture.."happy face" here....(That I need to learn,also) I think I had stumbled onto that page a couple of days ago....But now I have your reply in My Space and will be able to find the page with ease now....If I do not get it done by Christmas....There!! that is my new years resolution made already!! It will keep me safe and sound.....By for now...............

Smileys are very easy.

is simply < smiley > without the spaces.

If you click on any smiley in a conversation, it will take you to the smiley page, where you will find the codes for the smileys.

Or you can do this : ) Or : ( Or ; ) without the space in between.

They wiil do this

Wnder if this;( will work

Nah