If All Weekends Could Be So Fun…

Sometimes you have a weekend that’s just perfect!  This past weekend Bill and I went to Blacksburg for the Spring Maroon and White Game.  All the way home we kept talking about how much fun we had!  There’s just something about Blacksburg that makes us both so happy; and we’ve always said that if we were to move anywhere else, it would be back to Blacksburg!

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We left home in pretty heavy rain, but drove out of it by the time we got into the Shenandoah Valley.  We drove most of the way in the dark and I worked on my Students Knocking Out Melanoma post on the way down.

We arrived in Blacksburg around 11 PM, and our friends Steve and Rhonda had Bailey’s on the rocks waiting for us!  They are true friends!

Early the next morning we woke to a beautiful spring day!  Bill and I headed out for a run.  We started out by running up to the top of the hill at the golf course.  The first 2.5 miles were extremely hilly; but once we started running on the Huckleberry Trail and around campus, it was just hilly.

The views were gorgeous!

Here’s the most creative use of dumbbells I’ve ever seen…

Sooooo… if I’d felt like doing a set of curls in the middle of my run, do you think that pop-up camper would have gone careening down the street?

I couldn’t help but take a picture of this lovely stone retaining wall and steps in town…

After running back through town, we hopped on the Huckleberry Trail and headed toward Christiansburg.

We ran on it for about two miles before turning around so we’d have time to run around campus for a while…

We were still tired from running up the hill to the golf course and we thought about stopping to take a nap on this bench…

Back on campus, we ran past a lot of tailgates already set up at 9 AM for the 2 PM game.  These people are making us look bad!

We ran past the Hokie Bird Spring Festival, but didn’t stop…  Sorry Hokie Bird, but we had to finish our run!

We ran across the Drillfield only a few hours after Relay for Life wrapped up.  This year the 13th annual relay raised over $510,250 for the American Cancer Society, but donations can continue to be made online until August 31.  From 5 PM Friday to 5 AM Saturday over 10,000 people gathered at Virginia Tech’s Drillfield for the world’s largest collegiate Relay For Life.  To date, Virginia Tech’s Relay for Life has raised $4.5 million for cancer.

We decided to run across upper quad and I convinced these five ROTC cadets to pose for me.  We told them that we had lived in Shanks and Major Bill when they were residence halls (they’re offices now).  I’m sure the cadets thought we were ancient!

We ran by Rasche Hall, which is no more…

And missed the familiar smell of tar from the roof of Schultz Dining Hall which has been replaced with the Performing Arts Center.

As we left campus on North Main I posed for a quick picture…

Once we finished our run, we quickly showered and headed back to Lot 8 to set up our tailgate.  By Lot 8 standards, this was a tiny tailgate, but we only had a few couples down for the weekend.

I was tickled to have one of my former clients and her husband join us.  Their son is a freshman at VT.  Sue and Dave are Penn Staters so they have a little experience with tailgating and football.  I hope we measured up!

Our friend Jeffrey rode his bike over and Rhonda and I hopped on it for a picture!  The real gem would have been a video of me getting on the bike!

Next we walked over to the spring game.  I don’t think I watched a single play…  It was open seating so we sat with our friends and I talked the whole time.

See… looking at the camera and not at the game…

After the tailgate, Harper wanted some of the left-over Buffalo chicken dip…

Good boy!

While we were at the game, Julie was in Waynesboro with her friends (and bridesmaids) Becky, Kelly, and Ellie running in the Park to Park Half Marathon.  She finished up and got back to Blacksburg in time to catch the very end of the game.  We took her to El Mariachi, her favorite Mexican restaurant, for dinner and to celebrate her finishing her fourth half marathon!  I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the half marathon girl!

After dinner, Bill and I rushed back to the top of the hill that we ran on earlier in hopes of getting some good sunset pictures.  Bill enjoys having me with him when he’s taking pictures even though I give him a hard time by telling him that I’m taking better pictures with my iPhone!  Take a look at the black blob in the middle of the left side of the tree…

It’s a pair of perfectly good running shoes!

Sunday morning we got up early and walked to Gillie’s with Steve and Rhonda.  We got there by 8:15 and the restaurant was already packed, so we found a table outside.  When we were students at Virginia Tech, Gillie’s was an ice cream shop, and was famous for having a tarantula at the cash register.  Today it’s in the same location on College Avenue, but now it’s a vegetarian/vegan restaurant.

I’d forgotten that Gillie’s was vegetarian, and decided to order pancakes with extra crispy bacon.  Fortunately, I mentioned what I planned to order, and our friends reminded me that Gillie’s was vegetarian so I didn’t embarrass myself in front of the server!  I ended up ordering a delicious omelet that came with potatoes.  I helped Bill eat some of his grits… something that I’ve never liked until I tried them on Sunday.  They were delicious!

After breakfast we said goodbye to Steve and Rhonda and their Blacksburg apartment.  They’ve rented what they call their “Hokie Hovel” for the last four years while their youngest daughter has been at VT.  It’s been great for them to have it since they visit Blacksburg often.  Bill and I have been guests there many times, and it was hard for us to say goodbye to the Hokie Hovel, too!

One our way home I saw on Facebook that there was a fund raiser going on at Zinga and 10% of proceeds were going to Carter’s Run.  Bill and I decided that eating a little froyo was the least we could do to help out a good cause!

• Questions:
• Have you ever participated in a Relay for Life?
• What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream or frozen yogurt?
• Who raced this weekend?