Trip pics

This was a quick trip, definitely a "turn and burn." It was a great treat that Holly was able to come. I found a great plane fare ($200 RT), and she was okay with missing the last day of co-op. We also wanted her to have the opportunity to see Virginia ahead of time. We left the house at 5:20 a.m. Tuesday and caught a plane to Atlanta. Holly and I agreed it would not top the list of pretty airports (not that we've seen many.)


Thanks to the Sea Bands, the plane didn't really look like this. But it was a really cool photo and I had to include it somewhere. I turned the flash off (as I do with virtually every picture) and rocked the camera back and forth as I snapped.

We had a two hour layover and began our diet of lousy travel food.


From Atlanta, it was a nice hour-plus flight up to Roanoke.


Living on the Eastern Slope in Colorado, directions are easy. From anywhere here, you know the mountains are on the west. Hills surround Roanoke, and I had a hard time even guessing where I was. It was also confusing that most of the streets are referred to by highway numbers instead of their actual street names.

The Roanoke airport was like a dream. There are a total of six gates. The rental car counters are literally 15 feet from the two or three baggage claim areas. Robert says it's smaller than our Sam's Club. I don't mind that one bit! The city's population is just under 100,000, and we went from the airport to the hotel at the other side of the city in about 15 minutes.

It was a good trip for me. I am so very used to and spoiled by Robert taking care of every little detail. I had to figure out all of the plane info, get the bags, take car of the rental car and check into the hotel. It was beneficial for Holly to see me doing this too.


We headed out to the property that was the real basis for our trip. My Mapquest directions were horrible and led me down a 10 mile, two lane, twisty, horrid little country road. We found the property easily though and looked around briefly. I knew there was another road back to Roanoke. Even without a map (or worse, without cell phone coverage), I was determined to find it--and I did, without making any wrong turns! I'm still pretty pleased about that! Over the last few months, I've pored over information, maps, and more online, and it definitely paid off. We headed up the much nicer four lane highway and got back to Roanoke in no time at all, settling in to watch American Idol and eating more travel type food. (Ugh.)

We met up with our realtor the next day and looked at a few properties, including our main interest. This is seriously smack in the "Moonshine Capital of the World." Seriously. The house is under construction and we chatted a bit with the workmen, poked around the house, and walked what we could of the property down to the line.


We drove around a bit more. Holly was a trooper, and she was also assigned videographer duties, so I didn't have to take as many photos as I would have otherwise. She was wiped out by the time we were done, but when we got back to Roanoke, I dragged her up to Mill Mountain.


It's near the center of town and is home to the largest standing man made illuminated star in the world. (How cool is that?) It's typically lit in red, white and blue, but is currently all white as a memorial to the students and faculty who died at Virginia Tech last month.


There are also incredible views of the city. My whole motivation for going to the mountain was to take photos. This is a panorama, going from left to right.


Back at the hotel, we again watched American Idol. We were up "late," 11:30 east coast time. This wasn't so great since we were up before 6 a.m. to get back to the airport and make our way home.


Robert and Trev picked us up from the airport. After showing them the video and photos at home, I took a nap. Holly, who loves to sleep, didn't even go to bed early. Robert made dinner for us, yippee, real food again!

It was definitely a great trip, fun for Holly and me to do something like this together, and fun for us to poke around Roanoke and Franklin County. She has warmed up a little more to the idea of moving. We continue to love the house we saw and are planning to write a contract on it. We'll have to see what happens with that, and we're waiting for something to happen on this house. We've had three more showings this past week, with one more scheduled for tomorrow.

I'm still pretty tired, trying to catch up. At least school is DONE!!!!!!! and I don't feel rushed to do much of anything for the next several days. :)

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"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer. 29:11