I'm home. Got back late last night after being in the car a good 8 hours (with a break in the middle and dinner with my favorite person followed by bubble tea), spent half an hour setting up a friggin tent in my garage, unpacking the car, and airing things out from camping...and then I collapsed in my bed. I woke up with THE WORLD'S (almost) WORST back ache. That's what camping and lots-o-driving will do to you. Man, I feel old!!
The verdict? I had a BLAST at Virginia Tech and my first Hokie game. BLAST. It was SO much fun. And no...NO sarcasm there. I really had a wonderful time.
We arrived in Blacksburg and headed to the camp grounds after buying THE LARGEST (there's going to be a lot of caps and exaggerating in this blog post...just fyi) marshmallows I've ever seen in my life...and stuff for smores. As soon as we got our spot and started pulling out the tent, it started to rain. So we rushed back into the car with the tent and waited it out. Thankfully, it didn't last long.
That night we had hot dogs and smores and just enjoyed being together and the great out doors. heh. The next morning we woke up bright and early and got ready (the showers at the camp grounds were crawling with spiders...okay...there were two...but they were BIG...thankfully, we had an understanding and they stayed put while I showered and stayed away from my stuff) and headed out to Gillie's for breakfast. I was seriously expecting parking to be a beast to find and Gillie's to be packed to the..er...gills. But it actually was really calm out. What can I say...college students like to sleep in. Gillies was wonderful...and yes...I had my crack juice. And it was heaven. I could feel my body silently thanking me for drinking such purely natural nom-ness. Anyway...after breakfast, we walked around campus and John took me through several buildings (including a GINORMOUS classroom that smelled like urine...niiiice) before leading me to Lane Stadium, home of the Virginia Tech Hokies. The Stadium IS impressive.
Whilst gawking at its massiveness, I had a spaz-attack when I eyeballed some cotton candy (something I've been wanting for WEEKS...no...MONTHS) and then TURKEY LEGS. Hokie games are notorious for having turkey legs...because a hokie is essentially a turkey. WHY we're eating the mascot, I don't know. But I won't complain. After getting inside and finding our seats and grinning from ear-to-eat, we went down stairs to get some food, got separated from each other, I returned to our seats, got a text, came back and then actually GOT the food. John then had to get more cash at an ATM and we spotted a guy dressed as a Hokie Storm Trooper. Yes. A Storm Trooper from Star Wars...but with Hokie colors. It was epic. I headed back to our seats with our grub and waited for John as the stands filled up. The Corps of Cadets came out on the field and the national anthem was played, finished with a firing canon. John was in the Corps of Cadets when he was at Virginia Tech and he also was the one who fired the canon so I was pretty excited to see that.
Finally, RIGHT when John got to our seats, the entrance song started. John had told me a lot about the entrance song for the Virginia Tech football team. I had even watched videos of it. Unfortunately, the music cut out part way through and the team had to run out to the shrill cheering of their adoring school and fans...which is almost as good. Lane Stadium was ranked one of the top ten most intimidating school stadiums to play at. And I can see why. Hokies don't mess around. They are PROUD to be Hokies, PROUD of their football team, and they practically BLIND their opponents with orange and maroon before shouting them off the stands and out of the field.
So anyway...the hokies came out, began playing and scored within the first 5 minutes. John said they normally shoot off the canon every time they score but they hadn't had time to set up the canon on the practice field. Sure enough, the next time they scored the canon went off. I don't know what it is about that canon but...I LIKE IT.
Every time the hokies scored, John explained that the new cadets had to do push ups. I asked, slightly confused, "So they do push ups every time WE score?"
John: "Yeah!"
Me: "....aren't push ups more of a punishment?"
John: "...No?"
Haha...I found that funny.
We enjoyed our turkey leg, cotton candy, and a pretzel during the game and the hokies won 66-13 but we didn't stay til the very end.
My thoughts? I really, really enjoyed the game. It was fun laughing at John being OUT OF CONTROL excited and him knowing all the words to all the cheers and songs while I sat there clueless but happy.
We had sushi for dinner and then coffee and then ran into Barnes and Noble so I could do some homework but mostly to get out of a sudden downpour. We made a bonfire that night, made more smores and just enjoyed each others' company.
Sunday we went to John's church that he used to attend while he was at Virginia Tech and it was a really great service (although the room the service was in was a good 10 degrees below what it was in the lobby...we walked in and John looked over at me and my eyes BULGED and we headed back to the car to get my sweatshirt).
After catching a quick bite to eat for lunch at a Greek place (LOVE Greek food), we hit the road. We had to drive back to Richmond and then I had to drive back to NC on my own. We decided to get dinner before I left and bubble tea. It was a nice way to end our time together and as sad as I was to leave John, I knew it would be better to have a day of catch up at home than spending my catch up day driving.
Photos: Meself
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