Old Money
Nothing spells Southern history out more clearly than the old plantations and towns. Running through, it’s pretty obvious that the people of good old rural Virginia take pride in their property, and have the money to show it off. We saw acres upon acres of luscious, neatly-cut grass– a definite indication of wealth, considering gas prices. The extravagant estates themselves also sent a strong message: “yeah, I could afford this.” Even the guest houses that we spotted along the run were impressive, with many of them two stories and equipped with a garage!
A Learning Experience
There is nothing quite like running across the country with a history teacher as your partner. As soon as we hit this one small town, Coach Rogers went historical on my butt. But I didn’t mind it at all. I told him this, and I’m saying it again in case he didn’t believe me. Hearing him describe the setting to me as only a history teacher can was a fun diversion from counting how many steps I take in one mile (which I professionally counted out to be 1207 steps). Plus just seeing a cobblestone house made me giggle.
Stop and Smell the Roses
So this town that Coach and I ran through. It had to be inhabited by some really high-strung people. For when you go through their city, they make sure you see just how much history and money is held there. Upon reaching the city limits, the speed limit dropped from 55 to 25. And then just to really make you mad, they lower it again to 15 mph. Talk about a crawl. If Coach and I ran just a little bit faster, we could have gotten a ticket. Even Eastborough has nothing on this town. And you want to know how they got away with such a ludicrous speed limit? By saying the roads were “under construction”. Guess what. There wasn’t a worker in sight, let alone any heavy equipment or wide load trucks.
Capture the Moment…Not
Soon after leaving Slowbieville, we entered DC. And just as quickly as we entered, left it. We had to get hotel accommodations squared away first. So the team took some time to unpack, and I took my chance to charge up my camera battery for what was sure to be a big day of clicking. Hundreds of photo opportunities awaited upon our reentering DC. Once everyone was cleaned up from running, the team got back into the vans and headed out to begin our sightseeing. It didn’t take long for me to find a good location for a photo. So I pulled my camera out and turned it on and . . .
Oh wait. Black screen. OH WAIT. I forgot the battery. I was thunderstruck. My first chance to take pictures of the many monuments and sites of D.C., and I forgot the battery. I would soon find out that for many of the monuments and memorials, that one day was my only chance to see them. It’s a shame I don’t have photos of some the amazing places I visited on our first day, but by not having a camera to take pictures, I forced myself to remember as much as I could. In a way, I’ll still have memories that will last a lifetime.
