At the risk of confusing anyone who is mapping our journey, our Virginia and North Carolina visits have criss-crossed with each other as we visited Arlington and Luray in VA, the Outer Banks in NC, back to VA for college football and then down to Charlotte in NC. To make it a little easier, I’m continuing with Virginia here and I’ll wrap up North Carolina in our next post.
In Palmyra, VA, we found our friend Brian and surprised him by emerging from Ruby wearing our Virginia Tech beanies, in preparation for our upcoming college football experience 😊 We then headed to North Carolina for a few days (post to come) before returning to Virginia.
The drive back to Palmyra was filled with photo stops giving Brian a chance to experience what Sammy has to deal with when I find something I need to take a photo of with no notice whatsoever 😂 Case in point: finding our first cotton field. We were very excited to see a field full of fluffy white balls and then find the already harvested cotton packed into fluffy white bales.
A visit to the Planters Peanut Center brought us to Suffolk, home of Mr Peanut and where Planters has been producing their roasted peanuts since 1913.
We had a dinner stop Wakefield at Virginia Diner, serving customers since 1929, and received a great introduction to local cuisine including Virginia country ham and biscuits and peanut pie.
Saturday dawned overcast and chilly as we drove to Blacksburg, home of the Virginia Tech Hokies, with Brian and Tray. On our way to Lane Stadium, we were joined by other Hokies fans heading there alongside us in cars adorned with flags and bumper stickers. As we pulled up into the carpark Sammy and I found ourselves in the world of tailgating. Portable canopies in the distinctive orange and maroon colours of the Hokies were dotted all over the carpark, shielding fans from the rain as the pre-game excitement could be heard in the laughter and shouted conversations from one car to another. Jello shots and chilli alongside burgers and beer seemed to be the general order of the day as we wandered amongst tailgating fans to say hi to friends of Brian and Tray before heading into the stadium for the game.
The Hokies were playing the Pitt Panthers and their Virginia fan base were out in full force despite the persistent rain. The bands who provided the pre-game and halftime entertainment were fantastic and the damp weather did nothing to temper the enthusiasm of the crowd who sang, cheered and roared their support of their team.
With a resounding 28-0 over the Panthers, the Hokies brought home the win for their exuberant fans. The atmosphere in Lane Stadium was electric and we had such an amazing college football experience. Despite being slightly concerned for my safety with the very vocal fan next to me who frequently took umbrage against the referee and the Panthers and was downright scary at times 😂 Lesson of the day: college football fans are very passionate.
Thank you Brian and Tray for sharing your football team with us. And thank you Virginia – you have been fantastic!
P&S