On the Road...AGAIN! (Believing in the moment of connection, one visit at a time)

Well I'm back for another travel season! I hope you all had a wonderful winter, spring, and summer! I am back for another season and so ready to rock it. I am already finishing my second week of travel! Only 6 more to go!

Last year I really did have a blast on the road because, as you read, I was able to do a lot of fun things. Although, I'll be honest by the time it came to the end I was so over it and ready to be done. Because I was so over it, it made me dread this season a little bit.

But I can happily say that so far things have been great! I will bring you up to speed with my travel this year. This year my territory changed to ALL of North Carolina and I kept Southwest VA. I am really excited to be able to keep most of the same territory because I am familiar with it this year. It already feels different this year. I feel more comfortable and confident. I have been able to learn from things last year and take that info to improve this year. It has been going pretty well so far! Dare I say I am enjoying myself!?

Well, for the first two weeks I was mainly in Eastern North Carolina. I started out with a few fairs, two of which were in Charlotte, and then I headed back up to the Raleigh/Durham/Greenville area to start private school visits. This was the new, unfamiliar territory of the trip because I only covered Western NC last year. I was really excited though to go to some new places and see some new things. Jojo, who is another counselor in our office, and who some of you may know, used to cover Eastern, NC for the longest time, so it came as quite a shock to some of the high counselors when I showed up at their schools and they were expecting Jojo and they got me. I have gotten many comments asking where he is and what he is doing, I just hope I can fill his shoes! Haha

If you can recall from last year, my first week of my first travel season was very eventful! I had some major car problems that put a kink in my travel schedule. Well good news is...I didn't have to go back to school for a new car. Bad news is....I still had car troubles!!! Fortunately, after my first week of travel I had to head back to the office on Friday to prepare for our first Open House of the fall. While I was there somebody from the school was able to take a look at it. They also had good news and bad news...Good news: they were able to fix some of the problems, bad news: they couldn't fix everything. They said I would have to be in the office for a longer amount of time to fix it but they did say it was....safe....to drive. I CERTAINLY HOPE SO! It is still making a rather loud and rather annoying noise but hopefully it holds out until I can get back to the office mid-October.

Aside from that, things have been pretty uneventful! :) School visits have been going very well, I haven't run out of materials...yet, and we have so many news things happening on campus that I just get so excited talking to students about it.

Some of the highlights from my trip so far:

-          I got my first towel animal!

-          I have gotten a TON of goody bags/ care packages from schools and hotels that I have filled up my entire front seat with them and the floor.

-          Best question from a student so far: "How far away is the closest Bojangles to campus?" haha His dad responded by saying, "If you could just hook up an IV to him from Bojangles he will be okay"

-          I learned that Randolph-Macon used to be called Randolph-Spankin by other schools. The counselor for Roanoke College who graduated from W&L back when it was an all male school, told me that they used to call us this because W&L used to always get "spanked" by R-MC with athletics and that it was embarrassing for them. I’ll take it!

-          This past Tuesday was pay day and I also had some extra time between my last school visit and my night college fair, so what did I do!? Headed straight for the outlets! I must have some kind of radar! That was dangerous! I was eyeing a Coach bag pretty hard core but somehow I was able to use restraint and I put the bag down and walked away...can't promise I will be able to do the same next time. I did get some really great bargains though.

-          I also had the opportunity to go antiquing for a little bit and I got some great finds! I got this painting, which has a whole story of its own. But it's for the kitchen and I can't wait to put it up!

-          Okay, here's the story about the painting. It is rather large, so much so that I can’t fit it into the trunk while my luggage is in there so it’s pretty inconvenient to have it in the back seat while I am riding around with some many materials in my car. So for me to be able to do anything I have to take the painting in and out. Well the other night I was leaving a fair and I had to load up my materials and put them back in my car. To do that I had to take the painting out and I just leaned it up against the car while I put my travel bag and things into the car. WELL, I am sure you can see where this is going (as I am typing this I am laughing at myself and how silly this is) haha Needless to say I totally forgot about the painting leaning against the car (in my defense it was really dark out and my car is dark so it blended in) and I totally drove off without another thought about the painting. haha the embarrassing part is that there were people in the parking lot who probably saw me drive away and leave it hahaha. I was about 30 min into my hour drive when I realized, holy cow, I forgot the painting! I had to drive all the way back and luckily somebody had moved it out of the parking lot and had propped it up on the curb, and it was untouched! No damage down! lol just a funny story at this point I guess. At this point though I can't wait to get that home and put it up in the kitchen so I can get it out of my car! Haha

-          I have met some really awesome people so far on this trip! I have got to meet a lot of counselors from other schools and we have a really great time at our fairs! It has been really nice to meet some new people this year that can relate to this job and can swap stories. It's really nice to get to see them at all the fairs.

Highlights of my best fair so far which was the Chapel Hill Fair:

-          There were actually people there to direct parking and tell you where you need to go.

-          There was a student who actually met me at my car to help me carry all of my materials.

-          I had a personal guide to walk me to my table.

-          There was a really delicious dinner before the fair.

-          Since it was at UNC Chapel Hill the fair was held in the Dean Dome so I got to watch the Tarheels practice while I ate my dinner with my new friends. :)

-          It was such a busy fair for us that I actually had to replenish my materials multiple times and I had a LINE at my table...for NC that is a pretty big deal seeing as how we are a small, Virginia school.

Now that's an awesome fair!

These first two weeks have gone very well and have been successful for us. I have loaded up my car twice now with materials and I can honestly say it is a good thing I will be heading back to the office tomorrow because I have almost run out of all my materials!

Today and tomorrow are my first days covering Southwest, VA and that will continue to the first part of next week, and then I will be heading down to Charlotte for the end of next week.

After this weekend I will be on the road for 3 weeks straight so I am sure I will have some good stories to report!


And remember, NOW is the Time for Randolph-Macon! :)

Here are pictures from my trip so far!

My first towel animal! It's an elephant!

Do you notice anything about this sign?

How about now!? haha I had to pull over and take a pic of it!

Look who I found...AGAIN! Tow-mater is still there
and this year he has a new duckie friend!

The Dean Dome at UNC!

I got a picture of Michael Jordan's jersey! #23!

Some of my new counselor friends! Chrystal and Jessica from Randolph and Radford!

All Roads Lead Home!

Well Travel season is officially over! After a whirlwind past 8 weeks I can't believe it is already over! It feels like just yesterday I was loading up my car for the first time with boxes and boxes of materials heading out for my first week of visits. I learned so much from these past 8 weeks but I sure am happy to be home, there's no doubt!

I honestly had no idea what to expect from my first travel season and I almost felt like it was one of those things you could never really be fully prepared for until you just go out and do it! and that was absolutely right! No matter how many people I spoke with or got advice from before I set out it could never really prepare me enough. I got a chance to meet so many fantastic students and counselors at schools from all over! It makes me really excited to get back and start working with these students throughout the year so I can help them get to that next chapter! I not only learned things about what to do for next year but I also learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of!

Although, I had a blast and learned so much during travel season nothing could compare to being home finally! I was lucky though, during my last week of travel I got a dose of home when I got to travel to Houston, TX and got to see my sister and Phil!!! When Texas was first added to my territory I was so thrilled and immediately thought about my sister! Then when I found out I was going to Houston for the whole week I couldn't have been happier. I still can't believe how blessed I am, not only was I getting sent some place different for work but I got the chance to spend the whole week with my sister! That means I was able to get to Houston twice this year! I was so thrilled that I would get to spend some quality time with her, but more than that I really just enjoyed having somebody to talk to every night and have a home cooked meal every night! That was quite a welcomed change during travel season. I don't have any pictures from my amazing trip to Houston (shocking right!?), but maybe that's because we were having so much fun just being around each other! I couldn't have asked for a better way to end travel season 2010!

For my last entry I didn't really know how I would close things up for the season so I decided to compile all the cool pictures of things I saw throughout travel season together in one blog. So here they are...I hope you like them!

This was some crazy mountain thing I saw while I was driving!

As I was driving down the road on my way to a visit I literally did a double take when I saw Mater, like Ta-mater, without the Ta!!! It was so cool in real life!

These next two pictures are for you Darby! Everywhere I went the mountains were just beautiful with the changing leaves! By the end of travel season everywhere I went looked like a postcard!

Haha! I saw this outside one of the hotels I stayed at in Blacksburg! So completely random but cool!

This was one of my towel figures in my hotel room! I thought it was really cute because I was there for business!

This is a picutre I took at the scenic views off 81!

Haha! Okay so this is a funny story! Never a dull moment during travel! This is at one of my hotels that actually ended up flooding completely! This is a picture of the water line on the SECOND floor pouring out of the window! It was crazy! Needless to say I ended up getting moved to another hotel in the area that night!

This is one of the about 10 firemen that reported to the hotel when it was flooding and the power went out!

This is a beautiful view from the parking lot at one of my school visits!

I saw so many cool things while on the road I wish I could have taken a picture of everything! Looking back at these pictures reminds me how much fun I did have during travel. I now have so many great, new ideas for next year! Although, I had a blast and learned so much nothing could be better than being home right now!

I hope you all enjoyed this season of The Buzz From the Road! Until next year!

The Biltmore or is it Built More?

Okay so that was pretty cheesy but I just couldn't resist! haha

There was one main thing I really had my heart set on accomplishing during travel season and that was going to the Biltmore House in Asheville, Va! When I got assigned my territory and realized that Asheville was part of it I knew I was going to have to take a trip to the Biltmore House! I have always wanted to go see that house for as long as I could remember, and now I was finally going to be able to go!

Well I was planning on going there after my visits on this particular Fri. and I had been looking forward to it all week! Well all travel season for that matter! Then I started looking at the ticket prices and I really didn't think I could go...it was going to be $70! I was so surprised it was so much! Plus, this was one of those trips that I decided I really didn't want to go to by myself so by the end of the week I had pretty much talked myself out of going. I was pretty bummed about it but knew if I waited until a time that somebody could join me it would be totally worth it!

Well I was at my school visits on Thurs, and at my last stop I had a fantastic visit! I was able to not only sit down with the counselor but I was able to sit down for lunch with some interested students. It really opened up the visit to more conversation and it was a little less formal so they could ask me whatever questions they may have had. As if the visit couldn't get any better when I was leaving and saying goodbye to the counselor she was asking me what I had planned to do in the area and I told her about my hopes to go to the Biltmore House, and you will never believe what happened next! She actually went inside and brought me a ticket for admission for the Biltmore House! Apparently, they always keep some on hand for special visitors to campus. Of course, I quickly changed my mind and knew I just had to go now especially since it was going to be free!

Well after I left the school visit they gave me the free ticket I called Kevin to let him know about it and...SURPRISE, SURPRISE! Kevin was actually already on is way down to Asheville to surprise me! It really made me excited that not only did I have a free ticket but I now had somebody to go with! Things were just falling into place and it really made for the best visit in Asheville ever!

That night we were able to walk around the cutest little city! Fun fact: the town of Asheville was actually originally built because they had to have houses for the people that were building the Biltmore House. So you can imagine what a cute city it was! We really enjoyed ourselves walking around town and seeing all the neat restaurants. They had music on each corner and some of the cutest little shops! We also got to tag along behind a ghost tour!!! I had always wanted to go on one of these but we didn't technically sign up or pay for this one so we only tagged along for one stop but it was still really cool! We got something to eat at this really yummy Chinese place and then walked around for a bit longer because it was such a beautiful night.

The next day after my school visits we headed to the main event! I was soooo excited! I couldn't believe I was finally going to get to see this amazing house, America's Castle as I like to call it! haha. We ended up not only getting the tour of the house, the gardens, antler village, and the winery but we also decided it would be worth our while to get the audio tour on top of that so we could get as much information about the house while we were walking around. It was so neat! Honestly, I can't describe into words how amazing this house was. The house sits on 929,000 acres if you can imagine and it has the best views I have ever seen anywhere in my life! and of course it looked amazing in the Fall with the house over looking all the mountains with the changing leaves. I think we spent a total of 3 1/2 hours inside the house alone! We really loved walking from room to room and getting to take our time and listen to the audio tour. Honestly, I was in awe! From the dining hall to the indoor heated pool and everywhere in between. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house but I think I enjoyed that better because I got to focus on the house instead of focusing on taking pictures. My advice, if you really want to see the inside, just go see it for yourself!

After we got out of the house we got a chance to walk around the house and the gardens. We had a lot of taking our time walking around and just enjoying the beauty of the place! Remarkable trees, flowers, walkways, and waterfalls. It was so nice not to be on a schedule or have a time limit; we really could just take our time and we ended up walking around the gardens and up to the waterfall for about 5 miles there and back!

As if that wasn't enough fun we still hadn't made our way to the Antler Village! There we got to walk around and see the cute shops and dining options. We also got to see the clock tower that was used back when the house was built to keep every clock on schedule in the house. Just goes to show with the clock tower and a heated pool in the 1800's, how technologically advanced this house was!

While we were at the Antler Village we also got to take a tour of the Biltmore Winery and have a complimentary wine tasting. The winery actually used to be a dairy back when the house was first built. Along with their dairy all the Vanderbilt's produce was also grown their so it was as local as you could get! They did sell the milk from the dairy though. We got to see how it used to be a dairy and where they kept the cows and jarred the milk, and now how they have transformed it into a winery and where they now store the grapes, etc. The wine tasting was fun and they had so many to choose from! Kevin and I really enjoyed walking around the gift shop at the end with all the wines plus any kind of Biltmore souvenir you could think of and more! All in all this has been the highlight of my Fall so far and I am already planning to go back and spend one of my wedding anniversaries there one day and actually get to stay in the inn! I haven't been able to stop thinking or talking about this trip! Just ask my sister; I definitely gave them an ear full when I was visiting! Kevin and I couldn't stop discussing which rooms were our favorites and what we want to do the next time! Who am I kidding, I'm still talking about it!

These pictures don't really give it justice but here are a few I took:

The Biltmore House! You can see where they were starting to put up the Christmas tree in the middle.

Close up of the house. The sad thing was that I wasn't close at all but we still couldn't fit the whole house in the picture!

Just a glimpse of the breath taking views!

This is the side of the house where crocket would have been played.

A small part of the gardens

The clock tower down by Antler Village that controlled all the clocks in the house.

Roaming around Roanoke!

Well this week I was in and around the Roanoke area for just a couple of days because I had to get back to the office at the end of the week to prepare for the second open house of the season. I didn't really have much time there to do anything besides school visits but I knew I still wanted to get some fun things fit in while I was there.

When I was visiting a school I sat down with the school college counselor and after talking for a while she mentioned a couple of things I should really try and visit while I was in town. One of the things she mentioned to me was the Roanoke Star! I had never been there before so I figured going after my visits at sunset would be a perfect time to go!

That day after my visits I rode up to the top of the mountain to see the Roanoke Star! It was really beautiful up there! I could see the entire Roanoke valley for miles around. It was so neat to see a valley surrounded by mountains upon mountains. I have never actually seen such a distinct valley before. I went at dusk and that ended up being the perfect time to go because I could see the tail end of the sunset and the city all lit up at night. The star alone is 88 1/2 feet high and is the largest man made star in the world! It can be seen from miles around, 60 to be exact, and it is super pretty all lit up. It was neat to see the city buildings all lit up at night too. I spent a while there taking pictures; it was really remarkable!

Pictures of the valley at dusk

Overlooking the valley

Beautiful colors of the valley

A view of the city

The Roanoke Star!

Check out all the mountains in the background!

To give you some perspective about how big the star actually is!

A picture of the sunset on top of the mountain



A view of the valley at night!




All lit up!



This is a picture I took once I got down from the mountain at an intersection. This shows you how you really can see the star from miles around.

One of my friends and fellow co-workers, Katie Harding, is from Roanoke so she was so nice to send me an email before my week in Roanoke that listed some dining options I just had to try. So one of the other places I checked out while I was in the area was the famous Blue Collar Joe's! This is a donut shop that was actually featured on Food Network before and everybody I talked to while I was in town just raved about the donuts. In between my visits in Botetourt County I stopped by one morning. I got in there and it was such a cute place and smelled so sweet!! They had more donuts than I could have ever imagined and all of them with the most unique names like the Botetourt Bog and The Lunch Box Special, to name a few! I got in there thinking I would just pick one for the ride and somehow one turned into one DOZEN! Not thinking at the time that I am all alone during travel and don't have anybody to share them with, haha! Even still they were so delicious, decadent, and rich! It literally tasted like I was eating a piece of cake! It was a wonderful stop and I would highly recommend anybody visiting the Roanoke area to definitely stop by and try out some of the deliciousness!

Here is a picture of the place. They also have a drive-up window you can go to!

All different flavors! Yummy!!!

Back to Boydton!

Okay! I think I have left you hanging for long enough! Do you want to know what adventure I had?

Well, ever since I started at Randolph-Macon, I always knew I wanted to make it to Boydton, VA at some point. For those of you who don't know Boydton, VA is where R-MC was founded back in 1830. We didn't move our campus to Ashland until 1868 after the railroads were destroyed in Boydton by the Civil War. They have preserved what is left of the campus in Boydton, and I have always, always wanted to make a trip there to see the ruins!

So, that is what I did!  I went to Boydton, VA! Finally after all these years my dream came true! I thought travel season would be a perfect time to go and since I was in Lynchburg that weekend I figured it was probably the closest I would get to Boydton during my travels.

I can't explain to you in words how amazing it was to be there but I will certainly try. Kevin came along with me for this trip which was nice to have a fellow R-MC alum along for the ride. When we were going we didn't have any exact directions we just knew how to get to Boydton and figured once we got there we would have no problem finding it. Boydton may be the smallest town I have ever been too, hehe. Once we arrived in Boydton we enjoyed just driving around until we found it. All we knew to look for was a yellow sign that says, "Save the Original Campus of R-MC" so we knew once we found that sign we will have arrived!

We kept driving and Kevin and I were so excited we couldn't even speak, and if we did speak we would whisper! haha I couldn't tell you why but we kept spooking ourselves. Suddenly we came upon the sign! I screamed! We had found it! I could hardly contain myself at this point. Once we found the sign it all happened so quickly. We pulled into what seemed like a driveway where the sign was and right in front of us was a house which seemed like it could have been the president's house but we didn't see any other buildings surrounding it.

And then, in the corner of my eye, I glanced over and there it was! The main building! Literally I immediately had chills rush through my entire body and it took my breath away! The first thing we saw was this huge hole in the side of the building. It was such a creepy sight! I gasped when I saw it. Not only are we in this small town which seems like a ghost town but now we are standing in front of this extremely old run down building, it had creepy written all over it!

Kevin and I pulled the car up, I got the camera out, and we began to explore! It was an incredible site to see! I will admit we jumped the fence so we could get closer but it was totally worth the risk! We got to peer in all the windows and see what was left. It was actually pretty sad to see the building left in such bad condition. I wish they would have always taken care of the preservation of the buildings. I am assuming, though, that over the years nobody really thought the buildings would mean anything or were worth anything to preserve or save but I wish they would have been kept in better condition. Now, it would be way too late to do anything to salvage the building if you wanted anything to be left original. They would have to rebuild the building from the ground up. Never the less it was still so amazing to be able to walk around and see what was left and still standing. All these thoughts just came running through my mind of what it must have looked like or been like all the way back in the 1800s. We had such an incredible time, I really think I could have stayed there all day just looking at it!

Right before we were leaving I wanted to get a picture infront of the sign and on the sign they have a place where brouchures are supposed to go. I looked in and it was empty! So being the admissions counselor that I am I went to my car got out some admissions pamphlets and went back over and filled it up! It was pretty funny and I really wonder how many people pass by to take a look at it but hey, every little bit counts. Kevin and I were joking that they probably have somebody in charge of restocking it and they will probably come by the next week and get really spooked wondering where all the flyers came from!

I highly recommend for any current students or alumni of R-MC that haven't gone to Boydton to see the original campus to definitely check it out! Although, if you do plan to go I would try and get there as soon as you can since judging by the looks of it I don't know how much longer it will be recognizable as a building, I was so amazed and I really can't put into words how happy it made me!

Now for the fun part...the pictures!

This is what we saw when we first pulled up! Talk about creepy!

Here is a close up

This is when we jumped the fence and we could get a closer look! You can see where the stairs used to be.

This was a look into one of the windows! There is still stuff there!

In this picture you can see where the floors were!

This is a picture where you can actually see where three floors of stairs collapsed on top of each other!



Me in front of the building!





This is what we think may have been the president's house





Haha, me putting in some pamphlets!



This is a view from the driveway entrance

This is the Boydton Tavern which was built in 1790. Kevin and I were thinking this would have been the hotel that the parents of the R-MC boys would stay when they came to move in their sons! Kinda neat!