800 Mile Father-Daughter Road Trip

Last week I conducted a three-day safety school for my company here in Cincinnati. We finished at 4 p.m. on Friday, and I drove straight home and picked up Annie for a crazy 30 hours of driving and college visiting. It was tedious and, by turns, really fun.

Friday Night - We left home at 5:30, pointed toward Virginia. Annie has been accepted at a school in Salem VA (Roanoke College) and was registered to attend an open house on campus for most of Saturday. We also planned to drop in at Washington and Lee University, in nearby Lexington VA, where Annie has applied and is awaiting a decision. We drove 200 miles in four hours, angling across Ohio to Portsmouth and then to Charleston WV where we snagged a room at Motel 6 for the night.

What we learned Friday Night: 1) Annie has not lost her childhood habit of z-ing out for the duration as soon as a car in which she is a passenger shifts out of park. 2) West Virginia is not that scenic if it's dark out. 3) Motel 6 really does leave the light on for you.

Saturday First Half - Up early, and fueled up on potato chips (me) and meatless Egg McMuffins (Annie), we continued south and then east another 180 miles, passing into Virginia and reaching Salem a little after 8 a.m. On this day Annie shared the driving. The weather was perfect - blue skies and rising from the 40s to afternoon highs near 70 degrees. Checking out the charming Salem main street area adjacent to campus, we stopped in a coffee shop for second breakfast (Annie recommends the gingerbread chai, and I give the blueberry scones two thumbs up). We then walked the Roanoke campus before settling in for a financial aid presentation at 9:45, given for us and about 75 other early birds, followed by brunch in the student center cafeteria - way too much food by now. The main program began at 11 a.m. for a crowd that had swelled to about 300. We listened as two admissions staffers talked about the Roanoke experience. By now Annie had chatted up both the Director of Financial Aid and the VP of Admissions, the only kid to introduce herself to either of these speakers, and our basic questions were anwered. The program continued with student and faculty question/answer panels and campus tours until 3:30 p.m., but we instead took ourselves on another walk around campus and agreed to head out at about 1:00.

What we learned Saturday First Half: 1) Sometimes pictures do not lie - Roanoke's campus and setting are just as beautiful as the glossy brochures they sent us. 2) Something as mildly audacious as sitting in the front row of a college presentation can pay off in personal contact with the speakers. Whether this will result in extra consideration for scholarship dollars seems unlikely, but who knows? 3) Even when I am full, I will eat food if it is free. (Okay, I knew this one already.)

Saturday Second Half: From Salem, we drove 40 miles north to Lexington and the campus of Washington and Lee University. We arrived just as the admissions office was closing, but a nice lady there gave us self-guided tour materials. We spent a happy half hour walking the campus and reading about the history and traditions of the school. Then we drove home, retracing our steps and arriving well past 10 p.m. having logged 600 miles for the day.

What we learned Saturday Second Half: 1) Annie is definitely interested in Washington and Lee. (And not just because of the beautiful campus - it has terrific language programs too.) 2) The popular story that the ghost of Traveller, Robert E. Lee's horse, still roams the grounds is false. We were there for a good while and saw zero horse ghosts. 3) West Virginia is not that scenic if it's dark out.