Back to School

 After leaving Boone, NC and the headwaters of the New River, we arrived in short order to Blacksburg, VA and Virginia Tech (VT). I have not seen VT since graduating in 1980 and man has the campus and town changed. All of the growth seems to have been handled very well as the new buildings on campus are spread out amongst beautiful landscaping, trim lawns and handsome pedestrian/bicycle paths throughout while the town's improvements have seemed to have kept an historical perspective to the local roots. It is very nice. Now, this is May, I'm sure my opinions on the beauty would be a little bit different in February!

Entrance to VT near the football stadium, on Beamer Way.

Our first order of business was to check in with Parking Services on campus to secure a permit to park the RV in a campus lot over the weekend. Filled out the paperwork...name, domicile, license number kinda thing... and as she is running it thru the computer it suddenly dawns on me that back when I left in 1980 I skipped campus owing them around $200 in unpaid parking fines. Doing a quick calculation I was thinking with late fees I may owe these guys $20,000! Might be an expensive RV spot for the weekend. No red lights or alarms went off so evidently all has been forgiven.

Here's our set up on campus, very nice spot for the weekend.

The parking spot was perfect, right across from the on campus golf course next to the Duck Pond and a stones throw away from the drill field which is basically campus central. It was quiet and beautifully lush with hardwood trees, rhododendrens in full blossom...very peaceful.

Serene Duck Pond, right in the center of the campus.

The students have left for the summer break so the campus and town were very calm without the throngs of thousands of students, faculty and support staff gumming things up. Summer session starts in a few days so this will work out fine.

Speaking of summer session, one of the best summers of my life was in 1979 when I enrolled in two basket weaving courses to satisfy my humanities credits...History of Technology and something else. All my buddies stayed over that summer too and here was our M-F schedule:

Class everyday from 9-10, on the first tee at 11 for free student golf, down at the New River for tubing by 3 after picking up $1 six packs of PBR's, tube till around 6 and head back to B'burg for a BBQ and nightime merriment. For the ENTIRE summer! Man, only thing, I didn't appreciate then how good we had it! Of course Saturdays and Sundays were for more of the same minus the interruptions of those pesky classes.

Here I am down by the river once again, this time without the cheap PBR's and a tube....besides, that water was cold as hell!

Getting in a leisurely 9 holes at VT. 

Debbie and I drove around campus checking out all the new stuff and visiting some of the older buildings that I frequented. Went into town and cruised by a couple of the places I lived and thought how little had really changed over 40 years with those places. Also drove down to the New River to show her our tubing run and played a round of golf on campus. The formerly 18 hole course is now 9 holes since VT opened their official Pete Dye course off campus and the University has plans for classrooms and labs on the old course. It's a shame, was a nice little course but I'd rather have classrooms and top notch research facilities for the students instead of a golf course. One thing for sure, the little trees that were on the course 40 years ago have gotten a lot bigger cause I found a few of them!

My first apartment at VT, a four bedroom affair, toilet, shower kitchen and little else, it was perfect! I think my share of the rent came to about $75 per mo. My room was top left.

My last residence at VT was what we called the "Whipple Drive Estate". I bunked up in the basement with access thru that side door. Had a wood stove for heat and that area of the house was referred to as the bear den, quite cozy...as long as you kept the wood stove fed.

And what University campus should be without a Drone Park. The University banned all drones from campus and caused an uproar. Now VT is perhaps one of the top schools for Aeronautical Engineering and these students and professors are on the leading edge of drone research so they're like, WTF? Where are we gonna test out our innovations? Well, lets build you guys the worlds largest outdoor, fenced in drone park. This baby is a football field size and the metal pylons go up 85' to create this huge airspace for drones, pretty cool and open to all students for free after they get their basic instructions.

On our last evening we went for dinner at, forget it's new name, but was called Greeks Cellar when I was at VT. This was the spot where the student section of the American Society of Civil Engineers would hold their Friday afternoon meetings. I was an older college student, over 21 at the time, but most of the students were underage so I was the go to guy for pitchers of beers during these 'meetings'. All good memories and BS'ed with a couple at an adjoining table and he also graduated from VT in 1980 with an Electrical Engineering degree. Lives 30 minutes from town where he grew up and comes here every weekend, nice couple.

Here I am at the old Greeks Cellar waiting on a damn beer!

On our last morning, Monday, I decided to once again walk the halls and visit the classes and labs in Patton Hall the Civil Engineering building. Still looks exactly the same, same tile floors, same desks and chairs, blackboards and job ads. Thousands of civil engineers have been trained in this building since 1926 and it was good to see they've carried on the tradition. It was a grand visit and very happy that I came back. Also, I was damned happy and proud to have gotten thru it in 1980 and gotten the hell out of town, with unpaid parking tickets and a sheepskin! Score!

That's a wrap on Blacksburg, on to Pittsburgh, PA the town of my youth, taking me home on some country roads in West Virginia, almost heaven!

Peace out,

Deb and Howard