NASHVILLE - Since our return flight didn’t leave Sioux Falls until 8pm, we opted for a road trip within a road trip.

The first stop was Vermillion, the home of the University of South Dakota Coyotes, for Chad's requisite college shirt ( Read more... )

RUSTON LA - The day began over the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, the nearly 24-mile bridge over calm water in the free direction (north) before having to stop off at a Best Buy in Covington ( Read more... )

AUBURN NY - Today was our slow day, as we only had to cover 30 miles to the west, as the crow flies.

So instead we headed south to Ithaca, home of Cornell University. Given the geological history of the area, there are several gorges sprinkled throughout campus and the city, prompting the unofficial city motto: “Ithaca is gorges ( Read more... )

NEW LONDON CT - After a quick dash to the nearby grocery store for some aftershave - to replace the nearly-full bottle I left at my aunt’s house on Saturday - it was on to the Albany Rural Cemetery, the final resting place for, among others, former President Chester Arthur and Alexander Hamilton’s sister-in-law Peggy [Schuyler] van Rensselaer ( Read more... )

BURLINGTON NC (8/24) - Fortunately, I awoke today to no further surprises. So after my new (temporary) regimen of pills and eye drops, it was a short drive north to Raleigh ( Read more... )

MYRTLE BEACH (8/22) -The welcome-back issue of The Daily Gamecock suggested a visit to The Original Pancake House for breakfast, and Chad was quite satisfied with the result.

We then headed back downtown to visit the South Carolina State Museum. Compared to yesterday, when it was sold out with its own batch of eclipse goers, the former textile ( Read more... )

ASHEVILLE NC - Today continued our slow return march north, stopping off first at the campus of Auburn University. I had been here in 2009 when WVU played the Tigers in a nighttime deluge - this, after watching an Alabama game earlier in the day in sunny weather - but this was Chad’s first visit. We nosed around the football stadium, then wandered ( Read more... )

EDGEWOOD MD -- After a quick morning run to WalMart, the new cord adapter seemed to be working as we headed off to Rutgers University in neighboring New Jersey. Long a conference mate of WVU, they're now as inexplicably in the Big 10 as we are in the Big 12 ( Read more... )

BINGHAMTON NY -- Mental note: Don't stay at this particular Rodeway Inn, because the neighbors are noisy. Not across-the-street neighbors, but other-side-of-the-wall neighbors. And what I thought was the garbage truck's first visit of the night was actually a tow truck taking their vehicle away ( Read more... )

SALISBURY MD -- I felt unguestlike, leaving a note for Sandy as we left the apartment (at 8:15!), but we couldn't just twiddle our thumbs until she woke up. I loaded the car while Chad went to the City Diner a block and a half away to set us up with a table. I took the Diner up on its location-named dish (the Strawberry & Broad ( Read more... )