Breaking The Silence
A year and 3 and a half monthes ago Bob Grant and I both had girlfriends who were in Virginia. They were on a choir trip to Virginia beach. So we were sitting in my livingroom discussing how we really miss our respective girlfriend. So, at about midnight we came up with the brilliant idea that we would go to Virginia Beach, get in touch with some people in the choir to find out where they were, and surprise the girls. Bob shot home, so we both could get some sleep since we now had to be up by about 7 for the trip. I got up the next morning on time and began to ready myself for the trip when my phone rang. "Dude, my mom said no." It was Bob. Later my mom told me that if Momma Grant hadn't said no, she most likely would of said not a good idea. So our spontaneous, crazy show of affection for our girls at the time was squashed by the 'rentals.
Fast forward to the present day. Bob once again has a girlfriend in Vigrinia and she's not on a trip there, it's where she lives. Now although I don't have a girlfriend down there this time, I was more then happy to get in and help him surprise her. He asked if I'd like to head down there about 2 weeks ago now (about a week and a half before the trip itself). The original lineup consisted of about 10 people, but it got down to just Bob, Sean C, and myself by Monday morning. However, right before we left on Monday Sean C's phone rang and after conversing with his father for a bit of time, he was out of the trip. So Bob and I left, we followed Amanda down to Maryland to visit her boyfriend, because Julie was also living there so we had lunch with her. We parted way with those three (the girls and Amanda's b/f) after some chinese food and took off for Virginia. After several failed attempts to take pictures of crosses set up on hills by Bob, we realized that we had completed trips on I-66 of 66 miles and on I-81 of 219 miles. We were a 20 minute drive on I-77 away from Galax, Virginia. Notable things from the trip there was the flat bed truck that had about 5 port O' Potties just sitting in the back, and also a truck that was towing a truck that was towing a truck that was towing a truck that was towing a Dodge Ram. You can see pictures of both of these on my "myspace."
States that I was in on Monday:
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
We made it to Galax at about 5:45 and headed over to Dereck's to settle in. I met Dereck and his family, his little brother Seth, and his parents Mr. and Mrs. Kriner. After a bit of small talk and getting aquainted it was time to get to the resaurant to surprise Courtney, Bob's girlfriend.
When Courtney got there Bob hid in the hallway where the bathrooms are, Dereck greeted Courtney at the door, and Seth and I waited at the table. As Courtney walked over to the table I saw that she kind of had this puzzled look on her face, like she recongized me but for the life of her couldn't place me. Dereck follows her and says "Courntey this is Shawn Seppanen." So I extend my hand, "Hi, Shawn Sepp." Her face lights up, she knows exactly who I am, but I don't think she believed that I was sitting at the table with her since I'm Bob's best friend who's supposed to be in New Jersey. Bob hearing the convo, and knowing that his girlfriend has figured out who I was at this point, busts out of the hallway and turns her around and gives her a huge hug. She had no idea it was going to happen, and she was shaking for a good half hour, she was very surprised. After the surprise happened Dereck's girlfriend Ashley came, and she was a very nice girl, so that was cool. Afterwards we went back to Dereck's and watched Lemony Snicket which was much better then I thought, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We dropped off Courtney and then went back to the house and went to bed shortly there after.
States I was in on Monday:
New Jersey, Deleware, Maryland and Virginia.
We woke up on Tuesday to go to Dereck's grandmom's for breakfast. Coffee, Biscuits and gravy, eggs, pork, bacon, and perseratives...'nuff said. Dereck went to wok, and Bob and I drove around for a bit. We went to the gas station Ashley's parents own, and met her mother. Her mom totally rocked, and I hear we made a good impression, which is always good. We picked up Courtney and grabbed some lunch, pork sandwhich for less then three bucks! We visited with a few people and relaxed for the rest of the day. For dinner we had Burger steaks, corn, green beans, and potatoes, and mozzarella bread. I so get used to Southern food.
When I found out that Galax is about 10 minutes away from the North Carolina border, I started to think if I had ever been to NC, and I realized that the closest I had ever been to it has been flying over it to Florida, so I concluded that we were going to to North Carolina. (Note, I just remembered that when I was about 8 I took a train to Florida, so I also went through NC in a train, but it doesn't count since I was 8 and probably asleep when we went through). So Saturday night we decided that we were going to go to NC on the Blue Ridge parkway. It was me Courtney Bob and Nathan. Nathan is Courtney's little brother, he was at the Kriner's house hanging out with Seth, and we were taking him home that night. I can't really describe the parkway in a way that shows how incredible it is, everyone needs to drive that road at night. We stopped at a look-out on the parkway once we got into North Carolina. We were standing on a mountain and looking down into the valley, and we saw the towns all lit up, it was gorgeous. I was told that the lights far off in the distance was South Carolina. It may of been the most beautiful thing I've seen....well senery wise. We took Courtney and Nathan home and headed back to the Kriner's. Dereck Bob and I hung out for a bit, but not for to long because I fell asleep rather quickly.
States I was in on Tuesday:
Virginia and North Carolina.
We woke up and said our goodbye's to the Kriner's and thanked them for their awesome hospatality. Then headed over to the Callie's to say goodbye to Courtney. We got there at like 11:45 and didn't leave until like 12:30, which was expected. It was good though, I met Courtney's other 2 little brothers Mickha (probably spelled wrong, but it's 3:20 a.m. and I'm not worried about it) who is 7 and Noah who is 5. All 4 really seemed to like me, and Noah took an instant shine to me, so I was happy about that. We decided to travel up the Blue Ridge Parkway even though it would add about a half-hour to the trip, totally worth it. On the parkway there is this incredible mill, I can't remember what it's called but you can see a pic on my "myspace." we drove about 240 miles on I-81 before hitting Maryland. During the trip we were passing people on the Interstate people like crazy in Virginia going between 80 and 85. As soon as we got the sign that said "Welcome to West Virginia" the speed limit instantly jumped to 70 and the traffic blew right by us all at once. The sign should of read "Welcome to West Virginia: Go Faster!"
We stopped in Maryland to have dinner with Jennilyn and Theo, Bob's friends from college. We ate Hawaiian pizza and played Parcheesy (so no one makes fun of me for that spelling, remember that it's currently 3:30 a.m. and any words that I'm not sure of will get spelled phonetically). We left at like 8:30, which was much later then we meant to. When we got into PA. We saw an exit for route 30 and decided to take it to avoid tolls. So 4 hours later we gave up and jumped on 76. We got back into NJ at about quarter after 1.
States I was in on Wednesday:
Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, PA, and NJ.
For the three days I was in 7 different States, not bad.
If I forgot anything I'll add to this. I have much more to say on many different subjects, but it's 20 of 4 and it's bedtime. I'm hoping this post can get me back into updating this journal. So Goodnight.
Fast forward to the present day. Bob once again has a girlfriend in Vigrinia and she's not on a trip there, it's where she lives. Now although I don't have a girlfriend down there this time, I was more then happy to get in and help him surprise her. He asked if I'd like to head down there about 2 weeks ago now (about a week and a half before the trip itself). The original lineup consisted of about 10 people, but it got down to just Bob, Sean C, and myself by Monday morning. However, right before we left on Monday Sean C's phone rang and after conversing with his father for a bit of time, he was out of the trip. So Bob and I left, we followed Amanda down to Maryland to visit her boyfriend, because Julie was also living there so we had lunch with her. We parted way with those three (the girls and Amanda's b/f) after some chinese food and took off for Virginia. After several failed attempts to take pictures of crosses set up on hills by Bob, we realized that we had completed trips on I-66 of 66 miles and on I-81 of 219 miles. We were a 20 minute drive on I-77 away from Galax, Virginia. Notable things from the trip there was the flat bed truck that had about 5 port O' Potties just sitting in the back, and also a truck that was towing a truck that was towing a truck that was towing a truck that was towing a Dodge Ram. You can see pictures of both of these on my "myspace."
States that I was in on Monday:
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
We made it to Galax at about 5:45 and headed over to Dereck's to settle in. I met Dereck and his family, his little brother Seth, and his parents Mr. and Mrs. Kriner. After a bit of small talk and getting aquainted it was time to get to the resaurant to surprise Courtney, Bob's girlfriend.
When Courtney got there Bob hid in the hallway where the bathrooms are, Dereck greeted Courtney at the door, and Seth and I waited at the table. As Courtney walked over to the table I saw that she kind of had this puzzled look on her face, like she recongized me but for the life of her couldn't place me. Dereck follows her and says "Courntey this is Shawn Seppanen." So I extend my hand, "Hi, Shawn Sepp." Her face lights up, she knows exactly who I am, but I don't think she believed that I was sitting at the table with her since I'm Bob's best friend who's supposed to be in New Jersey. Bob hearing the convo, and knowing that his girlfriend has figured out who I was at this point, busts out of the hallway and turns her around and gives her a huge hug. She had no idea it was going to happen, and she was shaking for a good half hour, she was very surprised. After the surprise happened Dereck's girlfriend Ashley came, and she was a very nice girl, so that was cool. Afterwards we went back to Dereck's and watched Lemony Snicket which was much better then I thought, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We dropped off Courtney and then went back to the house and went to bed shortly there after.
States I was in on Monday:
New Jersey, Deleware, Maryland and Virginia.
We woke up on Tuesday to go to Dereck's grandmom's for breakfast. Coffee, Biscuits and gravy, eggs, pork, bacon, and perseratives...'nuff said. Dereck went to wok, and Bob and I drove around for a bit. We went to the gas station Ashley's parents own, and met her mother. Her mom totally rocked, and I hear we made a good impression, which is always good. We picked up Courtney and grabbed some lunch, pork sandwhich for less then three bucks! We visited with a few people and relaxed for the rest of the day. For dinner we had Burger steaks, corn, green beans, and potatoes, and mozzarella bread. I so get used to Southern food.
When I found out that Galax is about 10 minutes away from the North Carolina border, I started to think if I had ever been to NC, and I realized that the closest I had ever been to it has been flying over it to Florida, so I concluded that we were going to to North Carolina. (Note, I just remembered that when I was about 8 I took a train to Florida, so I also went through NC in a train, but it doesn't count since I was 8 and probably asleep when we went through). So Saturday night we decided that we were going to go to NC on the Blue Ridge parkway. It was me Courtney Bob and Nathan. Nathan is Courtney's little brother, he was at the Kriner's house hanging out with Seth, and we were taking him home that night. I can't really describe the parkway in a way that shows how incredible it is, everyone needs to drive that road at night. We stopped at a look-out on the parkway once we got into North Carolina. We were standing on a mountain and looking down into the valley, and we saw the towns all lit up, it was gorgeous. I was told that the lights far off in the distance was South Carolina. It may of been the most beautiful thing I've seen....well senery wise. We took Courtney and Nathan home and headed back to the Kriner's. Dereck Bob and I hung out for a bit, but not for to long because I fell asleep rather quickly.
States I was in on Tuesday:
Virginia and North Carolina.
We woke up and said our goodbye's to the Kriner's and thanked them for their awesome hospatality. Then headed over to the Callie's to say goodbye to Courtney. We got there at like 11:45 and didn't leave until like 12:30, which was expected. It was good though, I met Courtney's other 2 little brothers Mickha (probably spelled wrong, but it's 3:20 a.m. and I'm not worried about it) who is 7 and Noah who is 5. All 4 really seemed to like me, and Noah took an instant shine to me, so I was happy about that. We decided to travel up the Blue Ridge Parkway even though it would add about a half-hour to the trip, totally worth it. On the parkway there is this incredible mill, I can't remember what it's called but you can see a pic on my "myspace." we drove about 240 miles on I-81 before hitting Maryland. During the trip we were passing people on the Interstate people like crazy in Virginia going between 80 and 85. As soon as we got the sign that said "Welcome to West Virginia" the speed limit instantly jumped to 70 and the traffic blew right by us all at once. The sign should of read "Welcome to West Virginia: Go Faster!"
We stopped in Maryland to have dinner with Jennilyn and Theo, Bob's friends from college. We ate Hawaiian pizza and played Parcheesy (so no one makes fun of me for that spelling, remember that it's currently 3:30 a.m. and any words that I'm not sure of will get spelled phonetically). We left at like 8:30, which was much later then we meant to. When we got into PA. We saw an exit for route 30 and decided to take it to avoid tolls. So 4 hours later we gave up and jumped on 76. We got back into NJ at about quarter after 1.
States I was in on Wednesday:
Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, PA, and NJ.
For the three days I was in 7 different States, not bad.
If I forgot anything I'll add to this. I have much more to say on many different subjects, but it's 20 of 4 and it's bedtime. I'm hoping this post can get me back into updating this journal. So Goodnight.