The following is a piece of my catalog of travels from the great state of Virginia to the great state of California, up the coast to Washington (also great), and then back east, back home. Nothing in this account has been embellished and/or fabricated. It all really and truly happened. For real. Seriously. I would not lie to you.

Begin
I'm already behind. The problem is that there were six whole states I had to go through just to get to D.C. But that was accomplished by train yesterday. That doesn’t really count as part of the road trip. So I suppose I can forgive myself and move on.

We're definitely on the road now though. We totally blew off D.C. We awoke this morning after a rip-roaring good night. Weekly Reader won a bunch of awards at The Association Of Educational Publishers Award Ceremony. That made us happy.  :)

But that was then, this is, um, now.

The reason (well, one of them anyway) that we didn't see the D.C. sights is because I saw them last year. And Dan's seen them before, too. Dan is my road trip buddy. He's in the Air Force and I've known him all my life. He keeps us safe. He's good people. I think he's sick of me already, though. Ha! Not really. Maybe.

Led Zeppelin is blasting. The windows are rolled down. And we're in Virginia. Yayyy Virginia! I hear Route 66 is the most famous road in America. We're on it now. I'll tell you something about Route 66. So far ... I'm not very impressed. Show me something, 66! Bring it!

Something's Fishy
Apparently, Virginia is "Kilgore Country". We just passed a barn that announced that fact on a very large banner. I wonder if they mean Kilgore Trout, Kurt Vonnegut's famous character/alter-ego. Probably not. It's probably the local High School's basketball team. Go Kilgore!

"Where should we go?"

"Oh, I dunno. Go to the hoop. Get in the paint!!"

"How about you just drive across the country?"

"That works, too."

Hey, Where'd Bry Go?
There are caverns all over Virginia. We keep passing signs for Shenandoah Caverns and Luray Caverns and even something called "Endless Caverns". Every time we see a sign for a cavern we discuss the possibility of going. By the time we decide that yes, we should go and see the caverns, it's too late and they're gone. It's just as well. I'm sure I would have got lost in the Endless Caverns, fallen down some awful pit and have to live with Gollum and the Ghoulies. Yeah. Keep driving.

Today is all about driving. We have to put many miles behind us now so we have more time to hang out in national parks and Badlands, more time to explore the California coast and mountain ranges. To wit, we must hurry. We're on limited time here.

Verona, Virginia
I just saw two households. They both seemed alike in dignity.

Next stop... West Virginia.