Date: 2009-06-06
From: Dublin, VA

To: Dublin, VA
Miles today: 0.0

On Saturday morning, I scarfed down a few bagel sandwiches, which Jeremy had made and then we were off to pick up Nirupa, one of their friends who was a Fulbright Scholar from Trinidad & Tobago studying at Virginia Tech in Civil Engineering. We drove through Blacksburg, the small town that includes Virginia Tech, the site of the mid-April 2007 massacre. The town has recovered since then, but the horrible event has certainly scarred the community for generations to come. We first popped into an outdoors outfitter, where I picked up some much-needed bear rope (mine was still hanging in a tree somewhere in Tennessee). Afterwards, we walked down to a sushi restaurant, where we all enjoyed some refined raw fish that was as fresh as can be. Ahhh, sushi is my absolute favorite. Because it was quite expensive, I only had a three orders of sushi. Back at Duke, my friends and I would normally head to Mt. Fuji on Thursday evenings for 1/2 price sushi night. While there, I would literally ask for 8-9 orders of various types of sushi, usually 8 pieces per roll. This would constitute having 72 pieces of sushi in a single sitting. Disgusting, but true. Ahhh, I miss those days. While at the restaurant, Nirupa and I chatted about the Fulbright Scholarship and how incredible it was that she was representing her entire country and that it was a full scholarship, paid for by US taxpayers. My good friend, Dominic Milazi, at Duke is also a Fulbrighter and he feels tremendous pressure to put the scholarship to good use, which is why he had spent endless hours studying in the lab and doing his very best in school. It's great to see people so dedicated to the well-being of their home country and thanking the United States government for the wonderful opportunity to receive another degree at a fine institution and embrace the culture of Mother America. Nirupa and I talked about how the wee country of T&T made it to the World Cup Finals in Germany and that on the day that the national team had qualified, the president had declared it a national holiday. The patriotism of football is such a beautiful thing. After eating, we popped next door to an ice cream parlor, where Robin, Nirupa, and I ordered some delicious ice cream. Taking over the duty from Scavenger, himself, I tried nearly every type of ice cream in the store, finally deciding on blueberry muffin. Since we had taken the dogs, Jack and Marley, Jeremy went to pick up the car and, upon picking us up, we were off to the Cascades, the highest waterfall in the entire state of Virginia. It was a nice hike uphill - about 2 miles. When we reached the falls, Jeremy and Robin were, again, surprised at how much water was pouring over the waterfall's edge. It was a RAGING waterfall! And, it was freezing! Jeremy climbed his way over to the falls and jumped into the swimming area, where no one was due to the sub 50 degree temperature of the water. Robin convinced me to jump into the water as well, saying in an unwavering tone, "Tully, when the hell are you ever going to have the chance to jump into this water again!" She was right, so I reluctantly made my way to the edge of the water, asking Jeremy some questions and trying to stall in the process. Finally, I grew the balls necessary to take the leap and jump into the freezing water. It was so cold that it felt as if knives were piercing every pore in my body. Agggggghhhhhhh! SOooooooooooo cold! I swam around for about 3.7 seconds and then climbed the hell out. When I got out of the water, my body temperature immediately began to increase and the air temperature was nearly burning my skin. At the same time, it felt very refreshing and I was glad to have made the leap. We took some pictures by the falls and then pushed on back to the car. Returning home to Dublin, we had a few leftover enchiladas and then headed out to watch the movie 'Up'. It's a Pixar film about an old widowed man, who realized that he had lived his entire life without 'realizing' the dreams of him and his wife. This lifelong dream is to build a house above the site of Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world, in Venezuela. So, feeling pressured to go into a nursing home, he fills up millions of helium balloons inside his house, which lifts his house and he flies off to Venezuela, on the adventure of a lifetime. The movie is all about 'living your dream' and that it is never too late to go out and do it. The movie was simple, but the message of the movie was very profound. For those who are too timid to realize their own dream, don't be. You can do it. After the movie was over, Robin wanted to head out for a drink or two and we headed to another local joint called MacAdo's. It was karaoke night and we enjoyed listening to all of the crazy songs, one of which had the repeating chorus of: "Oh, no! You got a Camel-Toe!!!" Anyone else ever heard of this song? We threw down a few Guiness beers and some snacks and then called it a night, before we all fell asleep at the bar.