Kelly and Maddie dropped me off at the train depot in Greensboro. It was Maddie's 1st Birthday! Isn't she cute?
The train was a few minutes late but we ended up leaving around 9:45pm.
I took along my little black book and wrote notes throughout the day. Here they are, straight from the book:
9:45am--Amtrak train to NYC, sitting next to orange lady. Left G'boro at 9:45am.
9:46am--Orange lady's name is Nyga.
10:30am--In Durham. I'm listening to the Counting Crows new album. I will be sitting next to Nyga for the next 10 hours! Nothing interesting has happened yet.
12:00--I found the dining car! I bought a $4 cheese pizza and a pepsi. There is a lot of room here in the dining car so I think I'll spend some time here. There are two amtrak security guards who are straight off of Reno 911. They are sitting two tables away from me and are talking non-stop about a guy they kicked off the train for smoking--on the train! Seriously one of the guys looks like Donnie from New Kids on the Block. I guess there's not much action on these trains so when something does happen, its exciting to them.
1:24pm--We are in Virginia. 8 hours to go. A guy just sat down at my table. He's going to DC to visit his dad. He said, "Yeah my dad lives down there." I don't why it bothers me but if you're going north, don't say DOWN there.
1:06pm--Ok I was wrong, now we're in Virginia
1:24pm--!!! Reno 911 boy just asked the other guy if allow has two "L"s or one.
1:35pm--Just passed Emporia Country Club--goat ranch!
1:58pm--this old lady in a green coat just sat down at the table next to me and is playing solitaire to pass the time. She has the tiny, tiny Charlie Brown playing cards!
4:52pm--Just learned by looking at her computer screen, that Nyga goes by "Brownsuga". I've been on this train for 7 1/2 hours.
5:06pm--15 min delay, something the Reno boys were working on.
5:22pm--just left the Quantico station and whatever body of water is near here, I'll have to look that up, there are duck blinds everywhere!! I must have counted at least 20 from the train.
Time (confidential)--we are now at Central Station in Washington DC. I saw Marine One (the presidential helicopter) flying over head.
7:57pm--We are now in Delaware. It is freezing on the train and my throat hurts. They don't have any ibuprofren, but I did buy some orange juice.
7:59pm--just took a picture of myself on the train. "Brownsuga" is in the background.
8:03pm--i finally have my own seat in coach class. So there is this girl in bleached blonde hair sitting two rows behind me who has been talking for the past 2 hours on her cell phone. I now know all about this guy named Doug who is dating her roommate. Bleach girl works with Doug and her co-workers want to know if its weird when Doug stays over night. Don't worry, it's not weird, their bedrooms are on opposite sides of the house so she doesn't see him much. I wonder if Doug and Bleach girl carpool?
8:15pm--did I mention my throat hurts? it hurts mostly when I swallow so I started using my empty OJ bottle as a spittoon
9:40pm--I made it to New York!! Time to go see my folks, Jimmy and Barbara.
I found my parents and the first thing I did was get some ibuprofren from my mom! Thanks mom! Then we went to get something to eat. It was about 10:00pm when we got to this restaurant across the street from Madison Square Garden called Lindy's. We waited for a table, sat down looked at the menu, and ran. No, literally we ran! All five of us out the door as quick as possible. They had a revolving door and Jimmy almost knocked Barbara over trying to get out the door. We looked at the menu and the cheapest thing on there was a $19 hamburger!! We then went to this other place that was much more reasonable and good too. While we were eating, my mom realized she left her rain coat in the other restaurant. She said, "oh well, I needed a new one anyway!"
They beat Memphis this past weekend and are now carrying a 4-3 record into a bye week. They will not play again until Sunday, that's right Sunday, November 2nd against Central Florida down in Orlando. Last weekend at the Memphis game, Kelly, my mom, Emily, and Barbara sat in the club level seats(warm and out of the rain) and my dad, Wally, and I sat in my seats(cold and in the rain) Here are a few pictures:
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One of my best friends, David Myrick, and his wife Megan were in town to visit this weekend. I got to meet their daughter Olivia for the first time. David, Megan, and Olivia are moving to Charleston! Kelly and I are so excited that they have moved back from the left coast.
and... this just in...
It was just announced this afternoon, that East Carolina and Appalachain State will renew their rivalry that ended in 1979. App State will come to Greenville on September 5, 2009 to open the season for both teams. I have to admit I didn't want this game to happen, but then I remembered that NC State and UNC said the same thing about playing poor little East Carolina. So now I've changed my thinking and I can't wait for the game. I hope that all of you Appalachain fans will make the trek down the mountain to Greenville for some good times next year. This will be the first time that Kelly will be able to wear her ASU gear in the stadium in Greenville. And, we will not be having a baby in September next year in fear of missing this game. August and October are possibilities, however that might change depending on the rest of the '09 schedule.
She said, "yep, I saw your dogs this morning around 7:30 swimming out in the lake. They would swim for about 20 minutes, chase some ducks(that's what I'm talking about-my words-not hers), and then they would sit under the tree and take a nap. I guess they've been swimming for a few hours now. But they're not here anymore, I saw them up the street in another neighbors yard when I went to the grocery store, but come on by the house and I'll help you look for them." I left work and drove to the lady's house(which was awesome by the way--right on the lake!!) and we walked down to the lake calling for the dogs. No luck. Her neighbor came out, probably to see who was yelling in his back yard and he said, "oh you have two dogs, a black one and brown one? i saw them swimming in the lake chasing ducks and having the best of time. they would swim for 20 minutes and then lay down in pine straw to take nap. My wife and I took them to a house a few neighborhoods away and put them in the back yard." I asked him, "oh so when did you drop them off? 30 minutes ago? An hour ago?" He said, "oh no, about a month and a half ago." 
I wanted to tip the mailman for bringing them to me but that would be like tipping the girl at Subway for making your sandwich. Anyway, I couldn't sleep Thursday night because I knew my tickets would be here on Friday-kind of like not being able to sleep on Christmas eve. Maddie thought it was a little weird that I was hanging out by the mailbox all week, but I explained it to her. 
Look at her excitement when the tickets finally showed up! 
Kelly's dad and I went to the Wyndham Championship on Saturday. Quote of the day from the tournament: guy in the crowd to John Daly--"Hero, spelled D-A-L-Y" 
Kelly and I went to the outer banks a few weeks ago to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary! See her website 
I also like kicking her butt in putt-putt. Final Score: Charlie 42, Kelly 44. (Par was 42) Actually this is the best Kelly has ever played putt-putt and until she blew up on #16 with a 6, she was in the lead and I was worried she was going to beat me. She says that she was the better player that day. I have two words for her: Scoreboard! Ok maybe that's one word. 
Maddie got a caricature done at the stadium.
Maddie hardly ever sits still anymore so I had to take advantage of this moment. On a side note: I'm getting fat.
Anyway, I saw these guys fishing on the boardwalk so I went out there to talk to them and see if they had caught anything. While I was talking, one of the guys hooked onto this 30lb. striped bass!! (This picture was taken on the subway! how many times have you seen a guy with fishing rods and a 30pound rockfish on a subway!!)
Awesome...who would have thought that I should have brought my rod and reel to NY. During the day on Monday we went to Times Square. Here are a few pictures:
Monday night we went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. When we got into the theatre(?) Helga the Barmaid yelled at us to show her our tickets. We thought it was just us but she yelled at everybody. "I need to see your ticket. I work here, show me your ticket!"
The next day Wally arrived around 11:30 from Greenville. We went back across the river to New York. While my mom, Wally, Jimmy, and Barbara went to FAO Shwartz, my dad and I went up the Empire State Building. Here are some pictures from up there.
After this we went to Yankee Stadium, which was our main purpose for this trip. Here are some pictures from the game. 
After the game I told Steinbrenner he now had my permission to tear down the stadium.
We figured we would go to the bridge on Saturday. We checked into our hotel around 5:00 and decided that since it was so nice (70 degrees and sunny) we would go to the bridge that night instead of Saturday because it was going to be cold on Saturday. We went to the bridge and it is actually pretty dang neat. When we got there, the lady at the desk said, "make sure you stay for our show tonight at 9pm." We had Maddie with us, but decided we would see how she did and decided to stay there until the 9 o'clock show. We sat on these green benches and someone read the Book of Genesis while a light show against the rock bridge was going on. They didn't read the whole book of Genesis, just the story of how God created the earth. While I was sitting there with Kelly and Maddie listening, I was reminded that the God that created the universe loves each one of us. That's a crazy thought, but one that I've been trying to pass along to high school kids for the past 9 years. Next weekend, I'm taking a group of freshmen camping along the Appalachain Trail.
It's kind of a transition weekend for these guys as they have been led all year by seniors at Grimsley High School and this will be my first trip with these guys as their leader. This will be my third group of freshmen at Grimsley since moving to Greensboro in 2002. Last week I met with some of my favorite guys in the world--Todd, Chris, and Eric who were in town for Easter. I was their YL leader when they were in school and now they are each getting ready to be seniors in college(wow time flies!). Each of them is involved in Young Life, either as leaders or working at the camps during the summer. Each of them is spreading this same message of how the God that created the universe is crazy about them. 
Ok back to our trip, we left the natural bridge at 10:00pm. Maddie did great. Kelly and I stopped and grabbed dinner on the way back to our hotel. On Saturday morning we headed to downtown Roanoke. They have a small outdoor market that we checked out and then ate lunch.
We then headed to the Roanoke Star! Its the biggest star in the world built by man. Here are a few pictures. 
One thing I noticed about Virginia. There is a Zoo on just about every corner. The Natural Bridge Zoo, the Roanoke Star Zoo, the I-81 Zoo, the Dodge Store on US220 Zoo(they do have great corn-dogs), the Zoo that is Martinsville-especially on race weekend. Here's a picture of Maddie with a real bear just outside the Natural Bridge Zoo.
