Day 2-Cashiers to Blacksburg VA

5:37 am. Nora's upstairs bedroom where we are snuggled up under a warm comforter.

Jackie rouses herself and decides to see what time it is. There is no sense getting up too early...it is her vacation too! She reaches for her fancy schmancy iPhone and pushes the button to light up the screen. She slides the little lock icon thingy to the right to activate the desktop which has the current time nicely displayed at the top. Indeed, it is too early to get up, it being only 5:37am. She clicks button to kill the display, reaches back to the side table and promptly deposits her fancy schmancy iPhone into a full glass of water. iBaptism. The next half hour is spent shaking the phone, blowing into the phone, cursing at the phone, using the blow dryer on the phone and ultimately, giving up on the phone realizing that if it is dead, it is dead. We will not go to unnatural lengths to extend its life. If it is to live, it will live. We just hope and pray, it has a respectable quality of life.
WOW truckstops in NE Tennessee are not fertile recruiting grounds for the Ivy Leagues. I don’t even think the underground organ harvesting syndicate would hunt here. We did however see an advertisement for clinical research study sponsored by the Royal Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (seems to be housed with Joe Bubba’s Body Shop and HairCare). Whew!! You shoulda seen the “before” photos. Do the Europeans have trailer trash too? Well we are fixin’ ta find out.

TRAVEL NOTES: Great bike ride potential along rtes 246 out of GA and 107 between Cashiers and Sylva. Lot’s of hairpin turns and spectacular views.

Dinner with DC and DC's son Michael and his girlfriend Randi in Blacksburg. Michael is doing his graduate program at VA Tech. We really came to Blacksburg to see Randi and Michael is part of the package. You take the bad with the good.
We decided to stay at the Hampton Inn because they have nice beds. This housing selection was partiularly fortuitous because WE FOUND MANNY! Who is Manny, you ask? And I would answer: Manny is a manaquin given to our friend Doug by our other friend (yes...we do have more than one friend!) Terry. Terry had dressed the manaquin in all sorts of high styles and fashion, reflecting Doug's particular sartorial preferences. We named him Manny and posted him at the top of our driveway to help guests navigate our perilously long driveway during a New Year's Eve party held at Villa Vienneau. Well, Manny was abducted that fateful night. Not only was he stolen but he was also, somewhat, dismembered. We found an arm on the driveway, but alas, nothing else.
That was almost five years ago. WELL, we found him. Not only did we find him, but we also discovered the story of his disappearance. AND, we also found out that our friend Doug knew of Manny's wherabouts but conspired to conceal this information from us, his pals. Manny, having been given to Doug as a companion and confidant, learned that his new benefactor is a graduate of the esteemed, dare I say, illustrious center for higher education, Virginia Tech. Manny was so taken with Doug that he used the cover of an alleged abduction to disappear from our midst. He hitchiked to Blacksburg VA, with no money of his own and sometimes having to, dare I say, debase himself in exchange for transportation and lodging.
Anyway, Manny made it to Blacksburg and enrolled as a matriculating mannequin...in the Fashion Engineering program. Well, Manny's education from the institution whose mascot is a Hokie (no one actually knows what a Hokie is...Not even Doug) positioned Manny for employment in the most lucrative of all careers. He is currently the assistant overnight front desk manager at the Hampton Inn in Blacksburg.
We spied Manny in a phone booth outside the Hampton Inn, confirming the date and time of his second job: Exotic Dancer for bachelorette parties in the completely out of control Blacksburg. Apparently, the party attendees have a particular preference for Superman. Anyway, Doug usually stays at this very same Hampton Inn when he visits Blacksburg and no doubt has filled out his registration under the watchful eye of our Manny. I suppose Doug is a bit embarrassed that his pal and educational protege Manny is not better employed, given his VA Tech education. This is most likely why he has kept Manny's resurfacing a secret for all these many months.

BUT, we were very happy to have dinner with Michael, who is a graduate student Hokie. Hey Mike: There is a Motel 6 down the road. We'll leave the light on for ya!