nashvegas

we stopped off in elizabethtown on our way to Nashville, it was pretty cool.

then we passed the infamous dinosaur world (shout out to vanessa brooks)


ok, so i was supposed to have to work tommorrow, but the dates got all messed up and i am not working until wed. so we decided to stay the rest of the day in nashvegas! and now we are waiting around for the dudes to get off of work, then who knows what we will be up to.

then hopefully tommorrow we will make it back to the metroplex

Grove City and Louisville

So we didn't head over to NYC, but we did get to stop in Grove City to hang out with the Lewis family. And Alisha got in touch with her toddler side.

Then we stopped at the infamous Sheetz gas station.





After that we headed over to the Ville. To hang out with my friend Katie K. and we went and finally got to see Superman the IMAX experience 3D. It was awesome! and we got these free superman cameras.


Then we got up at 7 am to meet with Oren and Cindy Martin at Panera bread.

Next we are off to Nashville and then back to Jackson Metroplex. Our trip is coming to an end.

reading info

ok so i posted in backwards order so that you can read down and get the story in order. cool...i hope you enjoy

trivia and fun facts

here it is the huge trivia contest. email your answers to me, so that no one can steal your answers (vblakey@gmail.com)

1. In what state is the city Eutaw located?
2. Where is the CocaCola headquarters located?
3. Which state was the "first at flight"?
4. Where is the olympian Michael Phelps from?
5. In what state can you not take left hand turns, only right hand turns?

Ok, so email me your responses, there are some awesome prizes in store.

Aggie count - 8
Xclerator hand dryers -2

Day 3

Dear faithful readers,

We apologize first and foremost that we have not updated in the past four days due to the fact that we have not been able to connect to the internet. A lot has happened and we have many stories to tell.

back to the action...

Alisha met with her new roommate, Brandi, and found her new crib.



We also found out that people in North Carolina only name their daughters Brand(i,y) , because all of the girls we met were named that, Alisha’s new roommate, our waitress, and one of the graduate people Alisha met with.

Then we headed up to our nation’s capital. Once we made it through all the traffic, we got on the metro to head downtown. When we got off of the metro, it started to rain and we weren’t exactly sure as to where we were but then we found this….



As we were taking this picture, one of the secret service officers on patrol walked up to us and asked us we went to A&M because he was the class of ’02. We were glad he wasn’t going to arrest us.

Then we headed over to the Old Ebbett Grill, where FDR used to frequent, to grab something to eat, but the wait was an hour and a half.

So we started walking some more and finally stopped about 35 minutes later at this hole in the wall grill that had linoleum screwed into the wall. The food was ok. Then we headed back to the metro to go to Baltimore to stay the night.

this picture is a shout out to my new friend Karol, who is stuck in the cornfields of Illinois instead of being home in College Park. (Have fun this week with the new set of Leadershapers)

Once we got to B-town and figured out how to get to my friend Thao’s house. We laid down to go to sleep with all of the traffic noises coming through the window.

Day 4

We got up around 10 and Thao made some crepes and then we headed out to what she refers to as the “tacky” part of town. Where they have flamingos on the buildings and other cool shops, like comic book stores and antique/junk stores (Tracy Smith’s heaven).



Then we decided we wanted to become Mexican wrestlers aka libras.



After that we headed to MICA, the Maryland Institute College of Art (where Thao goes to school) and walked around the neighborhood.




Back to DC, to check out the Air and Space Museum, American History Museum, and the Smithsonian Castle.


a shout to all my fellow Mac users!



This is Lance Armstrong's bike, can you believe it's already in the Smithsonian?

Then we met up with Chris Felliesen and ate some good Thai food. We parted ways with Chris and started driving to Philadelphia, but got stuck in traffic at midnight and decided to stay the night on the border of Maryland and Delaware.

Day 5

We arrived in the city of brotherly love around 11:30. After going through ridiculous amounts of security (like taking off our watches and belts, but not shoes) we saw the liberty bell.





Then headed to the Visitor’s Center to get tickets to see the birthplace of our nation, Independence Hall. The park ranger that gave us our tickets asked us why there were so many Aggies in town (because I was wearing my tv crew shirt)? And we were so astonished, because we hadn’t seen any in Philly yet. He said he had seen “20” in the line. So there you go. We actually did see 2 Aggies, one was a former student and the other is about to be a freshman.



Tomorrow we are headed to NYC. So check back on Sunday hopefully for an update and more of our antics.

life is a highway...(Day 1...2)

Day 1 (the abridged version)
10 am - we head to the mechanic to pick up my car from getting the alignment fixed again, only to find out that they haven't worked on anything because they only thought that I needed new tires and then quit looking at it. So they are going to look and try and fix it after a bunch of discussion between me and the manager.

10:30 am - We head to the airport to get my luggage, successfully.

1 pm - I call the mechanic, they are looking at the alignment, they should be done "soon".

3 pm - We head back to the mechanic, only to find out that the alignment is perfect, "so it has to be the tire", after more discussion they finally agree to go and drive the car

5:30 pm - After driving the car and looking at more things, they tell me that it's not the alignment or the tires, so it's something they can't fix. I get a refund for the original alignment.

6:20 pm - We finally are on the road to Greenville, NC in my mom's explorer.

6:30 pm - 9:59 am sunset, music, cokes, pit stops, sunrise, and some good converstation

Day 2 10 am - We arrive in Greenville!!!!

some funny stories:

After driving through the night, it's around 7:30 in the morning, which means what - that the rest of the world is now awake as well, including Starbucks, so we decide that we want to grab some java. We are looking at every exit to see if there is a Starbucks, because in Texas there are billboards and signs pointing to them everywhere, but we look and can't find one. But we think that maybe there would be one further "in" town. So we get off at the next city and start driving around looking for one. We get to a traffic light and a man in a pickup truck pulls up next to us, we roll our window down and get him to roll his down and ask him where the nearest Starbucks is, he tells us there isn't one. Later we find out that it doesn't seem that there are any Starbucks on I95 between Lumberton, SC and Greenville, NC. We found one as we were pulling into Greenville.

A shout out to some Allerton peeps, I haven't been able to use a hand dryer without thinking about you, but this morning at random gas station in Fayetteville, NC I found one of these -


Aggies spotted so far - 1

no real pictures yet...

____________ tour 06

So I am offering a contest. Alisha and I are headed on worldwind east coast tour headed to Greenville, NC then to Washington DC/Baltimore, then to Philadelphia, PA then down to Louisville, KY then to Nashville, TN and back to Jackson, MS. So I want to name this trip (like rock bands have tour names, like the reunion tour or the Magical Mystery Tour), but I am having a writers' block and can't come up with anything cool, so if you can come up with something cool to call the "tour" post a comment and whoever we deem to have submitted an worthy name will be named the winner and will receive some sort of prize, to be determined.

Other than that you will be able to follow our journey on the blog, so check back daily to watch our antics.

And I finally made it back to Jackson, it only took me 11 hour without my luggage, which should get here sometime this morning. Delta is going to get some form of letter to me.

summer so far....

So I finally have a computer that is connected to high speed internet. Whoop! for that. I have spent two weeks teaching a video workshop for Jackson Public Schools. It wasn't that bad, there were definate issues I had with some of the other staff but it was a good learning experience in any sense. After that I got on a plane and headed up to Illinois to spend some time with my dad and to attend a leadership institute called LeaderShape. It has been hard for me to process my time there and to be able to put the experience into words. I was surrounded by 57 individuals who for the most part want to make a difference in the world and found out that it is possible for us to change the world. I was a part of a community that respected and encouraged one another and pushed each other towards change. I did a lot of inner reflection and had some meaningful converstations. I had a lot of time to think about the past three years and the experience I have had in the Corps. Anyways now it's time for some pictures...


we lived in a huge mansion with secret passageways and everything.


awesome peeps from the week.


my family cluster making fun of different things during the week.


we were extremely lucky to have such an amazing staff.