Day 4

Day's Traveling
    Start: 4:15PM (Charlottesville, VA)

    End:  8:23PM (Addams Morgan, Washington DC) 

Total Travel Hours

     Joanna: 11 hours 29mins

             4 hours 8mins 7 (train) hours  21mins (car)

     Alex: 10 hours 24mins

              4 hours 8mins (train) 6 hours 16mins (car)

States Driven through:

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland* and Virginia (5/10)

*only 14 miles were traveled in this state 

Today was our last day in C’ville! Surprisingly, Tori had class from 8AM to 12PM today- this really messed up our plans for the day and was completely out of the blue(plus for some reason Tori doesn’t want to drop out of med school to Join Jo and I on the rest of our trip, crazy I know!).  Luckily, there is enough to do in Charlottesville and the surrounding area to fill a solid few weeks of back to back activities. 

Although she wasn’t going to be able to hang out with us Tori did help us plan our day. Tori told us about a hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains that would take us to the top of Humpback Gap Overlook (elevation 2360ft).  Jo and I borrowed Tori’s car and headed northwest to the Blue Ridge Mountain range and pitch-off for our hike just after 10.  Compared to the ADKs and other mountains the hike was rather short, but just as steep. After a mile of hiking we made it to the top! Beyond the rocks was the Shenandoah Valley and a mountain full of bare trees. Following the trend of our trip thus far the view was beautiful. 

Outlook from the top of Humpback Rocks

 Haggred made the trip up too! (We finally remembered to bring him out, we’ll stop slacking- swear it!)

Haggred being lazy as usual and piggy backing a ride

At the top! enjoying the view, what a lucky gnome

We took a shortcut back down the mountain to the parking lot and headed home. The whole hike took about an hour and half and with the drive the trip was just over 2 hours. We added some time to our trip when we stopped at a outlook on the highway to get a few snapshots of the valley bellow. 

View form the RT 64 outlook

 We got home just in time to shower and pack up before Tori made it home from her meeting. Tori took us over to the Mello Mushroom for lunch while telling us about how she will be representing the Phoenix’s in her college bowl competitions throughout the rest of her time at UVa (their colors are black and yellow and I will be using any free time on the rest of my trip to make a fight song, any suggestions are welcomed!).  The Mellow Mushroom is another great eatery in C’ville that services great pizza and beer. Jo and I ordered an IPA and hefeweizen from the local Starr Hill Brewery as reward for our tough hike (much better than our previous Jama Lager’s from Starr Hill). 

You would never guess the theme/ decor at the Mellow Mushroom

After pizza and beer it was time to head over to the Amtrak station. Leaving Tori behind is not our decision, but I guess taking two weeks off at the beginning of the semester is frowned upon (lame). We said our goodbyes and headed into the station to pick up our tickets.

Entering the station a sign that read “train 50 3:55PM” greeted us, and as fate would have it we were on train 50. Luckily we didn’t have too many time constraints (besides meeting up with Aileen) and the hour delay didn’t stress us out and only made us a little sad.

If you have good vision / a magnifying glass you can see the 3:55 depart time in the background

I slept for a bit and Jo finally had time to read part of Dune.  It was 4:15PM when our 2:47PM Amtrak train to Washington, DC finally left Charlottesville.

On the train Jo and I worked on planning the rest of our trip from Houston onwards while Haggred ensured our luggage stayed put. I think we have most of the details nailed out… but they will most likely change, but that’s half the fun!

Keeping an eye on the luggage

We arrived in Union Station in Washington, DC around 7:15PM- scratch that around 8:00PM. Hopped on the red line and got off at Woodly Park/Adams Morgan where the beautiful Aileen Comey was waiting for us! After scaring some of the other passengers with her exasperated sigh, Aileen helped Jo and I get on the bus and head to her apartment. 

(side note- we almost lost Haggred at this point! he had lost some weight and no longer fit into the side of my bag. On the way up the three story escalator- it's mammoth size- he slipped out and almost feel the entire way down. thankfully another patron scooped him up- although confused at what she was holding- and brought him back up to us) 

Starved, Jo, Aileen and I headed to 18th street to grab some grub.Our first attempt failed as we used the wrong door to get into Bourbon... hey if you saw the two entrances you would probably have chosen the same door... maybe. Once we did get into Bourbon there were no seats, someone didn't want us to eat there, their loss. 

We headed next door to the Downtown Tavern where it was Ladies night!! But we weren't really in the mood for half priced Captain Morgan drinks, food was really top priority. For some reason they were out of all types of chicken except buffalo and ceasar flavored chicken (still don't understand this phenomena) so we had to change our orders around a bit. All obstacles aside we were finally munching on fried pickle chips (amazing, but I ate way too many) and our dinners just after 9. 


We headed back to the apartment, exhausted. Aileen showed us the trick to opening the front door (I can't do it but Jo can open it) and then we got ready for day 5!