Made it out to Bristol, VA after severely underestimating rush hour traffic out of DC. I still can’t believe I rolled into this Southern Virginia town at 11:27 p.m.  A few notes along the way…

• Why am I in Bristol? I gave up on pricelining Abingdon hotels and moved a few miles further down the road where I could pick up a room for $60, this is likely because…
• Virginia Tech has a football game tomorrow. Traffic was packed (but flowing) all the way to Blacksburg, home of the Hokies. I saw more than a few tailgate ready vehicles making there way in. The roads cleared up quite a bit after the Blacksburg exit. Oh, and speaking of football stadiums…
• James Madison University has a very nice one, for a lower-tier (FCS) school. It easily rivals that of the Montana Grizzlies. I drove past it as daylight was fading in Harrisonburg, VA, which happened to be my only stop on the 6 1/2 hour journey tonight (a simple fuel-up at Sheetz and I was out of there).
• Tomorrow I think I’ll head over to the Bristol Motor Speedway (on the Tennessee side) for pictures before going back into Virginia to explore the Cumberland Gap area. Then it’s a quick foray into Kentucky before heading down to Knoxville for the game.