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Pennsylvania Day 2/3

Isaac Church — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 02:24:28 +0000

Before I get started: sorry that this blog is coming about a week late; I’ve been very busy since I got back, and haven’t had time to work on it until today.

The Morning

Saturday morning, we awoke around 7:00 and enjoyed the remainder of our donuts from Krumpee’s (2 Bavarian cream, a coconut, and a glazed chocolate cake) for breakfast. We stopped at a gas station close to our hotel for fuel, and then started making our way up to State College, Pennsylvania.

There is no good way to get to State College. We were feeling adventurous, so we opted to take the most direct route, which was certainly not the easiest. We were mainly on US-522, US-22, and PA-26, but our path wound its way through the Pennsylvania mountains with numerous turns and side roads. To our great annoyance, we got caught behind an enormous tractor for almost 30 minutes, and finally ended our suffering when the driver decided to turn off into one of the thousands of corn fields we’d been driving through. It was a very scenic drive, but we thought it was never going to end!

The Pennsylvania State University

It seemed as if State College just materialized out of nowhere. It is very isolated, but the campus itself is quite expansive. After getting stuck on some side roads, we finally made it to the yellow lot (which was just one of the intramural fields), and parked. Those people know how to tailgate! I’ve never seen so many people crammed into one space. Everyone was very friendly, and it was definitely the most welcoming crowd of all the Power 5 schools we’ve faced.

After we parked, we walked around campus for well over an hour, seeing the soccer fields, swimming complex, tennis courts, intramural facilities, practice facilities, dorms, and several academic buildings. The most interesting structure we saw was the Millenium Campus building, which housed life sciences, design, and several other programs. It is a very bizarre shape, and had an open space with a garden in the center of it.

The Pennsylvania State University

The Tailgate

Finally, we met up with Cody and Morgan McKinney (my former roommate/fellow accounting graduate and his wife), and Kenneth Davis and his friend Blake, who we know from other Appalachian sporting events. We’d planned to tailgate with some friends of Kenneth, so we waited around until we finally found where they were parking. Somehow, they’d managed to secure a spot in the green lot right next to the visitor’s gate. We enjoyed a wonderful tailgate, and Cody, Morgan, and I walked around the stadium some more.

The Game

About an hour and a half before kickoff, we entered Beaver stadium, and climbed up to our seats. It was a fantastic game! I’m sure you’ve seen multiple highlights from it by now. It was wonderful to hear the fans silenced as we far surpassed all reasonable expectations for a small Group of Five school.

I’m still disappointed that we lost in overtime, but it was one of the best football games I’ve ever seen, and I have great confidence that we are well-situated for the current and the next several years. All I really care about is that we destroy UNC-Charlotte next weekend in Charlotte at Jerry Richardson Stadium.

The Post-Game Meal

After the game, we finally found the truck (there were so many people and cars we weren’t sure we would), and headed out of town to I-99. Along the way, we dropped off Kenneth and Blake at their hotel. We decided to take the Interstate back, rather than attempting to navigate the Pennsylvania backwoods in the dark. A few exits down, we stopped at an Outback to take care of our hunger and exhaustion (we felt like we’d been down on the field playing alongside the team).

We took I-99 > I-70 > I-81 back to our hotel, about a 2h 40m drive. Finally we arrived back at the hotel, and immediately showered and fell asleep, only pausing to watch our highlights on SportsCenter before we headed to bed.

Outback

The Sunday Travel

The next morning, we woke up around 7:30, and left our hotel by 8:00 for our journey home. We made it through most of the Shenandoah Valley in good time, only stopping once at a rest area. Around 11:30, we stopped at a barbecue restaurant in Christiansburg, VA (halfway between Roanoke and Blacksburg) called Due South BBQ. Dad got a brisket sandwich, mac & cheese, baked beans, and banana pudding; I got a pulled pork sandwich, mac & cheese, and fried okra. The sandwiches were excellent, and we enjoyed some live music from a local while we ate.

Around 13:45, we arrived back where I had dropped my car in Wilkesboro. I journeyed back up the mountain for my weekly Sunday afternoon soccer match at the Valle Crucis Community Park, and Dad headed back to Granite Falls.

Overall, it was a great trip, even though we lost, and we are looking forward to many other Power 5 road trips in the future. We are also traveling to Charlotte for our game next weekend, but I likely won’t break out the blog for that, since it’s just a day trip.

Thanks for reading! I hope to have my email links fixed soon.

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Pennsylvania 2018 – Introduction

Isaac Church — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 15:55:29 +0000

Greetings everyone!

Our family trip happened in March instead of August this year, so I’ve all but neglected the blog for the summer. I’ve sort of been looking for even the slightest excuse to publish something, since there are a lot of updates to give! It’s been a summer of exciting changes, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share a bit about the happenings.

Major Events - Graduation

I guess I should go in order…

First of all, I graduated! If that sounds like déjà vu all over again, it is. This was my third [and likely final] time graduating from ASU. This was my official graduation with two master’s degrees: a Master of Science in Accountancy, and a Master of Business Administration in Applied Business Analytics. I graduated as the top MBA student, and was invited to be the student speaker at graduation! This was a huge blessing, and I’m very grateful for that opportunity.

Graduation 2018

You can watch my commencement address in the video below:

Major Events - Employment

After an extensive job search, I accepted a position with Lowe’s Companies, Inc. in Wilkesboro, NC. I will continue to live in Boone, and commute off the mountain. I’m on the projects team in the accounting department, so I’ll be working on a wide variety of material, including a good bit of data analysis, so I’ll be making good use of all my degrees.

Major Events - Engagement

Last, and certainly not least, as most of you already know, I got engaged this summer!

A quick fun fact rundown:

Faith and I have known each other for a little over 6 years, but only dated for a very short time! We both knew very quickly we wanted to marry each other.
She is from Valle Crucis, and is a senior violin performance major at ASU (think professional weddings/symphony/teaching lessons).
We are getting married in Boone on December 15th.
You can find more info on our wedding website, isaacandfaith.com.

About 30 minutes after the proposal - Wiseman's View, NC

We are planning on taking a short honeymoon in December, and later (maybe in the summer) will hopefully travel somewhere awesome together! So, stay tuned for a blog series featuring the adventures of Isaac and Faith…

Major Events - Power Tools/Soccer/Website

In other less exciting news, the Church Family’s lives have consisted of wedding planning, yard care (our weedeater died, and Dad and I are very excited about the opportunity to use new power tools), the occasional picnic, and the occasional Saturday road trip. In the fall, I’m also going to be playing on a High Country Soccer adult league team in the Appalachian Mountain Brewery Premier League.

Also, you might–or, more likely, might not–have noticed that my website is slightly revamped and significantly faster. I finally gave up on my pocket computer server in my living room, and am now hosting the site via AWS Lightsail. In simpler terms, this means it will be faster, and less likely to go offline.

I basically recreated the site by hand because my old server was too decrepit to do any kind of data transfer, so there might be a few bugs or inconsistencies here and there. I was also unable to transfer any comments anyone may have left on posts. However, the email newsletter should still work, and I hope this site will last for many years to come!

Major Event - Football Season

I mentioned I needed a reason to fire up the blog again (other than just to give a life update), and what better excuse than Appalachian State football? So, finally, the reason that I’m posting on my travel blog: it’s road trip* time for the Church Family^!

*Note: by ‘road trip’, I mean a one and two-halves day trip.

^Note 2: by ‘Church Family’, I mean Dad and me, but that’s no surprise to those of you who know Mom’s football game attendance record.

On Labor Day weekend, ASU opens their 2018 football season at Penn State, and Dad and I are going to make the trip to Beaver Stadium in State College, PA to see the game! We plan on leaving NC Friday afternoon and driving to Hagerstown, MD (about 5h 20m through the never-ending Shenandoah Valley), and then driving the remaining 2h 30m to Penn State University the next morning; kickoff is at 3:30pm. After the game, we’ll return to Hagerstown, and will journey home Sunday. On our way home, we might stop in Shenahdoah National Park, or somewhere else along the way.

That’s all the life updates for now! Thanks for following our travels (even if this round will be brief). You can click the button below to subscribe to posts, if you haven’t already.

Beaver Stadium

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