The Great Hunter and I just returned from attending our son’s college graduation from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. I know sometimes I refer to this son as “our” and sometimes I refer to him as “my”. Biologically, he is mine, but the Great Hunter has helped raise him since he was four years old, after his alcoholic biological dad disappeared for much of his younger life. By the time the bio dad resurfaced, it was too late for bio dad to recover a relationship with my/our youngest son. My older son, who was three years older, was more forgiving and was glad to have bio dad back in his life.

So, our youngest graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Aeronautics. This was a kid who barely made it through high school and didn’t have any desire to attend college. It wasn’t until he was in his mid-twenties that he decided to start working on a degree.

We set out Wednesday morning before sunrise. We flew from St. Louis to LaGuardia in New York and then to Charlottesville, Virginia. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant across the street from our hotel and, oh my, what a great frozen strawberry margarita I had.

We had a little over an hour drive from our hotel to where our son and daughter-in-law were camping with their three dogs, so each day we made the trip back and forth. Lucky for us, it was a pretty drive.

Liberty University graduated over 30,000 students in all its areas so places to stay were at a premium.

We visited the American Civil War Museum and Appomattox National Historic Park the next day.

And then on to the Appomattox Court House National Historic Park. Appomattox was the site of the surrender of Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the war between the states (or, as the Great Hunter, a product of Tennessee describes it, the war of Northern Aggression).

A couple of days before we were to leave, I decided we would stay only four days instead of the original six to save quite a bit of money. And I say “I” decided because the Great Hunter is the traveler who just packs his bags and waits at the door to be told what to do. I found a cheaper flight, but the only catch was that it didn’t leave until 5:30 p.m. and we had to turn in our rental car at noon. Luckily, the airport in Charlottesville is small and we were comfortable enough that the five hours went by fairly quickly.

Our flight to St. Louis left Atlanta at 10:30 PM and arrived in St. Louis at 11:45. We were home in our beds within the hour.