Finally, a Saturday without anything to do - except for a few errands. The sun is shining, you have a near-full tank of gas and the roads of Charlottesville are beckoning. You jump in your car, pop in your favorite driving mix, lower the sunroof and set off in search of life outside the University. It's time to get away from it all. It's time to choose your own adventure.
A: The fire station
The journey begins along Route 250 East. Traffic is light and you breeze past locals mowing their lawns and washing their cars on this perfect spring morning. Alone in your car, you bop your head to the beat of Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" blaring from the speakers. Out of the corner of your left eye you spot five men shooting hoops. The day's first activity is calling.
But, as you drive closer, you notice that their court actually is the parking lot of the City of Charlottesville Fire Station No. 1.
You park, get out of the car and offer a handshake.
Six-foot-six inch center Trip Cowles is the first to return your greeting. Wearing a blue Fire Department T-shirt and the requisite black boots, "Lurch," as he is known to his colleagues, welcomes you to the Station, one of three in Charlottesville. Do you go inside?
To get a tour of the station, proceed to paragraph B.
To hear Cowles' scariest rescue, proceed to paragraph C.
Anxious to see inside, you request a tour. Cowles leads you inside the apparatus room, where two red fire engines sit, each costing up to $400,000. Hidden behind the trucks, lining the garage, hang rows of equipment - suits and masks each which add 50 to 80 pounds to their wearer. Eight personalized sets sit, with shoes already in the pants, ready to assist the station's firefighters.
Cowles then leads you up a narrow single stairwell to the station's living quarters - an area the firemen retire to during their 24-hour shifts.
"It is our home away from home, and we all try to cook and clean and make our lifestyle as good as it can be here, where we're away from our families," firefighter Jimmy Mehring says. "We bond together pretty good and look out for each other as best we can."
During the 56-hour work week, Cowles and the rest of the C Shift divide their time between answering calls, both routine and extreme, and awaiting them. Contrary to common thought, most calls into the station do not pertain to fire, but, in fact, are medical calls. Continue to paragraph C to hear Cowles' rescue story.
"The one incident that sticks in my mind the most was when I was running with a volunteer company and I was called for child birth," Cowles says. "My nerves were on edge. [The infant] was five months premature and unfortunately it didn't survive."
Still, he knows his work is appreciated.
Returning to the car, you pass a banner emblazoned with the words "Honor, Courage, Valor and Pride." Your visit makes those words ring truer than ever and you leave the station with a better understanding of the level of commitment required from these brave men.
After an hour at the fire station, your list of errands needs attention. What do you do next?
To develop your film, proceed to paragraph D.
To buy new shoes, jump to paragraph E.
You pull up to Cary's Camera and park next to the oversized roll of film that graces the entryway. You bring your Spring Break film to the counter for developing and enter into conversation with salesman, Joe Caputi. Concerned about the impact your 24 exposures will have on those manning the photo machine, you ask about the most outrageous pictures Caputi and his fellow developers have seen.
"I think the funniest pictures we ever developed were a mud wrestling tournament between two young women who were wearing nothing but very flimsy underwear in the basement of a frat house," Caputi says, laughing.
Secure in the knowledge that your film will not cause nearly as much scandal, you leave the shop.
Proceed to paragraph F for lunch.
Needing to add an athletic spring to your step, you head over to Downtown Athletics in search of a new pair of shoes. As you leave, a young mother and her three boys bar your way. Obviously frazzled, the woman unsuccessfully is trying to maneuver her family in their Mazda MPV. Hoping to take her mind off her full hands, you decide to ask her where she'd rather be.
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The answer comes quickly and emphatically: "Sitting on a beach by myself, reading a book in France," says mother and Crozet resident Melissa Ronayne as her amused husband smiles at her fantasy. Valuing your youth and freedom all the more, you drive off to appease your hunger pains.
Proceed to paragraph F for lunch.
Noon has come and gone. The morning now over, your need for nourishment brings you to Maverick, a steakhouse located off of Route 29 in Seminole Square Mall. Alone, you don't mind -- a table for one will do you just fine. This time, however, the prices land out of your range.
Instead of leaving, you decide to go in the kitchen to ask if you can wash dishes as a payment for the expensive meal. You land alongside Maverick's head chef, Hugo Mejia of Charlottesville. Inside the busy kitchen, drink orders are shouted in the background while servers scurry back in forth in search of their tables' meals. Yet, Mejia, unfazed by the obvious chaos, keeps to his course -- chopping, dicing and flipping.
Cooking "was born in me when I was little," Mejia said. "It was a hobby, and my mom always cooked and taught me how to cook. Before she dies, I'm probably going to make a book about the best of everything she knew to make."
Leaving the restaurant, a quick bite now is all there is time for. You scurry down Ivy Road to Zazus, a quick take-out restaurant that serves wraps. What item on your errand list do you tackle next?
To get a haircut, proceed to paragraph G.
To browse a car showroom, go to paragraph H.
G: Regis at Fashion Square Mall
On a whim, you decide to tame the wild hairs on your head. To Fashion Square Mall you go, to Regis for a haircut.
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But when you approach the counter, the stylist confirms your notion that they are all booked. Stylist Jessy Forbes walks up to the counter having just completed a cut, telling you how nice her previous customer was.
Now it's no secret that hair salons are hotbeds for gossip and it seems that all are willing to tell while buttoned in the chair. Forbes confirms that thought.
"One lady came in two days ago with a story about how her husband had left her for her best friend," Forbes said. "She was 60-something years old and had been married for 33 years. But she said she was happier than ever."
You decide you should enjoy your youth and check out that new car anyway.
Proceed to paragraph H to look for a car.
Although you love your current ride, you're always curious about the latest models. Letting your curiosity get the better of your errand-list, you pull into John Linkous Volkswagen and Mazda dealership. As you walk up to the showroom's glass doors you are met by car salesman Jay Anderson. Your obvious unwillingness to get rid of your first car leads Anderson to reminisce about his own first car.
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"My first car was a 1964 MGB that I got when I went away to college," Anderson said. "I got to pick it out, and it was red, and it was fun."
Over the course of a mere three years, Anderson's MGB saw over 100,000 miles and many college firsts: "First car, first love, first sex in a car."
Anderson's first car had such a strong place in his heart that he still has the car's seats and said he imagines his ideal car as "an MGB with a more powerful engine, red, with black leather."
Unfortunately unable to make a Volkswagen purchase, you get back in your car and drive on.
Unexpected and unavoidable turn of events in paragraph I.
I: Encounter with a police officer
Continuing your drive through town, you hear sirens behind you.
Luckily, the cop's not after you.
Thinking over possible excuses that you could have used, you decide to tap the one true source: a Charlottesville City police officer.
You spot two officers in the parking lot adjacent to the Police Station and move in for questioning. Officer Chris Toliver described a memorable speeding excuse he received about a year ago.
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"He was a physician at U.Va. and he was on his way home," Toliver said. "And you could say, he was close to going to the bathroom on himself, and I don't mean urinating, I mean the other one," Toliver clarified.
Pitying his inflicted offender, Toliver let the speeder go. Physical discomfort seems to be an easy route to officer leniency, you think as Toliver describes other excuses he has heard from his fellow officers.
"One thing I heard was to keep a can of mushroom soup and keep it in the car," Toliver said. "When you get pulled over, you take a little bit of the mushroom soup and kinda chew it up a little and just get it in your mouth. As the cop approaches the car, open the door and just..." Toliver abandoned words, instead using regurgitation noises to communicate the point.
"That'll usually back us away and I don't think we have too much of a right to ticket for something like that," he said.
With this piece of advice stored for future use, you thank the officer and return to the road.
Proceed the paragraph J and proceed home.
With the sun setting, your gas tank now half-empty, and your driving mix growing old, you decide to head back to the University. While you have at no point driven more than five miles from Central Grounds and 33 miles in total, you have seen a significant amount of what is Charlottesville. Words from those old and young who you have met on your journey today, stick in your mind and you settle back into academia with a new perspective.
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