Early morning March 7, 2005 found us driving an unfamiliar route. We set off from Athens to Commerce where we headed northeast on Interstate 85 exiting onto White Horse Road which took us to Travelers Rest. Through Travelers Rest to
Asheville where we crossed multiple lanes of traffic in less than a city block to reach "Future 26" that would take us on a beautiful ride up and over the Mountains of western North Carolina and into Tennessee. The morning turned rainy and the temperature dropped as we passed the exits for Forks of Ivy and
Jonesborough. When we found the exit to
Elizabethton we turned to locate the campus of East Tennessee State University next door in Johnson City. Nestled in a valley in the hills of Eastern Tennessee the campus was most picturesque. It could easily have been the setting for a movie starring Kelvin Kline as a professor of literature at a small New England college who hopes to instill in the freshmen class of 1968 his own love of poetry only to have them teach him that real life relationships are more important than anything you may read in a book..... Anyway, we located the building an hour and a half early then rode just off campus to purchase an umbrella for the rain/snow mix that was coming down. A block away we found a Subway where we had lunch and waited for the most important appointment. While parking on campus was very limited we managed to find a place and walk through the now falling snow into the building at the appointed time. Up the stairs and down the hall where we were met by Kelvin himself dressed in slightly frumpy layers and sitting in an office perfectly designed as a backdrop for our story, book shelves overflowing with books, periodicals, folders, maps and globes. The floor was also covered with stacks of folders and the printer as well as some folders were overflowing with obviously important information. The professor played by Kelvin talked with all of us then escorted the actual interviewee down the hall to the conference room to meet the committee leaving us to anxiously pace his office and gaze out the window at the snow.
After an eternity, which actually only lasted a little more than an hour, we headed back into the snow to discover more about the area, since our first impression was that this tiny town that appeared to be a former mining village may not have four more years of life.
Of course a block past Rite Aid, where we purchased our umbrella, a modern spread out town of many shopping centers and unlimited restaurants met us and in fact spread out in all directions.
After many subsequent visits I am amazed that we were even able to meander off the interstate and find our way to campus that March morning without seeing ANY of Johnson City. We thought the Subway and Rite Aid and maybe a Bi Lo would be extent of the shopping in Johnson City. It must have been raining harder than I remembered.
In just a few (very long) days Laurie received the email welcoming her to the Audiology program at
ETSU. And the story began.
