Lexington visit.

I drove down to Lexington yesterday, because I was invited to be a panelist at the Virginia Associated Press Managing Editors’ Ethics & Credibility in a Digital Age conference. It was held at Washington & Lee. I’ve made the drive plenty of times, having driven back and forth between Blacksburg and Charlottesville every week for a year and a half, but, embarrassingly, I’d never stopped in Lexington.

What a nice town. I spent the bulk of my time in the library on the W&L campus, but walking around grounds trying to find the place, I really admired the architecture. After the conference was done, I took a few minutes to take a driving tour of downtown. It’s really picturesque, but not in a forced way, like they’re faking it. It reminded me of mixture of Charlottesville, portions of Blacksburg, Northampton, and Ithaca. (Ithaca, particularly, because of the steep gully spanned by campus. As the bumper sticker says, “Ithaca is gorges.”)

I look at Lynchburg and I see great possibility. I look at Lexington and it seems pretty great right now.

I actually applied to Washington & Lee. They never got back to me. (They’re in good company. I’ve been turned down by several of the finest educational institutions in the world.) I decided not to kvetch, because I couldn’t possibly afford the tuition, anyhow. But around the time that I applied, I looked into Lexington. It’d have been happy to live there for a time. It’s in a beautiful part of the state, it’s right on the Maury River, and it’s got WLUR. I wanted an apartment right downtown, though in my old age, I suspect I’d like a little house just outside of town.

As with Lynchburg, there’s no danger of me moving to Lexington any time soon. But I do foresee some day trips there. I don’t think I’ll have a hard time manufacturing excuses to visit.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

3 replies on “Lexington visit.”

  1. We will throw out the welcome mat for you in Lynchburg. If you need any help from finding local places of interest, to a nice place to eat let us know. We would be glad to be of service. Bob

  2. Lex-Vegas! i’m glad you enjoyed the campus. the poor library – doesn’t really “fit in” with the architecture but a great place to study. if you make a trip back, i highly recommend Collierstown – beautiful area down south of Lexington. and Buena Vista has a nice one road downtown.

    (whoa, btw – very cool preview script down there under the text box, except the text box extends past the edge of the screen….)

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