A Different Kind of College Road Trip

When your babies are born, other parents warn how quickly time will pass by.  You nod sagely and say "I know" but in actuality you have no idea until your little babies are suddenly grown and they are looking toward leaving for college.  The college search is where we now find ourselves.  The memories of fooling with carseats and and cheering at age 5-6 Pony League baseball games are still fresh in my mind.  Now, the family is spending our high school Winter and Spring Breaks visiting college campuses for that inevitable day.

Our eldest son Keegan is a high school Junior and Sean follows right behind him as a Sophomore at Newnan High School.  We actually started our visits during Keegan's freshman year with a visit to my beloved Alma Mater, Clemson University.   They both loved Clemson and have also enjoyed visits to Georgetown, Auburn University and Georgia Tech. 

Clemson's Famous "Death Valley" Football Stadium

Pat and I counseled Keegan about looking at different size colleges, so this weekend we visited Valdosta State, which is has an 11,000 person student body on its campus near the Georgia-Florida border.

Valdosta State University, founded 1906

We left our hometown Newnan around noon in order to miss the huge snowfall heading our way - we eventually got between 4" - 5".  Georgia is extremely ill-equipped to handle the white stuff so we knew to "get out of Dodge"!  We made the drive to Valdosta for Visitation Day in 3-1/2 hours but heard other Atlanta-area families got stuck in the storm and arrived after 7 hours on the road!

Everyone gets excited when in snows in Georgia!

We checked in to the local Hilton Gardens Inn and it was a rainy, gloomy day in South Georgia.  We like Hilton Gardens because they have roomy suites for stretching out and offer a nice, hot breakfast buffet in the morning.  Hilton Gardens aren't luxury resorts but they suited our needs perfectly for this trip.

Gloomy or not, we decided to drive around a bit and see the campus.  Even through the sleety haze, we were able to see that Valdosta had beautiful architecture but we decided to wait until Saturday for photo ops.

The next morning, we went to the campus for the visitation day.  We first met with different department heads  to discuss academic curriculums and then toured the whole of the campus.

Valdosta State, Blazer's Basketball

The student-led tour was very informative and the kids were very enthusiastic about their school.  We had the Student Body President as one of our guides.

"Mom, stop taking my picture!" (Keegan in letterman's jacket)

"Campus scenes"

This was the kickoff of our "college road trip season."  We are off to the University of Georgia this Friday and LSU, Ole Miss and Alabama over spring break.  Georgia Southern and Georgia College at Milledgeville are on the radar, as are other schools in the South. 

Let me know your thoughts and schools you love.  The road trip is to be continued...