When the news broke Loyola was joining the A-10, my first concern was the looonnnnnggggg road trips. The median distance from Loyola’s campus to the opposing teams’ men’s basketball facilities is 754.4 miles, and the average is 696. For comparison, the median road trip distance in the MVC was 245.5 miles. My second thought was, “Wow, those are going to be some GREAT road trips!”
So just to get everyone in the frame of mind for hitting the road to root on the Ramblers this winter, I’m posting some road trip ideas for some of the destinations on the road schedule. Since I spent six years living in Richmond, here’s some ideas for anyone considering a trip.
I was in Richmond several times in the past few weeks. United has a good schedule with three direct flights throughout the day, and other airlines (including Southwest) also have flights. Taking the train is fun, with an easy transfer in DC. If you take the train (which also goes through Pittsburgh– another A-10 road trip city), make sure you wake up early on the eastbound trip on the Capitol Limited, because the route along the Potomac River at daybreak in West Virginia is really breathtaking.
VCU is the smack-in-the-middle of town on the main street school, and Richmond is the elite private liberal arts school on the Old Money west side of town. Both schools have a nice arena on campus. VCU is a big school (enrollment over 30k) that’s reminiscent of UIC– if UIC’s students were fun to be around, creative, and had a good sense of humor. VCU’s campus neighborhood, called “The Fan,” (because of the way the streets widen outward going away from downtown) is quite probably the most lively spot anywhere in the state of Virginia, with nightlife, cutting edge restaurants, and quirky shopping.
U of R is at the leafy, western edge of the city limits. Back when I lived in Richmond, U of R was the school where the city’s white-shoed business leaders sent their kids to be the next generation of city business leaders. It was preppy before preppiness came into style. It’s a conservative (in the business sense) school, not so much conservative in the religious sense. My brother went to VCU, and I did a brief high school internship at U of R’s radio station WDCE.
The key thing about “the East Coast feeling” is the history. You’ve got to respect it and embrace it. There are buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries scattered everywhere, which is jarring if you haven’t been there recently. Chicago barely existed until the mid-point of the 19th century. Civil War, Revolutionary War, and Early Colonial settlements and historical sites dot the landscape. As a part of the South, Virginia’s population growth was slowed through the late 19th and early 20th century, and the historic attractions became a money-maker for a state with little industry. So a lot of the historic sites are in nearly pristine condition.
The restaurant scene in Richmond is surprisingly lively. A lot of the interesting things with the food there are done with seafood and soul food. Virginia produces more hard shell clams than any other state, and also has sea scallops, oysters, mussels, and blue crabs fresh from the Chesapeake Bay. The hottest items and local specialties are crab cakes, crab salad, fried oysters, fluffy southern biscuits, cornbread, collard or turnip greens, and fried chicken. Virginia is also known for their cured hams, especially Smithfield hams, which are cured from peanut-fed pigs. Make sure you get a traditional Southern breakfast with eggs, grits, and sausage or ham– there also might be gravy and biscuits involved.
If you’re looking for sightseeing and day trips, there’s a lot in Richmond. Visit the several Civil War Battlefield parks like Cold Harbor and Petersburg. You can see remnants of the trenches where soldiers dug in for a long siege 160 years ago. Monument Avenue near VCU is famous for the statues of Confederate Generals and local tennis hero Arthur Ashe. There are some outdoor spaces and in-the-city hiking down at the James River.
The state capitol building was designed by Thomas Jefferson in the 1780s, and served as the actual working capitol building of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Also downtown is the house of John Marshall, the second Chief Justice of the United States, who practically designed the function of the top court in the land. If you take a tour, Edgar Allan Poe, Bill Bojangles Robinson, and Patrick Henry might be discussed at some point. Colonial Williamsburg is just 50 miles from Richmond, with the campus of America’s second oldest college, William & Mary; Appomattox Court House (Lee’s surrender to Grant) is 85 miles away; and Virginia Beach (about 110 miles away) is one of the great mid-Atlantic coast beaches.
Naturally, hotels are a 15-30% less expensive than DC, Philly, or NYC. Some nice high-end places downtown are The Berkeley, The Jefferson, and The Commonwealth– beautiful older buildings. The Jefferson has been around for a long time, and is really special. For brands like Marriott and Hilton, expect to pay about $120-165 per night.
Loyola plays at Richmond on Saturday, Feb. 11 at a time TBA. Ask questions or comment on the message board at https://www.ramblermania.net/forum
