After a great NYC breakfast with Mark Miller, and blessed with a sunny day, I hit the road. Advice to claustrophobes: Do not take the Lincoln Tunnel in August in a traffic jam. I planned to blast through NJ, so I took 95 South, only to realize that once you clear the metro area it is beautiful. Since it was early I decided to press on to University of Maryland, my first visit.

Five boring hours later (sorry Delaware and Baltimore). I got to the hallowed Jimenez Hall at U. Maryland. This is were the great Spanish writer and 1956 Nobel Prize winner taught during his exile.

The problem with visiting universities in the summer is that logically there are not many people around. So I did not get an appointment at UM. I did however have a very nice chat with David Wilson, the Graduate Coordinator and he let me walk around the building to soak it all in, I loved it! Late lunch was at the beautiful Student Union. The campus is expansive and pretty.

From there it was a nice short ride to Georgetown U. Where Spencer Daum, Walnut Hill ’09 was hosting me. He’s working for the university so I’m staying in his dorm, which I confess is strangely refreshing.

Spencer gave me the insider’s tour of the school and of beautiful Georgetown, which I rewarded him for with a juicy rib-eye steak and a nice cigar sitting by the river, gracias amigo.