Cal comes face to face with his doppelganger and other Richmond-related AAR

[Caliga]

So last Thursday, I'm sitting at the gate in Louisville waiting for my flight to Atlanta and this ordinary looking old dude sits down next to me.  When they start boarding the plane (this is AirTran, so seats are assigned) he boards in the same zone as me and ends up sitting in the row in front of me on the flight.  No big deal, right?

In Atlanta, I hurry to my next gate to pick up my connecting flight to Richmond, but don't go directly there as I encounter a Five Guys on the way and so I'm forced to stop there for a burger.  When I do get to my next gate, the same old guy is there waiting for the same flight.  Hmm, that's neat... I would guess not many people fly from Louisville to Richmond.  So we board this flight and it turns out he has a seat right next to mine.  He kind of nods to me as he sits down as I guess by now he's realized we were on the same flight earlier, but doesn't say anything.

So this morning, I get to the gate in Richmond for my returning flight to Atlanta... and old guy is there again, waiting for the same flight.   We board in the same zone again and this time he sits directly behind me.  We get into Atlanta, and as there is tons of time before my next connection I decide to wander around the terminal and look for an interesting place to eat.  I was happy to find that The Varsity has opened an outlet in the airport and make a beeline for it... and old guy is standing there waiting for an order!  So I go ahead and order a #2 combo, and like 30 seconds later the order is up, but it turns out the order is for him.   My order shows up a few minutes later and I go back to my gate (where he now is, as he's waiting for the same flight to Louisville, of course) and eat it.  About a half hour goes by and I'm bored and decide to go back to The Varsity and order a frosted orange shake... and who do I find there but old guy ORDERING THE SAME GODDAMN THING.

So the flight boards and this time it's a Southwest flight, so we line up by boarding number, and it turns out I am A-37 and old guy is A-38.

Since I boarded directly in front of him, I lost sight of him and didn't see him again for the rest of the flight nor after it landed.

This guy didn't look anything like me at all... he was taller and thinner, cleanshaven, and wore a UMW ballcap on all four flights.  So it's not like he's a doppelganger in the traditional sense I guess, but it was like our fates were totally intertwined on all of these trips.

[Eddie Teach]

You sure he wasn't a government agent or private detective or something like that? 

[Admiral Yi]

What's interesting about The Varsity?  It's just a down market burger joint that has been around forever.

[Caliga]

My overall assessment of Richmond is that I like it and it reminds me a lot of Louisville, only a bit smaller.  They have great BBQ and everyone is very friendly like they are here.  Also, I was surprised to hear that some (mostly older) folks have that old Virginia non-rhotic accent that I thought had mostly died out.

[Caliga]

What's interesting about The Varsity?  It's just a down market burger joint that has been around forever.

It's delicious?

[Caliga]

Confederate White House: I went here on Sunday with my brother and sister-in-law.  It's kind of strange in that here you have, in the middle of all of these modern medical buildings (VCU Medical Center), this box-shaped early 19th century mansion.  To get to it, we actually had to park in the medical center's garage and walk through the ER admissions area in order to get to an outside exit that allowed us access to it as well as the Museum of the Confederacy.

So we open the front door and waiting to greet us is a docent who looks like Louis Farrakhan circa 1975 or so (he even had the cute little bowtie).  He seemed really delighted to talk about Jefferson Davis and the rest of the Davis family.  We just smiled politely and nodded and moved on to the next room after he finished his spiel.  In this room was an old guy with an old Virginia accent (I mentioned this in an earlier thread).  There were a couple more rooms on the first floor, and then we were led down into the totally empty wine cellar, where the docent down there said "ummm... so this was the wine cellar... we think.  We don't actually know for sure as when we acquired the mansion, there was nothing down here. *long, uncomfortable pause* Ummm.... does anyone have any questions?  No?  K THX BAI"

We weren't allowed upstairs for some reason, so all we saw of the whole place was the foyer, the dining room, a parlor, and Jefferson Davis's library, where Lincoln apparently hung out for a while after Richmond fell.  It was pretty much the oddest historic home tour I've ever been on.

[The Brain]

Upstairs is Wilbur's brother's room.

[crazy canuck]

Ever think it was a future you travelling back in time trying to give you a subtle hint to grow a bit more.

[garbon]

Ever think it was a future you travelling back in time trying to give you a subtle hint to grow a bit more.

[Caliga]

Ever think it was a future you travelling back in time trying to give you a subtle hint to grow a bit more.

Princesca joked that it was me from the future, yes.

[Eddie Teach]

Did Future Cal make fun of your gear?

[DGuller]

It's probably a hit man, but a couple of things don't make perfect sense.  Why is he being so overt about tailing you?  And why are you still alive? 

[lustindarkness]

It's probably a hit man, but a couple of things don't make perfect sense.  Why is he being so overt about tailing you?  And why are you still alive? 

He wants Cal to get paranoid and nervous and make a mistake.

[Razgovory]

Ever think it was a future you travelling back in time trying to give you a subtle hint to grow a bit more.

Princesca joked that it was me from the future, yes.

I once met my future self.  I immediately called him on it, and he tried to deny it.  He said I was crazy and wanted me to get the hell away from him.  He tried to leg it, but it turns out he's not always one step ahead after all.

[crazy canuck]

He tried to leg it, but it turns out he's not always one step ahead after all.

Raz, do you have someone trapped in your basement?