Finally after cleaning my ordinarily septic apartment,

we sent off the Relocube.

Brad and Lois, my cracked out neighbors who steal and then pawn many neighborhood items, waved goodbye as we traveled from my apartment in Radford to Mike’s parents’ house in Christiansburg, VA. His mom had a sweet mirror:

The next morning we took to the road,

headed south to Charleston, SC, to visit Alaina. Here she creates an interior decor solution for Mike’s fishing poles:

Her solution: arrange them on the walls much like wallpaper. I dig it, though I am slightly concerned about stabbing myself in the head with a lure.

Much of the following 48 hours involved teasing Brutus- this small shitzu-poodle-with-mohawk mix, refusing to let him tear Pickles to pieces:

Here Brutus poses with a life-size portrait painted by Alaina.

Other activities in Charleston included an al fresco sushi dinner at the trendy Bambu, where the incredibly sweaty live entertainment played Garth Brooks by my request (rodeo). I failed to upload a picture of this, but here is a picture of me vamping prior to leaving:

And me and Alaina chatting:

The night ended at a beachfront dance club where I adopted the assumed identity of Kris from Oakton, VA and told everyone I was a student at Princeton.

The following day, we went sightseeing and shopping down on historic King Street, where we saw this frightful sunburn:

as well as the Apple store:

We hid out a rainstorm in this beautiful, Spanish-moss-draped cemetery:

We met up with Taylor and Erin

then headed out for pizza at an eccentrically decorated pizza place:

That evening I experienced Real Housewives of Atlanta for the first time, then retired early for our next day of driving to Atlanta by way of Savannah.