29th September - 2nd October. Ashland, Virginia

Virginia! Home to the first permanent colonial settlements in the United States, 8 former presidents including some big guns such as Jefferson, Madison and Wilson and of course to the welcoming and beautiful Randolph Macon College. Seated in the heart of Ashland, a town we are reliably informed would not exist without the college, we were surrounded by old brick buildings, vast swathes of Autumnal trees and an incredibly welcoming student body and faculty.

Our first full day in Ashland was spent getting to know some of the college students and preparing for the debate that evening. We were convinced (after much doubt) that fraternities and sororities (for women) do in fact exist and that they really do use those large red plastic cups to drink from at parties (just like the movies). The debate itself, preceded by a sumptuous dinner, attracted a large and varied crowd including faculty, students and some high school pupils. This time we faced the task of convincing the audience they should abandon facebook. Rather strangely, the audience seemed to find us hilarious (probably due to an equal mix of our well crafted gags and our ‘quaint’ accents) apart from one rather burly high school teacher who seemed to think that the British coming was 1776 all over again. In the end our honourable opponents Crystal and Haley snatched a narrow victory by just a few votes.

On Friday we had a whistle-stop tour of Richmond Virginia (named so because the river really does look like Richmond upon Thames at a certain point). The whole place is steeped in history, we saw its capitol building (designed by Jefferson), buildings inhabited by Madison, Washington and Lee and; the church from which Patrick Henry famously yelled ‘give me liberty or give me death’ (our guide John Mingus reliably informed us that Henry said little whilst sober). We later went to an American Sports bar, ate more meat than we could have hoped to imagine and had a great evening with the college students at Macon.

Saturday arrived and Ted Scheckels (our generous host) kindly took us and the debaters on an outstanding tour of D.C. We saw too many sights to mention but had a fantastic tour of the Capitol Building, the National Aerospace Museum and had the opportunity to see the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights at the National Archives. As we toured the memorials (Korea, Vietnam, World War II, Lincoln and Martin Luther King) we nervously glanced up at the Washington Monument (currently covered in cables as a result of a freak earthquake). Two monuments were of particular interest. World War II omits (despite a lengthy mural and lots of space) any mention of Hiroshima and gives the impression that they did it alone (which might broadly be fair excepting Russia’s efforts). More controversially it is the only monument which includes the name of the president who commissioned the statue (George W. Bush). Even more interestingly Ted was kind enough to show us a little known memorial to the signatories of the Independence Declaration. It surprisingly lists Josiah Bartlett (of West Wing fame) who it turns out did exist and was a doctor from New Hampshire. Next stop Indiana.