Getting into a car with a stranger was the best thing I’ve ever done.

Okay, so here’s a disclaimer. This is the longest blog I’ve written yet, mostly because it’s about the absolute most ridiculous thing that’s happened to me yet. So, I apologize in advance, but it’ll so be worth it.

So, my friends and I went on what we thought would be a fun, average hiking trip up through Williamsburg the other day. Well it was anything but average– we ended up holding a mammoth’s tusk, a dinosaur bone, and basically went on the single coolest field trip ever.

I don’t even know where to start to explain how this happened. It was the most bizarre series of events. So, I guess I’ll just start from the very beginning, when I reluctantly got out of bed. I really didn’t want to go hiking, and I knew exactly what would happen. We would get out of bed at 9:00am, we would get on a bus, go on a hiking trail, hike for 5 miles, sweat through everything, and then come back to school by 1:00pm. Well, by the time we actually got back, which was closer to 5:00pm, I think I would have literally kicked myself in the face if I hadn’t gone.

The trip didn’t start so grandly though. My original suspicions that it would be lackluster were only being confirmed. The bus ride took about 20 minutes, and then the hike to the start of the hike trails was about a mile itself. Best of all, we forgot to fill our water bottles for our 5 mile hike. Well, on our way down, we passed this older guy who was gardening diligently in this small-enclosed garden. He was in his mid-seventies, balding, and sported a thick white beard. We made small talk and moved on. Once we got to the trails, we realized that this would be pretty unrealistic without water, and since there were no water fountains in the area, we figured we’d hit up the guy we had just seen in the garden to see if he knew where there was running water.

We walked up to him, and he immediately perked up and asked in I think a Dutch-German accent, “Vhere are you from?!”

“William & Mary”, we replied.

“Vhere is that?!”, he retorted back. At this point, we were getting a little antsy about this guy. And we were by ourselves in the middle of the forest, so we were starting to get sketched out. But, there was one of him and four of us, so we kept going.

“It’s up the road… in Williamsburg”, one of us answered.

“Vell, vay is Villiam & Mary so flat?!”, he fired back.

“Uhhhh…”

“It’s because it used to be the bed of the Chesapeake Bay! DUH.”, he said excitedly. At this point, the wrinkles around his eyes carved in by his many years of laughter deepened as he gave out a chuckle. We stood there in silence, totally sketched out at this point. He dropped the accent and said, “I’m just messing with you. I’m actually a retired geology professor at William & Mary. Pleasure to meet you.”

The rest is history. He was actually in the area doing research. He led us through his garden, showing us all the
different species of plants and trees. You could tell he was in his “professor mode.” It was obvious that he conducted one of those classes that everyone wanted to take. Regardless, one thing led to another, and he offered us a ride back to William & Mary, so we could avoid that annoying 20 minute bus ride back. We made a pit stop though, at his house. The house in itself was incredible. You could immediately tell that a handyman lived there. This same 70-some year old man had already added a deck, a birdbath, and an entire extension to his home. He was working on a waterfall feature when we were there.

We also met his high school sweetheart, and wife of 50 years, who immediately poured us all glasses of water and warmly invited us in. We talked about his years at William & Mary, their trips around the world, how he proposed to her by putting her engagement ring in a geode and having her break it open– it was just an incredible conversation. Then, he kicked back into professor mode, giddy that he could teach once again (and trust me, the excitement was totally contagious).

On our way out, we made one last stop, where he showed and talked us through all of the fossils that were in his front yard. He would never tell us what the fossil was though; he would talk us through it until we could guess. We were actually learning in the process. A mammoth tusk, a dinosaur bone, a 2.65 billion year old rock, and a whale rib later, we were like kids in the candy store, giddy and overwhelmed from our surroundings. I think I may have actually giggled with excitement when I saw the whale vertebrae sitting in his driveway.

The whole experience just went to show me that once you’re at William & Mary, you really don’t leave it, ever. The man was a retired professor (and a true renaissance man). He ran into W&M students and was still, after 5 years of retirement, itching to teach us. It was a really defining day for me in that it reminded me why I came to this school. There’s a really potent combination of curiosity, trust, and passion that makes learning painless—we didn’t even realize it was happening. William & Mary has a tendency of making that happen.

And now, one of my friends who was on that trip is taking geology next semester to further quench her curiosity. It was nothing like what you would expect a hiking trip to be, but amazingly enough, he was everything you would expect a William & Mary professor to be.