Opening day in Roanoke, Virginia was a traveler’s dream! Of course, everybody loves StoryCorps’ Airstream but when you throw in our location at The Virginia Museum of Transportation, and the fact that we had Sharyn McCrumb, author of the New York Times bestseller, St. Dale (that’s Dale Earnhardt, to all the NASCAR uninitiated) and ARCA driver Adam Edwards as our first interview then there is no doubt that MobileEast was ready to roll!

The Virginia Museum of Transportation began its life in 1963 as the Roanoke Transportation Museum located in Wasena Park in Roanoke, Virginia. The museum at that time was housed in an old Norfolk & Western Railway old freight depot on the banks of the Roanoke River. After a flood in 1985 that destroyed the museum and much of its collection RTM re-opened in 1986 in downtown Roanoke as the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

Sharyn and Adam came in to talk about their upcoming collaboration, Faster Pastor, about a small town pastor who blackmails a NASCAR driver into helping him win $2 million in a charity race, and were kind enough to autograph my copy of St. Dale! MobileEast also helped celebrate two birthdays on opening day when Shayne Thomas and her dad John Thomas, who were both born on September 25, came in to share their story! But opening day would not have been complete without our good friends from WVTF the public radio service of Virginia Tech. Thank you everyone for making us feel so welcome on our first day in Roanoke!