Update on Winchester VA Boycott

We went to Michigan for the holidays, had a great time, saw many friends and relatives, and ate far, far too much. I'm pretty much looking like the Michelin Man right now, and not the newer, buff one either! We drove back home to Northern VA on the first of the year, which was our first driving trip back this direction since we moved here in July.

VOB readers from September '06 will remember my rant about Winchester, VA, how I failed to find an elusive "Welcome Center" there, and called a general boycott of that city. For review, here's the link: Boycott Winchester, VA. I do recommend reading that blog entry before continuing with this one.

I was running low on gas before we got to Winchester, so I filled up in western Maryland, just to make sure I wasn't in any danger of breaking my own boycott which I assume loyal VOB readers have also upheld. But on that leg of our trip, I was curious to see if the same misleading signs were still there, so I kept my eyes peeled for them. Oddly, I didn't see a single one. I did see one sign that said, "Tourist Information Exit 13B," but that was it.

It was kind of foggy through that stretch, however, so it's possible that I missed all the signs I had seen on the previous trip. I did see a large, rectangular white-on-brown sign whose lettering was obscured by condensation from the fog. What I think it may have said is, "Dear Bruck: Please accept our humble apology for misleading you into thinking we had a Welcome Center in our worthless town last July. It was a failed publicity stunt and we have since fired our PR company."

Or it may have said, "There really is no Welcome Center in our miserable city; we just put those signs up to fool Bruck, but the joke's over now. In exchange for calling off the boycott, we are offering Bruck a lifetime supply of Cracker Barrel hominy grits and redeye gravy, plus a free oil change and radiator flush at any of our Jiffy Lube locations."

Another thing it may have said is, "Welcome Center Exit 313. During the latter part of July, '06, the Welcome Center was absent from its current, convenient location, having been beamed to the dark side of Uranus where it served as a temporary VFW hall while the real one was undergoing repair from fire damage. We regret any inconvenience."

Assuming one of the above messages appeared on the sign that I was unable to read, I herewith suspend the boycott of Winchester, VA.