ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606240062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DALE CITY
SOURCE: Associated Press
TORCH CARRIERS are making their way through the state, hitting historic spots along the way.
The Olympic torch left the White House and did that most American of things Friday en route to Atlanta and next month's games: It stopped at McDonald's.
The flame left Washington's banners and bunting and headed south through Virginia, with bivouacs in historic spots such as George Washington's Mount Vernon home and Thomas Jefferson's beloved University of Virginia.
But stop No. 3 on Day 56 of the tightly scripted passage was the 9,000-space parking lot at Potomac Mills, the hulking discount outlet that state tourism officials call Virginia's No.1 destination for out-of-state visitors.
Runners panting in 90-degree mid-morning heat carried the torch hand-to-hand along the approach to the mall in Prince William County.
The flame took a hard right at a McDonald's opposite the mall and came to rest at a podium surrounded by sweating politicians and a high school orchestra in plastic chairs on the simmering pavement.
McDonald's helped sponsor the 10-minute layover with free food for the VIPs and some of the army of torch staffers and volunteers.
``It's not a Happy Meal, but I'll take it. I haven't slept more than three hours since Monday and I can't remember what I had for breakfast,'' one worker said as she grabbed the fast food bag.
Nearby, tour buses disgorged bargain hunters, not a few of whom looked startled to see the police cars, recreational vehicles and hangers-on of the Olympic caravan assembled a few hundred yards from the mall's main entrance.
Twenty miles up the road at Mount Vernon, a chaotic American pageant of politicians, beauty queens, football players and vacationing schoolchildren greeted the torch.
Washington Redskins cornerback Darrell Green sped the flame down the plantation's spreading lawn and handed off to an actor dressed as the first president.
``I didn't feel like a football player,'' he said later. ``I felt part of something bigger.''
Descendants of the Washington family and a 10th-generation descendant of a slave who worked at Mount Vernon also turned laps around the driveway in front of the famous white mansion.
People were lined five and six deep as far as the eye could see Friday night for the torch exchange on Richmond's historic Monument Avenue.
Daniel Finnegan, 16, was to pass the torch to Meredith Bailey, also 16. As the torch approached, excitement took away Bailey's grasp of all but the very obvious.
``This is such an honor, I'm just so excited,'' she repeated over and over as the torch approached. After the successful exchange at 9:20 p.m., Bailey started down Monument, the home to statues of such Confederate icons as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart.
More than 10,000 torch bearers are carrying the torch to Atlanta and the Summer Games.
Gov. George Allen is scheduled to give the flame a bon voyage in Richmond at 7 a.m. today
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. ``Miss Liberty," Elizabeth Nelson of Lenoir, N.C.,by CNBwaits for the Olympic torch to arrive in Stafford on Friday.