Next up on my great North American Summer 2013 tour was North Carolina – home of cheap cigarettes, REALLY cheap cigarettes, lots of woods, and ummm……not much else!

Just kidding North Carolina – you were fantastic.  The drive however, was not.  It’s a fairly long drive – about 10 hours – and it seems like you spend most of that time driving through mountains.  I suppose it is scenic, but after about four hours of it you really just want to put Pennsylvania in your rear view mirror (literally) and never see it again.

This trip was actually both business and pleasure.  The business part was to help my sister pack up her stuff for her big return to New York, and the pleasure was visiting some friends from Iowa City.

First, the business.  The business portion of the trip involved me traveling down to Cary, North Carolina to throw out 9,000 lbs. of garbage for my sister, and then load up my car with more boxes than any car should ever have stacked inside.  The taking out of the garbage was an interesting adventure as virtually every trip down to the dumpster led to me getting lectured by some very sweet elderly lady about how wasteful I was.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her it wasn’t mine, and eventually I started trying to make covert trips to the dumpster avoid her chastising me.

The pleasure part was just hanging out, eating some chicken and waffles (a first for me), drinking a bit, and heading into Chapel Hill to take a look at where the Tar Heels and Dukies hang out.  I figure since Syracuse is moving to the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) it might be helpful to immerse myself in their culture for a day or two.  Always know your enemy!

So, as usual, I have a few pictures below so you can feel the fun I was having on my road trip.  The first set is some shack that we passed in the Ozark Mountains (i’m not sure what mountains we were in to be honest, but they were high, and pretty much anytime I go up a hill I suspect I may be in the Ozarks).  I put up three pictures just to show how the shack goes from fairly creepy, to downright creepy, to horrifying as the pictures change from color to black & white.

The next picture is of some butterflies I saw – not a big deal – except there were billions of them in the tree.  It was strange.  Next up I have a shot of  my crayon sketches I drew on the place-mats at the chicken & waffles place.   I have another pic of a random cat I saw outside who befriended me in Durham, NC, and a pic of the reading material I caught Deb browsing while we were at a rest stop.  Shame on you Deb – but well done choosing ‘BJ Babes’ – you always go for the one that includes the free DVD!  Always.  All the other shots are random shots from the car, and one of the parking lot outside of my sister’s apartment

Enjoy.