Blogs from North Carolina, United States, North America - page 106

Today we head out from Chapel Hill, North Carolina for our final US destination, Atlanta, Georgia. We are staying with Rawley, my fourth-year roomate and sometimes friend from UVA. He's here drinking up a bit of the Chapel Hill social scene and also some GIS kool-aid as part of his masters studies in urban planning. Yesterday we drove from Washington, DC through Charlottesville, VA to Chapel Hill, NC on semi-back roads, only traveling about 45 miles of interstate along the way. In Charlottesville we walked around the UVA campus, ehm grounds, with a focus on the Rotunda and the so-called 'Central Grounds' (see photos). The Rotunda is based on Pantheon in Rome. What can I say, I have a thing for oculii. We also squeezed in a side trip the old SAM fraternity house and an ... read more

Drove into NC on a mountainous section of highway, went through our first Interstate tunnel. The last 10 miles to Outdoor Resorts at Lake Toxaway was quite treacherous - winding, two-lane road with practically no shoulder - hairpin curves up and down the mountain. Alan did quite well getting us there. Stayed for 7 days and really enjoyed the area. Lovely resort with paved sites, pool, hot tub, 9-hole golf course, lots of flowers. Took side trips to nearby towns Cashiers and Highlands. Bought sourwood honey, South Carolina peaches, blackberry syrup, and a pair of hiking shoes! Drove into Asheville to see the Biltmore Estate. Old George Vanderbilt surely knew a thing or two about building a house! We did a wine tasting and bought some wine for the road (of course, not while driving!). On ... read more

I am so allergic to this state. Everywhere I go, I smell flowers or grass or something. I used to like that... Now I feel like I've been assaulted by nature. All I've been doing is sneezing and coughing. My flight leaves for Houston at 625 AM tomorrow. Then to San Pedro Sula, Honduras at 920 AM. I'm not really excited yet. More like nervous. I hope I don't forget anything that is necessary. And I hope I don't end up bringing a ton of stuff that isn't necessary. I just have a few more errands. I need to finish washing clothes, get a phone card, go by the bank... Visit my other brother and Star and the rest of the family. Hectic! It is going to be a long seven weeks. I miss Ben.... read more

Last week, when Ben was still in Raleigh with me, we were driving after dinner with my friend Lynda. We were near NC State University, so I happened to mention the cows with windows. You see, NC State has a good vet school and agricultural blah blah farming stuff. When I was a kid, we would drive down one of the back roads near the fairgrounds, by some property NC State owned, and see the cows with windows. They have this like... window in their side. I don't know why. I don't know how. All I know is that it is freakin' weird. As I remember it as a kid, they were big clear round windows, like portholes on a boat--so you could see all their insides slithering around. But, when Lynda, Ben and I drove ... read more

Well, here we are -- in the Holiday Inn Express in Salma, NC. April is working and I just finished work so we should be getting ready to finish our journey to Orlando any time now. We are about an hour away from South Carolina, which is about 3 hours long and in Georgia for about an hour and a half-- so we should get to Florida later afternoon/early evening. We check into the Portofino tonight in Orlando (another Loews hotel). YAAAY, I can't get those beds out of my mind. SO SO comfortable!!!!!!!!! :) Yesterday was a good day! After we checked out of the Loews Annapolis hotel we went for lunch at "Buddy's Crabs" -- um, err..I think that's what it was called? LOL! It was a cute, shanty shack type restaurant overlooking the ... read more