Blogs from North Carolina, United States, North America - page 5

The offer was received and countered. We accepted the counter and have paid our earnest money. Closing will happen in a couple of weeks. We can take possession on October 15th. It all seems to be falling together. Which means we're moving to Montana. Here in NC, we've got a big job ahead of us. We're going to pack very lightly. Take those few items which seems personal and important to us. Take our complete tool kit. Then we turn the rest of the house into an Air BnB, while we ponder if, or when, to put the house on the market. Running the house as an Air BnB allows us to leave behind our furniture and make enough money to cover our costs while we figure out what to do on the other end. Since ... read more

We are home, or at least our place of current residence. (The word "home" is up in the air now, innit?) We pulled into our drive about 9 on the clock last evening, having stopped off at the Saxapahaw General Store to pick up some food on the way. We unloaded the coolers and put their soggy contents in the fridge and turned on the AC and took care of our basic needs. Then we crawled into our familiar bed and ate our good food and watched the last episode of Alone and fell asleep. We got up this morning much later than is usual. We logged in almost 8,000 miles, by the time we got home. And on the way back, after the mountains of Montana and Wyoming, and then the no mountains of Nebraska, ... read more

"The mountains are calling and I must go." -John Muir Hey All, It's packing day here at the Erickson-Bennett household. There's a new-to-us Honda Odyssey sitting in our drive, which we've been outfitting as a sort of drive-by-night RV. I took out all but the front two seats and built a wooden futon frame for the back, where we can sleep for a few hours, or even camp for a night, as we see fit. Underneath the frame there's plenty of room for the suitcases, bins full of cooking gear, and misc extra stuff that Sally has been organizing, and we can fit three coolers in the back dropdown well where the third seats would normally disappear. We'll have plenty of options as we drive, from driving straight through to stopping for a few hours rest ... read more

It was a strange week with a trip planned to Spain getting cancelled. I was looking much forward to getting away with my friend Scott to the mountains area. Coronavirus mania had dominated the news and life had been turned upside down. It was a 3 hour drive from the apartment to get to the Air Bnb. It was a windy curvy road to get to the home. We passed the driveway at one point to the place, but finally went up a steep hill to get to the top. Thankfully it wasn't icy outside or it would have been even tougher to get up the driveway. The outside of the home resembled a beautiful cabin in the woods. We had the bottom floor of the house to ourselves. We walked inside and saw a moose ... read more

Even before the season began, I was expecting to attend the Sun Belt Championship Game at Appalachian State University. That was a bold prediction, considering that the Sun Belt Conference has a moveable championship game: it is hosted by the school with the better record. That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to attend a championship game from the Group of Five: I have been attending games at schools all season, and all of the Power Five conferences have stationary games that take place at NFL stadiums. Only the MAC in the Group of Five does this. And three of the Group of Five conferences are close enough to me that it would be possible to make a trip without too much effort. I wanted it to be App State, because they’re probably the closest ... read more