North Carolina still

From Jose

It has been pretty busy since my last post.

I found a fatty tumor on Matilda's elbow. It is not too big and it has not slowed her down. As long as it does not grow much I am not going to do anything about it yet.

At the end of my last post we were near the Blue Ridge Parkway. We did get to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and found it amazing. I can only imagine what it would be like with changing leaves.

We soon got to High point, NC, home to Bill and Patty, relatives of Diane. I soon learned that the cities of High Point, Winston Salem, and Greensboro are closely related and are called the triad. Right after arriving there I got a bad migraine headache. Bill and Patty were very accommodating and offered ideas to try to make me feel better . I did get to see "It's a wonderful life"  and "Miracle on 34th Street". That made me feel better.  We all went for a bite at Carolina's Diner.

From High Point we went to Matthews, NC near Charlotte. There we visited Elizabeth, daughter of Beth, a coworker of mine some time ago. Beth has an RV and Elizabeth set up an RV parking space at her house.  It was nice having connections. Elizabeth works at Discovery Place, an interactive science museum for visitors of all ages, and she gave us comp tickets. Wow! What a cool place. They have all kinds of hands-on experiments demonstrating electricity, leverage, water flow, etc.  I was like a kid in a candy store. One of my favorite parts was the "Animal Grossology" exhibit which explained in great detail things like flies that feed by barfing digestive acids onto solid foods to turn them into liquids.  Or the different messages that dogs get from each other by sniffing the butt. Diane did not like this exhibit very much. I guess it's a boy thing. Another great part of the Discovery Place is that it's run by a non profit and the city of Charlotte rents them the building for $1 a year. And everybody treated us like we were old friends. Huge thanks to Elizabeth for her hospitality and for turning us on to the Discovery Place.

From Matthews we went to Holly Springs, near Raleigh for a quick visit to Chuck, a friend of Diane's. I have noticed during this trip that when we visit somebody, whether they are my friend or family or Diane 's, we are both welcomed and received with open arms. Chuck was no exception. He made us a delicious breakfast and soon we were all talking and laughing like old friends. Chuck is a cool dude and I hope we will stay in touch.

Before heading south we had to check out the North Carolina Outer Banks (OBX). There we saw Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers first flew. The Cape Hatteras lighthouse is very impressive. In 1999 it was moved 2,900 feet inland to save it from coastal erosion.

On the way back from the Outer Banks we stopped at Roanoke Island and saw the site of the Lost Colony. In 1587 about 100 men, women and children stayed at a colony in Roanoke Island while their governor went back to England to get supplies.  When he got back three years later the colony had been dismantled and there was no sign of the colonists. To this day nobody knows for sure what happened. Hmmmm.

We finally turned to the south and after a few unremarkable days ended up in Myrtle Beach. We had both heard of Myrtle Beach but didn't know what it is all about. What a cool place!  We got to ride the bikes on the boardwalk, we rode the Ferris Wheel, we shopped at some exquisite gift shops that would make South of the Border proud. I am glad we stopped there.

It has been difficult keeping up with the updates to this blog because we do fun things faster than I can write about them. Right now is way past my bedtime but the longer I wait the more there is to write about. I have thought of writing an update every day and it might come to that.

In a few more days we will have been on the road for nine months. The people that gave us six months were wrong. I think we're going to actually last a year.

Stay tuned