The Drive to Alabama

There's been a pretty long radio silence since I last posted, but that's only because I was getting ready for and moving to Birmingham. Since then, I've had some incredible adventures and visited some pretty awesome things, all of which I hope to address later on, but for right now, I just want to share the experience of my long, long drive. This drive comes to you in seven parts. That's right, seven parts. Ride with me as I travel the entire distance between North Carolina and Birmingham.

Make sure to watch them on youtube, too, with video annotations!

Shaw Rowe Greenville Goodbye Adventure

Shaw is an awesome character that I wish I had gotten to hang out with more than I did over the last couple years. This weekend, though, I got to visit him in Greenvile, NC and see what he's been up to. Right now that includes putting together an RC plane, which I was privilaged enough to see in the works.

We had amazing pizza and the best sausage dip I think I've had in my whole life at a place called Basil's. To my knowledge there's only one, so you'll have to pilgramage to try it if you're not nearby. When we got back we watched a Bunch of movies that included

• 21,
• Into the Wild,
• Hot Fuzz,
• and Batman Begins;

and on top of all that, we had a mountain of a delicious, mouthwatering cake called Tres Leches. It was so good, we ate almost an entire cake by ourselves. Shaw gave me the recipe, and I might post a recipie for it here if it all goes well. It's very easy to make, but you have to be sure to add the right amount of love.

It was great getting to see Shaw again. Soon, he'll be moving too, so I'm really glad we got to hang out.

Greensboro Goodbye Adventure

I just had a great weekend. Ever since Sunday, when I got off from work, I've been able to visit and talk to a lot of the people that I really wanted to see before I move to Alabama with even more to come. This past weekend I was lucky enough to visit four great friends of mine in Greensboro: Anna Garret, Danielle Dollan, Rachael Traylor, and Josh Canup. I even got to meet someone new, a friend of Anna's named Edward, who loves to take pictures. All really great people.

We spend a lot of our time just talking and having a great time. We relaxed a lot, walked around in a humongous park, spent a beautiful afternoon downtown and in the bookstore, and I got to eat some great meals prepared by Anna, Rachael, and Danielle. I want to thank them, not just for the hospitality they showed me this weekend, but for the love and friendship they've given me over the past four years. I'm really going to miss them, and I look forward to the interaction we'll continue to have in the future.

Fourth of Jul-Awesome

I had a great 4th of July this year with Mike, a Campbell friend who lives very nearby, and today we went all over.

First stop was the Farmer's Market. Even though I know, when stop to think about fun and excitement, the first thing that comes to mind isn't probably your local Farmer's Market, but that's a terrible shame because we had a blast going up and down the fruitful isles seeing the locally grown goodness, and trying samples of peaches and 25-cent honey tubes. I bought two loaves of homemade sourdough bread for $5.00! The baker's name and number are right on the loaf, so I think I might give him a call and tell him what a great job he's doing. It also rained unexpectedly--like cats and dogs--but that only lasted for a few minutes, so we kept on enjoying our fun-filled day.

On our way out of the market, I got lost a little, so we wound up at a movie theater that I've never seen before. Perfect! We decided to catch the manatee of a movie that, personally, I've really been dying to see. WALL-E! Now, it's a fact that Pixar are absolute geniuses when it comes to creating movies that make me laugh, tear up, and completely fall into the story, so it should have come at no surprise that this movie was no exception. It's a worthy, worthy addition to Pixar's already spectacular line of movies. Don't deprive yourself. Go see it!

Later we had a traditional 4th of July hotdogs and Hamburgers chow down at my parents' house and played some Frisbee before it was time to pack in the car and drive to the Adcock farm for some socializing with the who's-who of Fuquay and some dazzling fireworks. Mike was looking forward to fireworks all day, and he was not disappointed. Tired and full of food and goodies, we dropped Mike back off at this house, and turned in. What a great national day!

Jockey's Ridge Adventure 2008

For my last spring break, some great friends and I took a trip across to Jockey's Ridge State Park at Nags Head, NC in the Outer Banks!

It's the biggest and probably the most fun sand dune in eastern North America, and we spent our day sledding down the sandy slopes and soaking in the vista.

Climbing Memama's Tower

Since we were born, we've been passing this old forestry tower to get to my Grandmother's house. Today, we climbed it.

 

Opperation Seaspray 2006

In October (too cold to swim, but completely uncrowded), Travis Hellstrom, Anna Garrett, Wee Wan, Chris McMillan, and I decided to try camping on Bear Island, a part of Hammock Beach State Park. It's a beautiful place that you really ought to visit.

Operation Beneathus 2006

One of the greatest underground spelunking adventures ever, Operation Beneathus took the adventurers deep in the heard of the Earth to The Lost Sea, the largest underground lake in North America.

Exploris Adventure

I'm in awe of just how much there is to see in the world. I've never been to the Exploris museum before, but now that I've been, I wonder why it took me so long to go. I hadn't even heard of it, but it's definitely a place I would suggest visiting.

Sometimes it's truly amazing what the vision of one person can create. Just think of how many people that museum has touched. It makes me wonder how many people I can effect. Of those I have already, what has effect been? My hope is not to have my actions dictated by how they will effect other people, but to have my heart so bent on loving others that my actions will naturally fall into that category.

I mentioned today that I should start right now on a life's work. That way, when it is done forty years from now, I can look on it and see my whole life consolidated into a single vision before me. Hmm, I wonder what my life's work will be... A museum like Exploris? An exciting contribution to literature? An exact monochromatic equivalent of the Mona Lisa done completely in gram stained Bacillus Cereus--one cell at a time? I could do anything! Maybe I'll wait a few years.

After Exploris, we three took it up to Goodberrys, where I had an enormous chocolate-malt-and-marshmallow Carolina Concrete. The whole time I was eating it--well, at least all the time I wasn't thinking about how unbelievably delicious it was--I thought about how wonderful it felt to be right where I was with the people I was with at that particular moment. Travis and Danielle are among my favorite people, and similarly, there is no place on Earth like Goodberrys, the marvelous frozen custard shrine. There are so many things around to enjoy!

"The Travis was walking down a path and, noticing the gyre of a bird in flight, he stopped to watch on a fresh, green tuffet. Tired, the old man gently laid down his staff and cocked his head to stroke his aged beard. 'Snippage!' he said with a sagely nod, and then he died... My children, we can all learn something from the Travis."