The Great American Road Trip

Greetings from North Carolina! Today we drove from Charleston to my wife’s brother’s house in Summerfield. The drive was fairly uneventful, and we stopped only for gas and bathroom breaks. I think I needed a day where we didn’t really do anything. I’ve been feeling worn down and tired, and so it was nice to come here and slow down a bit. I’m pretty good about pulling over when I get drowsy, and today we pulled over more than normal.

Sister-in-law Amanda was very gracious to allow us to hole up for the night. They live out in the country, and we have been marveling at the tremendous noise the bugs make at night! The sound is deafening. We’ve been looking for lightning bugs (fireflies), but so far have been unsuccessful.

Summerfield is near Greensboro, and I briefly entertained the idea of stopping there to visit the Woolworth’s store where black students sat in protest at the lunch counter. They were not welcome there, and things got very dangerous. But, it was yet another step in the long process of destroying the Jim Crow laws so prevalent in the southern states. We skipped it though so that we would have more time to rest.

At Dave and Amanda’s house, the boys got to play X-Box, and my younger son and I played a best-of-three on their air hockey table (I beat him 2 games to 1 – and I only gloated a little!). Dinner was tacos. We also each have our own rooms tonight. Last night I had to sleep with Nathan. I say had to because he is HORRIBLE to sleep with! Normally I only get kicked and punched by my wife (kidding!), but last night felt like an MMA battle. I am also noticing that we have all been getting tired of being on top of each other for the past two weeks. I think we really needed this stop!

Tomorrow, we head to Richmond, Virginia. We might stop at the Appomattox Court House where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, thus ending the Civil War. In Richmond, one of the places I’m looking forward to is the Edgar Allan Poe Museum. Poe spent many years in Richmond, and considered it home.

Since I’ve started this trend, I have to keep it going – Here are some random thoughts for today:

• The other day, I mentioned that I had a lovely conversation with a family from Ireland. It reminded me of something a person from Great Britain said once – that Americans use the word “awesome” way too much. “Everything can’t be awesome,” he said. “It diminishes the meaning of the word.” Well, this Irish family reminded me of something I remember from the Harry Potter books. They say the word “brilliant” way too much. Now, I know I’m fairly intelligent, but this family from Ireland called me “brilliant” several times when discussing our cross-country trip. “Well, that is a brilliant idea. Absolutely brilliant! That’s the way to do it proper. Brilliant…” So, I say, we can continue saying “awesome”, and they can continue saying “brilliant”, or we both have to drop those words from our vocabulary.
• Nathan mentioned this the other day, and it actually has been bothering me. In all this time that we’ve been in the south, we just haven’t heard very many people with the stereotypical southern accents. Almost none! There was the lady at the front desk at our motel in Oklahoma City. There was the lady who took our order at the Cracker Barrel in Mississippi, and that’s it. I really thought I would hear more twang. Instead, I’ve only heard…normal. Very disappointing!
• So sometimes I send things to my wife which do not make it onto my blog. Often they are either inside jokes, proof-of-life photos of the boys, or stuff that is just not appropriate (I guess) for the general public. One example of this was a photo I sent to her yesterday. I guess you could say that this is the price of being married to me:

Anywho, I’m checking out for the night. Tomorrow Richmond. The Eastern Seaboard is coming up next!