a back road

As I have mentioned here in NC, we frequently find a landfill in some attractive or scenic local. Well, here in eastern NC in the midst of industrial sized hog farms and chicken and turkey operations, that may be debatable.
In more than one county in eastern NC, the landfill is the highest "peak" in the county offering views of corn, pine, soy, cucumber, cotton and more pine. Add in a little 90 plus degree heat, few clouds, high humidity, recent heavy rain and we are having a beautiful day.
The tobacco is tall, extremely well tended (grass will not grow here for a generation or more I bet)(the wonders of Dow and other chemicals)(now you probably could grow some broad leaf weeds, but not grass.)
below are cucumbers,-- I think --as we are near Mt. Olive, yes that Mt. Olive, as in the one on the jar of pickles in the grocery store.
and you think we import all that corn from Indiana and Illinois to feed those millions of pigs that provide the aroma that wafts by ever so frequently?

On the way home in the late afternoon, I enjoyed stopping by and looking in on a couple of "seen-better-days" corner stores.
There was some old equipment and even one heck of a smashed car at this corner
and I think this house is about 11 miles west of Mt. Olive. You can see all this stuff, even the wrecked car on street view from google, amazing. and you know, it was kind of scenic after all. --off the interstate.

Some years ago I rode across North Dakota in the winter and did a lot of those miles off the interstate and likewise was a bit fascinated with old abandoned stores and houses - some day I may try a random post on them. I like back roads.

restaurant Review #7 at the beach

When I see a place like this, I am thinking "Brown Plate Special" . A Brown Plate Special, (named by brother Mark due to the color of the food on the plate) is a fried combination seafood platter. Well, this place at the end of the main street next to the Cape Fear River in Southport is where I most recently had an excellent Brown Plate.
We parked under the spreading Oak, in the late evening sun on a very recent weekend and as you can see from the photo below we had a wonderful table. (We actually switched after being seated-- we did ask our waitress-- if you do not ask?) anyway Patt had the seat to both watch the room and look out the window, me, just the window looking at the River and the boats coming in from fishing. The fried flounder was great!, popcorn shrimp wonderful, and the crab cake, - well, wish I had ordered the oysters.
After eating we of course walked down the bit of a board walk, and through town,
checked out a few of the older stately homes looking out onto the river
and as it was a windy day and I wore no hat, once again I learned that I do not have what I refer to as "beach hair" -- what I seem to have is a lot of head and some wild hair. I am thinking I should have worn a hat.

Hiking the Blue Ridge

While riding on the Parkway last week, Patt and I would occasionally stop
at one of the scenic overlooks. As I have mentioned the views are just super
At one overlook, pictured below, there was this short little paved path that lead to an upper overlook. As I walked up the path, "re-enacted below for photographic representational purposes, I remarked to Patt, If Jennifer were here she would say "we're hiking" (or perhaps we're mountain climbing") Jennifer is our favorite daughter-in-law and whom we love very much--- and one of the things we love about Jennifer is

that when faced with outdoors type activities, is quick to be impressed with the event. And becomes quite excited with the adventure- often making them out to be a bit of a cause for notation and indeed celebration. So Patt and I claimed a peak crested, a hike/trek accomplished, and an adventurous dangerous path explored.
all along the Parkway this time of year in addition to the beautiful views are of course beautiful flora and even some fauna -- we saw lots of wild turkeys for example.

a drive on the Parkway

A week or so ago Patt and I were in Asheville for a conference that Patt attended. I of course visited our Asheville office and went to one of our beautifully located western landfills. (Photos not included this post)
In addition to enjoying our stay in the west, dodging rain storms, we did find plenty of clear or partially clear skies and beautiful drives on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway is just amazing. There are stretches like above where the road is just hanging on the side of the mountain or going through the hillside.
and of course places where you can pull over and see valleys that just seem to go on and on.

Restaurant Review #6 an NC great

yes -- another BBQ restaurant has been sampled and reviewed. downtown Raleigh, near the railroad station and relocated from a rather rough neighborhood in Wilson is The Pit. Unique in that the food is free range or organic or whatever. -- and really really good. BBQ with a cloth napkin if you will and reportedly without steriods.
You know it is authentic because the sign says it is so. The NC flag helps locate the authenticity of the BBQ so as to know you are not eating a verb. As the place is generally always crowded we sat outside and sampled Raleigh's new favorite controversy -- Bud-lite beer. -- a digression here, Raleigh is about to name an amphitheater the Bud lite Pavilion -- and good grief -- what a broo-ha-ha has been stirred up. We are closing libraries, laying off teachers, have overcrowded jails, potholes in the streets, and we are all in a snit about naming the pavilion after a cheap beer. Anyway, the four of us, Patt and I, Robin and Michael, enjoyed the early evening Raleigh street-scape waiting for our table
Inside of course we went with various delicacies such as BBQ, fried green tomatoes, collards and such. Please note that should Bud lite not be acceptable, there is one heck of a wine cabinet --- what a wine cabinet --- yes a wine cabinet -- in a BBQ restaurant, just what one would expect. Oh and we have been there before and will go back.

wild animals in our town

Documented here for all to see is the results of our brave intrepid wildlife photographer who risked life and limb to bravely approach the above wild animal on the north plains of our properties here. This beast had been seen on prior occasions but had never been recorded before on film.
As can readily be observed this species had been grazing on the flora, specifically some of the invasive species "wisteria" when captured on film. Prior to this moment, special care had been taken to return to the settlement aka "our house" to retrieve cameras, notebooks, and leave word with appropriate next-of-kin as to the adventure about to be undertaken
From more safe distances the beast looks less dangerous and much more gentl, but let not the tranquil setting lull one into throwing caution to the wind. Remember the words of the famous photographer Albert Edgemont Neindormfm.

Junior who

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Junior who? anonymous asked in the comments section to the last posting. Well I certainly did not ask the person who shared her brush with greatness with me.

Being as close to Wilkes County as we were and having

--- oncet lived in Wilkes myself, I sorta figured she wasa referrin' to ole JJ hisself.

A personage for whom no last name is required.

That would be Johnson -- the race car driver -- and former moonshine hauler (alleged).

heading west to the Pilot

Last weekend when Patt and I went to the reunion we left town and headed north almost to the Virginia border, then headed west. It was a beautiful day and as you can see below, we enjoyed "top down" most of the time.
There were period of grey clouds and even rain some as we headed west, but the northern part of our state sure is pretty.
and of course we stopped at the dreaded antique stores. These places have taken the place of General Stores of times gone by and we are not the better off for it I am afraid. Some of these places are a bit much. In one though, Patt stuck her head out the door and called to me as I stood outside under an umbrella in the rain. (it did rain some of the time - and I was avoiding going into the antique store at all costs)-- anyway I digress, Patt called to me and said come in and listen to this woman talk about her cats.
So I did. Inside the darkened store, were two customers talking to the elderly clerk, Patt and myself. The cat woman was saying "you outta see my cayats they so precious, theyey do 'bout enythang. Jay-sus tole me to rite a book bout em." With that Cat woman and her friend went upstairs, - much to my disappointment. I then inquired of the elderly clerk if they were from "around here" and yes they were. Where upon we acknowledged that we were from Raleigh, and yes there were a lot of people from Raleigh and then learned that many famous people had been into this particular store.

You had me at famous -- so I bit -- "well who?" I asked. "oncet, I seen a man in here with this great big shinny rang on his finger and ast him about it. He sayid he had a bigger shinnyer one at home ina lockbox." I made some encouraging acknowledgment of listening and the elderly clerk continued. " He sayed he gotem when he was with " (and here her voice lowered and she nodded her head knowingly) -- "was with Junior" and looked at me like I ought to think she had seen and spent the day with the King and Queen of England. I think I said something like "whooo-- wheee -- ain't that sumthin"
I am thinking that main street here is a happening place on homecoming Friday.
we found this truck when taking in side street cut though. and the theater below will not be showing Avatar in 3D.

being with some cousins

Pilot Mountain is always easy to identify and is a very visible landmark from just about any direction. I can recall hiking around the "knob" and also hiking down the mountain. I think we ended at Dad's cousin George's house which is very close, but I am not sure.

The roads around the mountain through the countryside are just plain beautiful to drive and on the way to the family reunion, Patt and I enjoyed a wonderful Sunday AM drive. The reunion was wonderful and Patt and I had a grand time.
Here I am with one of Dad's cousins, Jim S who was the son on one of Grandmother's brothers - he was a career soldier and is of course interesting to visit with.
This is George J and Peggy and Billy S. George is to my right (your left) and is the cousin we used to think looked most like Dad. He used to come by often and frequently visited Hazel and Granny too. Billy and Peggy have a dairy and tobacco farm, George a retired college professor. I am the "young one" in these photos, but there were dozens of small children and younger cousins present.

oh what a beautiful day

One day I will have to show you a picture of my office, but till then, be aware that few people get to go to the back sides of landfills. and you know who is one of them -- (and byw lots of people have seen photos of offices) and few have seen landfills -- and I have been to the front, side and back side of most of them in the state. -- I try to go on pretty days - and normally am successful too, I may add.

just check out that sky, the clean air, well you do get over the the close up smell pretty quickly. (or I do anyway)-- one of our attorneys does not and I enjoyed taking her on these trips.
and one of the things we do is as rumored-- true-- we intentionally put them in the prettiest parts of the county.
see what I mean in this photo of new expansion of a landfill. Just think, sometime in the future, your - or your neighbors garbage is going into that newly constructed landfill - (got a better idea)(or one you want to get Americans to chose)-- we tried and did not get very far.
anyway, it keeps on coming- --that is a famous forest in the background of the photo below too.-- like on the other side of the fence.
photos from two different landfills - both small local government owned operations.