NORTH CAROLINA

We arrived in North Carolina on 31-7-08 after a very eventful last day. The car began to make strange noises and we eventually limped into Jackson, Ohio and managed to get to a CAA garage. The uni joint had gone, in fact the drive shaft dropped onto the floor of the workshop as the mechanic was driving it and they thought it was a great joke. One guy said 'Well I guess we know what is wrong with it now.' We were directed to a local diner where we had our first southern breakfast and met the owners and their son Kyle. He is 20 yrs old and doing engineering at Uni and he offered to show us around the city and surrounds while the car was being mended. Talk about southern hospitality. We were only delayed by a few hours and arrived in Greensboro about 6pm.


We both met Louisa, Andrei's sister for the first time and I met Sylvia for the first time as well. We shared some meals together and the picture above is of Sylvia and Louisa in the small courtyard attached to Lee and Andrei's condo. We ate outside most nights as the weather was so hot and steamy, reminded us of home.

The photo at the top of this post is of 4 of Lee's neighbours who were playing football on the greenway behind the condo and were so proud to have their picture taken.


This is a photo of Kyle and I outside his parents' house. They are very busy people as they own the diner, a trucking company, acres of land and a sawmill. As well as attending Uni Kyle also drives trucks and works the land. He seemed much older than his 20 yrs.


The area around Greensboro is very lush and fertile and at one time was the centre of the tobacco industry. While there are still quite a number of working farms many have been abandoned. This is one of the old tobacco drying sheds that we came across on one of our trips. It is still surprising to see so many people still smoking and even more so to go into a restaurant and find that people are still able to smoke in designated ares.


We took a trip out to a local State Park called Pilot Mountain to get some exercise, see the local area and enjoy a picnic lunch. While we were there we happened across a couple of people who had been riding and after speaking to them they offered Wayne a ride on this Tennessee Walking horse. He didn't ride far but it was quite an experience as they have a most unusual walking gait which is very comfortable.


We crossed a river to an island and walked around it before having lunch. Not a great deal to see as it was quite heavily vegetated. Andrei managed to find some poison ivy and came up in welts. We did not actually see it so we still do not know what it looks like.

Below is a group photo at the condo.