Rally in Raleigh

Despite our best (well, maybe not quite our best) efforts, we have fallen way behind on our blogging. This morning we are in Austin, TX already, but I’m going to try to bang out posts for the past two weeks. Starting with beautiful Raleigh.

Trying to "finger tup" away the hiccups

Way back on Monday, May 20^th Justin, Ryan, Rockie, and I were making our cold and wet way down the mountains of Southwest Virginia and heading toward Raleigh, NC. For those of you who may have been concerned: Justin did manage to stay awake for the whole drive though barely, and of course I found cheeseburgers pretty much immediately. We got to Raleigh where we stayed with Rebekah’s mom, Roxanne, and her roommate, Lyn. Those two ladies were some of the most amazing hosts I have ever seen. We showed up hungry, tired, stinking, and wet. So wet. Everything we owned was wet. Rockie perhaps most of all. And they just hugged us and fed us and showed us to warm showers and to warm beds. It was outstanding. The first night, Ry, Rebok, J, and I went out to dinner with two of Rebekah’s good buddies, Nate and Jean Gray. They took us to a delicious restaurant called Beasley’s Chicken and Honey where Justin and I split a giant order of chicken and waffles with sides of smashed potatoes and creamy collard greens. Yum. Post-dinner we went to one of Rebekah’s old stomping grounds, Big Boss Brewery, which is a big ol’ warehouse with ping pong and pool tables to go along with their house-brewed beers and their own hops growing in beds out front. It was around this time that Justin's mega-hiccups first made an appearance.

Mmmmm breuben

The next day we finally got to see some sunshine and proceeded to plaster Roxanne and Lyn’s driveway with our rain soaked camping detritus in an effort to dry it out. We went to get burgers at Rebok’s favorite burger spot. Justin was introduced to a heavenly creation known as a Breuben (That is a Reuben with a Bratwurst on top on a Pretzel Bun) or as Justin affectionately refers to it, “the nail in the coffin of my vegetarianism.” Immediately following the end of the meal Justin's hiccups returned much to the amusement and annoyance of those around him. We all took a lovely stroll around a lake in one of Raleigh’s many beautiful parks before retiring to an evening of wine drinking and amiable debate.  Our departure the next morning was bittersweet as usual when there are fare thee wells involved but we are also finding that these moments are tempered with the excitement of moving on to our next locale. Before we went to Greensboro we managed to squeeze in dinner with The Wooleys (Barb, James, Amber, and Aidan). After a nice big meal of barbecue and fried chicken we began the journey to Greensboro, a journey made perilous by Justin’s full belly and the return of body shaking hiccups.

Myk looking for tiny frogs making a helluva loud song