Year 3 Day 156 – “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 10/05/2023. Day 5 O’Sun ocean front Avon, NC vacation. Heading home. The winds have finally died down and the ocean waves are gentle this morning.
We headed home today at 8:45am. Steve wanted to get home and get moving on closing Clifty Hill 2 up. Justin and his family are staying until Saturday. The exterior windows and doors are in at Lowes They are being delivered next Friday. The Seagulls on the bridge over to Roanoke Island just sit on the guardrail while cars and trucks are flying by at 60 mph. I guess they love the breeze.
From Roanoke Island we pass over the Intercoastal waterway. The Bridge is flat, long, and has a drawbridge.
As we get off the bridge at 10am we enter Tyrell County, North Carolina. This is a totally different trip for us. We have never driven from Avon, NC to KY before. So far, we have basically driven through flat swampish terrain. We then pass over the Scuppermong River which is a blackwater river that flows through Tyrrell County and Washington County, North Carolina, into the Albemarle Sound. The river shares its name with the Scuppermong grapes native to the area. Red wolves are known to exist in only one location outside of human care and that is in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina. Currently there are only a little over 30 of these wolves left in the wild. The endangered species has declined more than 85 percent in the last decade. They were declared extinct in the wild by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 1980. Canis rufus (Red Wolf) is the only wolf species found solely in the United State. I was reintroduced in the late 1980s in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, just across the sound from eastern North Carolina’s Outer Banks. They became extinct due to poaching, trapping and habitat loss. Currently there are 250 in managed breeding to be reintroduced to wild life. These wolves were once common throughout the Eastern and South Central United States.
On today’s drive we see many cotton fields. North Carolina is the 7th largest producer of cotton in the U.S. behind Texas, California, Arizona, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. In 2022, around 14.68 million bales of cotton were produced in the United States, a decrease from about 17.5 million bales in the previous year. The United States is third in the world for Cotton production behind China and India. Egyptian cotton is the best quality cotton and is grown world wide. The Unites States two main species of cotton cultivated for commercial use are upland cotton and Pima cotton. It was a long car ride today and I read this “Our brains are capable of looking for the good in every situation. Therefore, when we look for peace and quiet, we find it. When we look for our friends’ and family members’ best qualities, we find them. When we look for the goodness in the world, we find it. And when we look for reasons to feel thankful and blessed and grateful to be alive, we find them. We find what we look for. So be sure to look for the things you actually WANT to find. At 12:15pm we pass over Interstate 95. Then we stop for gas and McDonalds in Nashville. Steve says wow we are in Nashville, TN. Ah, no we are in Nashville, NC. LOL. Hey, McDonalds has changed their hamburger roll at this location. It is soft and pillowy. The upgraded burger bun will be in McDonald’s restaurants nationwide by 2024. It was good. This is the second significant shift for McDonald’s buns in the past five years. In 2018, the fast-food chain removed calcium propionate from its buns.
At 1pm we are in Raleigh, North Carolina where we pass a high-rise building where Advance Auto Parts Corporate Headquarters is located. They occupy 218,000 square feet in seven floors. Traveling US Route 52 through Surry County, North Carolina around 3pm. We had a good view of the Big Pinnacle of Pilot Mountain. This pinnacle rises 2,421 feet above sea level. This is one of the most distinctive natural features in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is a remnant of the ancient chain of Sauratown Mountains. The Saura Native Americans, the region’s earliest known inhabitants, called the mountain “Jomeokee”, meaning “great guide.
I had a great day learning new things about our country. There is always something new to learn. At 3:45pm we are in Virginia.
Haha – we had no idea that we were going to drive into Virginia and then Tennessee. That is what happens when we blindly follow maps directions. You really start to get dumb for sure. Were you aware that Missouri and Tennessee, which border one another, also share borders with eight states, more than any other state in the nation. Tennessee shares borders with Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. Current ETA for home is 9pm unless we decide to spend the night in a hotel. We will definitely not make it by 9pm. We have to at least stop for gas. Today’s thoughts to ponder are.
Today’s product recommendations are cruising essentials (paid links): 1) It is so nice not to have to worry about stapling your luggage tags to your luggage handles and to have them rip off. We have these plastic holders on our luggage and love them. We use them for Royal Caribbean cruises and also fold the MSC tags to fit in them when we travel with MSC cruise lines. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/3RAGgED 2) A lanyard is great to have. It makes it so easy to carry your seapass card and some tip money around the ship. These are really nice. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/3PTVLGB 3) I have found that a nice toiletry bag is essential, and this is the one I love. Here’s a link to it: https://amzn.to/3EO2Y4F 4) Packing cubes – I can’t say enough about them. I would never go on vacation without them again. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/3Rxx8AA 5) You have to have a small purse for getting off at ports or for carrying a few things with you around the ship. Great for when you have no pockets to carry the cell phone. This one is beautiful. Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/3ETJNpS 6) Room Thermometer- I leave one of these packed in my bag. The temperature fluctuates so much, and I like to try and keep my room at a stable temperature. This keeps me honest with myself. Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/46tNoXH
#CommissionsEarned
To view the complete daily diary, click here – This starts at Year 1 Day 1: Living the Dream – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count