Another Family Visit...

After our excellent visit with many friends in the Triangle, it was time to head west. Our next stop was Burlington, North Carolina. It had been many years since we had last seen Jimmy’s Uncle Joe and Aunt Ann, and they were still living in Jacksonville at the time. After Joe retired, they decided it was time to move closer to their cousins, whom Jimmy and I hadn’t seen in nearly 30 years. 

Joe and Ann was as hospitable as ever and it was great catching up with them and their cousins.

Their house was lovely, backing up to some woods with regular visitors in their yard.
 

Occoneechee Speedway...

The following day, we bundled up and Carolyn drove us out to Hillsborough for a short hike. 

Our destination was Occoneechee Speedway, one of two of NASCAR’s earliest racetracks, which was built in 1947 and closed in 1968. 

The historic 0.9-mile dirt track was being used that day for a relay race.  

Especially interesting were the rusty racecars scattered about. 

 

“Coldest Hash of the Year”....

That Saturday was full of reunions with lots of old friends. Before heading to the hash, we had a wonderful lunch at Erika and Michael’s. I was thrilled to get to see them, but also felt sad that our time with them was so short and that I didn’t take any photos. 

Somehow the title of Sir Walter’s H3’s trail when we were in town didn’t scare us away—it was aptly named as the temps were really frigid. It was cool that the trail was laid by old timers that we’d known for many years. And luckily there were ways around the wet spots in the woods, so we managed to keep our feet dry. We were really touched that several old timers who had opted to skip trail came out to see us, with one couple stopping by the start of trail and several others joining us at a sports bar in Apex afterwards.

We got lots of hugs but were pretty crappy at getting photos. Here’s Jim, whom Veronica and Ashlynn used to call Sticky Nicky...

…and Kristine, who ran with me.

 

Revisiting Our Old House...

Jimmy and I had several errands to run while in North Carolina, including closing our safety deposit box and visiting our tenants. Amazingly, they have lived in our house (2010 to 2024 = 14 years) for a lot longer than we did (1996 to 2005 = 9 years). 

We were thrilled to find it is still in good shape. Although our tastes have changed over the years, we both could still see ourselves living there once again.  

It’s funny to realize that we’ve never even used the master bathroom, which was remodeled after the flood damage in 2010. 

It was also incredible to see that their giant refrigerator fit in the space of our small one.

And it was sweet to see our names on the slab poured in 2003 when our screened-in porch was added.
 

Fun Times in Durham...

Our next stop on our whirlwind US tour was Durham, North Carolina, where Carolyn and Steve had settled when they downsized. Jimmy had visited them once before, but this was the first time I had seen their charming home.  

While Steve visited us twice in Holland while on business trips, this was the first time I had seen Carolyn since 2012 in Italy. It was great that Sam and Zach could join us for dinner; they were just teenagers when I saw them last and now they’re tax-paying responsible adults. 

When we first moved to North Carolina, downtown Durham was somewhere to avoid. Now it is vibrant with lots of cafés and small businesses plus some interesting signs. I was thrilled that the timing worked for Erika to come by so we could find one of those cafés to have lunch together.  

We took a variety of walks around their neighborhood, including around Duke University’s defunct satellite park, which is now Duke’s Art Annex.

 

Heading South and then North...

After our visit in Jacksonville, it was time to head a bit further south to Gainesville to visit Vivynne and Tony, whom we’d last seen in Switzerland in 2018. Our two nights at their house was very laid back with long walks around the neighborhood (where we spotted these crazy decorations for Valentine’s Day), delicious home-cooked meals and long soaks in their new hot tub. 

We had our longest driving day on January 18 with 10.5 hours on the road from Gainesville, Florida to Durham, North Carolina. We took a slight detour to Brunswick, Georgia, so we could enjoy a nice lunch rather than fast food at a rest stop. 

Definitely nicer views along the back roads. 

As we neared the North Carolina border, we couldn’t resist following the signs to Buc-ee’s, a chain of convenience stores on steroids that started in Texas. Besides having an insane number of gas pumps (over 100!) and the cheapest gas prices around, the store was enormous with an an entire section devoted to their signature beef jerky. Probably no surprise that we didn’t buy much, but we enjoyed gawking at this symbol of Americana. 

No doubt that Buc-ee’s has stolen most of South of the Border’s clientele as it was like a ghost town. Dating back to 1950, it offers much more than snacks, souvenirs and gas, but has never had to deal with competition just down the street.  
 

Hiking in a Nature Reserve...

The following day, Debbie and Dan took the day off of work to spend it with us. We stopped by the beach to search for shark’s teeth, but didn’t have great luck. Then we ventured a bit further south to go to Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estusrine Research Reserve. We were greeted by this gopher tortoise....  

….and a hiking path under water. 

Luckily there were other paths that weren’t waterlogged. 

We didn’t spot any alligators. However, I was thrilled to see armadillos, as I’d never seen alive ones outside of the zoo. 

Despite looking prehistoric, they were surprisingly quick. 

Afterwards, we made our way further south to enjoy a final fish camp dinner. We had such a nice visit! Dan is a lovely guy who clearly makes Debbie very happy.