We arrived in Fayetteville NC to meet up with Nate and his family: his wife Rachel and their kids Kingston, Jackston, Ace and Emelia – and their tiny tiny dog Cloye, a teacup Yorkie. We had arrived just in time for dinner with them and spent a couple hours after the kids went to bed just catching up and reconnecting before Kate and I retired to the luxury of the RV and the two parents went to bed. They have an early start every day at 5 am. Kate and I however stayed up a bit longer watching 1970’s game show reruns. Match game +, Hollywood squares, and the match game hollywood squares hour! The TV that was in the RV was able to get a handful of other channels from the antenna attached to it, but when you’ve got game shows as an option what else do you need?

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Monday was a relaxing at home kind of day. Kate worked on the blog post for most of the morning and early afternoon while I got some remote work done. Rachel woke the kids from their midday nap and packed them into the car to go pick up the other two from school. We were left at the house to guard Cloye.

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Our hosts were incredibly gracious and accommodating, they stocked the RV with snacks we might enjoy and even put a giant veggie tray in the RV fridge for us. We nibbled on veggies and lounged on the couch while tapping away at our laptop keyboards. It was around this time that Cloye, who is quite the elderly dog and has gone deaf and blind, smelled our snacks and decided that leaning dangerously off of the edge of the couch to try snag a carrot or two was the perfect game to play. Concerned that she might fall the foot and a half to the ground and have her bones collapse to dust inside of her, we continuously rotated her back and away from the snacks … only for her to climb right back over our laps following her nose in search of food like a vegetable-addicted Toucan Sam. After several rounds of this we had finished our snacks and Cloye was upset that she hadn’t gotten any. She proceeded to bark at us, well I assume it was a bark. She had been boarded the whole weekend before while Nate and Co. were out of town. When we arrived we were informed she had barked her voice away. So what we heard was a thin strained yelling that sounded like a cat being pulled through a Pringles can.

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In the afternoon we took on a much needed cleaning project. We emptied out our car, Lloyd, and cleaned out all the accumulated debris from several months of road travel. We vacuumed the carpeting, rearranged storage, put away things we hadn’t used in a couple months, and got rid of plenty of trash. It was a great feeling to have a clean house.

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The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent hanging out with the fam and eating family dinner again (such great cooking!). Nate got home from work at his veterinary practice a little late and so he only caught the tail end of dinner. The kids were helped with homework, showered and put to bed. Again the adults sat around for a little while talking. As Rachel was exhausted from the day she went to bed and Kate and I ended up talking to Nate about animal medicine and human medicine and where the two intersect. Then it was bed time, and game show time.

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In the morning we woke up and had some snacks in the RV and enjoyed some more game shows!! Laying in bed watching TV is such a luxury. We weren’t going to pass up the opportunity. A Supermarket Sweep later and it was time to face the day. We headed into the house where Kate toasted up the last two slices of bread from our most recent loaf. We ate toast and drank coffee while having a morning chat with Rachel before our day’s adventure. We actually made plans to do something other than loaf about in bed watching old tv shows, I promise.

We left the comfort of the RV and drove down to the Cape Fear River Walk and set about walking along the path for a few miles. It wound in and out of wooded wetlands, partially along a road, and also behind people’s houses. When it was in the woody wetlands it was nice but walking directly behind people’s houses was a little strange. After a couple miles and a quick stop in a port-a-potty we felt that we had gotten what it could offer. We made our way back and when we got to the car we realized we had several hours of time to kill as we had plans to go see a movie later that night but the showing wasn’t until 7:30 and it was just after 3 now.

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We figured this would be a good a time as any to finally get a replacement key cut as we had more “dead time” to fill here than anywhere else we’d been in the previous weeks. Furthermore we’ve been lovingly reminded by followers of the blog to do as such!

While we sat in the parking lot adjacent to the riverwalk I set about calling various locksmiths around town to see if they could offer the service we were looking for. One wanted to drive to us as they were a mobile only operation and had no central office we could stop by. That felt a little strange to me and I tried to explain that we only needed a key copied and did not need them to come to us, which seem to perplex the gentlemen on the other end of the phone. He did however offer at the end of the phone call the name and location of a shop that would probably be best for our needs.

So we headed downtown to Rite Way Safe and Lock which happens to be a block away from the movie theater that we were planning on visiting later! Looks like this day would be shaping up wonderfully, all the little pieces just coming together. Well if you’ve been following the blog at all you know something had to go wrong. Despite their web presence saying they close at 5pm when we got there around 3:30ish there was a handwritten sign taped in the window that said today they’d be closing at 3. 😤 Oh well. We figured “Well, we’re already downtown, let’s explore a little.” We noted the parking sign and its 3 hour time limit. We even commented that we’d have to move the car before the movie if we intended to stay down here the whole time.

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We walked around a bit looking at a couple shops and agreed it’d be a good time to get a late lunch as we wouldn’t be at the house for family dinner this evening. After much deliberation we settled on Pierro’s, a delightful Italian restaurant. We split an order of bruschetta for an appetizer and some baked ravioli for an entree. Besides saving us some money, splitting was the right call as there was just so much food. In addition to what we ordered they also brought us a plate of garlic knots before the meal and the entree came with a salad. We were stuffed to the gills by the time the meal was ended. We took our leftover garlic knots with us. By now it was nearly 5 and we still had a lot of time to kill.

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We decided to leave the downtown area to do some light grocery shopping, restock on bread and a few other things we’ve been using up while on the road the past couple weeks. Soups, chili, tuna, this type of stuff. We also bought a six pack of beer to replace the ones we’d been drinking at the house the past couple of nights after the kids had been put to bed. We found a grocery chain called Food Lion, which seemed like any other nation-wide grocery store. We got our items and hopped back in the car and headed back to the house. We stashed our sundries in the RV and took the beer in the house right as dinner was wrapping up. Hung out for a couple minutes and then headed out to the movie.

When we got back downtown, we were going to park one street over – right next to the theater – but all those parking spots were taken. We ended up on the same block we had parked on before, just one space closer than we had been in that afternoon. We walked over to the Cameo Art House, a small two screen movie theater in the heart of downtown Fayetteville. The place was really homey-feeling, no oversized luxury recliners and stadium seating, instead just an old-fashioned movie theater. Retrofitted with digital projectors though. We bought our tickets to The Lighthouse and settled into the nearly empty theater. HAAAAARK!!! Ye should see this film, lest ye be struck down by Poseidon’s wrath. … I don’t want to give too much away but the film is very strange and worth seeing. It is in black and white and has an old style 4:3 frame which makes it look like it’s from an older generation of cinema. It’s about a couple guys being stuck at a lighthouse for a long time.

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When the film ended we found ourselves discussing with each other and the theater operator, who was standing in the lobby, what we thought it was about. After a couple of minutes we departed and walked back to the car where we discovered a PARKING TICKET. We had been so cautious! We had even left and parked in a different spot when we returned! There was no way we were over the 3 hour limit! Only the parking violation we had incurred was listed at the bottom of the sign in much smaller text: no same day return to this block. Yeah, we got fined for trying to take the precaution of leaving and moving the car. So frustrating. At least the ticket was only for $15. So, not the end of the world. But still, who has ever heard of a “can’t park on the same block twice in one day” rule? Bah!

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We headed back to the RV and settled in to relax for the evening but ice cream was required to soothe the nerves so I took a short walk down to the gas station and back. Game shows and goodnight.

When the morning shuffled us out of bed and back into the land of the living we knew today there would be no stopping us. Today would be the day we got the key replacement cut. A quick stop in the house for coffee, toast, showers, and midday chats while the little ones napped and then we were off! We headed back to the same location after first calling to verify that they would be open honest to the posted hours. They confirmed on the call that they indeed would be there and ready to help us. When we got there we parked out front again, grumbling about parking tickets and returning to the same block, then went into the shop.

There were safes lining the walls and a large counter set about halfway back into the store. We walked in but there was a gentleman ahead of us being helped or just finishing his transaction. The man behind the counter politely talked with him for a minute or two as the customer didn’t seem to eager to leave, wanting to stick around and just carry on conversation. After a few moments the man behind the counter thanked the customer again and indicated that he needed to begin helping us. I approached and explained I needed a regular key copy made, described the make and model of the car when prompted and then handed over the key stub. He said, “let me see what I can do.” I turned back to Kate who had began wandering over to some of the large safes along the wall nearest us, some really nifty ones that had been rescued from an old closed down post office, and before I knew it the gentleman came back up to the counter and said “All done. Anything else you need?” – Shocked that nearly a month’s worth of frustration was deftly handled in less than a minute I told the man that I was stunned he finished so quickly. I noted that there was a sign near the register that demanded a minimum transaction amount for credit and debit cards. Knowing that I was under the required amount as the replacement key only cost about $3.75 I suggested to Kate we purchase something else when the man stopped me and said he’d waive the minimum purchase amount as he was grateful that we even noticed the sign. All around a great transaction. Everyone can rest easy now: THE KEY IS FIXED.

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We made our way back to the house where we had an afternoon of relaxing ahead of us. We handled some laundry and then joined our host family for dinner one last time as we knew we would be leaving the next morning. We ate and chatted for a while and made sure to say our goodbyes then as we had more fun plans for the evening and everyone here at the house would be in bed by the time we got back. Thank you again to the Riddell family for having us. It was an absolutely lovely time, your graciousness and generosity were not lost on us!

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As for the evening, we had plans to go to World of Beer for a trivia night. Now, to those of you who know how much we love trivia this may come as a surprise but we haven’t been able to go to a single trivia night on the trip yet! We tried once before but that didn’t work out. So we were determined to go this time. PLUS!!! This wasn’t just generic trivia night, it was Friends themed. That’s right- NBC super sitcom from the mid 90’s / early 2000’s has its own trivia night at the World of Beer in Fayetteville, NC. We normally do alright at trivia, not always winners but within a few points of first place so we felt like we might be alright here.

When we got down there though… Was it ever busy. We arrived around 7:15 and it was scheduled to start at 7:30, so we expected it to be a little busy. This however was bedlam. Every single seat, table, and standing space was taken. Inside and outside, and even beyond the patio outside. They set up extra tables and chairs in the alley next to the restaurant and those were all taken as well. To top it all off there were about 50 people in line to register still. A cursory glance around the bar and we knew that we wouldn’t be sticking around for much longer. As we stood outside researching what else to do and where else to go we heard an announcement from inside that only the people currently in line already would be allowed to join and no further applicants would be accepted. There were still people parking, and more who had just parked walking over to the entrance to get it. IS THERE NOTHING BETTER TO DO IN FAYETTEVILLE ON A WEDNESDAY!?!?

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We reacquainted ourselves with the front seats of the car and drove off toward our next destination: a live music bar called White Rabbit Pub. At first I thought it might be just on the other side of hole-in-the-wall charm bordering on seedy dive bar but my concerns were soon laid to rest. We entered and had to join a membership before we’d be allowed to order drinks. We both felt a little strange about that and the bartender informed us that it was policy and would be enforced at any bar we went to. I guess they are all required to either charge a cover for entry or operate as a membership club. So we paid $2 for a year long membership and then took our seats at the bar. We had chosen this bar because there was another ‘jam night’ going on and seeing how much we had enjoyed the one we recently attended back in Chattanooga we thought we’d try our luck again.

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This one was pretty fun too but we didn’t stick around long enough for any other musicians to play. Just the ones in the opening / hosting band. We were there for a good while though. We ordered one drink for ourselves and soon we were chatting up locals, who bought us drinks, and the bartender, who bought us a jello shot each! What friendly friends in the White Rabbit Pub! We sang along to the 90’s rock covers that the band was performing and enjoyed our last night here in town. When our mood began to change we left and headed home. One last luxurious sleep in the bed with game shows beaming glorious 70’s radiance down upon us.

We woke up and packed up the car. Said goodbye to Rachel again and then set off toward the coast. Please click this link for background music while you read along. Yes we were driving to Surf City, NC. We made some tuna sandwiches along the drive and when we got there we walked along the shore collecting shells. Kate has plans to make something decorative from our findings. There were a gaggle of different shells to choose from and we made sure to pick up at least one of each variety we found. After an hour or so of musing over mollusk husks we enjoyed the sunset and were ready to leave.

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Seeings as we were in the “Seafood Capital of the Carolinas” we agreed that a bite to eat was the game plan. We did a bit of internet research and found Capt. Bob Beck’s Marina Cafe. Talk about iconic seafood shacks. This place was exactly what you imagine when talking about a seafood shack down at the marina. We walked in and there plenty of tables in the bar area, to the right was an arcade with Simpson’s Pinball, and a meeting hall for community events. The menu was fairly expansive yet somehow filled with only “fried beige” – a term Kate and I have for generic fried bar-food. There were a lot of options but we split a combo plate of fried: flounder, clam strips, shrimp AND hush puppies?? We were set. We ended up staying here and relaxing, using up the free wifi for a few hours. Most other patrons had already left but the bar was open ’til 2 am.

After gorging ourselves on fried goodness and slurping up as much wifi as we could before our phones were about to die we retired to our campsite for the evening, a boat launch in the Croatan National Forest. We drove a way into the forest, which by the way is the only entirely coastal forest east of the Mississippi river, and found a site still open though many of the others at this location were taken. We set up the car and were getting ready for bed when we heard the strangest bird calls. We laid silently in the car with the door ajar to listen as we were sung to by Barred Owls. If you’d like to listen to what we heard, some great examples can be found on this website. Specifically the third link (duet from South Carolina). After a few minutes they calmed and we fell asleep. It rained overnight.

The morning came and we eventually roused from our warm blankets to face the chilly morning air. Stepping out of the car and prepping for the day brought us face to face with our neighbors. I had an encounter on a morning walk with a lady who was complaining about not being able to sleep because of the rain. Kate had a brief conversation with a guy who was asking if the solar panel on top of the car ‘really worked’ – Why would we strap it to the top of the car if it were only decorative? We had woken up a bit later than usual so we ate our breakfast and got onto the road pretty quickly. We were destined for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and it was a few hours away.

Myrtle Beach is a strange strange place. It looks like the city planners took one drug-fueled vacation to Lake Havasu back in 1998 and when they got back they convinced the whole town that they had “like such a good idea bro.” There are enormous discount beach wear emporiums everywhere. More than any city could possibly need. Way more than even in San Diego or along the Santa Monica beach front. They’re everywhere throughout town and all of them seem to offer “No prices above $5” …I had a feeling in the back of my mind that they are a money laundering front.

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We eventually made it down toward the water and parked our car in a public access parking lot. After trying to figure out how to pay a nonexistent meter a stranger with a dog approached and let us know they remove the meter heads at the start of November and it was free parking. We thanked him and headed off to the sandy shore. We gathered even more shells, this time we were able to gather a variety that wasn’t as prominent at the previous beach. It was starting to get really cold and windy though. We picked our fill of curly seashells and headed back to the car. We had no intentions of staying in Myrtle Beach for any real length of time and seeing as the whole town had a weird vibe, like a carnival that shuts down for the winter, we were good to leave.

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Our drive continued for another couple hours. We churned through another couple chapters of Game of Thrones audiobook #4 before we met the red light to end all red lights. A line of cars probably a quarter-mile long all waiting to turn at this one intersection. After waiting through the queue for 10 minutes we had reached the near front. It was there that we sat for another 10 minutes before seeing the issue: this direction of traffic was being skipped over and over again by the traffic system. The light just stayed red. Skipped 6, 7, 8 times in a row. Eventually all the cars started to just pull out of the line and drive through the neighboring streets determined to find an alternate route. We followed suit and were soon on our way. Some people say that if you drive through that town on a cold misty night, you can still hear horns blaring and expletives too harsh for children’s ears.

Eventually we found our respite for the evening, the Honey Hill campground which had this really cool tower that loomed over the whole area. I fell asleep after we got the car ready for bed and cooked dinner. Kate however had a horrendous time sleeping. She slept briefly and then awoke and stayed woke for a few hours before being able to finally get some shut eye. Near midday she was able to wake after being able to recuperate the sleep that escaped her in the night.

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Saturday morning/midday began as many have, with coffee and oatmeal. Today’s destination was Charleston, South Carolina. Plantations and Spanish Moss everywhere! The first stop we had planned was a Planet Fitness for exercise and showers. When we wrapped up the showers we sat around the lobby and used the wifi there to research what Charleston had to offer us for the next couple of days. The highlight that stood out to us?

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The 7th annual Rockabillaque! That’s right, two days of classic cars, over 35 bands, and authentic southern barbeque all with free entry! This is actually where we spent all of the rest of the day and the better part of the evening. Walking the streets taking in the sights, sounds, and smells while admiring the dedication of people who dress to the nines attempting to recreate some idealized fantasy version of what they thought the 50s were like. Don’t get me wrong there is a lot of cool stuff about the whole classic car / rockabilly scene, but there is a certain level of aggrandizement of a period of American history that was not always the picturesque teen beach movie that one might want it to be.

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We wandered around and grabbed a couple cheap drinks from a hatchet-throwing bar where we met a local, and when I say local – he lived on the same street we were on – who was friendly as all get out but admittedly hard to understand. Partially due to his very thick Louisiana accent and partially due to his slightly slurred speech from a night of revelries. Either way, very nice guy. We bid him adieu as we walked down the street to the BBQ joint that was hosting the whole shin-dig. We ended up splitting a platter of food here as well, though no pictures exist as it was eaten far too quickly to think about writing about it here. Sorry everyone. It was tasty though. From memory: ribs, brisket, spicy hot link sausage – with mac ‘n’ cheese, baked beans, and waffle fries for sides. Right as we were finishing up the gentlemen we had met and left behind at the hatchet-throwing establishment walked in and sat down next to us again. As we were about to leave anyway he joked about driving us off again. Only half true.

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We headed back out to the woods to a different dispersed camping area. When we pulled in the area was seemingly pretty full but there weren’t any numbered spaces, only a general parking area and the surrounding woods. We did a lap of the one-way road before circling back and just pulling off the road next to some other cars. We set up the car for bed and fell sleep.

Woke up on Sunday and cooked some breakfast. After packing up the car we drove back into town, stopping at Costco for gas, and then made our way over to the Angel Oak Tree which is really stunning. An impressive sprawling behemoth of branches which seem to wind in every direction around, even into the ground and back out. Huge support beams have been placed to help keep up the limbs of this 400 year old giant. Really amazing tree but we’ve already seen some truly astonishing trees on this trip so it was hard to be as excited as some of the other tourists there. We overheard one couple doting about “the energy when I touch it just reaches right into my soul” and just kind of rolled our eyes. Anyway, onward goes the journey!

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The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the familiar confines of a completely new-to-us Starbucks. Funny how if you’ve been to one, you can pretty much say you’ve seen them all. Nonetheless we needed a place to write the blog post and they are always accommodating. We’ll be leaving the Charleston area tomorrow but there is one more thing we have planned, you’ll have to wait until Kate’s next post to hear about it though.

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For now, much love! As always, thanks for following along the adventures here on the 26 Sundays blog.