What do you do EVERY day to take care of the earth's environment? What could you do more of?
I remove oxygen from the air by breathing, and output carbon dioxide. Without this carbon dioxide, trees would die.
Angelina is the name of my 2000 Porsche Boxster S that I sold this past weekend. And yes, I name my cars. Our new minivan has a name, our old minivan had a name, and the old 91 Buick Regal, that was my daily driver until it permanently broke down recently, had a name - The Grey Ghost. For fear of being perceived as ostentatious, I never mentioned here, on my blog, that I owned a Porsche. Now that it's gone, I figure it's ok to write a post about it, since this blog is after all, along with being a social site, a place where I journal my life for future rememberance.
Much like Steve B has a fondness for BMWs, Porsche is a marque that I became found of, in large part I suppose, from living in Germany for six years. While over in Germany I owned an old 1982 Porsche 944. Even though Porsche purists will thumb their noses at 944 owners, because they don't view the 944 as a "true Porsche", I didn't care. I loved that car, and after having owned it for 5 1/2 years, I was sad to have to sell it because I was moving back to America and it didn't meet American specifications.
A couple of years after moving back to the USA, I was able to purchase a used 2000 Porsche Boxster S. It wasn't the most practical of cars, but it was nice owning a Porsche again. It was also nice to have a "date car" to drive, on those rare occassions where my wife and I were able to go out for a date or a short trip. Unfortuantely, since the Grey Ghost had recently given up the ghost, Angelina had become my daily driver, and as much as I enjoyed driving it, it just wasn't a practical car to drive everyday. So, I made the decision to sell it and buy something that I won't feel guilty about driving into the ground. I hardly ever used the convertible top anyway.
I'll miss ol' Angelina. She went on a few business trips with me, had her top cut open by theives, was scraped down the side by a neighbors car, and was rear-ended by a taxi cab in New York City. That one was fun. Nothing like arriving at a hotel, handing your keys over to a valet, and getting a call from the receptionist 15 minutes later saying that, "there's been an incident involving your automobile....". My son keep all her information. He says he plans to track her down one day and buy her. Here are a few pictures.....
Janie was able to go with me on last weeks business trip to Fayetteville, so that was pretty cool. We stayed at Pinehurst, which is just west of Fayetteville. If you all have seen the pictures of Fayetteville from past posts, than you know that it's not an area known for having lots of money. It's actually an area that makes one grateful and appreciative for the things he has. I now know why Fayetteville doesn't have any money - it's all it Pinehurst. That place is beautiful, but such a different way of life. Everyone was dressed like they were ready to hit the golf course or the tennis courts. Older couples, with sweaters tied around their necks, were playing tennis with their tennis instructors. Over the course of a couple days, I witnessed counless scenes that I've seen played out numerous times in Dockers commercials and Sears catalogs. You know, the ones where a group of people are standing around in semi-circles, laughing like they don't have a care in the world. That's Pinehurst - one big bizzaro world. Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip....
I love it when I get a hotel that has a hot breakfast. I love free eggs, sausages and waffles.
Pinehurst had some beautiful houses.....
The first day we went out to dinner in Fayetteville with a couple co-workers. Tuesday evening we went to Southern Pines, to walk around and have dinner at a little German restaurant Janie found....
Can't take Mr. Bill anywhere....
On the way home we stopped in Chapel Hill for lunch, at a place Janie had heard Jen mention before...
We drove through Petersburg Virginia on the way home. That historic little town is really rundown, but has so much potential. If someone doesn't do something soon, it'll be too late to repair.
McAlister's in Chapel Hill
Guess where I get to go back to. That's right, Fayetteville North Carolina. Ugh. Of all the places I've had to go to for work, Fayetteville is the one place I'd prefer to not go back to. Why couldn't it be Germany? Gone are the days where I was sent to Germany, England, and Japan for buisness. Unfortunately Fayetteville has quickly become the place I've had to go to the most. I think it's now overtaken Tucson Arizona. To keep the place from getting too boring I'm starting to change up where I stay when I'm in that area. Last trip I stayed in Lumberton, this time I'm going to be crazy and stay in Pinehurst.
I've been troubleshooting a problem on our network. Last trip I isolated the problem to the satellite portion of the network. I installed the network portion of this satellite site a few years ago with a couple satellite technicians. These same technician are going to be in Fayetteville this coming week. I told my gov't guy they'd be down there, and it'd be a good idea for them to look at the satellite equipment while there in the area. He said, "That's a great idea. I think you should go ahead and go down there." Um, ok. I wasn't really thinking of me going down there, but alright. Thankfully it's only a one day trip. I'll leave on Sunday afternoon and return on Tuesday afternoon.
Since it's only a one day trip, Janie's mom was nice enough to stay here and watch the kids so Janie can go with me. Should turn out to be a nice little trip.
Yesterday started bright and early on a little Island off the coast of North Carolina and finally ended at 10:45 at night in Maryland. It was a great last day of travel, we even were able to meet some Vox friends for the first time, but after the sun set, I was definitely ready to get home.
Our room in the (scary per Ashbychick) Blackbeard Lodge.
Some shots of Ocracoke Island. Not the lesser known Okracoke, as my brother originally thought.
Apparently Ocracoke was a popular hangout for the pirate Blackbeard. He was killed right off the shore here in 1718.
Going north off the island, the ferry ride was free and shorter, which was nice. It was REALLY windy. You can see from the picture below that the kids are really leaning into the wind.
Besides the Ocracoke lighthouse, we were able to see the Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island lighthouses.
Before leaving the Outer Banks, the kids wanted to walk out to the beach.
As the sun started getting low in the sky, we needed an emergency stop to reenergize.
Since our trip took longer than planned, the kids missed out on a Build-a-bear birthday party. To make up for it, I promised them I'd stop on the way home and let them pick out one.
The mall we stopped at was in Jamie and DeWitte territory. Janie PM'd Jamie to let her know we were in the area if they wanted to meet up. Luckily for us they received our message in time and graced us with their presence. Choosing to see us over watching a Don Knotts movie was a great honor. They were just as nice and charming in person as they are online.
After the building of bears and meeting of friends, we made headed straight for home. Sight seeing isn't much fun at night anyway.
Well, I guess we didn't head straight for home. No trip to the south is complete without a least one stop at a Sonic. The chili wraps were good, but the sweet breaded onion rings were not.
I really love road trips, and this trip was very enjoyable. I guess I need to start planning out another one soon.
Just. Got Home. So. Tired. Must. Go. To. Sleep. Will. Blog. Trip. Tomorrow.
Never a truer title to a post. This post is being composed from the island of Ocracoke in the Outer Banks. I decided to take a different way home, as I-95 is getting boring, and after a few back roads and a ferry ride we ended up here. Here's how it began....
The morning started out with breakfast at the Waffle House.
We then ran into the Ghostmobile. The Sudan Temple ain't afraid of no ghosts!
We decided to get gas somewhere else...
I love the old houses you see on the back roads. It's almost like going back in time....
The back roads soon turned from rural views to ocean views...
Eventually the road turned into a ferry ride. We were all happy to see cars lined up to get on the ferry. Since we were the only car on the road for quite a view miles leading up to the ferry, and we had no ferry schedule, I assumed we might have missed the last ferry trip of the day. We didn't.
The ferry ride took two hours. We roamed the ship, played Uno, and fed birds....
We decided to stay on the lsland since it would be no fun to drive the Outer Banks in the dark and miss all the scenery. We stayed in the oldest hotel on Ocracoke island, the Blackbeard Lodge.
Mr. Bill and Blackbeard...
Everyone on the island (the two people we asked), said Cafe Atlantic was the best place to eat dinner. They were right. The place was very nice and the food was excellent.
Tomorrow, Ocracoke Island sites, the blackbeard museum, lighthouses, and whatever else comes up along the way.
Work today went a little longer than I thought it would, but I still managed to make it to the Tactical Assault shop before it closed, so Mr. Bill was pretty excited about that. The store wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be, but it did have a couple photo opportunities. Unfortunately, Mr. Bill's owner is a wuss, and wasn't brave enough to break out the camera in front of four tactical assault shoppers and one mean looking tactical assault owner. Mr. Bill's owner instead fled the store and took a quick picture by the window display.
Ooohhh, Collectibles.....
I imagine this place hears a lot of, "I'd like the guy on the sign look please".
At first glance you're thinking, "Oh, they just did a clever play on words." Then you see the window sign and realize they're not so clever.
Nashville may have the Parthenon, but Fayetteville has the Eiffel Tower. Take that Nashville.
Tonight Janie picked a place called Fuller's BBQ and Buffet for dinner. It's a country buffet, complete with okra, chitlins, and fatback. The food was pretty good for a buffet, but the atmosphere was better.....
Apparently Lumberton has a Miss Lumbee AND a Little Miss Lumbee. They're portraits are featured at Fuller's.