We arrived in Raleigh and headed to College RV. The dealership was filled with “good old boys”. They got us set up in their back lot/campground with some vague promises for “fitting us into the schedule” in the next few days.
We drove the RV back to the “campground” and discovered a whole new breed of “trailer trash”. We’d always thought of “trailer trash” as those folks living in mobile homes permanently affixed to the ground. These folks had travel trailers permanently hooked to their sites. For $270/month, they got a water, electric and sewer hookup.
They wrapped their pipes for winter freezes, had used tire planter boxes (a lot with plastic plants) and some even had container gardens (growing vegetables). Most of them had barking dogs on leashes (and none of them cleaned up after the dogs). After a few days, we renamed the park, “Mount Doo-Doo”. We spent a lot of time cleaning dog shit off our shoes.While waiting for the RV service, we explored Raleigh. It has an Atlanta feeling – shopping malls everywhere and huge roads to handle the tremendous traffic volume. The driving style is reminiscent of Nascar. Speeding is prevalent and they typically speed up and ride your bumper. They hate to be passed and speed up whenever you attempt to pass them. They also ride in your blind spot. It’s a very irritating driving style, not to mention being dangerous.
We spent most of the day shopping (seems like we do a lot of shopping in this new lifestyle). There’s always something that needs to be fixed, groceries that need to be replenished, etc). Fortunately, Raleigh was awash in Target, Home Depot, Kmart, WallMart…
We finally got to tour Raleigh's beautiful historic district, Oakwood. The neighborhood had a wonderful feel – quiet, tree lined streets with lots of houses with southern front porches. The houses were a mix of Craftsman and Victorian styles. North Carolina not only marks the beginning of the “south” in terms of attitude (Maryland and Virginia are more transitional states), but the housing also has the southern tradition of high ceilings (to deal with the heat).
We headed back to the RV to see if they’d been able to fit us into the schedule. Finally, at 4:30, they came to get the vehicle. They got it into the shop and got the tire valve extenders installed (and did a diagnosis of the slider problem). After the frustration of dealing with the dealer, we tried to find a restaurant for dinner. We settled on a Mexican dump across the street.
We headed to the coast in the morning. It was going to be a long day of driving, but we got an early start and it was fascinating to see the change in topography from Piedmont to Coastal Plain. We drove to Edenton (a town that most retirement books recommend). It was charming. The downtown was another Mayberry RFD main street. The housing was Summit-esque – large houses on beautifully manicured lawns. The waterfront housing was Big Chill-esque and the waterfront was truly spectacular. We searched for a restaurant with a water view- with no luck.
We had lunch at a little lunch spot and got the low-down from the locals. The real estate prices are rising- largely due to the influx of northerners and lots of homes are on the market with people trying to take advantage of the market prices. Hurricanes don’t appear to be a problem – no problems with tidal surges. They’re 1/5 hours from Norfolk (where most people go for serious shopping) and 1.5 hours to the beach. Although it was a beautiful town with wonderful housing and a great waterfront, it definitely felt as if it would close in on you in time.
We drove from there through Elizabeth City and onto the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks beach towns weren’t as honky-tonk as Delaware, but still beachy. We stopped at Kitty Hawk.
With another day in Raleigh, we took a trolley tour of historic Raleigh and went through the downtown area and Oakwood district. The downtown was virtually empty – void of life- on a Saturday afternoon. The only activity was around the City Market park (mostly blacks sitting around in the park and white people shopping in the cute little stores). The South is so segregated to this day. Whites and blacks live in completely separate areas, eat in separate restaurants and appear to have very little interaction.
We drove through several other areas of Raleigh proper. Cameron had a Cleveland Heights feel to it- housing built in the 1930’s. We also got some shopping done (shoes and rain gear for John). Cary, a suburb just outside Raleigh, was shopping central with every store known to man. We also found an ethnic enclave there –with a Korean restaurant and Indian grocery store. Dinner was take-out Korean (the woman in the restaurant couldn’t believe that we knew anything about Korean food- half of their menu was Chinese food and we ordered “off the menu”)
Dan and Joanne were in Winston Salem visiting their daughter, Meredith, so we decided to meet them for brunch. Another rainy day and horrifying NC drivers. We did find two truck stops along the way- a Petro and Flying J. We got a truck stop directory and marveled at the ammenities in these stops. Brunch was fun. Joanne kept us entertained – just by being Joanne. She told us that the first time she had ever been out of New Jersey was on a date with Dan. Her dad, a carpenter, thought a big outing was to take the family and drive Route 80 to see the progress. For a big treat, they’d stop by Dairy Queen on the way back for a cone. Jennifer, their daughter, suggested she write a book, “Life beyond Route 80”.
After brunch, we took a drive around Winston Salem. The West End was touted as their “historic district”. It was a Cleveland Heights-esque area and the downtown area was sterile (and dead –although it was a Sunday afternoon). The downtown looked and felt a bit like Rochester, NY.
On the way home, we stopped in Chapel Hill (home of the NC Tar-heels). It was definitely a college town (the campus looked a bit like the UofM campus without the beautiful old buildings and without the large city attached for life outside campus. We did find a NY Times and headed back to Mount Doo-doo.
No comments:
Post a Comment