Of Little Consequence

That's what this post is. Unless you want to know how the summer is going so far, in which case, read on!

Part of why we moved down here was this "quality of life" concept thingy. We are mostly selfish humans who want more freedom, more adventures, more of the things we seem to have missed by being Responsible Adults for most of our lives. 

We recently took a 48 hour trip to Myrtle Beach, which turned out to be a sort of a mistake, so we moved north to Oak Island Beach - a significant improvement! Myrtle was like Hampton, only worse.  Oak Island was peaceful and beautiful. It was a nice get away, and served to remind me of just how much I really love living at the beach. I think sometimes I miss Plymouth more than Northfield, if I miss the north at all - and that's pretty debatable most days.

I entered a yoga challenge in an attempt to win five free classes at my favorite studio....and I WON! I think Gene's image really put me over the top...

I call it "Comfortable Seated Pose with Husband Making Giggles Happen". Basically you had to do a pose a day, copying the "host" of the challenge. I was pretty honest in my images. Like for side crow? There's a great series of images of me falling into the sand at Oak Island. Honesty is the best policy. Yoga, like life, is a journey. Not a destination. I am a long way from side crow, and man did I prove it.

We discovered Mount Mitchell, the highest point on the eastern seaboard, and the Blue Ridge Parkway...not that we didn't know they were there before, but we made a closer inspection.

Looks more like home than anything we've seen, but then you get up around 6,600 feet and suddenly everything looks bigger.

 Gene drives my Prius like it's Gran Prix season on route 80 coming down from the parkway. 

Mount Mitchell summit hike.

We did this on Mother's Day. It was a lovely drive. The summit hike is 2 miles one way from the ranger station...we got there too late to do the whole thing, but we went a ways out and scoped it out, and really want to go back. We ate lunch at the restaurant there; delicious locally sourced trout dinner, which we split. 

We also went to Pilot Mountain SP and Mount Airy... I don't remember when. The mountain is a cone that no one is "allowed" to climb...kind of a bummer because if you're into it I bet it's fun.

 Pilot Mountain

 Perimeter hike

Opie's Candy!

Mount Airy is apparently where The Andy Griffith Show was filmed. We were there on Sunday which was probably a mistake because pretty much everything was locked up tight. But we saw a few landmarks and had a short walk. That was before we headed to Pilot Mountain. Again we were too late in the day to do the 2.5 mile hike there...but we got to scope it out and want to go back. Hiking is harder with Yoshi...we can't take him, or are not always sure if we can, and don't want to leave him forever with no food or walk. Dogs are...complicated. 

Most recently we went to Charlotte Motor Speedway to watch the Nascar Camping World Truck Race. Yes, we are trying to touch our inner redneck. 

 We even have ear protection.

We got to see the cup series qualifying....that's cars, with names you might recognize, like Earnhardt (in the 88 car above! YAY!) and Busch (Like Kyle, BOO!) and Jimmie Johnson.

Speaking of, there's Jimmie Johnson in the Lowes 48 up there. The race they were qualifying for runs tonight....we won't be there, but I bet a whole lot of people will!

And this is the number 7 Toyota Tundra driven by Brett Moffit who looks to be about twelve, but I am assured is actually a grown up, mostly.

Here he is, being interviewed before qualifying. Also pictured is Jen (she's the one with the coffee) Hebert, who is my cousin Kathy's daughter. She (Kathy, not Jen) died of lung cancer a few months after Dad...which is how he wanted it. He did not want her to die first, because although he suspected she was dying he wanted to pretend she wasn't going to. He was very successful in this. Jen does PR for Red Horse Racing, so we get to be fancy at races, and get into the pits, and see drivers up close, and all sorts of fun stuff like that. Jen spoils us, and we do not protest. Dad would be so jealous. In fact last night I wanted to call him so bad I could taste it. 

Today we went to the Race City Festival here in Mooresville, which has almost nothing to do with racing, in spite of this whole town being driven (no pun intended) by the sport. Tomorrow we are going to a Got to Be NC festival in Raleigh...I think it's like a fair. Yay, FAIR! 

I just came back to this blog and discovered I never posted this ... it is from a year ago, May 2017, and I think it deserves to be posted. A lot has changed since then, both in Mooresville and in me. But this was a time.