Thank God for Chaz!

Hi all,

So Calum and I left for our road trip this morning. Was really easy leaving, didn't look back once. NAAAAAT! The boys didn't make it easy for us at all! Barricades were built at the door, legs were clutched; the whole thing was quite emotionally traumatising!

Once we were finally one the road it was a pleasant drive. We stopped in Richmond for our lunch. This is were perhaps we should have spotted Problem Number One with our student guidebook. The cafe where we were instructed to dine in Richmond had closed down. It didn't really matter as we found another lovely eatery with a real Southern feel where the food was spectacular!

Guess whose was whose??






We also found that Richmond has VERY positive graffiti:

AND motivational speeches:

AND superior (note: NOT inferior) buildings:

Once we were on the road again the drive was LOVELY. Really straight roads lined with trees...

The further South we got the more nervous Calum and I began to feel as the strings of Deliverance ran in our minds (thank you Dave and Jean!). This was not aided by a hand-crafted shack at the side of the road with the crudely painted letters spelling "TAXIDERMY' sprawling across it. Creepy.

We were eagerly awaiting the sign welcoming us to North Carolina. However this did not arrive, it was in a MUCH more creative format which required fairly crafty camera work:

Neither of us realised how much North Carolina loved God. I had changed the radio station several times and thought all of them were just playing LOTS of adverts until Calum asked me to select a station that didn't preach AT him for half an hour...woops.

We arrived safe and sound at our shady motel in Durham. As we sit and write this there are a lot of people gathered around cars outside with loud music, one man spat. Infront of a lady! Imagine!

Warning Number Two of the book was soon to arise! We headed to the 'famous' Ninth Street of Durham. This turned out to be a small straggle of shops along one little street! Not the hustling bustling University atmosphere that we both expected. I managed to get a discount DUKE t-shirt because it had makeup on it though - RESULT.

We have renamed Durham Stoner Town due to the overly laid back feel of the place and the dodgy-looking front of shops! Our new friend Crystal informs us that this is to keep the sun out. We feel it can't be good for custom or business.

We did see some cool frogs though!

Our book had directed us towards dining in an eatery called 'George's Garage' - an eclectic mix of beer and sushi. This was nowhere to be found!

LUCKILY we strolled into a record shop called 'Chaz's Record Shop'. Thank goodness for Chaz! He informed us that George's Garage had shut down a few years previous to this and pointed us in the direction of a much cooler downtown area of Durham, specifically to a place called 'Fullsteam'.

Fullsteam was AWESOME.

It's this big warehouse that has a bar in it AND a brewery! It's also kind of a restaurant because all these trucks gather outside it like this pizza truck:

Ice-cream truck:

Funny story - I saw this box of keys and list asking you if this was your 'First Time':

What did I presume....?

Calum later pointed out that this was a RUNNING club. NOT a Swingers' club hahahahahahaaha

Inside was so cool and different. The bar taps came out the walls like this:

And you could draw on the bar like this:

We met our first HOLIDAY FRIENDS! Yeyyyy! Crystal, Lucas and Rodney who were FULL of information about our trip and also keen for a cheeky wee photo:

Crystal and Lucas told us about how they were driving around the South one time and they followed a sign of the highway that said 'Gas'. Having followed this for about 2 miles they were starting to wonder what was going on when they approached said 'Gas Station'. This turned out to be a standalone trailer from while a man wearing overalls (and nothing else) emerged carrying a gas can and a shotgun. OH WOW.

STICK TO THE HIGHWAY.


They also promised to become followers of our blog since you guys suck and no-one probably even reads this or comments or ANYTHING.

PEACE OUT - will write tomorrow if we survive the night at the Shady Inn.

Next stop - Asheville!

lu xxxxx