NC here we come!

Day 19 - Richmond, VA - Sunny and 70:

Well after we dried out from our camping in the rain we made our way into Richmond, VA for the day. We started out on Monument Drive where we admired statues of Arthur Ash, Robert E. Lee and General "Stonewall" Jackson. It was a beautiful day out so we decided to take a walk and made our way down to the Canal Walk. It's a walking path that took us along the James River. It then took us over the James River via suspension foot bridge to Belle Isle island where we saw an old Civil War Union prison camp. At it's peak the prison held as many as 10,000 prisoners but many died there because of the continuous exposure to the weather. We saw an old hydro electric power station that was used to power the city's tram up until the 1950's. This is also the only spot in America where there is a Class IV rapid within a metropolitan area. It didn't look very fierce from the shore but then again it was nothing compared to the Kennebec on a good day.

From the river we made our way to the Virginia State Capitol for a tour. We learned the building was designed by Thomas Jefferson while he was in France as an ambassador for the US. The building was designed after a Roman building and has an internal dome. We got to walk through the Virginia State Senate and see how there governmental system works. We left Richmond around three and drove to Chapel Hill to meet Jim and Lynne.

We arrived at Jim and Lynne's around dinner time. Being the FABULOUS hosts that they were, they had ordered pizza for dinner, printed out things that might interest us, and had a room all ready. We were so excited to be staying with them!!

Day 20 - Durham, NC - Sunny in the low 60's:

We took Jim and Lynne's recommendation and made our way to the Weaver Street Market in Carrboro. This was a very organic community and they had a great health food store and many shops. We also visited the farmers market going on and bought some veggies to restock the cooler.

From there we went to the Washing Duke Homestead Museum, which is a old tobacco farm. We had a great guide on our tour that taught us all about how Washington Duke took his small tobacco farm and turned it into the largest tobacco company in the world. We also learned how tobacco is grown, harvested, cured, and dried before it can be sold or processed. It's one of the most labor intensive crops to grow and process. After returning from the civil war Washington Duke realized that he could grow the Golden Leaf Tobacco that was native to this part of North Carolina and sell it for a premium. He decided that selling tobacco was not profitable enough, so he transitioned into processing tobacco and sold his hand rolled cigarettes all over the country. Within a four year period his company had grown so fast that he had to build two different factories growing larger and larger. They soon moved into Durham and founded the American Tobacco Company which turned into the largest tobacco company in the world until the government broke it up. They were one of the first companies to produce machine rolled cigarettes and were the first tobacco company to really advertise. One of their first advertising methods was created by Washington's son "Buck". He decided to put scantily clad pictures of women on cards in the cigarette pack to appeal to men... but Washington being a devout Methodist didn't approve on this and told his son to stop, so instead Buck began putting pictures of baseball players into the packs...hence the beginning of BASEBALL CARDS! We then drove downtown to see the old tobacco factories and had lunch.

From there we went over to Duke University. We started by touring the Sarah P. Duke Garden's. The roses were still in bloom but most of the other plants were not blooming during this time of year. It's an amazing garden and surely must be beautiful in the spring. Next we made our way over to the campus and tried to tour the basketball arena but a there was a game that night and they wouldn't let us in. So, we walked over to the magnificent chapel and tried to look around but there was a private ceremony going on so we couldn't go inside. We could hear the organs from outside and they sound great. We walked around campus a bit more and noticed that everyone that goes to Duke has to wear Duke apparel all the time. I guess they have a lot of school spirit.

We drove back to Jim and Lynne's for a quick nap before dinner. We rode over to Pittsboro for dinner with Jim and Lynne at the Pittsboro General Store. It's a very unique place as all the decorations are from local artist and can be purchased. The Gravy Boys were planning for some dinner entertainment. They were a very southern style band with two guitars, a bass and a mandolin and reminded me of the band from the movie "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Day 21 - Chapel Hill, NC - Sunny and Mid 50's:

We departed our lovely hosts around 9:30am. We were sad to leave as they were outstanding and took GREAT care of us but we needed to finish up Chapel Hill and continue our journey.

After our day at Duke we had to tour the rival and much better (right Gretch and Lynne) UNC campus. We walked through the athletic fields and through the campus. It seems like a much newer and larger campus then Duke. After a couple hours walking around we jumped back into the car and headed to Charlotte to stay with Andrea and Eric for a couple days.

We got to the house in the early afternoon and spent a little time catching up. Eric was able to get us tickets to the Bobcat's game for tonight and watched the Bobcat's beat up on the Indiana Pacers. Very different atmosphere then a Celtics game but still very fun. There were a few special things while we were there. First we got to see Michael Jordan as he was there cheering on his team, there were a lot of UNC fans as Tyler Hansboro was playing for the Pacers, the UNC coach was in attendance, and there were some other former NBA players on hand. We grabbed some dinner after the game and headed back home to watch the Sunday night football game.

It's been a great few days and we are looking forward to some quality time with family in NC!