Raleigh, NC

March 15-18

We drove about 200 miles into Raligh, NC and got to squeeze in one last visit with a college friend from Spain, Calleen.  This year is our 25th anniversary of our time in Spain and think a reunion trip, along with a Michelle, is in order!

We arrived on Saturday afternoon to a warm welcome from her new Ewokian puppies, Renzo (Lorenzo) and Iggy (Ignacio).

We went to my Mom’s friend’s friend’s sister’s brother’s Dad’s wife’s brother’s sister’s cousin’s uncle’s brother’s niece’s house the next day.  No, it was just my Mom’s friend.  She had 2 dogs.  They were so cute!  Their names were Iggy and Renzo.  Iggy was smaller and he put his ears up a lot.  He also wants a lot of attention.  Renzo was the biggest of the litter and crawled onto you and played with his toy.  We had a lot of fun with them.  It was already getting late.  

The next day we went to an NHL hockey game.  It was the Hurricanes Vs. the Oilers.  My Mom’s friend, Calleen, let us wear her jerseys.  It was military appreciation day.  Along with the food carts, there were a lot of things were the military showed you like guns, and you could sign up, it wasn’t cool.  Who would encourage people to go out and kill during a hockey game?  I didn’t like it when they showed some little kids their guns meant for killing hoping someday they’d join the Army.  When we got our food, we went in to see the players practice.  Once the game started, people were going insane.  The part I didn’t like was that they kept showing things about the military, and propaganda.  The reason why I am saying this is because I hate war.  Why should people go out and kill to “defend” our country?  I just don’t get that.  The game was pretty cool.  There was even a fight. PENALTY.  We had cheesecake after the first period.  The last two periods went by like a blur, mostly because I was half asleep.  We came home to the whining dogs.  They were so excited!  That night we watched Despicable Me 2.  I wanted to watch more, but we had to go to bed.  That was Sunday.  

The next day we had school.  Colleen also had to go to her work.  We watched the dogs , watched movies, and watched them play.  It was so funny to see what they did without us around.  After that, we went to a bowling alley.  That was where Calleen had her meeting.  It was a cool place.  They served you food.  I went for the heavy balls and I finally paid the price.  My fingers were really hurting and I lost.  The next game I went for the lightest ball.  I let Tyler at least get second to last because I saw how grumpy he was.  That night it was getting late again.  The weather was getting cold.  We needed to get back to our cozy home.  We had half ‘an hour left ‘til we had to go to bed.  We watched a dinosaur show.  The next day we said our goodbyes, and packed up and left.

~Jack

This guy reminds us of Petey back home :) 

We had a nice time catching up with Calleen and her and I stayed up way too late Saturday night!  So much fun reminiscing thru the old photo albums.  Here is one of us from 1995!

Sunday afternoon started off at the local Farmer's Market.  Along with some fresh veggies, I couldn't resist this necklace called the Tree of Life.  I bought it directly form the artist...love supporting the local folks.

Calleen treated us to a NC Hurricanes hockey game. She has been a season ticket holder for years.  The boys got all decked out in Hurricane gear...Tyler was calling them the Tornadoes!  We had never been to a pro hockey game and this was such a fun experience to add to our memories!

We had planned on leaving on Monday, but snow storm Wiley was headed right into Washington, DC and into our travel path.  We are just hanging out here for another day and making sure it is safe to drive.  We figure we are about 3 driving days from home now.

Happy St. Patricks Day!  Calleen had a business meeting at a fancy bowling alley so she left us her car and we joined her over there later in the afternoon.  We had a lot of fun bowling and all of us even got strikes!  It was great catching up and so nice to have a nice home to relax in instead of being stuck in the RV.

I think I am ready to push on home...thanks to Calleen, I have all the essentials!

~Linda