Road Trip - March/April 2010

Unfortunately, the “Millers on the Road” blog has been lacking in details on our lives.  I apologize for not updating regularly.  I have set a goal for myself to write weekly and will try my best.

Let’s go back a few weeks and start with a short trip I took almost two months ago.  At the end of March, I had an opportunity to visit Raleigh, North Carolina.  It was a last minute plan, so flights were pretty expensive.  I had to be in Raleigh on Friday and decided to take the week off and visit with friends and family along the way and down in North Carolina.  Unfortunately,  I don’t have any close contacts in the D.C. area, so I had to drive all the way to Chesapeake, Virginia on the first day.  The weather for the drive was awful – raining on and off the entire 7 hour drive.  Thankfully, I didn’t catch much traffic getting out of NYC. 

Jud, or Jeffrey Underwood Dinsmore (JUD) and Lori are good friends of both Millers.  I credit Jud with being among the people who brought Colin and I together back in college.  We all worked in intramural sports at The University of Vermont.  Colin was an intramural referee, I was an intramural supervisor, and Jud was our boss.  During the first few weeks of 2001, during intramural basketball season, Jud scheduled Colin and I for almost all of the same shifts.  Little did he know about his match-making skills at the time!  I believe Jud and his wife Lori are also a recreational sports couple!!

I only had an evening and overnight stay planned with Jud and Lori, so we spent much of the time catching up with the happenings of each other’s lives.  Lori always cooks such amazing meals, and this visit was no exception.  We had a Mexican fiesta, followed by a Rockband jam session.  Since we are all athletes, it was not surprising Jud had a volleyball game to play, so he left after rocking out and Lori and I wound down the night by watching “Dancing with the Stars.”

Tuesday morning it was off to Southport, NC.  I had debated driving down the coast (along the outer banks), but since the weather was still not great, I decided to head slightly inland and down the major highway, I-95.  My destination in Southport was St. James Plantation to visit with Colin’s aunts and uncles (2 sets).  I stayed with Aunt Mary-Ann and Uncle Mike, Colin’s father’s sister and brother-in-law.  They have a beautiful house in the “plantation,” right on the intercoastal waterway. 

Living a few houses away, are Uncle Bill and Aunt Lois, Colin’s father’s brother and sister-in-law.  On Tuesday, Aunt Mary Ann showed me around the development and cooked a wonderful dinner of Quinoa, pork chops and salad.  Wednesday was a beautiful day, with the sun shining and temperature around 80.  Aunt Mary Ann and I spent a large part of the day driving around in their convertible, with the top down, checking out the beach and downtown Southport. 

That night, Uncle Bill and Aunt Lois came over for dinner.  We had a wonderful evening getting to know each other better.  Although all four of them are in their mid to late 60’s, it was clear to me that they are still very much enjoying life and living each day to the fullest. 

Thursday I headed to Raleigh to check out the city.  Colin and I have talked about moving there, so I took some time to drive around and see the different areas of the city.  Not knowing much, I drove around North Raleigh, North Carolina State University (NCSU) and downtown.  My hotel was in northeast Raleigh, so I did see a little of that area.  NCSU reminded me a little of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville (my alma mater), except the main road appears to be undergoing a serious renovation.  Downtown reminded me a lot of Providence, RI with lots of new development, sidewalk cafes, etc.  Being reminded of areas I enjoyed made me confident in our choice to look forward to a future in Raleigh. 

On Friday morning, I drove to an area called Lake Lynn to enjoy a short 2 mile walk around the lake.  Both Thursday and Friday were beautiful days, so I tried to enjoy them as much as possible.  

For lunch, I stopped into Durham to eat at a local foods restaurant called Piedmont.  The food was great, but it was a little awkward dining alone.  I was not that impressed with Durham, but didn’t get to see much of it.  The restaurant was on a road that didn’t have anything else to offer.

From Durham, it was a 9 hour drive back to Forest Hills.  I debated going back to Chesapeake to visit Jud and Lori, but it was Easter weekend and I wanted to get back to Colin.  Unfortunately, because it was Good Friday, there was so much traffic in the D.C. area.  I was stuck in it for about 2 hours!!  I also tried to see if Colin could take a bus to D.C. and we could spend the night there enjoying the Cherry Blossom Festival – but it was too late to make those plans as Colin was already in Manhattan and had no change of clothes.  So much for being spontaneous!!  So, I sucked it up and got home around 11pm – exhausted.  It felt amazing to be back in my own bed after such a long day!