On Tuesday Allan wrote this...

"Well..." (like Ronald Reagan used to say), here we are still in Hillsborough, NC.

Saturday night we had fun meeting Bob and Karen, long time friends of the home owners here.  Becky cooked up a big roast complete with carrots, onions and celery (not mirepoix) along with some spices and flavors that made for a superb meal. Karen brought along her fantastic blueberry pie made with only the freshest ingredients, topped off with a little Bryers (not "carb smart" -- instead, the real good ice cream that's not good for you) -- vanilla ice cream.  To say the red and white wine and the dinner were all good is a gigantic understatement. More like "deliciouso."

This pic, taken with my iPod, reveals that we were poor hosts....
their wine glasses are empty! But that didn't mean that the
conversation waned or that our wonderful guests were not
at their peak of interresante et amustante

We talked about history, about North Carolina, about one anothers' lives -- so many topics. It was a huge amount of fun getting to know Karen and Bob, even just a little bit.  By evening's end we hugged warmly, said goodnight and wished one another good fortune.

Karen and Bob - super folks!

Now, the other day when we met Joyce, she advised that we should really take time to get into Hillsborough to check out the art galleries. And if hungry, to eat at The Gulf Rim.

So we did.

I tried to buy Becky a pair of crocheted silver wire ear rings at one of the art galleries, but she said she's already got too much jewelry.  (But hey, where can you find crocheted silver wire made into jewelry??? That is so rare and so neat! Just imagine trying to crochet with silver wire!  My friends, I can't even imagine how the artist came up with that idea...much less actually accomplished those beautiful pieces of jewelry she made.) Instead I bought a small print of a very cool acrylic painting from an New Age-y artist known as Carmen. As we left, the sweet lady at the art gallery suggested  we visit the hardware store in town.

So we did.

It's been there for over 60 years. It's a total mess inside. There is no known computer program that could even approximately keep track of the inventory in that store. The only way to know what's there is to ask.  Then, the man who's run it for the past 40 years will say, "Well, give me just a minute." When he comes back he's got exactly what you want. Only he and God know where he found it among all the piles of stuff, junk, flotsam and jetsam that stock his shelves. It's an amazing place and I'm so glad we went there.

And there Becky found a fuzzy paint brush she needs for some of her art work.  She asked me, "What do you think of a woman who turns down a $40 pair of ear rings for a $3 paint brush?"  I told her, "Hey babe, you're a cheap date."  hahaha

So downtown Hillsborough was fun.  We had lunch at The Gulf Rim -- Becky had a hearts of palm and avocado salad, I had the seafood mix. Wonderful.

All the style guides for freelance writers tell you to never begin a sentence with "And" or "But."

But, Monday was probably the high point of our trip to NC. We drove about 2-1/2 hours to Wilmington, a sea port city and the largest city in NC. My only prior experience with Wilmington was back in the 1990's when my son and I drove over from Atlanta to go deep sea fishing.  Neither of us caught anything worth noting, however I did "catch" a gigantic, miserable, unrelenting, disgusting, never-ending case of sea sickness that lasted about eight  hours and drained me of virtually all life, all energy and all wish to continue living.

This trip was much more fun.  Becky and I went to the visitor's bureau and talked to Mary Ann there about  the entire Cape Fear area. We checked out the board walk ( a 2-mile walk along the Cape Fear river that eventually dumps into the Atlantic ocean.) We got some ideas on where one might want to live in the area. And we collected a duffel bag full of literature.

Kure Beach, one of four or five in the Wilmington area

You see, this house sitting adventure has been largely about finding a place we'd like to move to and live out our lives. Maybe, after just a couple of house sits, we've found a good place:  Wilmington and its environs.

More to come.  And in the meantime, many BIG THANKS to our wonderful hosts and home owners (Chris and Jeff) here in Hillsborough -- for choosing us to watch over their property.  It has been a great pleasure and we've enjoyed this visit to a wonderful part of the USA.