Wald's World On Wheels: North Carolina!

We had an amazing time visiting North Carolina. We arrived in North Carolina in the early part of October which got us there with plenty of time to enjoy some beautiful southeastern fall weather. I've been to the state a few times before when traveling on business, and my wife lived outside of Charlotte up until she was in second grade before moving a handful of times and finally landing on Cape Cod. For as long as I have known my wife she has talked very fondly of North Carolina and always dreamed of going back to NC to live. We'll slap me silly and call me a dream maker, but I made that happen...for a month!

After visiting the "Tar Heel State" for almost 4 weeks I can certainly understand why people live here and so many others vacation here. Our base camp while we were in North Carolina was in Lillington where our great friends JD and Becca call home. They generously let us park the RV on the driveway next to their house for the month. We made the most of our time with a few weekend excursions to the beach, Charlotte and Duke University during our stay.

Our first adventure brought us to Carolina Beach, one of the more popular beaches along the southern coast of North Carolina. Here we were able to drive out onto the beach and park the truck for the day as the kids collected sea shells and splashed in the waves during the afternoon. We packed a cooler with drinks and lunch and spent the day just trolling around on the beach. This was my first experience driving in Sand. I thought it would be a simple task especially after growing up driving in snow and ice packed roads since the day I got my license. I'll be honest, sand driving was a whole new ballgame that I wasn't prepared for. I didn't get stuck, but came mighty close to it. Turns out there is a trick to driving in sand that I wasn't aware of until after the fact. You are suppose to let air our of your tires to flatten them to give more surface area. Oh well, live and learn.

Sidney, Tristan and Izabelle with a Starfish they caught.

This is a flying fish!

Our next trip in North Carolina found us about 140 miles southwest of Lillington in Charlotte, home of the Charlotte speedway. We didn't pull the camper, to Charlotte, but instead thought it would be a good time to pull out the truck tent and rough it for the weekend. Thanks to an old friend in Charlotte the whole family was able to take in a NASCAR race at the speedway and enjoy a view from the premium club section. Thanks Tyler! The race was a blast and the kids had a great time, but the real excitement is the fan zone that is setup outside of the Speedway. We spent hours walking around and playing all sorts of games that resulted in the kids walking away with bags of prizes. We could hardly pull them away to catch the start of the race. Some of the pre-race activities also included a performance by the Goo Goo Dolls and a high-wire act by the famous Nik Wallenda and his sister.

Camping at a parking lot outside of the Charlotte Speedway

The view from our seats. You can see the crane for the high-wire act and the Goo Goo Dolls on the screen in the background.

Me and the kids at the Speedway. Bank of America 500

While we were in in the Raleigh/Durham area we thought it would also be fun to visit on of the local big name universities such as Duke or Chapel Hill. So we packed up the kids and headed to Durham for a day and spent the day hanging around at Duke University. It happened to be parents weekend so Katherine and I blended quite nicely with the older crowd that was also aimlessly wandering the campus. One of the bigger attractions at the university is the botanical gardens which could almost be a full day activity in itself just wandering through the various sections of the gardens.