Knee Deep in North Carolina

You know, you can make a photo opportunity just about anywhere if you know where to look.

A couple of weeks ago, I went with the Partner in Crime to the North Carolina Transportation Museum. (He's a big ole car buff.) Fortunately, the weather wasn't prohibitively hot and they had lots of cool stuff there. I can see why it'd be a great destination for school field trips.

Anyway, <--- here's a blast from the past. 33-cents for a gallon of gas. I can almost remember that. As I've said before, we've been pretty lucky. It was only one time we've paid more than $3.99 for a gallon of gas -- and that was on a road trip to the coast. Still, 33-cents. Kinda makes you sad, doesn't it?

One of the cooler aspects of the Museum was the roundhouse -- where they've got x-number of trains parked... lodged... housed. Some of them you can go into, others you can't but you can look in the windows. There were some pretty fabulous examples of old-moneyed private railroad cars on display. There were items there as well from Piedmont Airlines, a hot air balloon, and a dugout canoe.

Pretty cool. I was even able to get a pretty funky t-shirt for my nephew -- an ongoing project to broaden his horizons by sparking interest in other places/topics.

Grits & Me

You don't find grits on the menu in many New England states. Why? I dunno. They're made from corn-- and you can grow corn just about anywhere.

I suppose it's what you do with it that matters.

Perhaps the reason for grits ignorance can be found in the entry at foodreference.com:

"Many who have not been raised eating grits for breakfast view them as akin to white glue paste."

Mmm... yummy.

Hey, I've got a five-year-old niece...

The folks we first interacted with when we moved south (our landlords) were amazed I'd never had grits. Well, that's what I told them... it's not entirely true. I tried them many years ago during a visit to Atlanta, but the memory was less-than-fresh.

They promptly recommended the shrimp and grits from a favorite local restaurant. I've gotta tell you, they were awesome! Coming from a coastal community, I thought I'd had shrimp in just about every conceivable combination. But no... this was different. Totally decadent. Mouthful after mouthful of creamy goodness. I totally pigged out and still left bloated and happy with enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

Since then, I've had grits for breakfast a couple of times and as a side dish at dinner once. I've gotta tell you, with a little dressing up, they're pretty good.

Now I'm just going to have to find a way to ship some up north for Christmas.