NC Beer Month

April was North Carolina Beer Month and I took full advantage of our state's great breweries.  At the beginning of the month I got my "Beer Passport" as a way to track how many breweries I went to in the month.  Each brewery had a stamp and prizes were awarded for 5 breweries (a keychain), 15 (t-shirt) or 30 (t-shirt and beer koozie).  I visited 18 different breweries all over the state and I made some great memories.

Disclaimer: I only had one beer or a flight of samples at most breweries.  You don't have to drink to excess to go out and enjoy these tasty beverages.

Here are a few of the highlights

I started the month off with 5 breweries on the first day.  Steve and I did the Tour de Brew and had a fun time riding around the greenways of Raleigh.

The day started out rainy. 

By the finish it was a beautiful day.

April marked the official opening of the brewery located a mile from my house. 

From End to End

I love riding my bike.  I love the beach.  When I combined the two last month it was bliss.

Since I had some extra room in my car for the trip to Top Sail, NC I decided to bring along my bicycle and get a few days of riding in.  Smart move.  The weather was perfect, the roads were empty since it was the off-season and the terrain was flat and had a scenic beauty.

I rode 50 miles between the two days.  Each day I set out around 11am, rode for about an hour and a half, had lunch and then rode back.  By the time I finished I was a sweaty mess and I was eager to jump into the ocean and crack open a beer.  I couldn't have asked for more.

I tried to take each ride in and enjoy the sights around me.   I spent much of the first ride looking for an Allen wrench to adjust my handlebars.  I stopped and asked a few construction works but wasn't successful.  On my way back I finally succeeded and had an quick, but somewhat enlightening conversation.

They're Coming

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The signs of summer are starting to pop up.  Bullfrogs croaking, fireflies lighting up the night sky and soon cicada shells littering the backyard.

We hear the buzzing of the cicadas every summer.  Some years being more noticeable than others.  This year we are supposed to be inundated with a swarm 17 years in the making.  They pose no threat to humans.  They don't bite.  They just make a lot of noise.  A lot of noise.  However their tough outer layer and freaky appearance does make them look somewhat menacing, especially to my wife.

Kelly is not really a fan of the cicadas.  They just freak her out.  So much so that a few years ago, while she was hanging out on the porch with Steve, a giant cicada buzzed by them and flew into the screen door.  Kelly panicked.  She ran inside and shut the door behind her leaving Steve to fend for himself.  Once inside she ran down the long hallway to our bedroom and slammed the door shut.  I wasn't there to witness the event but it still makes me laugh thinking about her running away from a harmless bug like it was a giant pterodactyl.  She denies locking the door behind her but in my head I always picture her barricading the door and then hiding under the bed. 

So this summer we will hear the deafening mating call of the 17-year cicadas and though it can be very loud and disruptive to our eardrums, I actually enjoy it.  It's one of the sounds of the summer here in the South.  Now if I can just keep Libby from eating them when she finds them in the yard. 

Seven Years Down in NC

Cow Sculpture currently on display in Raleigh

It's really hard to believe but Tuesday September 18th marked my seven year anniversary of moving to North Carolina.  Time really does fly.

I was fortunate to move to Raleigh with one of my best friends, Steve.  It's hard to imagine moving to a new town alone.  My sister moved to DC last year by herself.  I was very impressed. 

When Steve and I moved it was a fresh start for us.  He was getting out of Erie, PA and a job that wasn't paying him jack or using his talents.  I leaving a job in residence life at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where I had to do room searches and deal with students who, how should I put it, well they were a little weird and some borderline crazy.  I reached my breaking point the night I had to deal with a student's suicide.  I'm still not sure if she accidentally fell out that ninth floor window or if she jumped.  It happened right outside my office window and I heard the sound of her hitting the ground.  It still haunts me. 

The big reason I moved though was because I wanted to start over somewhere fresh, to blaze my own path.  I didn't want to live in one place my entire life, not that there is anything wrong with that.  Steve and I decided to move to Raleigh because he had visited and like the city and it seemed to be listed on every Top Places list put out by Forbes, CNN or whoever.  The selling point for me was the weather.  I know it sounds strange but not having to deal with the gray winters of the Northeast is still one of my favorite things about living here.

When we moved neither of us had a job lined up.  We signed the lease on our apartment a few weeks before we moved without ever seeing it.  Though Steve did know one person in Raleigh who lived in the same apartment complex so we had a good idea of what it was like.  The moving trip down was a bit crazy.  Our moving van almost got run off the highway and we got lost on the Thunderdome that is I-40 near Greensboro.  But once we were set up the adventure began. 

We were two broke guys, working temp jobs and watching VHS tapes of the Simpsons we recorded before we moved.  Cable was a luxury we could not afford.  In fact in the year and a half we lived in that apartment we never had cable, at least to our knowledge.  Turns out a week before we moved out the cable guy knocked on our door to stop service.  We told him he had the wrong place and after he left we found a cord and plugged it in.  Turns out we had it free the entire time and never realized.  Since then I've always checked the cable when moving somewhere new.  It's never worked.  Oh life.

The past seven years really have flown past.  Obviously a lot has changed in our lives since we moved.  We no longer live together but Steve and I remain close and sometimes reminisce about our days at Brookmont.  We may have been poor but we had some good times and I wouldn't trade those days for anything.