Joe's Roadtrip

Location: Raleigh, NC

Miles Driven: ~470

Total Miles: ~24,160

In a clean, reorganized car, I left Acworth on Sunday morning to head north towards North Carolina.  It was tough saying goodbye to the “family” back in Georgia, but I know there will be another chance to meet up down the road, even if it’s not in the foreseeable future.

See ya next time, Marba. What a good dog

GoogleMaps said my drive to Raleigh would be about six hours.  Relatively speaking, that’s not a great distance to travel in terms of this trip.  It was a pleasant and uneventful drive.  Had clear skies the whole way, too.

Notice the big peach thing on the left. But this wasn't Georgia, this was in South Carolina

The leaves already are starting to change color a bit in North Carolina. Time flies.

The timing of my arrivial in Raleigh was pretty fortuitious.  Family friends Saba and Aaron had their child just last about 10 days ago (last I saw them, Saba was a few months away from delivery).  I was happy to meet Eli Jacob.  Very cute kid.

Touchdown!

The timing of my arrival worked in another way, as well.  Saba’s brother, and my friend, Sam, was in town along with his mom.  Great to see all these friendly faces once again.  I last saw Sam in NJ, and it’s been several months since I saw his mom.

Sam and Eli

I was able to spend a couple hours hanging out with Eli and the family before heading out to dinner with their friend Jen, who I had last seen at Saba and Aaron’s wedding back in 2007.  I happily introduced her to korean bbq.  Man, I’ve been eating far too well on this second east coast leg of the trip.  Great meal and great company.

That brings us to Day 100 of this roadtrip.  Wow, hard to believe it came up so fast.  When I originally planned this trip, I figured it would be over and done with by Day 90.  But here I am at the century mark, and everything is still going great.

Was able to spend a larger portion of the day being lazy, as well as taking pictures of Eli once again.

cute kid

Jen and Eli

Uncle Sam and the little guy

What a way to celebrate Day 100 – hanging out with the newborn, and then getting to eat some nice home-cooked meals.  There were hotdogs, hamburgers, cake, and Arabic pizza:

very tasty

Being an uncle is hard work. Gotta keep the body fueled-up

Looking forward to spending the next few days here in Raleigh with friends.

Only about 12 or so days remain in this trip.  The first 100 have been nothing short of spectacular, and I’m optimistic we’ll be able to hold that line for the remainder of this journey.

joe