I’ve gotten a little out of sequence. Before Wilmington there was Southport. And before Southport there was Mount Pleasant. Mount Pleasant is across the harbor from Charleston. Before heading to North Carolina, I toured the USS Yorktown at Patriot’s Point in Mount Pleasant. A big ship – easy to get confused on direction inside. But at 30,000 tons it is small compared to a Nimitz class carrier at 100,000. Well worth a visit if you like giant toys.

I headed into North Carolina and visited the Buddhist temple as previously mentioned. But between the Buddhists and Wilmington I spent a couple of nights with Trish and Dave outside Southport. Southport is a beautiful town on the mouth of the Cape Fear River. I found it nice in February – it may be a little more crowded in summer. I worked and traveled with Dave back in my SOMIC America days. Their hospitality was wonderful and it was very relaxing to just chat and get caught up.

From Southport I headed to Carrboro, North Carolina via the Pottery Highway (https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/north-carolina/seagrove-pottery-highway-nc/) I stopped in Seagrove and bought my only souvenirs of the trip, a couple of small hand made bowls that will remind me of the Journey everytime I eat from them.

I’ve been at Jennifer and Tom’s for almost a week waiting for it to warm up. I’ll be moving on Monday regardless of temperature. It’s been a low key visit – some joint meal prep, making friend with Cujo, and finishing up course work for the current session at UMPI.

Today I learned that this song was written in Carrboro, North Carolina, where I have been staying. Written by Elizabeth Cotton sometime between 1906 and 1912. Misappropriated and copyrighted by two guys in the 1950’s. I like everything on this Spuyten Duyvil album.