Congratulations on the new mushroom book! Do you need a new mushroom kit? There are so many different kinds!
“Feels like” 90° out. I think I’ll need to turn the A/C on... The best I can do in the bedroom is a fan, at least until tomorrow when I can get an area cleaned off for the fan in here so I don’t have to use the A/C exclusively.
I wasn’t ready for that, yet. I’d better seriously think about swapping out my winter clothes for summer ones, asap.
About 20 minutes ago, I got a text from a friend saying she be “right over,” and I know she doesn’t live 20 minutes away. That would put her out past Walmart, and I can make it there in less than ten minutes, even in a snowstorm!
We stayed at the William B. Umstead State Park, which is right next to Raleigh-Durham airport. We quickly got used to the airplane noise, and anyway, we weren’t at the campground during the day most of the time.
I drove up with Vlad and Kathleen. We started listening to a biography of George Lucas, which is very interesting so far: we’re up to the late 1960s, when he was in his mid-20s. We had two campsites. In one, we put the big tent for DP and me and a small tent for Kathleen, who wanted to give tenting by herself a try.
In the other, we put two small tents for Vlad and Frank, and James slept in his hammock, because he’s silly.
Kathleen and Frank wouldn’t stop griping at each other long after bedtime, so I threatened them with mass quantities of math worksheets, and they shaped up the next two nights.
On Wednesday, we got up and cooked breakfast and cleaned up and then went to Chapel Hill. We went first to the Botanical Garden, which was full of outstanding plants, including many varieties of indigo, which I want. I have a “false indigo” out in the front where Shannon sleeps, but I could have a yellow one, too. They seem to like full sun.
After that, we want to the UNC campus to see the Arboretum, which had many native and exotic trees. Then we walked around the campus seeing our tax dollars at work, stopped in the art museum, and then went back to the campground 3-ish and all had a lie-down for an hour or so. I finished my library book, the Regency romance time travel murder mystery. All the baddies died very satisfactorily.
After supper, we all had showers.
Thursday morning, we got up and cooked breakfast and cleaned up. That was when lots of cars showed up and dropped off lots of Scout-y looking kids, who started setting up campsites. We were concerned that it would be loud at night, with so many young people, but as I said above, it was a school activity and was over before we returned from the Science and History Museums.
The Science museum has scenery of native plants and animals of all areas of North Carolina. Also some whale skeletons and dinosaurs and minerals. When we were done there, we went back to the van and at the lunch we brought, because a Scout is Thrifty. The history museum has a permanent exhibit on the whole history of the state. There was also a display about the Women’s Suffrage movement in NC, one on Beach Music (which I missed), interesting veterans from NC (starting with the Spanish-American War), and my feet hurt.
I bought the mushroom book at the science museum, and a bat cookie-cutter for me and a penguin one for Drama Queen. At the history museum, I got a small book of WPA Slave Narratives for Anoreth and a refrigerator magnet for Bill. Didn’t see anything for Tom, but we buy him groceries ;-). And Kathleen picked out a postcard for Elen, USMC, with a view of mountains.
This morning, we got up a little earlier, ate cold cereal, packed up, and left about 9:00. I had Vlad and Frank. James and Vlad’s dirty clothes were in the back seat of the truck, so they could go in the wash first thing, as they had to be at staff weekend for Webelos Camp by 6:30 today.
If they forgot anything, they can text me, and I’ll bring it tomorrow when I go for Range Officer recertification. I suppose I should pack lunch now, because I won’t feel like it in the morning.
The last load of wash is in the dryer.