Day 3 - The Carolinas

It was about midnight when I touched down in Greensboro, NC. At this point, the first leg of the trip was becoming a series of catching up with old friends I haven't seen in a while. That's fine with me, since this is really the "do whatever the f i want" tour. One of my best friends Jon and his family live in G-Boro. I'm extra excited about this since his son Donovan is my godson, and I haven't seen him in about a year. The last time I was in the area, he was out of town so the grown folks could play for Jon's 30th. Very good times.

I've been to Greensboro a million times, so it was basically the same drill: Give Jon a pound, fire up the Crossfire, ransack Food Lion for 22s of the shittiest beer we can find, play rap videos, stay up all night catching up and trading war stories, then roll out in the morning and get a steak style cheeseburger from Cook Out.

So for this iteration, we hung out and drank per usual, then in the morning, Jon stayed home to hang out and he helped me plot the trip. We realized that in the four weeks or so I'm out before Son's wedding, I will have to skip a few more states than I'd like. I'm trying to be loose and spontaneous, because as you all should know by now, spontaneity is more important than gravity. However, in the grand scheme of things, I'm going to have take the country on one or two regions at a time, with the things going on that call me back to VA in June. One being my 30th birthday.

Anyway, I'll be definitely checking out the Grand Canyon big time, San Diego for a day, San Francisco for a day, Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, and the Corn Palace. Wisconsin? West side of Chicag-o-o? I've got that all planned for the last week. I'll end up in Ohio hopefully at my friend David's. Now's the time for Californians to speak up. :)

Afterwards, we just hung out some more, and I played with my godson and took some pictures. He's a character. Two years old and running around having one million conversations. Barely touched down on earth and already has so much he needs to tell the world. Adorable. Also, he's the only two-year old I've ever met who understands and uses the word "laptop." For that matter, when he dunked on his miniature basketball hoop, he said he was doing "stunts."

I waited for Debra to come home to chat for a little bit, then I took off for South Carolina. I drove through Columbia, Spartansburg, and Clemson. Spartansburg was hilarious and full of oddballs. I'm pretty sure I saw a hooker getting gas in her get-up at about 7 p.m. Unless gold silk shorts and gold heels are the new generic black pants and pumps.

If you ever want to move to a town where you can advertise your sales on bathroom stalls and above urinals, get yourself some Spartan spirit. Next stop, Hotlanta, GA. Going to hang out with my friends Andre and Ian. I'll try to find some unique things to do and sights to see.

*For all the pics from today and the entire trip, check http://picasaweb.google.com/cyprian.mendelius.