Right here you can see me looking through some binoculars on fantastic, beautiful Grandfather Mountain, staring out over some gooooorgeous terrain.
Oh, and possibly the best boots on the planet.
I wanted to see a bear while I was on this trip, no matter what. So Maddie suggested we go on a trip up to the mountains, and who was I to deny? We got in her car, I plugged my iPod into her car stereo and we drove for hours and hours, staying the night at her parent's place on the way as it was a long drive.
The best bit about hometowns is when I say "where can I get cowboy boots" people can instantly say "Well..." and away we drove. The last size in store in this design just happened to fit me perfectly, so I got some fantastic incredible savings and now feel like a proper American yee-haw. The store-lady was saying that this brand is apparently the brand everybody who works there wears, which is very good for me. I do like quality footwear, oh yes I do.
Anyway, after my purchase and a meal, we drove up to the mountains and went into Grandfather Mountain National Park, which led to a big drive up around windy roads while Beethoven's 9th blasted out of the car stereo and a few calls of "did I drive too far? I must have driven too far. No, it can't be this far. I drove too... oh wait, there it is."
And then we got there and we walked through the park a bit and I saw some incredible views! And there was a gift shop and I bought you another postcard, Mum, but once again I forgot to mail it so you might wind up just recieving a handful of postcards from me in November! And and and, there was these cute as hell bears that you might be able to see in a photo!I'd love to lie and say that they were out in the wild, so I totally will. The bears definitely weren't in an enclosure and I was not safe at all behind a railing. Ahem.
Anyway, bears are totally cute. One of them was sitting on its behindus and it grabbed its foot and started rocking back and forth on its butt. I thought it was majorly cute. I even tried to get a video on my phone, but alas they weren't doing anything interesting on the video. Also my phone isn't communicating with this computer.
After looking at bears, we kept wandering around and I saw a cougar! It was cute cute cute! I love big cats i love them a lot. And then we saw an American eagle! It was about the size of my entire torso and kind of an ugly bird that looked constantly confused and worried that maybe things can happen, but Maddie says it was majestic as all getup. I bet it was just her silly patriotism that made her say that. Also, she's a girl and everybody knows girl opinions are silly and easily disregarded.
There was otters too, but I'm grumpy at the otters as they kept relocating themselves to be on the opposite side of the otter place every time we'd move. Otters are one of my favourite animals but I'd rather grump about them than talk about how cute they were.
Anyway, I saw a lot of gorgeous stuff that will sound really dull in text, like "the horizon" and "some things really far away" and such. Let's talk a bit more about food as it seems to wind up being the focus of my blog a lot!
North Carolina, it turns out, is famous for its barbecue, so I had to try some while I'm still here. We drove a while at night, lost on the ridiculously wide roads that America should be more famous for before finding the barbecue place, at which I just ordered a BBQ platter with potato salad and yams as my sides.
1) We got hushpuppies with our meal for free, which are so great that I need to find out how they're made so I can have them when I go back. They're basically thin little cornbread dumplings, soaked in onion and then fried. Oh wow, do I like them a lot. They were about the size of prawns (I can't bring myself to say shrimp) and if only my stomach wasn't feeling a bit iffy, I would have eaten a billion of them.
2) The yams had a really really nice cinnamon glaze over them that was almost like a cinnamon sauce. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, but it was really great. I've never heard of a cinnamon glaze being used for vegetables, generally only for things like donuts, but then here there are dips for vegetables and fruit, so America does a lot of things with sauces and such I wouldn't expect.
3) Barbecue isn't anything remotely like what comes to my mind when I think BBQ. It is in fact a pile of pulled pork, slow-cooked, with diced up hot peppers, vinegar and salt mixed in. And sugar too, as it was surprisingly sweet and salty all at once. It is more a sandwich meat, but not quite. It's odd and looks like shredded chicken and I liked it a lot when I put it on a sandwich or ate some with a hushpuppy, on its own the flavour had too much vinegar for me to really LOVE it but it was still nice.
I also went to an Italian restaurant which isn't anything special, Italian food is internationally roughly the same, but I had a wine with the meal - a wine I LIKED. It was a blush, specially made for that restaurant so I can't remember the exact type, but it was similar to a white zinfandel. Not exactly, it had more alcohol in than white zinfandels normally do and it wasn't as sweet as the ones I've tasted back home. I normally dislike wine a lot but oh wow, I really really liked it. I also have come to really like Sangria but that's mostly because I will drink anything with fruit in it.
I have to shower, I stink incredibly and I can't honestly remember if I managed to get a shower yesterday or not. Also my moustache stubble is starting to look pedophilic as only my moustache stubble can and I don't want that to happen. One day I'll be a real boy and be able to grow a real moustache but until then just call me Chester the Molester. A terrible thing to say for sure, but I'm a terrible person and I speak the blunt truth. Have a brilliant photo of yours truly to go.
