One Stray Word

For those of you who didn’t know, last week my wife and I went to NC to scope out homes for a potential move. We looked in Thomasville, Cary, Kernersville, and the edges of Apex, Holly Springs and Fuquay Varina

First, the good:

North Carolina was great. We loved it. In fact, if we could have, we would have just gotten one-way tickets and had our stuffed shipped to us. That’s how much we loved it.

It was nice to be in the cooler weather, we got to put all our new winter clothes to work. The baby wife wanted to see Fall and she certainly got to. She fell in love with the changing leaves. She even snuck a few back for our nieces. But what was really surprising was how nice everyone was. Seriously, everyone was really nice up there. Even when someone was doing something wrong, they were nice about it! As opposed to FL where we seem to be populated with a bunch of grumpy Guses.

Cary was a beautiful little town that wasn’t very little (population over 100,000). It hung onto its small town feel with a vengeance.

We went for a hike at the William B Umstead state park. We took the Loblolly Trail based on the recommendation that it was easy. We assumed that the trail was going to loop back around to the parking lot. After 45 minutes and no indication we were getting any closer to the parking lot, we decided to ask a passing hiker. At which point we discovered that the Loblolly Trail does not loop back to the parking lot, but instead dead ends in a forest, six miles away. We promptly turned around and made the 45 minute trek back, feeling thoroughly wiped out upon returning. I said that I deserved some kind of medal and lo and behold my niece Faith actually presented me a medal upon our return home. It was bronze, but 3rd place is better than no place.

We found our dream home in Thomasville. We walked in there and immediately knew it was a place we wanted to live and raise a family in.

And now, the not-so-good:

Our dream home was located in Thomasville, which also happened to be the former home of Thomasville Furnishing. Unfortunately, when Thomasville Furnishing left town, Thomasville the town took a downwards turn.

After visiting our dream home a second time and even sitting down with a lender, we decided to take a closer look at Thomasville. We found more than a few cracks in it’s veneer. We managed to find a resident who had lived there her whole life and she confirmed our fears: there was an unsavory element that had moved into Thomasville after the economy took a dip. It looked liked Thomasville was a town that was slowly dying. So, despite having the perfect house, we chose not to make an offer and walked away.

Our hotel had mold on the shower curtain, holes in the sheets and rust on the door locks. Dollar Rent-a-Car stuck us in a minivan. Me and my wife, in a minivan. No one else came with us. Just the two of us and they put us in a minivan, because they didn’t have any economy vehicles available. Thank you Travelocity. I will not be using you again.

Also, NC drivers are crazy. Plum loco, I tell you. Who slows down as they’re getting on a highway? And who on the highway slows down for those people coming on?

So we’re back home now and feeling a little depressed. We had really been hoping to find something on this trip, but I guess we’re going to have to look around a little longer. We really didn’t want to come back to Florida. In fact, I was kind of hoping that we’d get lost during our hike and miss our flight back.

We’re checking out Cary and the surrounding areas. It really was the nicest area we saw. It’s frustrating because we are anxious to move, but we just can’t be flying back and forth regularly enough to check out every house we find online. Fingers crossed, through, we’re hoping to get all our ducks in a row and be moved some time soon after January. That would be a nice birthday present to myself.