Let me start off by telling you about the trip! So Sara had been living in North Carolina for about two years and because of her recent marriage is moving home for a little bit. So Lisa and I flew out to North Carolina to drive back with her. We flew out on December 10th and got back on December 15th. Although the trip was short, we saw a lot and I can finally say I have done a cross country road trip. We spent some time in the south and Midwest and every place made me even more thankful to be living in California…Here is the trip in detail.
December 10th 2009 started out like this…
6:30 AM – Wake Up
7:30 AM – Leave Hollister
8:30 AM – Arrive in San Jose, woke Scott up and got bagels
10:15 AM we arrived at the airport and walked around for an hour and a half waiting for our flight. We ran into Ashley which was random but she was heading to Chicago for Savannah’s Graduation.
12:30P PM- Arrived in Denver! As soon as we started the landing process, all I could think about was Dumb and Dumber. The area around the airport was super flat and bare. And all I could think about was
“I was expecting the Rockies to be a bit rockier”
“Yeah, that John Denver’s full of shit man”
As soon as we landed there was snow on the ground and I had a feeling it had to be FREEZING outside and I was right. As we walked through the walkway from the plane to the airport we could see our breath!
We had two hour layover so we ate some Mexican food, had a beer and then walked around the Denver airport which is HUGE. It has three different sections each with its own set of shops and places to eat.
Sign # 1 that reminded us we were no longer in California.
This was outside the bathroom!
5:50 PM- Leave Denver, for North Carolina.
11:00 PM- Arrived in North Carolina.
We got our bags and waited for Sara to find us at the baggage claim. Once she found us we started the two hour ride to Fayetteville/Raeford which is where we were staying. We stopped at a Burger King, got some food then headed to the hotel where we were staying. We got in around 2:00 AM and woke back up at 6:30. We checked out and headed to Sara’s school.
We met all of Sara’s kinds and they were adorable! They were either black, Native American or some sort of white. They all had southern accents and said stuff like “yes mam!” or there was this little girl that kept saying “Ima tell yo husband miss Phillips! Ima tell him!”
After spending 30 minutes or so with her class we left around 8:00 for Wilmington. This was our first chance to get to see some of North Carolina during the day. I’m assuming it’s because of the cold weather but everything seemed kind of dead and bare. It’s full of a lot of small towns, empty fields, big trees and swaps. I remember after we drove by our first swamp, Lisa and I were like “…really? Is that a swamp?” haha
The roads we took all the way to Wilmington (it took about 1.5 hours to get there) were all two lane highways. I would normally enjoy this type of woodsy atmosphere but since it was all brown and dead looking, it wasn’t as pretty as I would have hoped it to be. Now don’t get me wrong, not all of North Carolina is like this I’m sure, just the city we were in. Majority of the buildings and homes that we passed were run down, with trash in front of their homes...it was sad. Sara said something about people in North Carolina not really carrying about the way things look and it’s totally true. When you think about California people are always concerned about how green their lawn is and put a lot of time, money and effort into landscaping their homes and buildings. The places we passed through on the way to Wilmington look as if they don’t even know what a landscaper is.
Wilmington, NC- Home of One Tree Hill.
We got into Wilmington around 10 and parked in the downtown parking garage. We got outside and almost considered getting back into the car because it was so cold. But since we had driven so far, Lisa and I piled on our clothing and set out down the street. The first thing we saw was the Port City Java which is where Karens Café was in the first season. We got coffee to try and keep our body temperature at a normal level then continued walking around.
The second thing we saw was Clothes over Bros. From what I’ve read, most of the inside stuff on the show is shot on a set, but Clothes over Bros is an actual store. We peeked through the window and the inside is set up like a store (as it is seen on the show) which is kind of weird because there is no entrance to the store and its obviously only used for the show. Before this store became Clothes over Bros, it was also Karen’s Café. And underneath the Clothes over Bros sign is a painted picture of Karens Café.
Next we kept waking and we saw the “high school” which is actually a community college. We saw Hell’s Kitchen, which is a bar that was used in Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill.
We saw CD Alley, where Kris Keller worked
We walked along the river and saw the river court across the river.
That was all the stuff we could find in downtown Wilmington. After that, we got back into our car and drove to where Tric is. It’s at some Warehouse a few blocks away. When we got there we saw that they actually had a sign about Hayley going on tour and on the door, it actually said TRIC. There was some tagging from other fans there about the show; it was all pretty funny to read.
After TRIC we drove to Laney High School. Laney High school has a gym named after Michael Jordan and it is also the gym used on the show.
By the time we finished this, we had gotten a little hungry. So we drove to Cubbies. A must-eat-at diner, according to Sara. We got hushpuppies and frozen custard. Two things very popular in the south. Hushpuppies is deep fried cornbread and frozen custard is like frozen yogurt but way better.
After we ate, we set out to find the houses.
Brookes
Felix
Nathan
Hayley
Peyton
Next we drove across the river to Battleship Park. This has the big Battleship NC and…the RIVER COURT. There weren’t any actual hoops set up, but the benches were there and so was the court. On the benches fans had also tagged messages to the stars.
It started to get pretty late so Lisa and I left and headed towards the beach, I wasn’t about to be that close to the Atlantic and not touch it. We went to Wrightsville beach and I dipped my feet in. It was sooo COLD. But the beach was so pretty. The sand was white; the water was clear and just way nicer than the pacific.
We only stayed a few minutes because the tentative plan was to start driving that night. We drove back and stopped at Jersey Mikes. Another Must-eat-At and got subs. I got the Italian sandwich and it was pretty good. We went back to meet Sara and decided it was too late to leave that night so we ran a few errands and then ended the night by getting The Cookout. Another must eat. This place was pretty cool, it’s all drive thru, no inside eating and their selection of food was huge. I got chicken fingers, fries, hushpuppies and a shake...all under $5. Definitely couldn’t finish it all. I don’t know how the people in the south do it, but all that fried food its rough haha.
After getting the cookout Sara took us by the army base. (It’s actually not called a base for the army but I don’t remember what it’s called. It was nothing like I expected it to be. I’m not sure if I was just expecting like cabins and empty space but it is actually like a little city. We had a funny encounter with one of the guards, he was yelling at Sara with his southern accent about her expired tags. We drove in and it was just like we had just gotten into a different city. We went to the shopping area that they have and the grocery store and got food for the rest of our trip.
After that we went back to Sara’s friend Ashley’s place to sleep. We looked at some old pictures from high school, had a few laughs then decided it was time to get to bed since we wanted to leave at 5.
Next stop…Tennessee.
