Emma originally planned on staying here 3 weeks. Then decided on another week, and then had to stay here another week beyond that, because Maddie and Jill came down with COVID. So it’s been an awesome and longer than expected summer visit here for us.

July 21

they come back from Asheville – met up with Victoria – and Emma has a new nose ring. Except she's trying to put it in at the bathroom sink and drops some kind of connecting piece down the drain. I take apart the pipes but we never find it. Then figure I might as well snake the rest again, behind the wall. Emma eventually figures out something else.

July 22

Emma was tidying up her room this evening. I think she likes it in there. Cruz has been hanging out with her for hours, too – Emma carries her in and sets her down on this fuzzy grey blanket on the bed, and she settles in there.

Erin's in bed watching TikToks. I just started watching some TV, it's about 10:30. Emma recently emerged from her room, walked around to see what we were up to; I laughed and asked if she was exercising, after one circuit.

“Yeah, I'm doing laps,” she joked, and semi-jogged as she did a 2nd one.

July 23

a really fun pool day. “You're ruining my career!” Emma jokes to Erin, who is barking at us during volleyball. Also arguments about YMCA, after Elaine gets home and joins us in the pool. Erin has this wedding party playlist going, and that song comes on.

Emma and I were trying to see how many unbroken beachball hits we could get in a row, before that – during this round, with the larger beach ball, we get exactly 31 twice. This is the part where Erin is “coaching.”

Then we're doing the YMCA dance later, when that comes on. I honestly don't remember ever attempting this before. Thus I observe that it's actually really tricky to transition in and out of the C, if you're trying to do it right. Elaine laughs and tells me to stop being an ass, but I'm serious, and think I have a valid point: what they are doing is not actually a C. It's more like a tilted U. But then Emma starts arguing with me about my own methods, says “what is that?” as she holds out a hand, perplexed, when I show her a C. Finally, I conclude, “we're using different fonts.”

Erin busts out laughing and repeats this, but Emma asks me, with a smirk, “oh yeah? What font are you using?”

“Mmm...Copperplate,” I tell her.

In later developments, none of us know how to do the O-H-I-O, either. Later, Emma and I are the last two still in the pool, it's twilight-ish. We start hitting the beach ball again, and manage to excatly double the previous record for consecutive volleys: we get to 62.

July 24

hilarious efforts at cleaning off pool ladder. Elaine, Jennifer, and Emma have gone down to Mooresville, to eat at Culver's and shop at Costco. Erin and I are in the pool, join forces to lift “ladder” (so it is called, though actually steps) out to Tom. Then I climb out, he and I work on cleaning the thing off extensively. Erin films some of our efforts. McKayla gets dropped off, says hi, but then hangs out inside the house.

Elaine, Jennifer, and Emma return from their Culver's/Costco adventure. Elaine's asking me if I know how to cook and cut a flank steak, since I'll be manning the grill.

“Yeah.”

“Cut it thin, at an angle...,” she tells me, to which I nod again.

So then I'm out there grilling for a while, and Tom's hanging around so I ask if the steak looks done enough for him and Elaine. He strolls over, says, “I don't know, let's take a look,” grabs the knife and cuts a huge, long, diagonal gash all the way across the thing. Then decides to hack off some end pieces to speed up the process. His diagonal slash happened too fast for me to stop him and now it doesn't matter. Jennifer is mighty pissed.

July 25

the day I use up rest of film roll taking pictures of hall wall – it's art, man! And of course the antics of these knuckleheads as well, albeit just using my iPhone here:

July 26

Erin's over at Caitlin's for some sorority Zoom meeting. Emma and I check out Galaxy Arcade for the first time. It's a really charming operation, so I hope they make it. The walls look to be papered with some kind of blue and purple “space” themed pattern. The owner, Brian, is extremely excited – moved here recently from the Tampa area – and runs down everything for us in rapidfire fashion. They have free popcorn here, and a smattering of other drinks, snacks.

Emma likes this shooting game with a rifle. I start off playing this Shaq pinball game and do okay. Then Emma and I play a few games of air hockey, which has its own little plexiglass windowed room. She wins the first game. Then I somehow manage to skunk her (7-0) in the 2nd game, which is so bad she accuses me of throwing the 1st. Then there's a rubber match where I manage to squeak out a win.

The Shaq pinball is definitely the high point, otherwise, at least for me. They have this sit down console with a ton of old school games, but the joystick is kind of clunky. I play Dig Dug and something else that's kind of similar before giving up. Then he's got this tiny Pac-Man head shaped gadget that is free to play. This one is even more difficult (it casts to a mounted TV screen, wirelessly) because it's designed for kids, and I have to hunch over to use it.

After tiring of this place, we drive over to the Goodwill here in town. Emma's still looking for clothes, a backpack, a lunch box/bag, and possibly any good vinyl records also. Her grandma gave her a turntable, and Emma’s really into Fleetwood Mac. So I already gave her my copies of Tango in the Night, Mirage, and Belladonna to take home. But you can just about guarantee that this section at Goodwill is 100% junk these days, and it is. Coincidentally enough, however, they do play Stop Draggin' My Heart Around over the Muzak, and Emma recognizes Stevie Nicks, asks what this is – I tell her it's on one of the albums I gave her.

After this, I manage to talk Emma into (without saying much) driving some for the first time this summer. We head over to the Compare Foods lot, and the one (all connected) belonging to the other buildings there, and she practices there for quite some time.

First she just drives around and around the lots in front of Compare Foods, the buildings beside it, and then that former bank or whatever it is, the drive thru. After mostly getting the hang of this, and parking in slots, and backing up, etc (even with my messed up side mirror sticker she hates), we decide to take it out onto the road. Emma drives down Oakland, across Ridgeway, down Race, then across Alexander back to Oakland.

After some more parking lot practice, her last tutorial is to pull out on Oakland, then over to the Sunoco right there in front of this strip, so I can get some gas. She pulls right up to the pump, also a first for her. And then drives us home.

July 28

I pick Emma up over at the Walle house, to take her to this butterfly thing in Hickory. But first, we stop at 33 1/3 Records (just my 2nd visit) because Emma still wants to find more albums for her record player. She doesn't have any luck, but I pick up a couple from this $5 box by the counter – U2's October and Neil's American Stars & Bars. Mainly to support the business. They have the coolest looking bags ever, though.

Then we head onward to Hickory. There is a traffic standstill right before Daniel's exit, so I get off there and consult my phone map to improvise a route from here. It starts drizzling along the way, though, which threatens to scuttle our plans. We learned at Asheboro that butterflies don't come out in the rain.

We get here a little earlier and check out their animal exhibits. Nothing too phenomenally exciting, maybe, but they have some cool stuff. Emma remembers being here once before with Erin and others. I am a little surprised that they have these low tanks where you can actually reach down and touch these rays if you want.

The butterfly experience itself is somewhat anticlimactic. It turns out this old guy just comes here to hang out – there's no “event” per se, or demonstration. It's small and there aren't as many specimens as at the zoo. But it is a cool looking room, and this guy, who is apparently retired and does this for fun, is friendly, he likes to talk. Also, they have this gigantic piece of petrified wood in the middle of the room. This was discovered quite a ways from here – SC I think he said – and nobody knew what to do with it. They dropped it in here with a crane.

We check out the rest of the museum, but this is aimed at little kids and not very interesting. After this, we drive over to the mall, but manage to walk around for awhile without buying anything. Pretty much all we do is look around in Spencer Gifts and Hot Topic.

From here we take off headed back for home. But decide to stop and get a pizza en route. So then we're standing there waiting on our food, and looking out the front window, there's this huge double rainbow directly in front of us. We both agree this is the best rainbow display we have ever seen. And then driving back to Statesville on 70, both are visible to us for much of the way home.

July 29

Emma hurts her ankle, right off the bat at the 100 Mile Yard Sale. This time around Lauren is driving, they go with her and the kids. But there's apparently not much out yet, not even in the heart of Harmony. So they are bored right away, and decide to drive to Hanes Mall in Winston instead. Emma's been wanting to hit this Box Lunch store, and they have one here.

After they get back, I take Emma and McKayla to this outdoor movie at Galaxy Arcade. They're showing Sonic 2, which I've already seen, but that's fine – it's an interesting concept, and we're supporting the community.

It's a comically chaotic scene, here, and I feel bad for them. Our power went out earlier, and they still don't have their internet back here. So I was hoping to use my card, but they can't run it. Some older guy named Gordon, who says he did the outer space themed walls here, gives the girls $4 to play with. I walk up to CVS to get some money from their ATM. After I return, the owner's wife is behind the counter now, and laughs as she says she doesn't really know what to charge for the snacks and drinks I'm buying. She makes up some prices, which are perfectly reasonable, for our bottled waters and so forth.

They are kind of freaking outside because the screen they bought arrived damaged, and its replacement only got here at the last minute. Even when the movie starts, though, it's still not quite dark enough, even with this screen wedged in between this building and the next for a little more shade. Also, as soon as it does get just a smidgen darker, the city security lights come on! On top of this, even when darkness fully falls and we can see better, people are cruising past in their cars cranking their rad jams or, better yet, zipping by on their loud ass but unbelievably cool and not the least bit ridiculous motorcycles. But the owner goes around handing out free popcorn at one point. Also sends his little girl thru a couple of times with free candy. All in all it's a fun experience, but I don't really see this concept working out for them. Which is sad, because I wish it would, out on the sidewalk like this. But there are just too many distractions, too much noise, probably not enough space to really scale it up.

After this wraps up, or really as we're not even at the end, Erin's blowing up our phones with texts about going to Waffle House. So everybody is cool with this, and we ride over to the one on 70 after picking Erin up.

Then we have to get takeout for Caitlin's household. Finally, after running this over there – they meet us outside, and chat for a minute – we head home.

– Hulu live broadcast of Lollapalooza, I catch the tail end of Rezz's set. This one piano based tune with what sounds like a pitch wheel going nuts sounds cool. She also does a cool cover of Sweet Dreams.

July 30

– we unexpectedly hear some of this same set in the car. Erin has tuned the Sirius to this modern alternative station as we're driving through Winston. It turns out that some band Emma's excited about, Wallows, is playing today, but she's still trying to figure out when. Even Erin agrees that some of this Rezz stuff is really cool, although they break away just before Sweet Dreams.

Second visit to McKay's. This time it's Erin, Emma, McKayla, and me. Erin gives them both some cash along the way. Emma's insanely excited about going here, though all she ends up buying is an unopened Ariana Grande vinyl for $20 or so. They are cracking up and disbelieving to overhear a couple guys trying to find Donnie Darko on DVD. McKayla picks up a few comic books. I think Erin just gets a couple kids' books – either for her classroom or Ryan and Carleigh - and I don't really grab a ton, just a paperback of Hillbilly Elegy and a handful of CDs, cheapie ones like REM's Accelerate etc.

I took 4 hardbacks to trade in at McKay’s - they only accept 2 but give me $7 in store credit for them! Erin went out to the car while the 3 of us rooted through the free bins in front. There’s some hilarious stuff in there (cassette of some preacher from 1979, etc) but also decent finds (Different Seasons paperback, etc). McKayla mostly just rips on everything, doesn’t seem to have much actual interest.

After this, we hit a nearby restaurant called Bobo's, which Erin found online. How can we not? (Erin’s family has been calling her “Boo” since she was a young lass; when Carleigh was little, however, she apparently had trouble saying “Boo” and instead it became “Bobo,” which she and Ryan both have exclusively used ever since). It's a cozy little place, has been in the family for about 25 years but renamed this only in '17. It's burgers, sandwiches, etc, light fare for the most part.

After leaving here, we find this charming ice cream place, halfway out into the country. Erin of course stumbled onto this one online, but it's even cooler than we would have guessed. It's just this trailer in a somewhat overgrown lot, and the whole thing is Harry Potter themed.

But this is just temporary, because they change their themes often. I think I had the Piedmont Peanut Butter sundae.

After this, we wind up driving down to the Five Below in Salisbury. “This store is the cause for my money problems,” Emma says. At some point we did hear that Lollapalooza set Emma was hoping to catch, by Wallows. They are actually pretty good – Emma has by now moved well beyond her Top 40 days.

When we get home, Emma and McKayla start a fun little project of them painting to a timer, then switching every few minutes. They also did this on 7/13, but the difference is today they got round canvases at Five Below. And I bought them some nicer paints there too. They set up a table in front of the short couch to paint while we watch Lollapalooza. The Wallows set is on at one point, and the Willow Smith set is also not bad.

July 31

A night of epic firsts with Emma driving. She drives home from Tom and Elaine's – it's twilight when she starts but dark before we're home. So, her first time driving at night. Also in the rain, as that starts along the way. Also pulling over for emergency vehicles, 3 of which come flying past us at one point.

She also rode with Mary to Dunkin' Donuts earlier. Elaine and I were working on this algae covered ladder some more. Emma comes out and asks if she can ride over there with Mary. I tell her okay, but jokingly ask if she has a helmet.

They have a fun, uneventful trip, though. The two of them sit talking at the kitchen table afterwards for hours.

August 2

Emma drives while Erin rides home – first time she's been with Emma driving. She apparently does great, but struggles at the very end only, getting into our driveway. So then just has to practice backing out and straightening it up.

August 3

Erin reading online blurb about some woman who allegedly ground up testicles to use in her award winning sauce, or whatever. It's pretty funny, though, because as Dad gets on this kick about insisting that's bullshit, Emma goes on and on asking if and how he's sure he's never eaten any ground up testicles ever. Dad retorts that he would definitely know, and this has to be a fake story anyway, but Emma keeps teasing him about it. The whole thing's pretty hilarious, how she keeps going on about it.

Dad's not feeling so hot, though, so he stays at home. The first place we all hit is this oddly named but really nice Label Shopper store. Everyone loves it here, but although Emma finds some clothes she likes, none of them fit. I buy this John and Yoko mug for Dad (forget to give it to him later anyway, though) and Mom picks up a couple things.

After this, it's Mocksville Restaurant for dinner. Mom has been here before (including recent breakfast w/ Howie and Lisa and Dad, during which I talked to them), but we have not. I know she orders a quesadilla of some sort. Erin I believe the deviled crabs and Emma either spaghetti or chicken tenders (of course). And I get some fried seafood of some sort. They have an America (the band) compilation playing, its track listing shown on this mounted TV. I insist upon paying for Mom's.

From here we hit the nearby Goodwill, which is pretty nice. I manage to snag Floyd's Pompeii on DVD. Am really tempted, too, to pick up this hilarious Keith Urban instructional CD set, but can't quite pull the trigger on it. I do, however, get this old “electronic music” vinyl album. Mom pays for everything here.

August 5

“Ten years have got behind you, babe,” Erin says. Time is playing, we are driving on 64 toward Hendersonville.

“Eleven years,” Emma jokes, in reference to our anniversary. Today does indeed mark eleven years that Erin and I have been married.

Speaking of eleven, I was done with work by eleven, actually – eleven a.m. And shortly thereafter we hit the road. Erin has a couple of waterfalls she wants to see. I am hoping out to check out the Judaculla Rock. We just keep driving west, on 40, for an eternity. At one point Peaches comes on the Sirius and although Emma doesn't know it, she instantly loves it, and adds the song to one of her playlists.

We finally get off the interstate, arrive at this town called Waynesville. It's extremely charming here, and none of us have been through this town before, at least not this downtown section of it. Parking curbside, we walk up a few places to this restaurant called Sauced. They've got some great if weird artwork painted on the walls and half kegs cut to form light covers. It's a bit frosty in here, though, so I ask Erin if they consulted her for their thermostat settings. Emma agrees that they must have.

I have one draft beer here. As far as the food, Emma orders these chicken tenders, and they are huge. So much so that the outsides are extremely crispy, which they had to be in order to cook the insides all the way through. Anyways Emma's grimacing and only mildly complaining about these, but will probably eat them anyway, when the bartender drifts past. We don't even say anything to him, but he picks up on what's happening anyway, and volunteers to have them make Emma a fresh plate of smaller tenders. Then personally brings them out as well. And then after we pay and leave, Emma accidentally leaves her to go container behind. He brings it over to us, tracking us down next door at the bookstore! What a guy! Our waitress meanwhile was competent – nothing more - and I barely remember her at all.

The bookstore is huge, and really cool, although we end up not buying anything despite looking for quite awhile. Then we hit this coffee shop on the other side of the restaurant, which is also quite funky.

After this, I want to see the infamous Judaculla Rock. Things get slightly edgy here in the car as we hit Cullowhee, though. My phone is going dead but I have a map app up so we can see how to get to this place. So the ladies are both ripping on me for leaving the map app up, like this is some sort of weirdo “old” person behavior. But then it emerges...their phones are going dead, too. Due to playing games, watching videos, etc. So I'm questioning how these can possibly be more noble or legit reasons or whatever for one's phone to be doing dead.

So we stop at a gas station and I go in to look for a charger. Refer to it as a piece that plugs into the “cigarette lighter,” which the cashier gets a kick out of.

Once we finally make it out to this rock, it ends up being a bit of a disappointment. It's obviously been faded by the elements quite a bit by this point. Although we do get at least one hilarious picture of the 3 of us, during which we're staring into the sun. Funny how often that happens.

From here we decide to go try and find some good waterfalls we've never seen before. There's one which you used to be able to drive under, but no longer can, yet it's really close to the rerouted road anyway. This would be Bridal Veil Falls. We park and walk under it, watch as some obviously local dipshits move the roadblock and drive under it anyway.

Then we continue onward, to this other cool waterfall nearby. People were watching our progress on Find My and are asking Erin why we're almost into Georgia. Anyway this next one is called Dry Falls, near Highlands. It's a bit of a hike down to it, and so Erin stays in the car, she doesn't feel up to this. This is a fall you can walk behind, it's really cool. Emma and I are struggling to take a good picture of ourselves with the waterfall framed right, so some random older guy volunteers and does so with my phone.

It was a a fun drive out to these falls, even. At one point we're driving up this mountain and everything opens up to our left. This has to be at about the highest point. It's really foggy out there, but the view is awesome.

After leaving here, we wind up in Brevard at this funky place called Mayberry's. It's a vaguely old time-y place, or maybe just a funky mountain version of an old time-y place. The guy working behind the counter is wearing a toboggan for some reason, despite the heat. You approach his stand to order. They are short staffed and things take forever. I think Emma just gets hot cocoa. People arguing outside store up the sidewalk.

August 6

“why you wearing a velour hoodie when it's...107 degrees outside?” I jokingly ask McKayla, when she shows up at the Walle house. Only a slight exaggeration.

When we showed up, Tom was in the driveway, working on still another pool ladder (which actually is a ladder ths time), the 3rd one now of this summer. This time around he's got a couple of scrubbers, a bowl of soapy water, and the power washer. So I jump in and help him.

Elaine comes out and it's one of these classic dynamics you find yourself in at work all the time. Where sometimes you’ll have two bosses at the same level with two completely different ideas on how to do something. They both think the other one is out of their mind. And then you’re just an employee following orders, but whichever one you’re stuck listening to at the moment, the other thinks you’re an idiot as well, just for being caught in the crossfire.

Like I just jumped into this to help Tom (the boss). We are doing things his way. If I made any suggestions at changing them, he would have shot these down. Nonetheless here she is saying we are both idiots for doing such and such in this manner...yeah, this is just like life on the job. Of course even so, it's not as if Tom is changing his methods any. Like she's wondering why we aren't working in the shade, using better scrubbers, etc. So then Tom goes in, saying he can't do any more, and Elaine takes over helping me. “I just don't get it,” she's saying, shaking her head, about the way we were working. She's brought a slightly better scrubber with her.

Before he left, Tom gave me this speech detailing how we would have to lower the ladder in, and one person would need to hold it while someone else got into the water, then that person could hold it while others got in. It was all very elaborate. Except none of this ever happens. I go inside to change into my swim trunks, and Tom just so happens to be stepping outside to the pool area the same time I do. In the time it took this to happen, Elaine has already brought the ladder into the pool, she and Erin have managed to injure themselves getting into the water – and the ladder we just scrubbed is busted beyond repair. Chicks are just impulsive like that, although it's true they didn't hear Tom's elaborate calculations, either. Elaine dropped the ladder in, started down it with no help. One of the steps busted clean off and she messed up her leg as a result, I think maybe cut her foot. Then since there is no functional ladder now, Erin flops in awkwardly over the side of the pool, manages to hurt her own side in the process.

So much for that. After swimming for awhile, a heavy rain blows in. Since this is Emma's last night in town, we go out for dinner at Waffle House – Tom and Elaine join Erin, Emma, McKayla, and me. The power is actually out for a minute when we first get there (not sure how long, actually) but soon comes back on. The 6 of us have a nice dinner here. Then with hugs and goodbyes, Tom and Elaine leave, we head back to the house.

  inside of Waffle House with no electricity   the big goodbye

August 7

Daniel and Christina swung thru this morning to get Holden's Oculus. It's been in Erin's trunk ever since the drive-in night. They were surprised that Emma was still here. We were getting ready to hit the road soon ourselves.

In other news: I’m digging this service by Books2Read that just gives you one universal link for your books. So if for example you’re interested in picking up my latest novel, Well-Behaved Monsters, I don’t have to worry about steering readers to any specific store. They can just click here and choose the destination of their choice:

https://books2read.com/wellbehavedmonsters

It’s a pretty sweet service and completely free. So for you authors out there, you might want to look into it. Readers, I would definitely encourage you to click on my link and check this out as well!

Thanks and have a great week!