This past week I had the opportunity to help my friend Smitty deliver his new boat, a 49' Meridian, from Myrtle Beach back to Wilmington.

It was a fun and uneventful trip, which for those of you familiar with boats, is not always the case. Joining us on the trip was Smittys' lovely lady Linda and the ever present Gracie, Linda's Mastiff.

We had a great time, I even got to do my DiCaprio impersonation on the bow of the boat made famous in his "Titanic" movie. Not a bad interpretation, IMHO.

We saw some fun sights on the way and topped off the evening by docking at "Bluewater Grill" in Wrightsville Beach for dinner. Another wonderful time on the Southeastern NC coast.

Just returned from a long over due trip to what is known in NC as "the High Country".

This is the area of Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk and Beeech Mountain.We have a small condo on the top of Beech Mountain and it has been some six years since our last visit. Once we moved to the coast we have had this mental block about the long ride etc. and just haven't gone. Big mistake. Now I love and cherish living in Wrightsville Beach, but being on the beach over the July 4th week-end with the huge crowds, traffic, humidity etc., is just not very much fun. You almost feel like you are in captivity if you are a resident.

Enter the mountains. Now they get crowds up there on the 4th, but its the wide open spaces and it just feels different. We arrived at the top of Beech to 68 degree temperatures as the high and mid 50's as the low in the evenings. It was really luscious and a welcome change of pace. The trees were almost mesmerizing.

We spent the week hiking and exploring trails and even did the tourist thing and hiked Grandfather Mountain. That was especially challenging as the wind was blowing at the top to the tune of about 60 knots!

We also took a ride over to Lake Watauga in Tennessee and had lunch in a little place called the Lakecrest Grill which looked like it came out of the movie: "Fried Green Tomatoes". Very cool indeed.

It was an enlightening trip for us as it proved that a 6 hour drive is really not as bad as you anticipate, but really just a state of mind. Now that we are over that hurdle we hope to go back for another visit as the coastal heat really bears down on us around August or September. Its kind of nice sleeping under a heavy blanket in the middle of summer every now and then!