We finally arrived in Raleigh around 8pm last night. Traveling with the dogs will definitely have some challenges. Right now the car is so full that only one dog crate can be ‘open’ so we rotated with one in the crate and the other in my lap. A lucky bamboo plant that I had in my office almost didn’t fit in the car, but Ashwin came up with the great idea of having it ride in the dog crate. At a rest stop in North Carolina, Meeko decided she’d had enough of that plant and promptly chewed it to pieces.
The house we are staying in is out in the suburbs. Ashwin was quick to notice how much space there was “in the South.” He suggested we take have the population of NYC and set them up in North Carolina. It’s true though, around every corner there is another lot of land for sale, both commercial and personal. Not a sight one usually sees in a city.
The gardens of the house are beautiful–there are pockets of flowers everywhere, a little pond with a waterfall, and a koi pond. I love little ponds like these because at first glance, you just see the fish. Then you start really looking, and you realize there is so much life going on just below the surface. You see the lizard sunning along the netting, the little water skimmer bugs (seriously, how do they skate across the water? Can we adapt that technology for humans?), and you catch a big bullfrog plunking into the water in fear of your shadow. Snickers had taken to walking along the stone wall of the koi pond, eyeing the fish. I swear one of these times she’s going to jump in.
Speaking of animals, we found two huge spiders in our guest room. This wasn’t a huge surprise as it is connected to the garage, but, as Ashwin put it, they “popped” when he squished them for me. Meeko tried to catch one but I was worried it might be poisonous. A quick google search of “large brown spider nc,” apparently a popular thing to search, I discovered that it was a harmless Wolf Spider.
I’ve got my workout clothes and spf 100 on, so I am off to take the doggies for a walk around the neighborhood. With all the land between the houses, I think staying in the neighborhood will get us plenty of ground to cover!
Oh, and we ran over a dead racoon with the car today. It smelled disgusting.