On the open road

We begrudgingly left the banks.  It's a hard place to leave even knowing what we have in store for us in the coming weeks.
We have been studying "500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late" for weeks now and were excited to finally hit up the first spot.   We drove through the cotton and tobacco fields of eastern North Carolina and made our way to Wilbur's Whole Hog BBQ.  If this first restaurant was any indication, we have a lot to look forward to throughout the rest of the US.  We shared a bbq plate with traditional east carolina pork, slaw, potato salad and hush puppies and got side orders of brunswick stew and chicken gizzards.  The BBQ was amazing - smoky, tangy and with just enough bite to make your eyes water on occasion.  The potato salad was yellow and smooth with just a little sweetness to balance out the vinegar.  The only bad part was knowing that I will never be able to create any of that at home.  Ok, I could give the chicken gizzards a try but once was enough.  I will post pics once I get my damn phone to work.
We made our way north to Cary, NC to visit a friend of Kevin's.  Cary, NC is just outside of Chapel Hill and is known as the Catch All for Relocating Yankees.  We met him at a friend's house and headed out for more BBQ.  This time we hit up Q Shack in Durham, NC.
Last night was our first introduction to true southern hospitality.  Kevin's friends who offered to put us up are going through some issues with their new home (two kids under three, termite damage and two months of repairs before the house can be inhabited=not a lot of fun for the Lee family).  Despite never having met us, two of their friends both offered to take us in for the night.  We ended up staying with Matt, a Montana native, who could not have been more hospitable and we ended the night with Yuengling lagers and a lengthy conversation about what we've been reading over the past year.
We are off today to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for our first night of camping and then off to Nashville on Monday to hopefully catch up with Luke who is on an adventure of his own.
We'll let you know how it goes.
h + k