Fayetteville, NC

After 560 miles and many hours, I'm in Fayetteville, NC.  The driving was smooth, except for the first hour during which I went 11 miles!! Surely everyone in NJ was on the GSP at once!

For this trip, I gave myself two goals- each day do something I wouldn't ordinarily do; connect with at least two people and learn their stories.   Today, I met my goals at Ruby Tuesday during dinner. First, I don't generally eat at RT.  Second, here are the stories.  The manager, a youngish male, was schmoozing with some of the single diners.  He's from NY- Long Island.  His story is that he's moving around to both advance his career and be near SKY DIVING.  His last job in Savannah was an hour and a half from sky-diving, so that didn't work for him.  He has a mobile home and I guess moves it around.  I noticed a wedding ring but did not ask how his wife takes to all of this! The next story was from the waitress.  Slow night, lots of time to talk.  She's engaged to a man in the military.  Fayetteville is near Fort Bragg, the second largest army base in the country.  (The largest...?)  He's in Afghanistan, home for two weeks in September. They'll marry and then he'll be gone for 8 months.  Not much of a honeymoon.  She also told me there's a bar in Fayetteville that is in the Guinness Book of World Records for selling the most alcohol in one night.  She was not particularly proud of that claim to fame, but what can you do with guys home from duty-- strip clubs, bars, tattoo parlors, pawn shops abound.

http://www.bragg.army.mil/

More about birds- At the hotel there is a stucco overhang at the front entrance, common at hotels to protect people from rain while loading/unloading. On the side is the name- Fairfield Inn, Marriott.  Inside of the "a" in Marriott is a bird's nest!  Seriously.  I didn't see any babies, though.  They're probably already on their own.