Pit Stop in NC

I had a very good time exploring some fun parts of North Carolina with Katherine. We got up early Thursday morning and headed straight out to DEI. We explored the museum and did a little shopping. Being the considerate wife that I am, I called Jack and woke him up to see if he needed any Dale Earnhardt gear while I was in the gift shop. In spite of my 6am wake up call on his day off, he was happy to request a Dale Earnhardt shirt and a Jr cap.


This is the Jr's Sexiest Driver award. I am not very Nascar literate, but it was fun browsing through all the displays in DEI and learning more about it! Katherine is probably going to post some really good photos of our trip, so check out her blog for better details! If she posts that police department photo, I just want you to know that I am innocent... innocent I tell you!
I wasn't going to let Katherine go all the way to NC and not find the firetruck she wanted to see. Engine #3 in Mooresville is emblazoned with Dale Earnhardt emblems, so we headed over there to check it out. I actually made my new banner with a photo of the gear on the side of the truck.
The truck was parked in the garage, so it was difficult to get a great shot of it.
As happy as Katherine was to see the truck, it was nothing to how excited the firefighters were to see Katherine... LOL. Apparently it isn't everyday that hot redheads stop by to visit them out of the blue, and this photo is a good example of how they hung on her every word... hehehe. They all came outside to chat and pose for photos. Then they gave us firefighter directions to get to the scrapbook store that Earnhardt Jr's sister owns. Their directions took us down all the backroads, but we made it! We did a little shopping, and then we reluctantly headed back to the hotel to pick up our boxes and get to work.

This is my friend Cheryl, who came and said hello to me at the show. I haven't seen her in several years, so it was great to get to visit her and her sister Terri for a little bit.
Carrie Zohn and Andrea Gibson, two of my fellow Make it Meaningful finalists were at the show, and we had a chance to talk and laugh as well. Carrie's booth was right across from mine, so we spent a good bit of time calling back and forth to each other. (Don't you love how the sign behind my head looks like a halo on me? Quite appropriate, doncha think???)

After tear down on Saturday night, Katherine and I headed to the mall in search of Vera Bradley bags. Being the southwestern girls we are, we hadn't seen these cute quilted bags before. They are all over the South, and we saw them all over the convention floor. Cute! Katherine got her purses, I picked up some good deals at the mall, and then we had dinner and headed back to the hotel to get packed to come home. I had picked up a HUGE gameboard set without really considering how I was going to pack it to get it home. Lugging that and the 50 pound computer through the airport was a lot of fun... LOL

We got up crazy early on Sunday morning to fly home. Katherine and I actually got the gameboard out and played an uninspired round of backgammon while we waited. It was far too early in the morning for strategy games, though, so after the first round we decided that was enough of that! The jetlag has really been bad this weekend, but I am working against a couple of deadlines, so I am dealing with it. I am heading off to Tulsa, OK on Wed, where I will get to see one of my best friends, Johanna. Chat soon!