Carolina experience

This weekend was jam packed activities with my better half traipsing through a 100 mile radius from home and visiting a multitude of food and recreation spots outside Charlotte.

Saturday started with visiting now revitalized digs of former tobacco and rail barons like RJ Reynolds and Duke and JP Morgan in the form of Winston Salem. Having visited before we knew where some taste bud enticing menu was located and we immediately stopped there.

Food came in the form of pork buns and steamed shrimp dumplings along with some amazing beef noodle soup in a spicy broth. The place, May Way, is a little shack in the Reynolda garden complex (part of the Wake Forest University close by). The spring season was in full bloom and so a walk later on in the rose and flowering gardens was enjoyable along with stopping to chat with visitors from far and near also seeking joy in nature.

After this heart beat racing stroll in the gardens we stopped for a little bit to admire art and poetry (erasure poetry was a new art form to me) at the SECA complex not far from Reynolda.

From there it was a short drive south to just outside Salisbury to see the Norfolk Southern goods train marshalling yard - the access being at the end of a dead end street. There is no signage whatsoever and for a minute you are not even sure your car is going in the right direction until you end up at the tens of tracks housing the rail cars waiting to their turn to be shunted to their destination.

As a rail geek it is always a fascination to see such action up close.

From there we visited another historic and amazing facility - this the NC state transport museum in Spencer, NC. Town was named for a guy that JP Morgan hired as owner of Southern Railway, over a 100 years ago to run his railway business which resulted in America's glory days in rail including that for the Carolinas. Samuel Spencer was the first president of the railway and the town is popular today because of this museum.

100 year old roundhouse (largest of its size and kind in North America)

To get to this town off I-85 you can take a service road coming from parts north like we did in Winston and it took us over a 100 plus year old Wil-Cox bridge. An amazing architecture and engineering marvel it is best viewed from a pull out on the northern end as it spans the Yadkin river.

I loved walking around the 37 track and 100 feet long roundhouse table that is still used to service some of the exhibit locomotive and train set that operates on the site.

After relaxing Saturday night with some amazing Indian food we planned a hike for Sunday morning in a 2,000 acre greenspace, this time in town of Fort Mill SC. This wonderful area is named after the woman who bequeathed this land to the locals to be used as a recreational space and opportunity to get outdoors. Her name was Anne Springs Close. Her maiden name of Springs tells the history of a cotton mill baron, her father who owned several mills in the area in South Carolina and later donated his estate to her.

It is part educational space for young children - with exhibits for both natural artifacts as well as historic ones being the site of the trail carrying armies to fight the British during the war of 1867.

A hanging bridge over Steele Creek inside this park along with some quality time strolling along Haigler lake was our favorite part.

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language. Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds. The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic. Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'. This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected. I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot. It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is. Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy. It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff? Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality. So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing? Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...

Brown Motion

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