Seth’s Sightings

The newspaper business that produces the Journals is a member of several newspaper organizations, one of which held its annual conference in Charlotte in midMay. My sister and brother live in and near Charlotte, so Ruth and I could fit in some learning along with family visits afterwards.

Flying in was too complicated and expensive due to the need of a rental car so we drove. We took to the road on Wednesday, even while completing the Journal of Penn-Kidder. Our drive south on Interstate 81 stopped to finish the Journal of PennKidder in Staunton, Virginia, at an accommodating Cracker Barrel. Sending it to the press to be printed that night needed a good internet connection. That newspaper was put out by the Journal team here at home the next day.

Our trip Wednesday was supposed to end with an overnight in Roanoke, but the booking systems we use couldn’t find a room. It turned out to be Virginia Tech’s graduation weekend, and there were no rooms available in the entire valley, then almost all the way to North Carolina on our route. I decided to try our luck at Martinsville the NASCAR race host town. The first hotel there was full (and creepy), but the second one right up the road, a Quality Inn, had a nice room for us. It was an easy few hours to Charlotte the next day, where we went straight into the conference’s meetings.

Thursday was a busy day, including a presentation by me about some custom association newspapers that we do as a part of an idea exchange. Ruth, meanwhile, completed the previous issue of the Journal of the Pocono Plateau to send to the press that evening, while taking time for some sessions and a networking dinner. The conference filled Friday, ending just after 5.

Then it was family time.

My brother Matthew and his wife Elsie and my sister Elise took us out to A Piece of Havana restaurant, where we enjoyed Cuban and Latin American food, some terrific music. As the evening progressed, there was dancing, including by us. Elise drove us back to our hotel, where we were asleep minutes after getting into bed.

Saturday we did more visiting, and also went out to the Lodge cookware outlet store, had lunch with Matthew and Elsie at the Original Pancake House in downtown Charlotte, and then went back to the hotel with the expectation that we’d go swimming, since it was 80 some degrees. Sadly, the hotel’s outdoor pool doesn’t open until Memorial Day.

Our evening was a family meal at Matthew and Elsie’s home.

Sunday we were off from Charlotte and headed to

by Seth Isenberg

the Raleigh area to visit my niece Hanna and her husband James, along with our nephew James. They took us out to lunch to something new (for us), a hotpot restaurant. A pot of boiling soup is placed on a burner in the center of your table. Meanwhile you order a variety of meats, seafood, eggs, tofu, vegetables, and more. That comes on huge platters served on a giant tray, then off-loaded to practically fill the large table. Items are very quickly cooked by immersing them in the boiling soup. It helped that James was expert at this, and he and Hanna led us through a fine and fun meal.

As our visit wrapped up, we were taken to a local strawberry patch, and got wonderful, beautiful freshpicked strawberries to take home with us.

I drove through the sunset that night, ending up in Lynchburg, Virginia. This hotel had an indoor pool. Before we left on our ride north on Monday, I enjoyed some quality pool time.

Off through Virginia’s wine county we went, eventually getting back to Route 81. We made a stop in Harrisonburg to get some tourist information, but otherwise mainly stuck to the Interstate, getting home after dark.

Sightings are always varied on a road trip. One of the most interesting happened on Sunday, as we travelled across the center of North Carolina. We stopped at a Bojangles for some biscuits for breakfast. A man had just pulled his truck in behind us, and he was hauling a big black bull in his trailer. I complimented him as we walked past. He said he’d just bought him, having recently sold his former bull, wanting to switch up the genetics and improve his herd. The bull was 1200 pounds of gorgeous.

The most interesting bird sighting was what I though was a mynah that had set up on a light post by the hotel. Each time I went out to the car, this bird was singing away, with a seemingly repertoire of bird songs, one right after the other.

Carolina foliage was lush and flowerful. We enjoyed sighting lots of flowers during all of our daylight drives, along with a lot of calves and lambs some of the beautiful things about spring.

It was nice to be back home and in our own bed. Our dogs are keeping a close watch on us, in case we leave them behind again.

That frost from last week took out a good part of the nice bloom of lilacs at our home. The rest of the flowers seem OK, though I am concerned a bit about both the apple and cherry trees’ fruit. That we’ll know in a few months.

Local sightings include butterflies. I think I saved a big swallowtail by carefully picking it up off the road and putting it in some high grass. It was gone when I checked soon thereafter.

Memorial Day weekend has us busy. We plan to attend an evening at Mayfair in Allentown, the Fly-In Drive-In Breakfast in Mt. Pocono the next morning, Memorial Day Parades and events around the Plateau, and the Pocono Raceway Air Show on Sunday.

As I finished this column, we were also finishing the North Carolina strawberries and will have to wait a month for the local strawberry season.

Here’s to honoring our veterans who gave their lives for our freedom, here’s to good memories for the holiday weekend, and good health to you all.