Blog #9 – January 17-19

We didn’t see a T-Rex, Sacagawea, nor Robin Williams/Teddy Roosevelt. We did see an exhibit entitled ‘The Future Is Female” with a neon uterus donning boxing gloves, a Medusa made of artificial nails, and a pink plastic life sized penguin at the reception desk.  You can purchase the latter for $5000. No, I didn’t add a zero.

This is just one part of our trip last week. Last Tuesday we drove from Charleston to the Durham area so David could meet his sister Amy who he works with. They are doing some research in the area, so Amy and brother-in-law Jeff met us to travel around the market. While Amy and David did some hands on market research, Jeff and I did some coffee research on our own work. The first coffee shop was Full Bloom. Did they know I was coming? This beekeeper loved the honey and bee theme.

That night, as I mentioned, we stayed at the Museum Hotel — which accepts dogs! The second floor lobby was an interesting exhibit, but all the rooms had some better than usual art. We ate at the restaurant in the hotel, which had trophy animals on the wall, all made from found objects such as a zebra made from black and white belts. As a concept, the Museum Hotel plays well against the boredom of hotels that are overpriced for no apparent reason. And it’s pretty damn cool.

The next day we searched for more independent coffee shops and came across an amazing one in Cary, NC, Esteamed Coffee. They only hire alternately-abled youth. That’s what we’ve been told is the correct nomenclature, but one of the men behind the counter corrected me. He stated his  preference to be called “disabled.” I was surprised, but he explained. Since the coffee shop is not mainstreamed and hires exclusively disabled people, they are all disabled; if it were a mainstreamed organization, he would want an inclusive title of alternately-abled. I love that he could eloquently make this distinction and support his view. 

You probably heard of the movie called Bull Durham. Want to know why the minor league Durham Bull’s got their name? Click the link: https://raltoday.6amcity.com/major-the-bull-sculpture-in-durham-nc/

Returned to Asheville on Wednesday night. Whew. Where to next? Saturday saw us in Boone and then to mom’s farm in Oxford. Lots more to come!