We decided that, while we were on the east coast, we might as well visit
some friends -- people who would be fun to see and have dinner with and
who could also provide input into our Wake Forest decision. We spent a night
camping in the Pielak's driveway in Chapel Hill. While there, we had a terrific
BBQ dinner with Gary and Elizabeth Pielak and their kids, Charlotte and Peter,
and Terry and Elizabeth Oas and two of their children, Julia and Peter.
The next day, we drove to Charleston, SC. On the way, we had to stop at
South of the Border, to check out the touristy things there (see Susan's page for more details).
We then spent a night camping in the driveway of Merry Ambos and Allen Richon
in Isle of Palms outside of Charleston, SC. Merry and Allen made us a wonderful
stir fry that we enjoyed very much. The next day, we headed north. We spent
one night camping in the mountains outside of Harrisonburg, VA, in a lovely
KOA campground.
Our parking space was isolated on the far end of the campground. We burned
a campfire and enjoyed the full moon.
The next morning, we arrived in Pennsylania and spent the next week camping
in Steph, Mike, and Tyler Reisinger's driveway. During that week we took
a short midweek trip to Baltimore to visit George Rose, Jacque's PhD advisor
who is now at Johns Hopkins. He and his wife Judy provided a very fine dinner
of Maryland crab cakes and good conversation.
After much consideration, and good advice of friends and colleagues, we
determined that Jacque would accept the Wake Forest offer. So, we will be
moving to Winston-Salem later this summer. One side effect of having made
that decision is that we can now continue our Walkabout without doing any
further job hunting! Jacque has off-loaded her interview clothes into some
spare closet space at the Reisingers'.
During our week in Harrisburg, we spent time "catching up" on some tasks
-- fixing a broken handle and a light switch on the trailer, installing a
new bike rack, catching up on bills and email, etc. Jacque, mostly on her
own but with significant help from her father, husband, brother-in-law, and
nieces and nephews helped her mom install a new raised bed in her backyard
for herbs and flowers. Barney and Kasie also got to meet their cousin Snoopy
the beagle for the first time.
