Chronicles of a Newbie Road Warrior. Week Two.

Week two.

Sunday, September 10th.

Get up at the butt crack of dawn to leave for Charlotte, hoping Hurricane Irma stays away from the Carolinas.

10:34am – Arrive in Charlotte, NC super early because I got up at, again, the butt crack of dawn and had a direct flight.

10:51am – Grab a bagel at the Starbucks in baggage claim before heading for Enterprise and catch the latest on the path of Hurricane Irma on a big screen TV posted nearby.

11:04am ish (all the times are ishes really) – Eat said bagel in my electric blue Hyundai Elantra before hitting the road.  Feeling slightly disappointed that this Enterprise experience didn’t include a cute boy, Nissan Murano upgrade, or trademark handshake.

Spend the next 3 hours driving towards small town North Carolina. I decide along the way that I have time to explore so I pulled over for some investigative research with a weak cell signal looking for things to do in Fayetteville. I see (Edgar Allen) Poe House and decide on that.

2:40pm – Arrive at the (Edgar Allen) Poe House in Fayetteville...

2:42pm – Learn that the Poe House is not that of Edgar Allen Poe, although the occasional black raven is known to be spotted on the property.

NOT Edgar Allen Poe's House.

3:00pm – After bailing on the Poe House, I arrive at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum… a museum dedicated to the use of paratroopers in war efforts.

Airborne & Special Operations Museum.

I spend the next 30-45 minutes reading about WWII and paratroopers when I pass by a volunteer veteran sitting alongside one of the walls that partitions one section of the museum from an area where you can sit and watch a video. He is in a rolly, office type chair. Slacks and jacket with a navy blue hat on that says World War II Veteran in large gold embroidered letters. I feel like I always want to talk to these volunteers (when I’ve been in museums similar to this one) but never quite know what to say. I pass by him and then turn around and start with “Were you a paratrooper?”

So begins a half hour long conversation with Ed Stever, originally from upstate NY, served in the army during WWII in Chongqing, China transporting materials throughout China and other parts of Asia. Our conversation wasn’t quite chronological and didn’t focus solely on the military. Ed has a love of horses. He and his wife lived on the outskirts of Charlotte for years and years and had multiple offers to sell their home and land. His wife never wanted to. He did something (I didn’t catch what exactly) until he was 85. (I now know he is older than 85. I was wondering). Anyways, he and his wife finally sell their property because Charlotte has grown and no one will leave them alone about selling it. They are all packed up and ready to move to Fayetteville and the night before they are set to leave, his wife goes to sleep and never wakes up. He has been a widower for 10 years. He now lives in a 9 bedroom house alone and his hobby is cars. He has already started looking at the 2018 cars that aren’t released on the market yet. I ask him if he still drives and he does. He asks what I do and I tell him about my new job. He says he has a granddaughter in school in Wilmington and another in school at Campbell. I tell him that is where I am going the next day. I thanked him for his service and he shakes my hand and doesn’t let go while he tells me to be safe driving, that the drivers are really bad in Fayetteville and the cops are cracking down. Says if I ever make it back to come see him that he is hoping to be around for another 2 years. “Why two years?” I ask. “Because I’ll be 100 then and that is long enough.”

I think that conversation was better than the actual museum.

5:30pm – Arrive at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Dunn, NC. Check in and then take myself to dinner at The Cracker Barrel. I was craving chicken fried steak and gravy. Mmm mmm mmm.

7:00pm – Work work work work. (with Miss America on in the background – way to go North Dakota! 1^st time ever Miss America!)

Monday, September 11th. Campbell University.

7:30am – Realize there are travel warnings out for the highway that I am supposed to be driving to Columbia that afternoon due to Hurricane Irma. Thanks, Irma. Decide to stay another night to be safe not sorry – not sure my electric blue Hyundai Elantra wouldn’t be blown off the highway.

8:30am – Arrive on campus and am greeted by a giant, very unexpected, life-size, gold camel. Campbell camels?! Who knew!?

10:00am – 3:00pm – Study Abroad Fair.

Observations made that are completely unrelated to work: there is a cute guy working one of the provider tables. Is he cute? I can’t see him well from here.

Later that day after conversation with said guy: Yeah, I’m going to conclude he is cute. Had some interesting travel stories in addition to that.

[Thoughts while writing this…Should I write this? What if he ever happens to read this?]

Successful fair! Potential affiliation! Go back to visit the camel for a camel selfie!

4:00pm – Go to work at a coffee shop…the only one in the town…find out it closes at 5:00…

8:00pm – Enjoy leftover chicken fried steak in the comfort of my hotel room while watching the finale of Bachelor in Paradise (I’m not going to talk specifics here because I could go on and on…but it was the MOST DRAMATIC season finale ever!). First time eating chicken fried steak with my hands as I am forkless.

Tuesday, September 12th. University of South Carolina.

11:43am – Make it to my Airbnb in Columbia. Endured off and on rain and less than ideal driving conditions for the first hour. Arrive in Columbia to see fallen limbs everywhere as well as a giant tree down. Feel pretty good about my decision to stay another night in North Carolina. 

Ronda greets me at the door to her quaint and quirky and very brightly colored apartment and gives me a tour that includes emphasizing that I need to drink the bottle of wine she has provided and eat all the pastries she has left and also she doesn’t have cable because about a year ago a couple stayed and racked up an impressive $400 bill on adult movies. No problem, Ronda, no problem.

I spend the rest of the day mostly figuring out USC’s campus, tabling, preparing Greek drop offs, attending a pre-fair reception, and passing out at about 11:06 as soon as I hit send on my last email. Not even sure what I wrote.

Wednesday, September 13th. University of South Carolina Study Abroad Fair.

BIG DAY!

I’m pumped!

Except some students came in early and I didn’t get a chance to go pee before the fair started so thank goodness for my new Global Ambassador that showed up to help me out!

At some point throughout the day, while I’m talking 90 mph (that’s how the saying goes but I would argue that I was talking 100 mph) I have this thought that is like ‘gah, Audrey, shut up or slow down or something! They probably aren’t even listening to you!’ But I got the materials into their hands and I’m pretty sure my excitement for study abroad came through loud and proud (and really fast) so I can conclude that I did my best.

Also, everyone wanted to go to SPAIN. Spain is great, what’s not to love BUT I mean Asia and Latin America and Australia and Africa and everywhere in between is pretty cool, too. Share the love USC students, go to Spain first if you must and then branch on out...

Grabbed a salted caramel mocha frapp at the Starbucks on campus and count my leads – 140. I’m happy with that.

Thursday, September 14th. Winthrop University Study Abroad Fair.

8:09 pm - I’m going to wrap this up. Mostly because my plane just landed back in Austin. Winthrop Fair: 114 leads in 2.5 hours. Also happy with that. Rock Hill, SC was picturesque and I feel like it would be an ideal small town to film for a movie or TV show. Returned the bright blue Elantra to its home at enterprise and wouldntyaknow that the Enterprise guy was cute and super personable.  What is it with them?! Job requirements for working at Enterprise: must be attractive and charming. The most disappointing part of my day was that there weren’t any free rocking chairs in the Charlotte airport for me to sit..rock…in while I waited for my flight. I’d say if that’s all I have to complain about – I’m doing pretty good. Maybe I’ll make it at this road warrior thing after all.