Road trip? Nah, local North Carolina food trip!!

We got an early start leaving Yogi Bear's Jellystone RV resort (he must have been in hibernation - we missed him) in Emporia, VA with Greenboro, NC in our sights as the final pit stop of the day. We thought we'd stop somewhere closeby for some breakfast but by the time we hit NC at 8:50, we realized we hadn't eaten yet. Thank god for left-over sweets. Our meal consisted of a cookie, a pecan bar, and the most awesome granola CP's mom Jane had outfitted us with before leaving Boston.





Raleigh, NC was en route to Greensboro and there were several reasons we wanted to swing by to check it out. CP did some homework and found that Raleigh has an incredible state-sponsored farmers market set up to encourage local, small farm production. The facility was pretty impressive. It had several large permanent structures and no less than 50 farmers selling produce, salsas, sweets, meats, and cheeses. Seeing as we missed a decent breakfast, we scooped up local tomatos (in season here!!!!) and sweet corn for a salad. We picked up some garlic roasted chevre and sausages. CP whipped up a killer tomato/corn salad with basil from the plant on our kitchen table, garlic, and olive oil. Mmmmmm......

We figured that besides biking everywhere in sight, we hadn't gotten much exercise since starting the trip . We picked up a day pass at a local Raleigh gym. That was a must and is on the list for attempting once a week. We totally fall into things. It's pretty cool. On our way to the gym, we passed a local Raleigh brewpub - Natty Greene's. The sign out front... $2 drafts Thursdays. We love Thursdays. We love beer. We love Thursdays with $2 local beers. :) After the gym, we need to balance health with indulgence. We sampled all 12 beers. (We did not drink 12 pints of beer- perhaps another day we may have, but this was not such a day.)

SM had competed with another BBQ team - Meat @ Slim's - in Maryland a few months back and had run into a team from Raleigh. They strongly encouraged us to swing by a restaurant 42nd Street Oyster Bar. We were in the neighborhood. Oh my! We got 6 oysters from the raw bar, 4 oysters Rockefeller, and 4 42nd St Oysters. Three of the raw ones were the size of SM's fist - and he stomached those without a prob. We pushed off from Raleigh having worked out, eaten everything in sight, and imbibing our way through the town.

We were pooped by the time we reached Greensboro. We really just used it as the night's pit-stop to Asheville, NC. We did end up getting some local NC BBQ in Greensboro. Although tasty, we both decided that the vinegar-based, NC BBQ just isn't our preference. Our RV park was set up right next to the local car auction house. We just had to check it out... It was the biggest car auction we'd ever seen with three auctioneers working simultaneously.