Changing the scenery

Yesterday I packed up my truck again and headed south. Of course I forgot several non-essential items. I figure my absent-mindedness will just strip me of stuff until I am down to a small enough set of things that I really, truly need. I drove to Raleigh, NC to visit my friends Dan and Andie. Here I'll stay for a little bit, and plot my travel south to Florida for Christmas, as well as try to do some bookkeeping, repair, and other chores

Along the way I stopped in Colonial Williamsburg and the Great Dismal Swamp. In Williamsburg, I had heard there is really good beer, but it seems noon was too early for the tavern to be tapping the keg. I did see this really weird looking tree, where all the leaf-bearing branches seem to come from nodes at the end of the structural branches. Anybody know what it is? Between there and the swamp, I drove by some shipyards and a big coal field. I like the way the picture I snapped from the car came out.


Now, the Great Dismal Swamp did not really live up to any of it's names. In December of a drought year, at least, it is not particularly dismal, swampy, or impressively large. It's pretty dense and scrubby forest, with some very murky canals cut through it. In summer, when it is wet and hot, with flies and mosquitoes and snakes everywhere - okay, I can imagine how it got the name. I climbed a tree and took a panorama photo, then walked out and drove the rest of the way to Raleigh.