Day Eight: NYC to Charlotte, NC
Friday, January 21, 2011 
37,463 miles on my car as we left NYCLyla wakes me up around 10am and she is as happy and healthy as ever. I look at her food bowl. It’s empty. I look outside to see how much snow has accumulated. There is snow, but maybe the roads are clear. I text Julia, who went work today, and ask if it is a mess outside. “Streets are clear from what I saw, you should be fine,” she responds. It’s time to hit the road. 
After a few hours into the drive, I cross into West Virginia and see the first Waffle House of my trip. I listen to the first four chapters of War and Peace but then realize that I am not listening at all. My mind is wandering all over the place and I have no idea what is going on in the story. I take a break with some local radio and then I try The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
This book is a lot easier to focus on. It takes the perspective of black woman raising white babies in Jackson, Mississippi during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. I listen for 8 hours through Virginia into North C
my good little co-pilotarolina. The book seems more appropriate for a drive down south than War and Peace, which I will get through, but it’s going to take some time.
After 11 hours on the road, I finally pull into Cat’s neighborhood. I start to imagine what her house is like, what her fiancé is like. I try to remember the last time we’ve seen each other and I can’t. We realize later that it has been over 5 years.
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I met Cat the summer going into my freshman year of high school. She sent me an instant message on AOL introducing herself. It was the first time I met a person online. She said that she heard that I was joining the soccer team and told me she was going to be a sophomore on the team. From then on, we did everything together. Every other night was a sleepover. I went to all of the barbeques at her house, where people would sing karaoke, drink Budweiser, roast a pig and line up at Uncle Bear’s hot dog cart for a hot dog. Apparently Uncle Bear has made over a million dollars selling hotdogs from that cart. He keeps his millions in cash hidden in his house. He doesn’t trust banks. 
Me and Cat
Cat and I started to lose touch when she left PDS to go to Pennington my junior year. Then she went off to school in North Carolina and our lives never crossed again. We haven’t been in touch. She read my post on facebook about taking a road trip and she offered to host me in her home in Charlotte on my way down.
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There is a bed waiting for me in the living room when I arrive. Lyla settles herself in and makes herself at home. Gunner and Roxie, Cat and Craig’s German Shepherd and German Shepherd mix, are not happy 
Cat with Roxie and Gunnerabout their new guest and they let it be known. They are in their crates. Cat takes them out, one at a time, for an introduction. Roxie is friendly and gives Lyla a kiss. It’s Gunner’s turn and he is not happy. He’s huge. Lyla cowers. He growls and barks and Cat grabs his head and smothers him. I’ve always been impressed by her strength. She used to beat me up in high school.
We sit and talk for a while. Craig makes me popcorn, which is my dinner along with some ice cream. Cat tells me about her job as a graphic designer for a sports magazine and Craig’s job as a police officer. It’s incredible how different their lives are here than mine is in the city. I feel like a kid because New York is such a playground. They have a mortgage and drive to work everyday. It feels like another phase of life to me that I am nowhere near just yet. They are very happy though, definitely in their element.
Reader Comments (1)
I did not beat you up in high school haha.