Saturday, October 8th

We have lived in Hillsborough for 17 months, now. And, this was our first trip to the Historic Occoneechee Speedway. This 44 acre site along the Eno River, was first settled by the Occaneechi of the Saponi Nation in the seventeenth century. In the early 1900s the land became known as Occoneechee Farm, owned by General Julian Carr (who Carrboro is named after) who trained horses on his half-mile oval track. Years later in 1947, the land was developed into one of NASCAR's main venues. The three mile trail takes you along the banks of the Eno and the only surviving speedway from NASCAR's inaugural 1949 season. From the brochure, "The 1-mile oval Occoneechee/Orange Speedway was active from 1948-68, attracting the best stock car drivers and thousands of spectators." Earlier this morning, while I was at the Farmer's Market, I spoke to the "egg man" about the Speedway. He didn't know about the speedway, but his neighbor at the market had a lot to say about it. I love this farmer with his heavy eastern NC accent. I can honestly only understand every other word he says. But, he said "Orange County was the first county offered a much larger speedway. And, do you know where that speedway is now? Talledega! Orange County only cares about houses with 10 acre lots." It's hard to imagine what Orange County would be like today, if Talledega were in our backyard.
In the photos above you'll see Harper cheerleading. We like to say she got that gene from Mimi. The girls got into the cold water of the Eno. In the photo of Harper and Colin, you can see Harp's red pants drying in the sun. The Halloween decorations belong to our "country neighbors" the Wagoners. They have alpacas, Shetland ponies, goats, and more. We're going to ask them if they can bring a pony over for Harper's birthday party in November.

It was a funny night at work. A high school exchange student from the Ukraine was on a date. He secretly asked one of the servers if they would buy flowers from the grocery store. Laurie couldn't resist this romantic gesture. The whole scene was really sweet to watch. The girl was so nervously excited, I could see her wiping her sweaty hands on her pant legs under the table.