Knightdale is a town in Wake County, North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, Knightdale has a population of 19,435.
The story of Knightdale starts with exploration and discovery. The community, which goes beyond today’s boundaries, has a history that dates back to the colonial era in America (Read More).
Situated about 20 miles from my home to the north, the drive to Knightdale was pleasant from my perspective, maybe not so much for the cars stuck behind me. You see, I’m something of a speed limit zealot.
With Fall in full swing there was plenty to see. While the oaks were already bare, there were several other breeds including the odd maple that were full ablaze in orange and red.
The road conditions, however, were not great. More than once I had to navigate around busted up pavement edges and potholes.
In town, train tracks ran down the center and roads ran alongside with crossings spread far apart. I initially drove around and snapped shots of local shops, then I stopped by the local Goodwill and browsed their stock.
One of my personal rules for these trips is that I don’t bring any money. I’m just their to observe and record my surroundings.
Spring Hope is a town in Nash County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,320 at the 2010 census.
It was a 32 minute drive to reach Spring Hope from my home in Franklin county. The weather was a bit chilly and the streets were nearly empty with the exception of folks walking their dogs.
While visiting my father and his partner in Brooklyn, I stayed at their apartment on Flatbush Avenue. This was in 2018.
It took me some time to adjust to the subway system, but once I felt comfortable, I began visiting local parks and taking lots of pictures.
My visit coincided with the arrival of my uncle from England. We had a good visit and got to see local venues including the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.
The museum had two exhibit’s running, Black Freedom and Korean Art. We also visited the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
The photos were taken with a Fujifilm Finepix HS 25 EXR.
My father scheduled a pickup by the SeaTac Rocket Shuttle at around 10:30 this morning (PST). The drive was around 2 hours, no ferries, just bridges.
We stopped for a break at a McDonald’s restaurant and I went inside and ordered a McCrispy Sandwich. I haven’t eaten at McDonald’s for maybe 5 years. It tasted delicious.
The McCrispyI spent $6.11
At the airport, I printed my boarding pass. This time it didn’t ask me to volunteer my carry on, so that meant I couldn’t skip the line at the gate.
I did see some folks with roll-on luggage that had the volunteer tags. I don’t know how they got them. Lucky folks.
My flight being at 3:50pm, I wandered about the terminal and took photos of the planes arriving and departing.
Papa gave me his old Olympus camera. It’s the same one he had from my 2019 trip to NYC to see my uncle Rupert, come over from England.
This camera is around 7 years newer than the one I have at home. A true DSLR with 2 different lenses and a filter. It includes WiFi for wireless transfer of photos to a smartphone. Quite fancy. I am looking forward to how it performs photographing apparel for my eBay shop.
Around 2:30, I sat down and did some blogging. By chance I gave up my seat to a family of three. I made the excuse of being at the wrong gate, which was true, but after I got to the right gate, I noticed the sign was wrong.
It turned out my flight had not only changed gates but was boarding already. I had to rush a bit to get to the actual correct gate. Once there I was able to relax a bit. I was in Zone 8 at the back of the plane, so I had some time before my group got called.
The flight was okay. I listened to music and edited the blog posts to remove broken links and redundant files. I got some shots of the Rockies from the plane using the Olympus and also filmed the entire taxiing and take-off sequence on my phone.
It got dark fast since the sun was setting behind us. I played some games and kept editing until we landed. I ordered 2 coffees and got 2 Biscoff wagers. I didn’t spend any money on my return flight.
I got a bit lost after landing and mistakenly told the driver I was at terminal 1, which is what it said on the sign next to me. I was actually at terminal 2.
After some back and forth with the uber reserve driver, I got to the awaiting car. It was a quick ride home, (somebody was speeding in the rain). While I appreciated getting home fast, I think 40 in a 25 is probably not a great idea.
Mama was up late waiting for my return. It was about 1 am when I walked through the front door. Maybe 45 minutes later I realized I wasn’t wearing my watch. I’m not sure when it came off, but I’ve messaged Uber for assistance.
I had switched the shoulder I was carrying my pack over, it possible I dislodged it either in airport, when I entered the car, or while exiting the car. Although, the strap was new, so I think I would have noticed it getting tugged on.
So, one dark spot at the end of a wonderful trip to my hometown and a touching reunion with my father.
I may have some additional posts to make. I’ll have to check the photos to see what I may have missed.
On Sunday, the day before my flight, for breakfast we had Egg Fritatta made in part with leftovers from Thursday’s stir fry, including a few shrimp.
Egg Fritatta 1Egg Fritatta 2
Around lunchtime, we headed downstairs once more to finish off the chicken soup with rice. There was also some leftover cous-cous to be polished off and slices of the loaf bread from the other night.
To drink, I had the light and aromatic lemon ginger tea.
Chicken Soup and ToastButtered toastChicken Soup with cous-cous
Upstairs my father prepared a dish of oven baked Black Cod with potatoes and lightly fried garden vegetables.
DinnerYukon Gold PotatoesBroccoli and Red Peppers Oven baked Black Cod (bone in)
For dessert we had a lovely chocolate tiramisu from the co-op paired with sliced pears from the orchard. I cut the pear into thirds and served them with the tiramisu.
The cake was utterly soft and creamy, like biting into a cloud.
Chocolate TiramisuSide view of the cakeNice layers to the cake
I heard Eileen is touring Japan soon, so I put on an episode of Begin Japanology. It’s a great program from NHK.
We went down to Eileen’s home for dinner. The roasted chicken from Wednesday, was turned into chicken soup.
Chicken soup with rice
Eileen baked a loaf of bread to accompany the meal. We spread butter across thick slabs of steaming bread. The crust was nice and crispy and the center soft and light.
Oven fresh baked bread
I split a bottle of PT Stout with Eileen while papa drank pinot grigio.
PT StoutWoodbridge Pinot Grigio
Between the good soup and pleasant conversation the evening went by in good spirits. I cleaned my plate down to the last grain of rice.
I should mention, we first filled our bowls with as much cooked rice as we wanted and then ladled the piping hot soup on top.
After dinner we had brownies. I inquired about the preparation and Eileen graciously provided me with her mothers recipe and some of her own refinements she had made.
Homemade Brownies
Eileen’s Brownie recipe:
5 Eggs
3 cups of Sugar
1 Cup of Butter
8 oz of Bakers Chocolate
1 1/2 Cups of Flour
1 Tbs Vanilla
2 cups of Walnuts (optional)
Beat the eggs and sugar throughly to fold in air. The more air the smoother the brownies will turn out. Add the vanilla during this step.
Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler or a ceramic bowl suspended in a pot of hot water.
When your eggs are nice and fluffy, add the flour and the melted chocolate.
On Wednesday, I posted Out in the Bay, in which my father and I took Wren out for a sail.
Wren in the harborUnder power Rigging and center board Aft sprit an mizen (furled)
Wren is a 15 foot, two masted, open seating sailboat. She has a center board and an electric outboard motor. The outboard battery was especially heavy and needed to be hoisted out and over the stern to be fit in place.
The mainsail is rigged with lines to allow raising and lowering while still seated aft near the tiller. The main is complimented by a roller-furling jib and mizen. The mizen also rolls up, but manually.
A single line going out the stern was used to control the aft sail, which was connected to a permanent aft sprit extending out past the tiller. I am told the position of the sprit and the mizen spar make for better runs on some tacks.
With the wind to port the mizen sail could not fill entirely due to pressure from its spar. On the other tack however, it filled out nicely.
The weather report had been mixed and somewhat uncertain. As we motored out past the entrance to Point Hudson marina there was a light shower from passing a cloud.
My father set the jib and mizen and had me pull on some lines to hoist the mainsail. It stuck momentarily as one of the sail ties which had not been removed. With the line cleared, the main was raised fully and set into place.
It’s a gaff-rig like our second boat Anares, the navy whale boat. I will have to write about all of my father’s boats in another post.
There wasn’t much wind initially. We could see the steam rising straight up, down at the far end of the bay from the paper mill. So we motored out further into the bay until we hit a spot of wind.
Eventually a stronger breeze presented itself and the motor was cut. We had a nice sail and got to see the ferry boat crossing from PT to Bainbridge.
The sun broke out from behind some cloud cover and warmed our faces. The earlier rainshower had generated a rainbow and as we shifted our position we began to see it was a double rainbow.
We continued for awhile across the bay under sail, but the wind lessened. After the sun disappeared behind the clouds again I asked to turn back for the harbor.
My father remarked that we likely could have made it to Rat Island. But I wasn’t quite up for that long a journey, possibly under power for a considerable portion.
On the return journey the ferry was making its trip back after depositing its passengers at Bainbridge and picking up travelers bound for Port Townsend. As our position shifted and the ferry moved closer it became apparent that the ferry would pass under the rainbows.
I timed my shot but forgot to enable the high resolution shooting mode on my phone. Even so I got some nice pictures of the ferry passing through the end of the rainbow.
Eileen’s later remarked at dinner that had it been a telephoto lense shot picture, I might have sold it to the ferry system.
I think I may print a copy of the photos to frame for my bedroom back in NC.
This was Wednesday, the next post should be Roast Chicken, but I forgot to take photos that meal. So skip ahead to Scramble Eggs.
I had a couple of Zoom meetings this morning at NC time (-4 UTC). So I woke up at 5:50 and logged in for those. They ran for just under 3 hours.
Afterwards I ate a light breakfast of granola and banana slices in yogurt. I added some hazelnut milk to balance it out.
Around eleven a friend of my mother’s, Julia, came and picked me up and we went downtown to Tommy Knockers for brunch with another friend of my mother, Ruby.
Scotch Egg at Tommy Knockers, PTCross section of scotch eggReceipt: $30.20 for eggs and drink
I had the Scotch Egg, a hard boiled egg wrapped in ground bacon and spices, topped with mustard and paprika. The eggs lay on a bed of garden greens quite stylishly.
To drink I ordered the tap cider, Alpenfire. I didn’t care for the cider, it was a bit like light beer. It didn’t have much body or depth of flavor. It was maybe like a semisweet apple juice.
Alpenfire Cider at Tommy Knockers, PT
It was a very nice opportunity to meet up with old family friends. Ruby’s son, Cedar, was my best friend growing up. I still consider him my best friend, that’s a position that could never be replaced.
Julia’s daughter, Nina, was another young friend. I can remember playing together with dolls and LEGOs. Her father raised stick insects and had games on his computer.
The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
I recall watching the premiere of Powerpuff Girls at Julia’s house. They had a special event running on Cartoon Network with some prize giveaway you had to call in for.
Fond memories. I got a chance to inquire about the other children I had interactions with. Kali lives in Tennessee, Cherese is in Florida, and Becky is in Oklahoma. Rebekah is still local and something of a sports prodigy.
Rebekah
After the meal we must have chatted for an hour and a half. All sorts of topics. Quite pleasant.
I was able to get a phone number of another friend’s sister, Lily, and I left her a voicemail inquiring about her brother, Lang. Hopefully we can meet before my flight home on Monday.
During the drive back to my father’s house we stopped at Laurel Groves, the cemetery, and I had a chance to pay my respects to my best friend, Cedar. He was just a year younger than I. It’s been 13 years since he passed. I wish I had kept in contact with him more.
There are many people I have lost contact with. I recall my first email was a Hotmail address. I lost the password sometime around going to Job Corps on February 5th, 2005.
At the center I had a Yahoo address and I was introduced to MySpace. I recall connecting with mostly students at the center and maybe someone from Port Townsend.
Sometime in 2006 the kids around me started talking about moving to Facebook. I remember logging in to MySpace and someone snorting and saying, “you still use that?”
I’ve always been regarded by others as being good with computers, but I’ve never been good with keeping up with trends. I expected Social Media to be a fad that would eventually go away.
Anyways, Facebook was quite effective. I was able to put in my schooling history and it brought up the profiles of several friends. That was quite impressive compared to MySpace.
I used the Yahoo email until I moved to NC. At some point the account became inundated with spam and I made an Outlook account. I initially try recovering my Hotmail, but I couldn’t quite remember how it was spelled, Aquila13 or something.
I still use the Outlook account these days. I tried getting back into the Yahoo, but it’s totally gone. I think Yahoo went away at some point. Been sold off or something. But the email address wasn’t recoverable.
So, unfortunately, I was never able to copy my contact lists over between any of the accounts. Additionally, I had multiple technology scares that led me to purging my social media accounts time and again over the years. Now I don’t use it at all.
Now with all the AI stuff going around I just don’t feel like I understand computers anymore. The last technology hurdle I successfully passed was Bitcoin. I chased the mining game from 2013-2020.
I should have just held with the HODL crowd. If you count all the Bitcoin and Litecoin I ever bought, I would have a multimillionaire by now. Thousands of coins to pay for GPUs and then ASIC mining rigs that were soon obsolete.
My last mistake was liquidating my last coins to cover the EIDL loans and other bills. I did it two months before Bitcoin hit $10k. I could have paid my debts and had plenty of cash left over.
As I mentioned in, Grilled Cheese and Pears, Tuesday’s at Rosewind are potluck dinner days. I didn’t join I the festivities being tired from the trip.
Dinner that evening was a two part repast of Potato leak soup followed with a cut of poached Black Cod with a side of fried potatoes. A garden salad rounded out the meal and added some needed fiber and vitamins.
The first coursePotato leak soupFresh garden saladPoached Black Cod with fried taters
To drink, my father provided a Guinness Extra Stout and a Lemon San Pellegrino. The Stout was nice and bitter and paired perfectly with the Black Cod.
Guinness Extra StoutLimonata San Pellegrino
The ingredients were all sourced, other than the fish, from the local community garden here at Rosewind.
During my walk on Thursday I came across and spoke with some community members. Cathy, Oma, and Dan.
Actually, when I was still a child, my mother rented a blue house from Oma on the corner of F & Fir. That was while I was still attending OPEPO at Mt View, before our brief relocation to Everett.
After breakfast on Thursday, I decided to walk across town to my old house on Eddy Street.
1265 Eddy. It was part of a first time home owners project. There were six homes to be built, 3 each on two different streets. The future homeowners took part in the construction process.
The other development
I recall afternoons after school visiting the work sites where my mother was busy hammering nails and hoisting lumber.
After construction I lived in a big two-story home with a nice yard, a tree out back and my dog. I had my own room, we had a guest room for company.
1265 Eddy Street
A friend of my mother visiting from Canada stayed with us once. And another friend lived with us for a time in the guest room. She had a little one-eyed cat, I think it’s name was Fafnir.
I would ride my bicycle to Grant Street where I attended an alternative school program called ICE. It provided some classroom instruction for home schooled children. After graduating ICE, I attended the local high-school through my sophomore year. From then on I rode the bus most mornings, unless I slept in.
My mother worked at the nurse’s station at Jefferson hospital for a awhile but she couldn’t continue.
The housing was an inventive idea, but we couldn’t make the payments on the mortgage and sadly had to sell the home. We got very little after paying the bank back. After that we lived in a single-wide trailer outside of town on a gravel and dirt track named Hidden Trails Road.
Fat Wallet Refugee 