Or, we could go a few hours north to the southern-most tip of the Outer Banks, a series of barrier islands off the North Carolina coast. Wild horses run free on the southern islands, and you have to take a two-hour ferry ride to get to the nearest island. We could spend the night on the island of Ocracoke, which has a small village at its heart.
Sounds nice, huh?
Just one small problem: Tara Bull.
It's too hot to leave her in the car while we visit forts, quaint village shops, or restaurants. And, since Mom is in Utah, there's no one we can leave her with. Those of you who have met Tara Bull know she's too psycho to leave with unsuspecting friends or neighbors.
So the end result -- we went on a long Sunday drive on a designated "Scenic Byway." Uh huh. It was a long road that looked just like every other road I've driven on in North Carolina. The view is always the same: a wall of pine trees on both sides of the road. Oh, and Tara got carsick and threw up all over the backseat of my car.
The Scenic Byway was supposed to give us a view of a series of lakes called the "Meteor Lakes" because they were formed by meteor strikes thousands of years ago. The lakes were not to be found, unless we left the scenic byway and drove several more miles off the route to find each of them.
We did stumble upon Jones Lake, where there was a big "No Dogs" sign. We ignored it and let Tara romp around the shoreline, away from the other sightseers and campers.
The long, four-hour, fruitless drive did have one upside: Tara Bull went home completely exhausted.
