My husband and I recently took a “bizcation,” a vacation built around a business trip. He had to go to High Point, North Carolina for the furniture market. I was promised “beach” so I tagged along.

As you may or may not know, my husband does not fly. It’s only a 12 hour drive from DeKalb to High Point. The beauty of driving is flexibility. You can stop and stretch your legs. You can bring whatever will fit in the car. You can detour for photo ops, bathroom breaks, and snack time.

The ugly of driving is all the driving.

We were gone for a week and we didn’t stay in the same place two nights in a row. The worst part of traveling for me is the panic of what am I forgetting every time I check out of a hotel. To the best of my knowledge, I forgot nothing…

Here are some highpoints of our High Point trip:

I may not have forgotten anything in the many hotel rooms, but I certainly forgot stuff at home. I packed after a late and raucous Bunco. (Foo Fighters streamed live from the Cubby Bear, you know.) We all know I am a bad packer, but this was… worse than usual. Thank goodness for coast to coast malls in America for those forgotten or mispacked items.

We drove all over Dayton, Ohio looking for the movie theater. By the time we found it, it was 9 pm and the next movie playing was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day. Jennifer Garner? Steve Carell? Works for me. Saturday night and we were the only ones in the theater. Sweet. Oh, and although we didn’t partake, the theater sold liquor. Probably in one shot sizes so even though they allowed it, you still felt like you were getting away with something.

We missed the Pride Parade in Winston-Salem, North Carolina but based on the colorful litter and staggering participants, it must have been a very good time.

We did our pub/app crawl… sampling some wonderful seafood appetizers and local brews. Hit up the Art District for some fun bars. If you take a bar glass from one place that has the logo of another place on it, is it stealing? Or unstealing, seeing as it didn’t belong to that bar anyway?

We saw a tall slender woman in knee high boots wearing jean underpants. Hi-cut, high-rise, pockets dangling free, butt cheeks visible. Can’t. Not. Look.

Up early and on our biz way, we walked approximately 8 miles or 16,000 steps at the Furniture Market. Gray is the new brown. Nail heads are the new wood. We ran out of time before we ran out of showroom. For more details on what we saw, visit Lamphere’s in Aurora. (in 4-6 weeks depending on ordering and delivery schedules)

Chapel Hill, NC for a concert proved to be a very interesting evening. We ate at the highly recommended Al’s Burger Shack. We browsed The Bookshop, an amazingly humongous used book store. We checked in at the Local 506, a cool little venue that draws big names. We were there for Bully and The Drowners. Eleveneven was a bonus. It was… a very entertaining… and educational… show. Lessons learned: Avoid $1 tequila shots and beware the edge of the stage. Click here for a clip of our evening.

And next… the purpose of my tag-a-long… Topsail Beach was heaven. 80 degrees, sunshine and surf, sigh. We saw a HUGE manta ray. Lots of birds and fish and crabs. We saw dolphins! We’ve never seen dolphins before. That was so cool.

We watched the movie Horns in Knoxville.

In Nashville, we cheered for the Blackhawks.

Hawks score!

Ultimately, our cheers were not enough.

The concierge at the hotel says, “You know, we’re a 3 am town.” Good to know, but by day 6 of this road trip, we’re 1, 1:30 people, tops. I do love being able to bar/live music hop, though. Last time we were in Nashville, the cover songs of choice (heard in multiple venues by various cover bands) were Jesse’s Girl and Brown Eyed Girl. This time they were Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey and I Wish by Stevie Wonder. I think the latter makes the “weird list.”

For most of the road trip, this song was stuck in my head.
Because of signs for this restaurant.

knew a man bojangles and he’d dance for you… now it’s in your head, too

8 days. 8 states. 3 capitals.
Great company, great food, great fun.
And a beach!

Although it was more ‘cation than biz, we wouldn’t have gone had it not been for the furniture show. Thank you High Point for many a highpoint.

Highway House Wrangling– this definitely makes the weird list.