What I will not miss about NC

I moved to North Carolina just over 7 years ago.  And later this week I will be moving away.  So I thought I would write a couple of posts about North Carolina.  Tomorrow I will write about the things I will miss when I leave, but today’s topic is what I will not miss about living in NC.

• The distance from my family –  It is about 700 miles from here to my hometown, I only see my family about 3 times a year
• The U.S. Army trying to shake my house apart – I have lived about a mile from Ft. Bragg for the last 5 years.  In that time I have grown accustomed to my house shaking, windows rattling, and the sort of jumpiness that comes with that.  However, that doesn’t mean I like it.  And my dog hates it.  He just roams around the house barking at some unknown enemy.  This is one thing I will not miss in the slightest.
• Bar-b-q with no smoke in it – What people call bar-b-q around here is good enough for what it is.  It just isn’t bar-b-q and I won’t miss it in the slightest.
• The traffic – All I will say here is good riddance to the traffic in Fayetteville.  I will not miss Reilly Rd.  I will not have to make Yadkin Rd., Skibo Rd., or The longest light in the world on Morganton a normal part of my day.  And for that I am glad.
• The world turning yellow every spring – I guess this is not strictly a North Carolina problem, but it is a problem all over the Deep South where pine trees are the majority.  In late March and early April everything turns yellow.  I don’t mean has a sort of yellow sheen to it, but the wind blowing through the trees looks like yellow smoke.  Cars turn yellow, the ground turns yellow.  The pollen forms a light dust on the ground that is actually slippery.  The windward side of the lake becomes coated in yellow pollen and after every cast so does your bait.  If you have never seen it, I don’t believe I can do it justice with words.
• Fire Ants – Again, I know this is not just a problem in the Sandhills of NC, but fire ants were unknown to me before I moved here.  For more on my feelings about fire ants, read this.
• People referring to chicken & dumplings as “pastries” – Nothing about that makes any sense to me on any level. Good riddance to that quirk of dialect.
• The difficulty in watching UK games – I am an SEC fan, stuck for the last 7 years in the heart of ACC country.  Kentucky is regularly preempted in favor of an ACC game.  I understand why, but I hate it.  That is one more thing I will not miss.