Parent's Weekend At College

Today is Sunday and if all goes according to plan, I have nothing planned. 

Last Friday, Andrea and I absconded from the Fortress of Ineptitude to go visit our daughter Randie at college for a Parent's Weekend thing.  

It's just under a 3 hour drive to get to Greenville where Randie attends East Carolina University. (GO PIRATES!). Circumnavigating Raleigh, NC is the worst part of the trip. I was doing OK without my GPS but then I missed my turn off for the loop to get around Raleigh. I have never been to Raleigh once without getting mixed up either entering the city, leaving the city or even going around the city.  

Parent's Weekend is a big deal at ECU as area hotels filled up quickly. Andrea booked one of the last rooms left at an Econo Lodge. I kept referring to it as the Murder Motel as the picture looked like any number of motels in TV crime shows where people get murdered. The Econo Lodge was, to be fair, a very clean and well run establishment.  

After checking in, Andrea and I along with our daughter Randie and her roommate Ashley attended a "beach party" at a park owned by ECU. The park was way on the outskirts of Greenville along a circuitous route. OK, this is where we were going to be murdered.  

No, we were not and we arrived at the park. 

It was a pleasant enough event although filled with too many people, pushing all the buttons on my anxiety.  

There were a couple of tables from area sandwich shops with some very good sandwiches. I had three: a Ceasar chicken wrap, a roast beef sandwich and a pimento cheese sandwich. Eating gives me something to do when I have anxiety. Also, I was hungry.  

There was a food truck serving up waffles. The line for that food truck was hella long. We didn't get in that line but waffles were still in our future.  

There were smores on the beach of the park's lake. I had a smore, guys! I normally don't do smores. Marshmallow and chocolate precariously perched on graham crackers incites my anxiety. But I decided to give it a try and the smore didn't break apart in my hands and make a mess. I ate a smore! 

Randie and Ash went out on the lake with a canoe. Or a kayak? It was some kind of boat thing. 

After dropping Ash back the dorm, Randie and Andrea said they were hungry. They had only eaten 1 sandwich at the beach party. While I had 3 sandwiches (AND a smore!), I too was peckish. So we indulged in a late night nosh of a waffle and a glass of milk at a Waffle House.  

Andrea and Randie had never eaten at a Waffle House. There was some concern on their part that this is where we were going to be murdered. No, the Waffle House were nice, the waffles were just what we needed and we were not murdered. 

After I took Randie back to her dorm, Andrea and I crashed in our Econo Lodge room.  Where our air conditioner did this through the night.

Whir. Whir. Whir. Whir. 
Whir. Whir. Whir. Whir. 
Whir. Whir. Whir. Whir. 
<click>
WEEEARRRNKKKKK!!!
<click>
Whir. Whir. Whir. Whir. 

Andrea slept through that. God, she can sleep through anything. 

In my whole life, I have never stayed in any hotel or motel room that ever had an AC or heater that didn't make some kind of weird noise.  

We got a late start the next day. Saturday was centered around the BIG GAME!  (GO PIRATES!) 

Man, people are INSANE for the Pirates in this corner of the state. Pirate themed stuff everywhere! ECU purple everywhere! 

The big event for Saturday was the tailgate parties before the BIG GAME (GO PIRATES!) followed by the BIG GAME itself! (GO PIRATES!)  

We didn't do any of that.  Neither Andrea, Randie or Ash are big on football.  I'm not either! Plus a packed football game in a massive college football stadium? Major source of stress and anxiety for your's truly.  

So TAILGATING? (GO PIRATES!) No. 

The BIG GAME? (GO PIRATES!) No. 

Which left us at loose ends on what to do with ourselves. 

After a very, very late breakfast (that was essentially lunch) at the International House of Pancakes (I hop! You hop! We all hop for IHOP!!) and an early afternoon nap, we like, oh my God, actually like, you know, went to the like mall!!

We actually considered the notion of going to this indoor miniature indoor golf place. It looked like a place someone goes to be murdered so we decided against it. 

Greenville seems like a nice enough town but we spent  an inordinate amount of time considering the likelihood of being murdered in various places throughout the city. I supposed a visitor to Greensboro, being unfamiliar with our city, might make the same calculations.  

Anyway, we went to the Greenville Mall which I felt there was a risk of being murdered but the risk was acceptably low.  

Letting Randie near a mall is asking for trouble if said mall includes a Spencer's Gifts or a Hot Topic. The Greenville Mall had both.  

After dinner at Cracker Barrel, we got back to ECU where Toy Story 4 was showing on a big screen in the commons area. The film was 2/3 over and Ash had not seen it before so we elected not to watch what was left. (Which is a good thing as I'm not quite over the psychological damage Toy Story 4 did to me last time.)  

Afterwards, Ash went to see her boyfriend while Andrea, Randie and I ventured over to the campus recreation center where we went bowling. I haven't bowled in years and a week later, I'm still sore from this excursion. We bowled two games and Andrea won them both.

Which is disturbing in that her approach is to walk to the line, drop the ball and watch it roll down the lane. Pins fall over from boredom waiting for the ball to get there.  

And she wins this way? Really! 

Sunday, Andrea and I picked up Randie and Ash for lunch at Supdog. 

Ever since our first visit to ECU, we've been hearing about how awesome Supdog is. 

Randie and Ash after a month of college had not had a chance to go to Supdog. So we decided this was as good a chance as any to experience the wonder, the magnificence, the sheer awesome splendor that is...Supdog. 

Sunday lunch time, we had a 45 minute wait for a table. Once we had a table, it took forever for a wait person to take our order. It took longer than forever to actually get the food we ordered. Once we received it, however...

I cannot adequately describe how mindbogglingly disappointing the experience was.  

The hot dog I ordered with chili, mustard and onions was perfectly... adequate. It was an adequate wiener in an adequate bun covered in adequate chili and adequate slivers of onion. The mustard was applied with a criss-cross design so that was a bit of a flourish, an adequately applied flourish.

The hot dogs I make at home are far superior in quality to this... thing that was just... there. 

Make no mistake, it was not a bad hot dog. It was not worth the hype and the wait. 

To end our visit on a better now, I took us out to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream where the ice cream is better than adequate. 

We returned Randie and Ash at their dorm and thus ended our Parent's Weekend at East Carolina University where we managed to not get murdered so with that low bar met, we'll count it as a good visit.