When I was at Our State, my editor gently encouraged me to take vacations outside of North Carolina. Since my job was (and, I suppose, still is) to cover anything and everything inside of this state, I might always feel like I’m working, she said. It was good advice, and it was refreshing to leave North Carolina once in a while and feel like I wasn’t potentially mining my experience for content.

Anyhow, I say that because last week, I left the state and this happened anyway:

To be fair, my 7-year-old daughter picked this place. I merely took advantage of the sign out front.

A few notes here: The Rabbit Hole restaurant in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia was delicious. I got the braised short rib poutine, and it wasn’t super poutine-y by Canadian standards, but was fantastic nonetheless. It also had a very national park vibe inside, and felt like a mecca for outdoorsy types who were posting up in the area. This makes sense: The accepted halfway point of the Appalachian Trail runs through Harpers Ferry, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is based there as well. Also, after I posted that picture on Twitter, someone DM’d me to say that a North Carolinian works at one of the outfitters in town. I didn’t have time to track down that lead, since my daughter and I were on a tight deadline. But yes, y’all are everywhere.

In case you’re curious, we were passing through because we were meeting my wife and son in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They took a little mini trip to Philadelphia for his birthday. Once we got together, we spent the rest of evening and the entirety of the next day at Hersheypark, where we passed a Foo Fighters concert that was happening right outside of the gate. Hersheypark seems to be better than Carowinds? I don’t know? It’s been way too long since I was at an amusement park and I enjoyed the hell out of every roller coaster. The only downside: Someone stole my brand new white Wake Forest hat at the park.

Then we went to my parents’ house in Ohio for a few days before heading home. It was a great trip.

One last thing: There is a place called The Rabbit Hole in North Carolina. It’s a bar in Eden, and they snapped up the @ncrabbithole username on TikTok. However, the owner is in some serious legal trouble after a deadly shooting in the parking lot last year.

Last year, I got the chance to watch a Carolina Hurricanes game with Governor Roy Cooper. Afterward, I wrote a Rabbit Hole story about it. That piece was largely about hockey, because when Cooper is watching hockey, he’s there to watch hockey and not to talk shop. But because the man is a politician, the story veers off into the realm of political theory. I know you’re busy, so here’s the critical sentence:

Cooper’s term-limited, so his time as governor is coming to an end. But! He’s now being mentioned over and over as a potential vice presidential candidate for Kamala Harris, and guess what everyone’s saying about him? That’s right: He’s boring.

This is, in case you’re wondering, high praise. Reason even went as far to say that America deserves a boring vice president. (They say Cooper is “what it would look like if a sweater designed a human.”) There’s been way too much drama in politics. Cooper is a competent politician, even though he’s been playing defense against the GOP for his entire term as governor. It would be nice to not to have to think about the vice president every day. If that’s what you want, Cooper’s your man.

One last thing that I was curious about here: Every time Cooper leaves the state, technically the Leiutenant Governor becomes the acting governor until he gets back. That happens to be Mark Robinson, who is the GOP candidate to replace him. I’d read in the past that Cooper was hesitant to leave the state because it’d basically allow the GOP to do whatever they want (this was before they got the supermajority, which has allowed them to do whatever they want). So would that create a problem if Cooper were to leave the state quite a bit to campaign for Harris? The short answer: No.

Back on July 4th, I wrote about the time that a monster truck swam its way across the Currituck Sound. You may be sick of hearing about this! And yet, this story continues to spread. My guy Joe Ovies created an Instagram Reel of us talking about the story, and it’s been played more than 50,000 times. Every time I open the app, I find that dozens of people continue to watch it and smash that like button.

Anyhow, that gave me an idea. This idea:

My friend Todd Knaperek designed this, and now I would like to figure out what to do with it. Definitely stickers. Maybe a mug? A t-shirt? I have not gotten into the merch game before, so I could potentially use some help here. Since you’re a paid supporter, I wanted you to see this (and please keep it to yourselves for now). Once I actually make something tangible out of a monster truck that resembles the state of North Carolina, you’ll be the first to know.

Thanks again for your support!