How did we not know about this?

Last October at the NC State Fair, we were walking around a seldom used path to get out the back gate of the fairgrounds. We happened to notice a tent that we hadn't noticed at the fair before and we ducked in. As we were exiting, we saw a small corner of the tent displaying a wintering spot in Eastern NC for tundra swans and snow geese. Apparently, since beyond recorded history these birds have come to the same areas at the same time. Yet, we, one native North Carolinian and one long-time resident had never heard anything about it before! Since we had to leave in December and be gone for 7 months with the holidays and then our 180-day Around the World cruise, this was a road trip that would have to be delayed. Then, Oceania cancelled our world cruise.

Now, here we were back at home and sore about it! So, we booked a bunch of replacement trips for that lost world cruise, but we needed something now. When Clay decided last week to take off work this week, we checked the weather and Tuesday was supposed to be a sunny day. So, we decided to set off on Monday morning and we made a HI Express reservation for Monday night in Plymouth. I will say that Clay's first choice was the Brickhouse Inn in Columbia but they never bothered to answer the phone or even reply to an emailed reservation request, so we cannot recommend them. We can however, highly recommend the Plymouth Holiday Inn Express. It is right next door to a Bojangle's. So, dinner is just a short walk across the parking lot! The Holiday Inn Express in Plymouth includes a complimentary coffee maker in the bathroom. There is also a small refrigerator in the room as well as a microwave oven. But, not to worry because there is also an awesome complimentary breakfast buffet from 6:30am to 9am. They have one of those pancake dispensing machines like we had once before at a Red Lion Inn in Oregon. I love that! They also had cereal, yogurt, fruit, pastries, scrambled eggs, gravy and biscuits, turkey sausage patties and bacon. Plus, bagels, English muffins, juices and coffee. So, that was all good. Plus, excellent beds with 4 full size pillows, 2 firm and 2 soft. No complaints. Well, correction because Clay accuses overly soft beds of hurting his back now. Anyway, we were in room 202. It was all the way at the back of the motel at the end of the hall. There was a storage room between us and the end of the building. The 2nd story rooms had balconies. I don't know why we because the view was of the rear parking lot, train tracks and the steam plumes from the nearby pulp mills! Anyway, room 202 had an extra large balcony because it went all the way to the end of the building past the storage room next door.

But, we went for the birds!