The Daring Adventures of Diefenbaker and Damned Rodan

Ms. Brugger went to another artsy-craftsy retreat this weekend, so friend and longtime geocaching partner Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott) came up from Newbern, NC, for a long, bachelor-oriented geocaching weekend. He arrived early Thursday evening to find a rack of slow-cooked pork ribs with corn on the cob and cole slaw I'd made waiting for him. He brought with him some marginally fiery ghost-pepper infused vodka and a bottle of mezcal; I introduced him to my version of the Botanic Martini, which I had originally experienced at Nord Social in Midland, Michigan, last month. There may be a new convert to the cause. We sat out on the back deck with massive quantities of food and drink until quite late, and enjoyed the required, semi-inebriated phone conversation with Ms. B., which happens whenever we have one of these get-togethers. Fun was had.

Early Friday morning, after a breakfast of bacon and eggs, we departed for a long day of it on the geocaching trail, beginning with Rocky Mount, Virginia, at Bald Knob, a unique rocky, cactus-crowned ridge that rises above the town. I'd been there numerous times over the years (see "Number One and Driving High" for an example), but a new trail system was completed this past May, and several new geocaches awaited our attention. We found them without difficulty, but I also took Scott to an older cache I had previously found, and negotiating the intense terrain to reach it from where we departed the trail left us just about spent by the time we returned to the bottom. Silly me, I took no photos during the hike, but here's an older one:

A view of Rocky Mount, VA, from Bald Knob's summit

From Rocky Mount, we drove eastward to a spot along the Pigg River in Franklin County. During my days at Ferrum College, I spent a lot of time at the Pigg River (though much closer to Ferrum), frequently in search of various altered states, which I usually found. This time, there weren't any altered states, but we did find a very creative geocache.

 

From there, we drove on to Gretna, Virginia, for a quick park & grab hide. Then down to Danville, where we found a late lunch at the fairly new 301 Tavern on Craghead Street. The braying country music was a bit loud, but the food and drink (cheeseburger, fries, and Pernicious IPA) certainly hit the spot. Then we roved around Danville for a bit to complete the stages of a nice Adventure Lab cache created by friend Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom, with whom I've recently shared some awesome geocaching adventures).

 

It was a lot of driving (about 150 miles) for a relatively small number of caches, but damn, it was satisfying. After returning home and making ourselves reasonably presentable, we headed over to Hamlet Kitchen, which is a regular hangout for Kimberly and me, but on this day, I had to make do with Scott. Hey, no complaints from this quarter. We had a couple of glasses off wine and then ventured over to Yamato Japanese Restaurant for sushi. As we wandered in, we ran into friend Anne, with whom Ms. B. and I had enjoyed a fantastic Thai dinner (along with Anne's sister, Mary), a few weeks back. She joined us for dinner and some very fun conversation, and then Scott and I (after a brief liquor store stop) returned to Casa di Rodan to test a few spirits. I'd say they tested satisfactorily.

 

Interestingly, as we sat out on the back deck in the dark, something big, heavy, and quite angry-sounding went thumping and huffing through the woods right at the edge of the driveway, just beyond our line of sight. We have tons of deer, foxes, and coyotes in these woods, but whatever it was, I've never heard such a thing before. Wampus cat, I'd say.

 

Another shared call with Ms. B., and then... a good night.

A theme, perhaps?

An interesting view from my phone camera, facing upward to the underside of our deck umbrella

The view on our side of our phone call with Kimberly

The view on Kimberly's side of our phone call

Saturday morning, Scott and I got up early again. I made blueberry pancakes, and then we set out for very long walks on a couple of different legs of the roughly twelve-mile-long Dick & Willie Trail. Many of the caches along this trail belong to either me or friend Fishdownthestairs (a.k.a. Natalie), but since Scott had never found these, I was happy to go along and offer either help or heckling, whichever I figured would be more entertaining at the time. We put in about six miles of it, and then found lunch at Don Pepe's, a Mexican restaurant that's been here for a while, though I'd never tried it. Damn if it didn't turn out to be excellent—very authentic. We ended up having a mellow afternoon (I mostly worked on the blog) before I cooked up some BBQ chicken wings, which turned out better than satisfactory, I'd say

 

For the evening, we again sat outside, told stories, listened to music, and waited for our big huffing friend to come stomping through. It never did, though a rather cute little possum wandered by. We had a brief, enjoyable chat before he waddled off again.

L: A couple of wacky gentleman on the trail; R: Diefenbaker trying to extricate himself from the depths of hell

Chorizo street tacos at Don Pepe's

Scott and Rufus engaged in a serious tête-à-tête

And, at last, Sunday morning, I made coffee and some very good egg bites for breakfast, and then Scott hit the road to return home. What a nice weekend all-around, though I certainly missed Kimberly, as I always do when she's gone. Scott's hoping to have us both down to their place in Newbern in the not-too-distant future, and to me, this sounds like a winning plan.

 

To old friends...

From Villa Appalaccia to 2 Witches

Last week, our good friends Bob & Yvonne invited Brugger and me to accompany them to Villa Appalaccia Winery on Saturday for a day of wining and dining; it goes without saying we were not wont to refuse. Villa Appalaccia, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Floyd County, has long been one of our favorite destinations for spirits and good times. Brugger and I typically visit in the fall, just before Halloween, but we've been known to head that way whenever the mood takes us. It sure took us this weekend.

 

We rode up with Bob & Yvonne early afternoon on Saturday and, once at the winery, met their friends, David & Mary, who are originally from Venezuela. Kimberly and I had made their acquaintance at a couple of other gatherings at Bob & Yvonne's, and we were pleased to see them again. Nice folks, and during one of the hired musician's breaks, Mary stole the stage, grabbed a guitar, and went to town. Fun. We ordered a few of Villa Appalaccia's excellent paninis for lunch and accompanied them with a variety of wines. Good, good stuff all around.

 

We headed back toward Martinsville late in the afternoon and stopped at Lovers' Leap, probably the most famous and scenic overlook in the state. Over the years, I have visited there countless times (one year, in fact, Brugger stumbled into some bear shit there), and the view is still incredible; however, recently, construction to widen US Highway 58 in that area has utterly destroyed the surrounding scenery. Distressingly, much of the devastation has nothing to do with the road itself but the horrific greed of the logging companies, who have deforested countless acres along the highway. It's an infuriating disgrace, and as far as I'm concerned, the motherfuckers responsible ought to be flayed alive.

Good times at Villa Appalaccia. Old Dude, Ms. B., Bob, Yvonne, David, Mary

L: Stella Trudel, the contracted performer; R: Mary, rocking out during Stella's break

A view from Lovers' Leap

On cheerier subjects, on Sunday, Kimberly held one of her regular arts & crafts group gatherings at our place, and friend Terry came along with his wife, Beth, so that he could accompany me (just for the hell off it) to a geocaching event at 2 Witches Winery & Brewing Company in Danville. Some years ago, Brugger and I frequented 2 Witches, but now, it's been quite a few years since we haunted their halls. Both  Terry and I, like most of our geocaching friends, opted for the beer. It turned out to be a large and enjoyable event. Several cachers of my acquaintance whom I've not seen for many years showed up, so in some ways, it felt like a most welcome reunion.

 

In the coming week, both Brugger and I have a lot of work to keep us busy, though not necessarily out of trouble. Whether in or out of it, I'll probably write about it. So, until then, peace out.

Tom (Skyhawk63); Audra (Homestyle, our hostess); Ken & Jennifer (the Alethiometrists)

Tom (Skyhawk63), Audra (Homestyle), Lynn (Spring1), Tom (Night-Hawk), young feller (Hoagland Hunter)

Sweet Revenge

No, the title of this blog entry has nothing to do with the dish in the photo, really, other than the fact that the the shrimpies you see there served as a something of a little reward for taking said revenge. Last Tuesday, after dumping Brugger at the Greensboro airport for her parental maintenance visit in Michigan, I went geocaching in the Caswell County Gamelands (see "Alone Again, Naturally") and ended up stymied by this one dastardly cache ("Slot Machine," GCGCBPQGN), despite it having a relatively low difficulty rating. I hunted the damned thing for an ungodly amount of time, all the while focused more on the information in the cache description than the coordinates, mainly because the former struck me as more vital. How wrong I was.

 

Apparently, I completely misinterpreted the information on the cache page (as did another experienced geocacher), and thus the difficulty. Anyway, the cache owner later reached out to me and shared some useful intel, so today, I ventured back down to the gamelands and walked right to cache. I mean, I didn't even have to hunt. Oy. The shame of it was that, the other day, I stood inches from the hide and somehow failed to lay eyes on it. Oy. So, actually, the title :"Sweet Revenge" might be more aptly read as "Shameful Revenge."

 

Anyway, the reason for the outing was that friend/fellow author Samaire Wynne was selling books at Danville's Festival in the Park, and she'd invited me to stop by. So, I did, after making a relatively short detour to the cache in question. Since it was lunchtime when I arrived at the park, after a nice visit with Samaire, I popped over to one of the nearby food trucks and procured the plate of vittles pictured above. The sea bugs were pretty danged good.

 

And that's the whole story. See you in the future. 

The Mummy vs. Cotton

Yesterday afternoon, Brugger needed to hop over Danville to deliver some medical information to one of her doctors, so we decided, well, maybe we should both go and make a little event of it. So, she did her business, and then we headed over to the Danville Stadium Cinemas to check out Lee Cronin's The Mummy (comments below). That took us right to dinnertime, so off we went to Cotton at Riverside Mill, which has become one of our favorite restaurants. It's moderately upscale, with pleasing decor and a scenic deck that overlooks the Dan River and the nearby Riverwalk (which I have visited for the purposes of geocaching many, many times). They make a dynamite gin martini at Cotton, and Kim enjoyed the wine. My double smash burger and Kim's cast-iron-baked meatballs did more than the trick. An awesome dinner.

On Lee Cronin's The Mummy... It was moderately enjoyable, with some effective, creepy set pieces, particularly the VHS video of the ritual that sets things in motion. Mostly, it's a rehash of The Evil Dead Rise, which I liked a lot better. This one could stand to be about 30 minutes shorter, as it felt needlessly padded. A fine enough way to enjoy an afternoon, I'd say, but I have no desire to revisit it.

 

So, our more or less spontaneous Danville outing turned out to be most satisfying — as well as much-needed given the severe stress to which I alluded a couple of blog entries back. Till next time...

A very creepy Natalie Grace in Lee Cronin's The Mummy

Moo Moo Land

I had to go to Danville this morning to handle some business, and once it was done, I figured I should go geocaching because there was a trio of new caches a few miles east of town along the Ringgold Rail Trail. Well over a decade ago, various geocachers had loaded the five-plus-mile trail with all manner of hides, and it was a frequent destination for me, but now, with so many cachers retired, passed on, or moved away, I haven't had the opportunity to get back to it for a long time. Happily, it was a beautiful day for a pleasant, fairly lengthy walk.

Sadly, the first cache I hunted turned out to be a bust. Based on certain information I came upon later, I strongly suspect it is missing. Ah, well. But as I was hunting, a handful of moo cows came wandering up and gathered around me. They were nice enough companions, but they kind of suck at geocaching.

Eventually, I decided to give up on that elusive first cache and move on toward the next. To my surprise, the cows decided to follow me for a fair distance, although they gave up shortly before I reached ground zero. I managed to find this cache easily, thus earning the dubious first-to-find honors (as I did on the next one as well).

Once back at the Rodan Mobile, I made my way to Tokyo Grill, which is my number one Danville go-to restaurant, and had a very good sushi lunch. Then, it was time to motor back home.

I reckon there's no reason to make a secret of it, so I'll mention that I was in Danville to close on a tract of land I have purchased across the street from our house. It's 1.25-acre wooded lot that's been part of a larger buffer between our road and another one that meanders up the ridge beyond. This woodland has been there all my life, but lately developers have been making overtures toward building in that area. Oh, no, no, no, you don't. That land is an extreme flood zone (in May 2018, it was completely underwater, which you can see in my video of the big flood here). You'd have to be a damned fool to build down there, but that is rarely a consideration where developers are concerned. So, after lengthy contemplation, I tore into some assets that I didn't really want to, but I absolutely cannot abide the idea of anyone destroying those woods, ruining the creek that threads through them, and putting a bunch of fucking shoe box houses on the land. I just hope the adjacent lots to the north remain untouched.

Anyway, there's no question that I'll put a geocache down there. And I've ordered some No Trespassing signs to post around the boundaries in case any developers get confused about who owns what (those signs will not apply to geocachers, of course). It's almost tempting to go down there and post "No Tressping!" signs, as someone did out in the country not too far from here; some folks in these parts might even find that easier to understand.

Moo Moo Land. Moo Moo Land. All bound for Moo Moo Land...

"I turn my back on you, geocaching hooman."

This means YOU, developer-types

Ouch!, Riverbend Ramble, and a Bunch of Aged Geocachers

Yep, there's a geocache at that wreck you see above. I think I can safely say it's one of the most unusual settings for a cache I've seen in quite a while. It was placed by friend and fellow geocacher, Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom), whose birthday happens to be today. To celebrate, he and his wife Punkins19 (a.k.a. Linda) hosted a caching event at the Freeway Dining Room in Reidsville. It was a fun event, with damn good food and quite a few cachers in attendance.

Afterward, I teamed up with friends David & Diana (a.k.a. David & Diana), Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), Night-Hawk (a.k.a. Tom) and Rhodorooter (a.k.a. Dave), for a little ride up the road to Danville, where a few relatively new caches awaited our attention. Our primary target was Riverbend Ramble (GCB9J29), a six-stage multi on the Danville Riverwalk Trail, which both Night-Hawk and I had made some progress on a short while back, but we had failed to solve the clues to reach the final stage. This time, with invaluable assistance from David & Diana, we were able to decode the necessary keys and find the cache. It turned out to be great fun, all the more so because the temperature finally turned somewhat more tolerable (87℉ rather than triple digits, and there was an occasional almost-cool breeze).

 

We successfully hunted a couple of others nearby, and then I dragged my near-exhausted self back home. This evening, I'll be in my regular seat on the Sunday evening  Lovecraft eZine Podcast, which will feature John Langan talking about his new fiction collection. He will be appropriately heckled.

 

Laters.

Riverbend Ramble or Bust

Well, for me, it was a bust, but at least it was a fun—if mercilessly hot and muggy—bust. A handful of new geocaches came out in Danville this week, and I'd picked up one of them the other day after taking Brugger to the airport for her latest trip to Michigan to look after her folks. My primary target was a new, six-stage multi called "Riverbend Ramble" (GCB9J29), out on the Danville Riverwalk Trail. I got out to the trail about 9:30 a.m., but the heat and humidity were already inching up toward a most uncomfortable high.

 

I found stage one, which was pretty clever and in plain sight, without any trouble. But at the very next stage, the trouble began in earnest. It involved sorting out a fairly complicated code, the description of which left me with more questions than answers. With the help of friend Tom (a.k.a. Night-Hawk), who had gotten through a portion of the multi yesterday, I figured out how to calculate the numbers I needed. However, at stage three, I couldn't locate the container that was supposed to be there. I found a magnet on what was clearly the host, but no container; however, the cache owner let me know that this was not where I would find the stage. So, after my unsuccessful search, I set out on the Riverwalk to get in my daily mileage on foot, which I did (although I'm not sure the oppressive heat did my health any real favors).

 

The same cache owner had a couple of other new ones around town, so I went after those and found them with no problem (the one at the driving range, pictured above, was quite fun). Not long after I got back to Martinsville, another cacher logged a find on the multi—so it's possible our paths crossed out there and we didn't even realize it. Alas! But that leaves me with a fairly involved cache to continue hunting on a later trip to Danville, so I'll be looking forward to that.

 

Kim will be back on Tuesday evening, so if the weather cooperates, I should be able to fit in some Greensboro caching before I go to pick her up. The cats and I will be very happy to see her back.

Old bridge over the river and trail, which is barely still standing

That old muddy river

A Happy Brugger Birthday

Brugger turned older than the hills — again! — today. This past Saturday, we'd gone up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to celebrate both of our birthdays ("Blue Ridge Parkway Caching, Wining, & Dining"), but as always, we had our own mellow little celebration at home on the actual day. For her birthday dinner, she wanted her special "French Onion Burgers," which include mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese, garlic aioli, and lots of Worcestershire sauce, so I made us up some. They were delicious. Plus we opened one of our really good bottles of wine from last fall's trip to the Pacific Northwest (a Cabernet Sauvignon from Sigillo Cellars in Snoqualmie). And she got a couple of nice gifts from some old fellow.

Me, I headed out bright and early for Danville, VA, to set up a couple of new geocaches — a Virtual and an Adventure Lab — in the Historic River District. While I was setting up the cache stages, I happened upon someone's bank card lying in the grass in one of the small park areas, so, in keeping with the theme of rescuing things, which seems to have been my lot lately, I rescued the card and promptly went out and had sushi at Tokyo Grill. (Yeah, the bank was right there, so I did turn in the errant card first, heh heh.)

Anyway, a nice day all around for both of us. Yet another step in the walk to Last Day. Till the next one...

A few random sites around the River District in Danville:

Eldredge, the Red Elephant, which occupies the shell of the old Eldredge's Drugstore on Craghead Street

The old Pepsi Cola Bottling Co. building

Left: restored old water tower; Right: Hidden door in a haunted corner of the River District

Entrance to the old Worsham Street Bridge

From Mountaintop Experience to Locked Up

It was a tad chilly this weekend but otherwise perfect for geocaching. Friday, as is my custom, I spent a pleasant evening at the old homestead in Martinsville, where I had some Carolina Reaper wings from Coach's Neighborhood Grill, which were passable; not as hot as all that, but fairly tasty. I spent some time digging through the old vaults trying to find a copy of Japanese Giants #1, which took some work, but mission finally acomplished. Thus, for the evening's entertainment, I made popcorn and watched Destroy All Monsters, since it was the feature movie covered in that issue of JG.

Saturday morning, after some grocery shopping, I headed out on the back roads, bound for the northern reaches of Danville. There was a cache at the site of a music festival from a couple of months ago — “Mountaintop Experience” (GC9G0TX) — which took me through some of the most brilliant fall foliage I’ve seen this season. The cache itself proved fun enough (though it wasn’t really on a mountaintop), and I went after another one nearby in Danville proper, which put me close to Tokyo Grill. I always enjoy their sushi, and I hadn’t visited since before the beginning of the pandemic, so I stopped there for lunch. I was not at all disappointed.

Odd folk hanging out at the library
in Chapel Hill

Danville mission complete, I hit the highway, bound for home in Greensboro. After some compiling and editing for a new short fiction collection (details on this will eventually follow), Brugger and I headed over to Kernersville, to Casa di Nelson, where we dined and wined with friends Terry & Beth and Joe & Suzy. A lovely evening that ran quite late.

This morning — after a not very restful night, due to freaking old man physical issues — I joined forces with the No-Dead-Weight Irregulars (Rob and Scott) and hauled us over to Chapel Hill for Sunday geocaching. Our primary targets were a trio of Adventure Lab caches: “Explore More at Pritchard Park,” “Carolina Walking Tour,” and “Chapel Hill Art Walk”; the first took us around the nice nature trails at the library, while the latter two offered scenic tours of the UNC campus. Again, the fall colors here were pretty much at their peak, so it was really quite a lovely time of it. After the lab caches, we picked up a nice little hide called “Locked Up” (GC8G3G6) at the nearby arboretum.

We finished our caching day with a somewhat late lunch at Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery, which is something of an old Chapel Hill institution. It’s been ages since I’ve been there, mainly because the place is typically so crowded it’s the very devil to get inside. Today, though, the crowd wasn’t bad, and the wait wasn’t long. The food and brew hit the spot after four-plus miles of hoofing it today.

Back in Greensboro again, and tomorrow begins another standard work week. Thanksgiving is coming up, though, and I must say I’m looking forward to it.

Peace out.

Il Triello: Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo

Triceratops footprint in stone along the library's nature trail

Diefenbaker toots his own horn on the Chapel Hill art walk.

No Burial Without Permission & Others

Don’t do it.

Geocaching has led me to a number of signs like this over the years. They're kind of disappointing because, sometimes, you just need to dispose of someon—er, something—quickly.

The weekend was busy, productive, mostly enjoyable. Friday evening, Brugger and I went to Martinsville and had friends Stephen & Samaire over for dinner and drinks. Given the agreeably mild weather, we were able to socially distance ourselves on the front porch at Pleasant Hill. We picked up dinner from Third Bay Cafe, which was, as always, first-rate. Yesterday, upon our return to Greensboro (by way of Danville for a couple of geocaches), Ms. B. and I spent the better part of the day working on our kitchen renovation. Tiring, of course, but highly satisfying.

This morning, Mr. Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott) and I got together to check out the trails and a number of caches at the Spruce Pine Lodge, along Flat River, just north of Durham. The weather was perfectly splendid for hitting the woods — clear skies and temperatures in the high 50s/low 60s. Prior to coming out here for geocaching, I knew nothing of this lodge, which dates back to the 1940s. It is available for meetings, events, and gatherings of all sorts. The nature trails offer scenic views and easy hiking, although most of the caches ended up taking us pretty far off-trail.

We found some good ones this trip. We discovered one container in the hands of a hopelessly malnourished fellow; a couple of well-stocked ammo cans; and a couple of smaller caches up in trees. Sadly — for me, at least — these did not require climbing but specific tools of the geocaching trade.

Scott appears bemused by this chap suffering from extreme malnourishment.

My favorite cache of the day, “Waterfall Overlook” (GCQE55), took us out to some high ground above one of the rocky, rushing creeks that flow into Flat River. Outbound, we found a narrow stretch with plenty of stepping stones to facilitate our crossing. After claiming the cache, we returned by a different route, which put us high above the stream, at a wide, rocky, and far more treacherous point. However, being the spirited, foolish daredevils we (sometimes) are, rather than detour, we decided to soldier on. Not far downstream, we found a big fallen tree above the deepest, rockiest part of the creek, so one of us (raises hand) unilaterally decided to use it as a handy-dandy footbridge. As we soon discovered, the log had a wee wobble, but neither Scott nor I fell off of it. Well, I didn’t. And it wasn’t so much a fall as a slide, which culminated in a relatively small splash. Not very spectacular, Scott.

On our way home, we stopped for a handful of other caches, including one at a very old church graveyard, where we discovered the sign in the image at the top of the page. Graveyard caches almost always elicit a smile.

Just don’t bury any bodies there without permission. Don’t do it.

The Spruce Pine Lodge in Bahama, NC, just north of Durham

View of Flat River from the nature trail at Spruce Pine Lodge

Outdoor amphitheater near the nature trail

One of the scenic little waterfalls we discovered on our hike

Our makeshift bridge across the stream. So it was a little wobbly. Scott and I both survived, though one of us
might have ended up a bit wetter than the other.

Phred Comes Home

Yesterday morning, I picked up my brother’s ashes from the funeral home in Winston-Salem. From there, I headed to Triad Park to get in some much-needed hiking and geocaching. It was a stroke of fair fortune that I ran into fellow cacher and friend Dave (a.k.a. Rhodorooter), who happened to be going after some of the same caches as I. A little later, I set a course for the old homestead in Martinsville, this time by way of the residence of friends and fellow geocachers Tom & Linda (a.k.a. Skyhawk63 & Punkins19). They had a nice little care package for me, which I greatly appreciate. Among the goodies were some chips and ghost pepper salsa, which fiercely hit the spot (although I might have overdone the salsa a bit).

Once at Pleasant Hill, I carried in Phred’s ashes, which I have put into a nice rosewood container. I carried him up the same stairs from the basement to the kitchen that Mom carried him up when she brought him home from the hospital for the very first time in 1964. This simple act somehow felt like... symmetry. My little brother was home once again, this time for the last time. Just after dark, I scattered some of his ashes in the front yard, where as kids we loved sledding when it snowed. Then I scattered some in the woods where we used to camp out in warmer weather.

Phred’s longtime friend Jon had contacted me a while back, and we decided to spend some time together at the first opportunity. That was last night. He came over to the house for a while, and we set ourselves up at opposite ends of the downstairs family room to avoid sharing any death cooties. We did share lots of memories of times together when he and Phred were pretty much inseparable. We raised and sank a few drinks in the process. It was the best kind of quality time during a sad time.

Headed back to Greensboro this afternoon by way of Danville and a new geocache. Despite the hard, sad time dealing with Phred’s loss, in the past couple of weeks, there have also been many wonderful, important celebrations and remembrances of his life that lifted my spirits.

Here is a video I sent to Tom & Linda, which chronicles my first taste of the Ocracoke Variety Store Ghost Pepper Salsa they gave me.