Where It All Began

For our last day visiting Russ’ father we had to eat at his favorite diner for breakfast. Carter, growing up in North Carolina, is woefully ignorant of diner culture. Russ’ dad is quite the regular at Warminster West to the point that his regular waitress flashed her new diamond ring at him to let him know she was engaged at last. Since it was the Sunday morning rush we did not get a chance to meet her, but Carter did get an idea of what the population of Bucks county is like.
After breakfast we said our goodbyes and went off to explore the place that Russ and I first started our marriage and show it all again to Carter, who said she could not remember the last visit. We crossed the bridge leaving Pennsylvania and made our way into south Jersey. People tend to make fun of Jersey, but Carter thought Palmyra, the little town that Russ and I first lived in was much nicer than North Philly,where we had to drive through to get there. On that point I can not disagree with her.
After driving Carter past our little four square craftsman’s house we drove her to a much nicer house we had considered buying. It was a shingle style on the golf course and I am so thankful we did not buy it because if we had we probably would not have left New Jersey as fast as we did. Carter said she was glad never bought that nicer house. She had a new found appreciation for all things Durham after seeing New Jersey.
We had a few more minutes so we decided to go see the company where Russ and I met and fell in love. I was thankful it was a Sunday so we could take pictures out front without having to explain to anyone who we were and why we were there. We pulled up to OPEX world headquarters, center of the mail opening and extracting world and got out. Russ and I showed Carter the window of the demo room where Russ first saw me demonstrating the system 100, the engineering aphrodisiac- love at first sight. In the end Carter said OPEX was good because she would not exist without it.  
I too am thankful for OPEX because without it I never would have met Russ. The New Jersey years were something I am glad were in the beginning because they have made me appreciative of everything since then. Mostly, I am so glad that we live in Durham and that Carter, who has never lived any place else, understands why we live here.