1. Granville County -- Oxford -- 1/7/06

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_County%2C_NC

Granville County was courthouse #1! For all y'all reppin' Creedmore, Butner, Oxford, Stem and Stovall, I did this for YOU! I wanted to take a picture of me in front of the entire courthouse so you all could see it, but it was too dark, so that's why I had to move close up.

So why Granville first? Why not Orange, where Carrboro is? As a matter of fact, I have 29 courthouses so far, and I still haven't gotten Orange.

I happened to be hanging out with my friends Laura and Patrick Br. at Laura's in Morrisville (Wake County...also not county #1). It was the first Saturday of the new year, and we had run out of stuff to do at 11pm. So I said, HEY! I've never been to Oxford or Granville County! Neither had Patrick or Laura, and we knew this was our chance. So we hopped in Laura's car, and we hoofed it up to the bustling town of Oxford, home of our mutual friend Jimmy from Chapel of the Cross.

Maybe Oxford is bustling by day (I think Jimmy disagrees), but at midnight, it was dead as a doornail. I really thought it was a neat little town, with a pretty red courthouse. All we saw were two cop cars sitting in a lot near the courthouse talking. We could have just laid in the street and sang show tunes, since there was no traffic, but we decided against it, since we looked out of place to begin with. Honestly, who takes pictures of themselves in front of a courthouse at midnight, especially out of towners? It was quite enjoyable. So I can truly say I enjoyed Oxford!

I may go back later and take a picture during the day so you can actually see it. And get Laura and Patrick in it, since they're awesome.

We then left and did what many Granville Countiers do...go to the first gas station over Kerr Lake on Highway 15 in Virginia and buy lottery tickets. We didn't win. It was a long drive home after losing my scratch-off :(. We also thought about running onto the runway at the airport near Clarksville, VA since it's right on the highway with no fence and it was 1am, but after getting out of the car, we decided that was probably a felony and decided against it.

The best thing about going to random counties is walking around and interacting with people since it feels like the Twilight Zone...like you're not really supposed to be there...like you're in an alternate universe or something. Was I really supposed to talk to that random person at the gas station who commented on our UNC stuff? Will my dollar I bought my losing scratch-off ticket really positively affect a student in VA's school system? You should try going to random places...it's wild.