Today Steffi and I got together with our friends, Suzanne and Paula, for some lunch, hiking, and good company. As previously arranged, our plans included a trip to Hillbsborough, a stop at Tupelo's for lunch, and then a quick drive over to Occoneechee Mountain State Park for a couple of loops on the short, elevated trails there. Then we'd head back to Carrboro and Fidelity Court for a late dessert at our place. Well, things didn't quite work out that way...

We all piled into the car around noon and headed, happily, down Hillsborough road looking forward to some Fried Green Tomatoes, Banana Foster, and other tasty examples of Southern cuisine. Parking was no problem, and we piled out, our tastebuds eagerly awaiting Tupelo's culinary offerings. Turns out, the restaurant no longer opens (as it once did) on Sundays, and so we met with a darkened doorway. In fact, everywhere else we went, we found another locked shop. For a while we postulated (like a good little group of Magical Realists) that Hillsborough residents must simply starve on Sunday, dying off at the end of the day, and the city spontaneously repopulates itself on Monday.

This theory didn't last long, as we turned a corner and found Kelsey's Cafe next to the town's hardware store. Apparently this little dump is the only open eatery in downtown Hillsborough on Sunday. Despite a large number of the after-church crowd having already found seats, we came across an open table for four. Where we sat down -- for all of 5 minutes. Accosted by an unnaturally tan Caucasian waitress, the scent of burned sugar (or was that our server's flesh?) on the air, a menu lacking serious vegetarian alternatives (a House Salad? Please.), and an over-priced buffet, we promptly got up and skeddaled. I think I would have rather picked up a Brillo-pad and WD40 sandwich in the hardware store. ( (Now that I think about it, it strikes me as odd that it was open while all the good restaurants weren't!)

To bring the story to a quick end, we decided to postpone lunch until after our hike in the nearby State Park. We spent about an hour walking the trails and making a brief stop at the overlook, which if I understand it correctly, marks the highest, most eastward elevation in North Carolina. (All land east of this point gradually slopes down to the Atlantic coastal plain.) We met up with a couple of toads, all of varying colors (red, rust, and gray), and tried to make out whether any of the butterflies we saw were, in fact, of the famous and ostensibly rare Brown Elfin variety. After completing one circuit of the two-mile loop, we headed back to Carrboro for lunch (where Tyler's, our first choice, was also closed!) The Spotted Dog, thankfully, was open, and that's where we finally ended up for sandwiches and a much-needed beer.

***
Suzanne sent me the following information in an email later this afternoon. Hopefully, she won't mind me publishing her shrewd commentary here.

A fellow named Randy Emmitt has taken some great close shots of our little brown elfin friends:

http://www.rlephoto.com/butterflies/elfin_brown02.html

After looking at these pictures, I'm not sure if what we saw was the same butterfly. The smaller one was the right size, but its wings seemed more uniformly brown. But that might just be that we were looking at it from several feet away.

Here's what the Parks and Rec site has to say about the brown elfin:

"Researchers believe that the area's habitat has remained relatively unchanged since the last Ice Age due to the presence of brown elfin, a rare butterfly, as well as several unique plant species. The brown elfin is typically found in mountainous and northern areas, and the nearest brown elfin population to Occoneechee Mountain is more than 100 miles west. When the Piedmont's habitat underwent enormous transformations after the Ice Age, the area became unable to support the brown elfin and other species more accustomed to cooler environments. Brown elfins, believed to have once populated the Piedmont, were restricted to the state's mountains. However, the brown elfin butterflies at Occoneechee Mountain remained."

But you'll notice that half Randy Emmitt's pictures were taken at Weymouth Woods-- [...] in Southern Pines. Now, that's *not* mountainous and has a warmer climate, which runs in the face of the research that Parks and Rec's site summarizes. Hmmm.