Welcome, everyone to the R.B. String podcast. I'm Nick Shaw. Today I'm joined by Dr. Eric Trexler, a fellow North Carolinaian. Is that the right term, right? Yeah, I believe so.

Sounds right. How are you, Dr. Trexler? Well, I'm good, man. It's a beautiful time of the year in North Carolina, as you're aware. So, yeah, hard to complain. And the semester is just wrapping up, getting finals out of the way, and then cruising to the summer, which I'm looking forward to. What do you do during the summer when school's not in session? Everything else. That's the classic. When people ask professors, what do you do in the summer? It's all the stuff I thought I was going to get done during the fall and spring. So that's when you get more of your administrative work done. That's when you get a lot of your course planning done for the next year. And it's when you get a lot of your research done as well. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, man, it is a beautiful time of the year. It's what, going to be about

80, high of 80 every day I saw for like the next week. I was going to say, well, because my kids

are in, you know, middle school. We just had spring break last week. But spring break in

college is quite a while ago. But, yeah, weather's good. You've been out to the beach or anything here

in the Carolinas? No, just actually put a little weekend trip on the books for May. Um, so I haven't done it yet,

but, uh, yeah, I usually, back before I was, you know, had a job that wasn't on my couch,

you know, back when I was still fully self-employed.

I would try to sneak over to the outer banks before, like, if you get in right before

the season actually opens, it's like totally empty, but a lot of the restaurants and shops are still open.

You know, they're like just getting started. And that's beautiful. You just have the place to yourself, quiet, nature, wilderness. It's, it's, it's, you can't beat it. Is that like March then? So I used to try to, I shouldn't, well, can you make sure that this doesn't go out to North Carolinians or anyone that's driveable to the outer bank? I don't want to blow up my spot here in terms of like I had a good thing going,

but it was usually like the very first weekend in April. I would sneak my way over there and

it was just the best of both worlds where you can actually do stuff, but it's like totally empty

and you got the place to yourself. But, you know, now that I like have to teach and do research do stuff, but it's like totally empty and you got the place to yourself.

But, you know, now that I like have to teach and do research and stuff, I have to push it to the actual summer and deal with the crowds.

Actual summer's a hell of the time to go out there because he basically can't drive anywhere.

We went once to the Outer Banks.

I could not believe how long of a drive it was from Charlotte.

We were talking like six hours. Yeah, North Carolina is a wide state. Yeah. And when you drive it, you learn that very quickly. You're like, oh, cool, we're already in Raleigh. That's like three hours away. And you're like, oh, holy shit, we're only halfway there because then it's like basically a straight shot from Raleigh all the way out.

It was cool, though.

Lots of cool stuff out there.

I do hear. And you're like, oh, holy shit, we're only halfway there because then it's like basically a straight shot from Raleigh all the way out.

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