Today we tried to pack as much into one day as humanly possible, though not necessarily with fun stuff. First of all we jumped out of bed at the crack of dawn (as my parents used to say) and launched into making the coffee and setting up for breakfast. While that was happening, I stripped the bed, and threw all the bedding and all the bathroom towels and wash clothes into a laundry basket and headed for the nearby park laundry room. We hoped to get the last of the laundry that we had started yesterday finished before we left camp. knowing that it took about 90 minutes to accomplish this task, we decided we needed to start early. Hence the haste.
When breakfast and the laundry were finished, we broke camp about 9:00 a.m. and headed for the nearby Walmart to stock up on groceries before we left town. I had chanced to see our now personal shopping emporium while trying to locate our camp yesterday.
By just after 10:00 a.m., we had finished our shopping and were rolling up the on-ramp of Interstate 95. Our destination for the day was to be Raleigh, North Carolina. So far so good.
Along about noon we were just starting to get hungry when I spotted a historic marker indicating that there was a Civil War battlefield just four miles off the Interstate. Recognizing that the battlefield site would make a dandy lunch stop, we motored down the off-ramp and out into the countryside.
What we found was the site of the battle of Averasboro, North Carolina, where the north and south came together in one of the very last battles of the war in March 1865.
The museum grounds were perched on the edge of hundreds of acres of plowed fields, looking, I'm sure, very much like what the battlefield looked like 150 years ago. It was easy to visualize the two armies coming together, slugging it out, then going their separate ways. Even though the war would only last another month, boys were still having to die for their respective countries.
After our lunch under a spreading tree on the museum grounds (photo upper left), we went inside to tour the museum (photo upper right). Inside we met the most delightful docent in charge of the displays and he spent at least forty-five minutes explaining everything to us. Though we hadn't planned on spending quite that much time for our lunch break, the docent was so fascinating and friendly (photo left) that we didn't begrudge the time. In the end we toured the whole facility, bought a book and some souvenirs, and had a grand time. However, by the time we started back to the Interstate it was getting pretty late in the day.
So it was that by the time we got to Raleigh it was 3:30 p.m. and we had planned on visiting the state museum. Well guess what? The city of Raleigh doesn't provide anywhere for motor homes to park. After trying this spot and that spot -- including even a church parking lot that promised to tow if they caught you parking there -- we found a couple of adjacent spots in a residential neighborhood that looked pretty good.
As the sun sank lower and lower in the sky we hoofed it the couple of three blocks to the museum and went inside. Getting some rudimentary directions from the front desk, we started with the Native American room. And that's when one of the docents came rushing over and pounced on us. Bubbly and friendly, Regina Wright (photo right) immediately took it upon herself to introduce us to the state of North Carolina. She knew a lot. In fact, Regina not only told us about the history but acted some of that history out for us. She was amazing!
We soon came to realize that we had stumbled onto possible the very best person in all of North Carolina to give us a personal tour of the museum. AND, Regina was not only a walking history book, she WAS history in that she was a genuine niece of Wilbur Wright (several times removed, of course). You know, Wilbur the "first flyer" guy from Kittyhawk?
Well, by the time that Regina had regaled us with a myriad of stories about her home state, especially that of the lost colony of Roanoke, I was beginning to get a little worried about just where we were going to camp since the place I had picked out was still quite a few miles to the north. But thanks to Regina and her front desk cohort we got a couple of addresses to local parks.
And that's how we ended up at the Umstead State Park which came complete with, well, nothing but tons of nature. No water hookup. No electrical. No sewer. But it was cool and only cost $15.00. We got out our lantern and ran a generator for a few moments so Concetta could nuke up some food in the microwave. Since we had lots of warmups it really wasn't a big deal to have no amenities. In fact, we each got a good book and sat out at the picnic table with our Coleman lantern (photo left) and read until bedtime, something we hadn't done in years and years. It was great. And, had it not been for the fact that the park lay in the flight path of some busy airport (I didn't try to find out which one), the whole experience would have been like finding Eden.
North Carolina is, as is most of the southeast we've found, just like one big park. If you haven't been here, you should come see for yourself. And if you get to the state museum, be sure you ask for Regina Monique Wright. She'll do a great job telling you everything you need to know.
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