Ah, North Carolina. It is the final stop before we come home for a short visit.
Leaving Myrtle Beach, we had a nice drive to Charlotte along secondary highways. Fortunately, most of the highways are twinned and it is much like driving Highway 2 between Calgary and Edmonton. The best part is that there are few semi’s on the roads which makes pulling the trailer easier.
Both Charlotte and Raleigh are very pretty cities. While Raleigh is the state capital, Charlotte has the business center and is the home of a number of US banks. It is also hosts a rapidly growing tech sector. Both cities are full of trees, filled with new districts surrounded by even more trees and they seem newer and cleaner than some of the other places we have visited.
Charlotte
We stayed in a nature preserve on the outskirts of the city and as a result we had a half hour drive into the downtown area. Camping in the nature reserve was much like camping at home, but with power. It was a mixed wood oak and pine forest with fire-pits and picnic tables.
Unfortunately, for two of the three days we were there, the weather wasn’t conducive to sitting outside as the temperatures were cool and there was a cold breeze.
However, that didn’t stop us from enjoying the city.
Named for Queen Charlotte of Britain, the the city has a real southern charm.
We took a bus tour through the downtown area to get a lay of the land and to understand some of the area’s history. The tour driver made quite the art of turning a trip through a 12 square block area into a 2-hour tour, with lots of stories of the history of the area, a tour of the area with heritage homes, and the who which bank occupies the newer skyscrapers.
One of his stories was about the history of gold mining in North Carolina. The Reed gold mine is the first documented gold find in the United States. In 1799 a boy found a 17 pound gold nugget on his family’s property. He gave it to his father, who took it to a local jeweler. No one identified the gold so it was used as a door stop for three years. Eventually it was taken to another jeweler in Fayetteville; the farmer sold it to this jeweler for $3.50 which was equivalent to a week’s pay at the time. The jeweler then sold it for $3600.
This set off the first US gold rush, however, the mining was intermittent as the men only worked on the gold mine after they were done with their farming activities.
The driver mentioned that there was also a winery near the mining historical site, so for our second day in the area we decide to visit both the mine and the winery.
The winery mostly produces white wines, and perhaps the best thing I can say about their wines is that they have come up with wine slushies. Fortunately, it was a warm day, so the slushies went down well.
Raleigh
After putting the trailer in storage, our last stop is Raleigh. With a limited amount of time here, we decided to go to the North Carolina Museum of History in downtown.
We got there on a day that was filled with elementary school field trips. Thankfully they were gone within an hour and we had the museum mostly to ourselves. With a long history, the most interesting displays were about the founding of NC, the War of Independence and the Civil War.
The museum’s curators have done a good job of explaining all of the various people involved and their points of view on the different aspects of the history. For example, there are displays about slavery with commentary from the slaves’ perspective.
The traveling exhibit was on the women of country music. One of Shania Twain’s outfits from “Man, I Feel Like a Woman’ was on display.
On Our Way Home
Today we are on our way home for a short stay. It is time to catch up on things like taxes and house maintenance. We hope to see you soon.