Heading North Two Lane Adventure - 5th Leg

We started the day at Green Acres Family Campgrounds just south of Williamston NC on US 17/13. We traveled into Windsor NC and transitioned onto US 13. In Windsor we discovered the Roanoke River Wildlife National Refuge. It was established in 1989 to protect and enhance wooded wetlands consisting of bottom land hardwoods and swamps with high waterfowl specie count along the Roanoke River. The refuge includes part of an extensive wetland ecosystem that contain several southeastern plant communities and habitat types. These include levee forest, cypress-gum swamp, bottom land hardwoods, oxbows, beaver ponds and black water streams. The refuge includes valuable wetlands for fish and wildlife; especially waterfowl, neo-tropical migrants, and many species of fish. The crops in the fields are much further along than they will be when we get into NY. The winter wheat is getting golden brown in NC and the corn is nearly knee high already. Bertie County Peanuts is a native crop to this area. They have been in the peanut business since 1919, during those 90 plus years the family has learned a great deal about what it takes to produce tasty peanuts. What makes their peanuts so darn good? Aside from their years in the business, and their hours of nurturing peanut plants in the field, they give a lot of credit to Mother Nature. Bertie County is surrounded by beautiful waterways. These waterways create a perfect rich fertile, sandy soil just right for growing some of the best peanuts in the country, hence their motto “our secret’s in the soil." Along US 13, we found the Hope Plantation a restored home of former North Carolina Governor David Stone (1770-1818). The plantation offers unique insights into the late 18th and 19th-century rural life in eastern North Carolina and the South in general. The centerpiece of the plantation is the 1803 Hope Mansion, Governor Stone’s example of an academic architectural combination of Federal and Georgian architecture. It was restored and opened to the public in 1972, the mansion is meticulously furnished with an extensive collection of original period pieces. The mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places and is administered by the Historic Hope Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of Hope Plantation.

What is the NC crop with those pink, purple and white blossoms filling the northeastern North Carolina fields this time of year? Research indicates that they are substituting for one of nature’s ocean giants, the endangered sperm whale. Because of the dwindling number of whales, which supplies the perfume manufacturers with scent-stabilizing ambergris. Scientists started looking for natural substances that mimicked its molecular makeup. They found that in Salvia sclarea, the clary sage plant. A native of the Mediterranean and different from sage used in cooking, it produces a waxy substance very like ambergris, which sperm whales create in their intestines to coat indigestible objects. In the past, the floating, waxy mass excreted by the whales was picked up onshore by fishermen and sold for huge sums. Sounds kind of gross, but the flowers produced on the plants is very, very pretty! Ahoskie, the largest community in Hertford County, is located on the US Hwy 13 also known as the "Pleasure Route." Their community motto is "The Only One" and if you look up the town name, they are right it is the only one ... There is no other town in the world known by the same name. You can find Greenville, Franklin, Bristol, Clinton, Springfield, Salem, Washington, Madison, Livonia and Georgetown in almost every state, but not Ahoskie. The origin of the word Ahoskie, which was originally spelled "Ahotsky," came from the Wyanoke Indians who entered the area at the beginning of European settlements. The neatest thing we saw in Ahoskie, besides the name was the old high school. It has been converted into apartments. Doing some research, this is not the only town that has done that. What a unique use of a building. Many if the buildings have such character, it is nice to see them preserved. We traveled on Short Cut Rd, what happens if you didn't want to take the short cut? How do you go the long way, when there is only a short cut?

We followed US 13 right onto the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. What an engineering marvel! The key features of the Bridge Tunnel are two 1-mile tunnels beneath Thimble Shoals and Chesapeake navigation channels and two pairs of side-by-side high-level bridges over two other navigation channels: North Channel Bridge (75 ft clearance) and Fisherman Inlet Bridge (40 ft clearance). The remaining portion is 12 miles of low-level trestle, 2 miles of causeway, and four man-made islands. The Bridge Tunnel is 17.6 miles long from shore to shore. Including land-approach highways, the overall length is 23 miles long and despite its length. What is more curious is ... there is only a height difference of 6 inches from the south to north end of the bridge–tunnel. The columns that support the bridge–tunnel's trestles are called piles. If placed end to end, the piles would stretch for about 100 miles. Man-made islands, each approximately 5 acres in size, are located at each end of the two tunnels. Between North Channel and Fisherman Inlet, the facility crosses at-grade over Fisherman Island, a barrier island which is part of the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge. The Virginia barrier island chain, including Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge, is one of only 17 sites in the United States classified as a “Wetland of International Importance.” The Refuge is the southernmost barrier island, located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and separated from the Eastern Shore of Virginia by about one-half mile of water.

The Refuge is designated at an Important Bird Area and has been growing!! In the late 1800’s it was only 25 acres, compared to today at 2,000 acres!! Because of the critical nature of its habitats for wildlife, Fisherman Island is closed to the public. We continued on US 13 on the DELMARVA pennisula. The peninsula encompasses Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. We found it amazing the number of poultry processing plants along this route.We spent the night at Holly Lakes Campground, it was definitely a very rustic campground. I can honestly say, we have never seen Christmas lights strung through the trees with beer can accents! The campground has over 1,200 sites, but it was quiet mid- week and it was a very restful night! They did have a unique looking goose or duck ...

Research has us believing that it is a  Toulouse goose. It is a large bird, with a ponderous appearance and large dewlaps. The goose generally has a placid disposition, and are better mixed with ducks because more aggressive geese will pick on these breed. They do not need a pond. However, being waterfowl, they love bathing and playing in water and will also mate in water. They are not great wanderers, preferring to stay close to home, making them ideal for this campground location. This goose appeared to be placid and preferred to follow around the smaller ducks as opposed to other geese. Tomorrow we cross to New Jersey on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. Stay tuned!