Once again we didn't cover much ground and other than getting lost a number of times (trying not to use GPS, just maps and the compass in the Jeep)...I know...come on Clay use the tools at your diposal!  Getting lost is part of the beauty of this trip.  We're not working on any time schedual, so, does it really matter?  We are seeing some cool stuff by getting lost.
We were on beautiful 2 lane roads most of the time and saw some wonderful scenery!

This picture pretty well represents what most of south eastern North Carolina looks like.  Alot of farm land, trees and not much else.
We went from Lumberton to the coast, just above the South Carolina border (another chance at fireworks!), but I did use the GPS here to make really sure I didn't end up in that hell hole of a state...sorry, bad pent up feelings toward the state to the south of North Carolina.
If you are from South Carolina please dont be offended!

In addition to the beautiful farmlands there are thick, dense forests...trucks carrying timber are everywhere!
I haven't seen a fire lookout post since I was a kid.  Here, I saw 4 of them...I thought the Forest Service had adopted more modern techniques to find fire (where there's smoke there must be fire!)  Apparently they haven't been informed that helicopters and aircraft work better than some guy sitting in a tower all day...I guess I'm not the only one behind...way behind the tech. curve!

My gratuitous flower shot...wildflowers are everywhere around here!
Hopefully, we'll be able to follow their blooming the entire trip...if only it hadn't been so damn warm in the midwest in March.

The first time I got lost was trying to find Cape Fear.  I saw it on the national map as a pennisula but my much more detailed North Carolina map didn't.  I went to where I thought it was, but it wasn't there...then I thought that you must have to take a ferry to Cape Fear.  I followed the signs to the ferry, was about to pay my money, then I got smart...I asked the toll booth lady how long the ride is to the Cape.  She looked at me quizzically and said that this was the wrong ferry and needed to go to another one about a mile away.  So I went there and asked the toll lady if this was the correct boat to go to the Cape (there are a lot of ferry's servicing the hundreds of islands offshore)...again the quizzical look.  She said "where are you from?", when I answered she said that she just knew I wasn't local.  When asked why, she said "honey there ain't no one island called Cape Fear, that river over there is called the Cape Fear river and that this entire stretch of coastline is called the Cape Fear region".
Question and dilemma solved!

This is the Cape Fear river with amazingly enough the Cape Fear lighthouse in the background...

Meet Hope!  Hope works for the National Parks Service at the "Moores Creek National Battlefield".
The battlefield is commemerated because in many peoples minds what happened here on Feburary 27,1776 changed the course of the Revolutionary War.
They have done a really nice job preserving the site as it apparently looked...earthworks still in place, the bridge that the Loyalists crossed only to get wiped out by the Patriots..effectivly ending the British plans in the Carolina's to engage the Patriots in the south as well as the north.
Once again we were there alone..just me and the Rubes...only 3 people had signed the log when we got there at 3:30!
It was very quiet and peaceful as Ruby endured the 92 degree heat.
We met Hope about a mile from the entrance were she was raking leaves and pine straw.  We talked for a long time and once again we were lucky to met another lovely and charming woman.
I asked if she liked her job and she stretched her arms to the sky and said that God had taken care of her by giving her the opportunity to actually have the job that she always wanted.
Kinda refreshing...huh?

Dean Torrance of " Jan and Dean" fame wrote the song Surf City among many, many others...Little Old Lady From Pasadena, Dead Mans Curve...and the list goes on.  Not long ago the cities of Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz got into a public roe over which city could rightfully call itself "Surf City"...to settle the dispute they decided to ask Dean (a dear friend of mine) which city he had in mind when he wrote it.  Being a really smart guy Dean said it was Huntington Beach...Dean lives in Huntington Beach and would have been ridden out of town on a rail had he said anything differently!
Hey Dean!  Did you authorize these guys to use Surf City?  Does Huntington Beach know?

My little (ok pudgy) sweetheart on the beach at Surf City.  First time in the Atlantic....
Notice once again the sand on her nose...I guess every beach has it's own smell!
Or she just likes the feeling of sand on her nose!

All in all a very beautiful beach...
Big day tomorrow