Day 5, January 25, 2013, p.m.

Tonight I am in Leland, N.C. at a Comfort Suites Hotel. This is the most expensive place I’ve stayed yet, but I’m not complaining. There’s an indoor pool and a laundry room. I am making use of both facilities. Well, the laundry room, anyway. Laundry done and I’ve had a swim. Now, it’s time to remember my day.

I left the Comfort Inn in Tarboro, N.C. at 9:45 a.m. Odometer read 14072.9 and it was 28 degrees and overcast. The lady at the desk said to go back towards Rocky Mount until I get to the exit for Fayetteville. I didn’t want to go west, so took 64E and am I glad I did!

At that time of the morning, traffic wasn’t bad. The countryside opened up to farmland. What’s that white bird flying? Oh, are those swans in the pond? There were a lot of them. By the time I slowed down and pulled over, I was by another pond with more of those white birds. They looked like swans, but I didn’t know swans flew. In the water, they looked like swans. I took pictures the best I could out the window. This was exciting!

I got to Rte. 17S sooner than I thought I would. I began seeing green grass and green fields. How nice after all the dull colors of the last couple of days. My head was on a swivel looking first to the left, then to the right. This was a much leisurely drive even at 55 mph. The temperature rose to 34. The highway narrowed down to a regular two lane road. The roadsides were dotted with white. I remember seeing this yesterday and thought it was snow, but here it didn’t seem right. Then I noticed some fields were white dotted. Is that cotton? I pulled over, got out and picked up some off the ground. It WAS cotton! Wow, it must blow like milkweed or dandelion puffs.

I made a couple stops and photographed old, fallen in buildings. There are a lot of them. Then I saw some high flying birds. They looked like vultures. When I looked back to the road, there was a bunch of them on the ground and as I drove by, I say they were feeding on a dead deer. Oh, I could not resist. I had to turn around. Of course, they flew off when I stopped. These were not our red headed turkey vultures. These were bigger, had more brown on them and their wings were beautiful. Hopefully, I got some good photos of them in flight.

The roofs of the homes along this route had flatter roofs than those seen in the northeast. Most of these buildings were run down and in need of paint jobs. Many were modular or mobile homes. After awhile it dawned on me that these were all small, one story houses. Perhaps these were the homes of farm hands.

Another thing I noticed were a lot of small house type buildings with the name of a church or chapel. Maybe this is so people don’t have to go far to worship.

The road eventually widened up with a big area between north and south bound lanes. Crossing the Tar River was a trip! This was an Oh, My Gosh, bridge high above swamp and wide river and I saw my first moss-laden trees. The entire bridge is cement with K-rail sides and it went up and up. Aaargh, to be able to get photos! The trees looked like huge gray ghosts creeping out of the swamps, gray trees and long hanging gray moss and the river was sleepy and I wanted to look and look. Some even looked like they had furry gray creatures hanging from limbs and wrapped around trunks. There’s not even a break down lane, not that I’d dare stop on a bridge in traffic. But I oh, so wanted to!

But there was a more exciting bridge further ahead crossing the Neuse River into New Bern. I don’t even know how to describe it and if I wanted a picture of that other bridge, this one is the most impressive I’ve ever seen. The cement roadway made the tires give off a funny whistle and it went UP. This would be tough for anyone who’s afraid of heights. Again, K-rails lined the sides making it feel a bit claustrophobic, but for the open sky. And the VIEW! If I thought that other bridge was Oh My God, this one was OHHH MY GODDD! It was scary high especially with traffic moving at 60 mph. This bridge immediately went into another bridge crossing the Trent River from which there was an off ramp which was also a bridge and clover leafs. How anything like this could be built is totally amazing. I have GOT to come home this way. Maybe I’ll figure out where to get off to get photos.

Then to top it off, the bridge continued on through swampland with more of those moss covered trees. Those tall, colorless, naked except for the furry moss hanging in long clumps, trees that seemed to come out of the wetlands like some zombies creeping up to grab travelers. The bridge gave way to “normal” road, but my mind continued to babble.

I ended up taking the Rte. 17S By-pass to go around New Bern. This was a long, desolate stretch with pines on both sides of the road not allowing any view. At that point, I don’t know that my mind could have taken any more. I stopped in Jacksonville, S.C. at Applebees for lunch at 12.30. Odometer read 14199.1; it was 37 degrees with a light rain. The waitress told me that it was 2 ½ hours to S.C. Applebees has televisions everywhere. The Weather Channel predicts 50 degrees for tomorrow. I’ll believe that when I see it.

I was tired after I ate. I decided against making it to S.C. and decided to stop at the first hotel that had an indoor pool. I got gas at a Hess station in Hampstead paying $3.37/gal. with the total coming to $31.74. It was 2:10 p.m. and the odometer was at 14238.0.

I’m ready to relax and maybe watch a little tv. I’m eating the leftover Crispy Orange Chicken from Applebees.

Good night, everyone.