Saturday April 16, 2016

We are camping in Chocowinity, NC at Twin Lakes RV Resort.  This is a very large RV park with seasonal campers and year round RVers.  It is close to I-95 and an area we wanted to explore.This is where we ended up.This is where they wanted to put us.  Notice the distance between the large tree and the electrical post. Our 5th wheel probably would have fit, but there would have been no room for any of the slides. Our view of one of the lakes on the property. Not bad.

The first day here was pretty quiet.  We met a few people at the office, including Bruce, whom we have decided to call The Mayor. He lives in his new LandMark with his wife and he still works.  He has a corner lot and knows a lot about what goes on around Twin Lakes.

Saturday, it was off to explore New Bern, NC.  North Carolina’s first state Capitol.Crossing the bridge into the town of New Bern. Beautiful homes on the waterfront. This is the Neuse River.  Stretching 248 miles, the Neuse River is the longest river in North Carolina; at its mouth, it is the widest river in America at 6 miles across.

First stop is the Visitor’s Center. A very nice young woman was manning the desk.  She gave us a lot of information.  Everyone suggested the local hardware store.Mitchell Hardware has been in New Bern since 1898.  They have everything. We even bought a new dual water valve for the water supply.  It was a fun place to look around.  Everyone was so friendly.Since we came on a Saturday, we made it for the Farmer’s Market.Cliff’s new friend, the alpaca.  The animal laughed.The farmer’s market was more about the arts than produce, but it was fun to walk around.  Kind of felt like we were in Chicago, everyone had a dog and/or a baby. Just sites around the historical downtown.New Bern was named in honor of the founder’s home, Bern, Switzerland. When Bern, Switzerland was founded, it was named by a group of hunters. They named the city for the first animal they came upon on their hunting expedition. It was a bear. “Bern” is the old Germanic word for Bear, and the bear became the symbol of the city. It has been adopted by New Bern, as well.  There are bears everywhere.  This just happens to be the only one that I took a picture of.Christ Episcopal Church founded in 1715.  It is the third-oldest church in North Carolina. This is the location of the second church. The second church was built in 1821 and then rebuilt in 1871-1885.This is the location of the first church completed in 1751.

New Bern is also the birthplace of Pepsi.

Tryon Palace  – 1767-1770  This was the first permanent capitol building and residence of two royal governors. North Carolina’s first State Capitol.  It was built between 1767 and 1770 by royal governor William Tryon, representing the British crown. A fire destroyed the Palace in 1798.  It was reconstructed in 1952-1959 on the original foundation, based on archaeological evidence and the original architectural drawings and architect’s notes.This is the only building that survived the fire, the Stable Office.William Tryon and his family were moved to New York in 1771 and Josiah Martin was appointed royal governor for the British colony.  When the Revolutionary War broke out, Josiah Martin fled in 1775 dressed as a woman.After the Revolution, it remained the capitol and the site of the state legislature’s first meetings. Only men were allowed.  President George Washington attended a ball here on his Southern Tour in 1792 and danced with 70 women. The capitol moved to Raleigh in 1794.All the fireplace mantels came from England.Beautiful mahogany staircase.  Amazing.Beautiful gardens. This was a wonderful tour and well worth a visit.The North Carolina History Center has a wonderful museum of the history of this state.  We could have spent hours in there.  Very well put together.Lunch at The Chelsea.  The service was really bad, but the food was excellent.  Cliff had the specialty Shrimp and Grits and I had the BBQ Shrimp and Grits. As you can tell, there was hardly anyone in the restaurant. It was almost 4:00 pm.  We could hardly get waited on. Service was terrible.  Hopefully, she was just having a bad day.  The food was so good, it was a shame to ruin it with bad service.View of the waterfrontMultiple bridges

This is a very historic town and we did not see 1/3 of what they have preserved. We need to go back.

More adventures from Eastern Carolina to come.