Off to a fairly good start this morning – not much to pack as we were only overnight in the hotel! The interesting thing about our room was we were “upgraded” from a studio to a 1 bedroom suite which was nice. The studio was wheelchair accessible but the desk clerk last night, I do not think knew that the “upgraded” room was only a “hearing” accessible room, NOT wheelchair accessible. Oh well, worked just fine for one night as long as the fire alarms did not go off again and light up the room! And they did not – yeah!
So today we are driving from Rocky Mount to Edenton, for lunch and to visit the town, then onwards to Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina to stay for the next 5 nights. Aside from Rocky Mount, I have spent some time in North Carolina previously – first at the end of Grade 4, in 1976, when we came as a family to Edenton to stay with the Diroms, friends of my parents and Mr. Dirom, a workmate of my dad. I have also worked in various cities both installing recreation software and holding meetings in the 1990’s.
In 1976, when we visited Edenton for the summer, we learned just how much Americans like to party on July 4th compared to Canadians on July 1st, and that year, July 4th was a BIG party, with various kids races on the city lawn – the type you only find in North Carolina like peanut sack racing or pushing the peanut with your nose along the grass to see who can get to the finish line the fastest. The Edenton area was a hotbed for peanut and cotton growing when we were done at that time! The experiences I had in Edenton that summer, really impacted the rest of my life. It was the first year of school integration with black/white kids, which I just did not understand what the big issue was; we made a friend named Honeybun, a lovely girl who we played with until her mother, who cleaned houses nearby found out she was playing with “white” kids and forbade her to play with us again; not being able to walk through certain parts of the town after dark as they were the “black” areas; to the bed bug incident which caused the rental house where we lived, to be covered in plastic and fumigated, while our two families went to visit the Outer Banks for a week!
Prior to leaving Vancouver for Andrew and my trip, Norma Dirom had provided the address of where we stayed with them in Edenton when we were visiting (amazingly I was only one house off when looking on Google Maps), so we first paid it a visit when we got into town! I was quite shocked to find the house still standing (that does not happen to older houses in Vancouver) and the fact that I remembered where it was and was only one house off! I remember it being painted white and not the buttermilk yellow colour it is now, along with I do not recall the dormer on the top floor being there. Joanne, my sister and Derreck Dirom (both the youngest kids) slept in the upstairs front “bedbug” room and it was a long room without dormers I thought. Other than that, the screened in “sit and sweat” porch was still there, looks to have new screens though! We spent many a summer evening sitting on that porch when the temperature and humidity was VERY high as there was no air conditioning in the house at that time!
I had found a restaurant in Edenton, on Albemarle Sound, that served gluten free food so we decided to try it out after this! I was SO HAPPY to see gluten free shrimp and cheese grits on the menu! I still cannot believe that I have not had the opportunity to eat grits so far on this trip. Bring them on Herringbone Restaurant!
We then went for a walk around the waterfront and by some historic houses, including where the Edenton Tea Party was held and then down and back up main street prior to going for a drive through Edenton prior to departing to the east, past the cotton mill on our way to Manteo and onto the Outer Banks.
Here is our driving route for the day!
Lastly, I want to recognize that it is September 11th, a day forever burned into history and that changed the aviation industry for the better, especially in the USA, making it safer to fly, on already the safest transportation method available to man.