Road Trip Part 2 - Down East

From Wake Forest we headed east on route 98, which eventually ends into 64. We managed to keep coming back to 64 over and over, no matter what, all afternoon.

We had a picnic in Rocky Mount, which I had never visited before, in a public works park. Lots of seagulls. Somehow road trips need water and seagulls, so that worked for me. We saw a pair of coots at the water's edge, making a very strange sound. There was also a species of duck I haven't seen before. I should look them up.

We also spent some time down along the Tar River, and watching skate-boarders at a special section for them, with ramps, half pipe, grinding rails, etc. That was interesting. It reminded me of my brother learning to skate board back in 1978 with the young guys across the street (after we moved to Raleigh). They had built their own half pipe with plywood, and spent hours and hours riding it.

We continued east for a ways, but soon realized it was time to turn back. We took 43 south, through the open Eastern NC countryside that I did not properly appreciate while I lived there (in Greenville, at ECU for art). The light is unique, probably because of the reflective quality of all the silicon in the soil, and all the large cleared fields for cotton, tobacco (much less of that now) and soybeans.

It was a good day, and I enjoyed the stringless feeling. About 240 miles in all, so about 6 hours of car time, all of it to good music provided by either Moomin Light, my daughter, and one mixed CD of mine.

A much better researched and carefully crafted post on Rocky Mount and our road trip is at Moomin Light.