Trailer Trad North Carolina: The Wood Wright's Shop

Located near Chapel Hill, Pittsboro is slowly (rapidly) becoming hip amongst the crunchy 'raise your own chickens and listen to bluegrass' twenty somethings. Chatham County is also popular among Boomer retirees. How to keep these disparate folks occupied? WOODWORKING! That famous PBS guy with the carpenter's overalls and the chambray shirts has a tidy little shop in Pittsboro that verily hums with activity, even on Sunday mornings when my friend and I were invited in to take a look. So trad- sawdust on the floor and archaic wood turning lathes on cool work tables. When my friend started fingering the saws to feel their edge (with Mr. Underhill looking on out of the corner of his eye), I knew I should wrap up the tour.

2014 North Hills British Roadster Auto Show

You know it's warm weather driving season  when those open-air, fun-driving Triumphs, MGs, Morgans, Jaguars, etc converge on North Hills in Raleigh. This year seemed better than ever with some stunning earlier models on display. I don't know which their owners seemed to enjoy more, seeing their polished babies adored and coveted or admiring those of their fellow enthusiasts. 

Trailer Trad North Carolina: A Quiet Weekend at a Forgotten Inn

I had a wonderful weekend in the middle of the Old North State. Great company and great scenery. Where was this inn? If I told everyone, it wouldn't remain 'forgotten' for long, would it?

 
 
 

Trailer Trad North Carolina: The Fayetteville Airborne and Special Operations Museum

Money and might can only accomplish so much. Sometimes, creativity and boldness count. But I guess that's the lesson of Fayetteville's North Carolina's Airborne and Special Forces Museum, isn't it? The boldness of the design, the daring scope of its collections. Daring. -Make no mistake, real men were behind this museum to real men. No puffery. No posturing. Damn, what a cool museum.

If you have a son who could benefit from seeing heroes and heroic deeds, this place is a must for your fall road trip calendar. -Fayettesville's a very nice surprise too. Home to a great downtown with some pretty good restaurants. -Pay off the Little Lady with the promise of a great meal after accompanying you through the museum. -However, you may be surprised at how interested the Right Lady (yours!) may be in learning about this rare kind of bravery.

 

Trailer Trad North Carolina: An Eastern North Carolina BBQ Institution

Wilbers Barbecue in Goldsboro is one of a half dozen barbecue pillars in North Carolina, especially eastern north Carolina barbecue. Located about half way between Raleigh and my daughter's camp, we make a point to stop there on the way home. Wilber's doesn't go overboard with cooking methods, sauces, atmosphere, etc. It just makes a nice pulled pork sandwich that is really representative of the style. Make no mistake, it is not as good as Allen & Son in Chapel Hill (not really Chapel Hill-more like less chic Hillsborough) but, then again, none is. Allen & Son really should be its own unique category separate from Lexington Style (Lexington Barbecue and Barbecue Center in Lexington) west of the Triangle and Wilber's, Kings, etc. in the east. 

Wilber's is one of three pork-related tourist attractions in that area of the state. Another is the Nahunta Pork Center. Wilber's has a bright red bench out front that proudly proclaims "America's Largest Pork display."Walmart might disagree when they assert that. I only mean that Walmart has really, really large refrigerated cases filled with pork products. - Actually, I've never seen them but I assume that they do.

This is what barbecue is all about. Located behind the restaurant, the shockingly crude fire pit and smoke house combo looks like they were constructed by two drunk brick masons while camping one weekend in 1954. Awesome. This may be some of the crudest, yet most profitable fixed capital stock known to modern, Western man.

Young Women and Leadership Part 1: It's Camp Time Again for Lil' Bean

It's camp time again for Lil' Bean (who's not so little any more) and time has flown. -She's already been there for two weeks! While I've shown you a little of the her beautiful waterfront camp in eastern, coastal Carolina, there's lots more fun things and beautiful sights that I didn't show here.

The camp helps girls become young ladies and young ladies become leaders. And what great leaders they are! This leadership is perhaps the most valuable, irreplaceable thing about my daughter's camp. It is evident in the people that staff the camp, the people that administer the camp and the people that guide and support the camp from Raleigh and elsewhere

The girls are carefully, gracefully, enthusiastically taught all of the good things. There are too many to list. The young women that counsel in the cabins provide such a welcoming, caring environment that it's almost impossible not to get caught up in the boating, crafts, and lets not forget KP duty and cleaning the bathrooms.

 

My daughter's camp is a most impressive effort and being able to send my daughter there has been a great privilege.

 

 

 

 

Trailer Trad 'Top Drawer Award' for May Goes to This Guy

Seen at the corner of Oberlin Road and Peace Street at Harris Teeter. He's even cooler in person. He has chosen to stand at the corner on many days just holding this handpainted sign. I asked him if he's part a larger movement or if he thought to do this himself. He said that he came up with the idea to make himself feel better. "People can be kind of hard on themselves," he said and I agreed. I then told him that I might nominate him for mayor. Don't worry. I won't because he's doing more good right where's he's at.

Christmas Day Neighborhood Walk

One a very wet, dark Day After Christmas, I decided that it would be nice to show some of the beautiful homes that I passed on my quiet sunny walk on Christmas Day. It was glorious!