Civil War driving tour in North Carolina: A trip on the Blue-Gray Scenic Byway
A month ago, I wrote about a Civil War driving tour in Tennessee. Here's another one I found out about in an engaging article by Jodi Helmer in the November/December issue of AAA's Home and Away magazine.
Helmer followed North Carolina's Blue-Gray Scenic Byway on a quest to find historic sites connected to the Civil War. The journey was a hunt and ask venture that wound through small towns and tobacco fields. As she found out, even a nondescript field where a battle took place has significance. Such was the case when she went into the Harper House, the now museum, but once farmhouse that was turned into a hospital during the war in order to treat soldiers who were wounded.
People in these towns pointed Helmer in the direction of terrific barbecue. She suggests Wilber's Barbecue in Goldsboro.
Reading Helmer's article reminded me of the importance of pulling off the road once in awhile to read those brown historic markers and asking the locals, "Where would you eat and what's worth seeing here?"