Our journeys through North Carolina continue! On Thursday, we visited Greensboro, NC, about 45 minutes north of our campground. We started our day at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, the site of a Revolutionary War battle in March, 1781. While the battle was technically won by the British, they lost so many troops at Guilford Courthouse that it’s considered one link in the “chain of evils” that ultimately led to the British surrender at Yorktown in October, 1781. The park has an amazing series of trails and it was a beautiful, sunny day so there were a LOT of people out walking and jogging through the military park.

From there, we headed into the city of Greensboro and the site of a critical turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. On February 1, 1960, four black freshmen from nearby NC A&T College sat down at the segregated lunch counter at F.W. Woolworth and tried to order. They were refused service. They sat there for the rest of that day, and returned every day thereafter, joined by other students from their school and other local colleges. The nonviolent sit-ins continued for about six months until the lunch counter was finally integrated in late July. The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is now housed in the original F.W. Woolworth store, and we were able to see the actual lunch counter which has been preserved. It’s interesting that the museum didn’t open until 2010, so the lunch counter apparently was undisturbed for 50 years; obviously someone realized how important that site is to the Civil Rights story! Unfortunately, they don’t allow photography in the museum, but I did pull a photo from their website. The museum is very well done, covering most of the key events in the Civil Rights Movement. Their website offers a virtual tour and I highly recommend it if you are interested! https://www.sitinmovement.org/virtual-tours

Friday took us south to Charlotte NC, to a traveling Banksy art exhibit. If you’ve heard of Banksy, you probably know he’s an anonymous British street artist with a reputation for some “interesting” pieces. We went in knowing very little but figuring we’d be entertained, and we were. He’s actually quite a gifted artist and there are deep political and social messages to his artwork. There are several recurring subjects in his art, including apes, rats, the royal family, and children. We thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit and walked through it a couple of times to really see everything.

And a few of my favorites from the exhibit…

And a couple of videos from the ‘immersive’ part of the exhibit…

After Banksy, we had a wonderful dinner with an old friend of mine, Michelle. I worked with her at Kodak for about 10 years, but hadn’t seen her in almost 17 years…thanks to LinkedIn, I was able to reach out to her to see if she was still living in NC (as she was last time we saw each other). Sure enough, she lives north of Charlotte, and invited us to her house. It was such fun catching up and meeting her wife Stacey.

On Saturday, we had a nice lunch with one of my former co-workers from Home Properties, Julia, who now lives in the Charlotte area. We ate a local brewery in Salisbury, not far from our campground. I love that our travels have given me a chance to reconnect with people I haven’t seen in years! We also stopped by the North Carolina Museum of Dolls, Toys, and Miniatures, in Spencer NC (about 10 minutes from our campground). I couldn’t pass this up, given my Mother’s love of dolls and her collections over the years. It brought back so many memories as I wandered through and saw Madame Alexander dolls that she had owned, as well as the high-end designer Barbies, Shirley Temple, Effanbee, and so many others that were familiar! It was a pretty impressive collection, although hardly displayed in what I would consider a “museum” setting…mostly just overstuffed display cases! They also had a massive train set in the back, donated by a single collector, and a large collection of model planes assembled by one man. Definitely a fun stop and a place my Mom would have loved!

We stayed local again on Sunday and headed back to Spencer for the North Carolina Transportation Museum. My expectations were low, given that it’s located in such a small town, but the reviews online were really good and it was pretty inexpensive, plus a really short drive, so we decided to check it out. Wow, were we impressed! Turns out “Spencer Shops” was the largest steam locomotive repair facility in the Southeast, on the Southern Railway route. The site includes a massive overhaul facility, plus a 37-stall roundhouse that is one of the few preserved roundhouses remaining in the US. In addition to lots of train cars, engines, and cabooses, they also have an extensive antique and classic car collection and some aviation displays including a replica of the Wright Brothers plane. Truly ‘planes, trains, and automobiles’! We spent more time there than we expected, and probably could have spent another hour or more to really dig into some of the exhibits and enjoy the 25-minute train rides they offer.

And some other cool transportation stuff…

Today was “really big furniture” day. High Point NC is the “home furnishings capital of the world”, along with being one of the Piedmont Triad cities (with Greensboro and Winston-Salem), but the purpose of our trip was to see the world’s largest chest of drawers. It is a whopping 36 feet tall and there are two large socks hanging out of one of the drawers as a nod to Hanes Hosiery which was founded in nearby Winston-Salem. It’s one of those fun, quirky roadside attractions that I just HAD to see. Mark was less enthusiastic, but willingly snapped my photo. Driving through High Point is interesting…just about every building is a furniture showroom or design studio.

From there, we drove to nearby Thomasville…yes, the original hometown of Thomasville Furniture, and not to be outdone, they have the world’s largest Duncan Phyfe chair. The seat is 10 feet square and the chair is 30 feet tall…impressive! But they don’t let you sit in it unless you are campaigning for president, as LBJ was in 1960 when he sat there.

Our campsite has a new addition – in our travels, we found a collapsible flag holder (collapsible is great – easier to store) and a “Happy Camper” flag. Mark then modified it to also hold our American flag which we usually display on our windshield while we’re parked. So we will find a place of honor for this at each campground that we visit!

From the back of our campsite, we have a really nice view to the West and have enjoyed a few pretty sunsets through the trees…