We’ve spent some time exploring more of New Bern this week, while also tackling some necessary chores. On Monday, we started our Valentine’s Day with the most romantic thing a couple can do together…we went to the laundromat! I honestly cannot remember the last time I was in a laundromat, but it’s a fact of life when you’re away from home for two months. While most campgrounds (including ours) do have laundry facilities, the machines tend to be pretty small, so it generally makes more sense to go to a laundromat where there are more options. Thankful for reviews on Google; made it easy to find a clean one with lots of machines to choose from. And we had the place to ourselves for much of our time there. 90 minutes later, we emerged with piles of clean clothes and about $12 fewer in quarters (laundromats are expensive!). Check that off the list for another two weeks or so.  Later, we went to the Birthplace of Pepsi. The famous soft drink was created right here in downtown New Bern by Caleb Bradham in his pharmacy, in 1898. They have lots of memorabilia, history, and an interesting film that details the story of Pepsi. It was originally called “Brad’s Drink”…probably a good thing he changed the name, since Pepsi Cola is far more marketable.

Tuesday afternoon we went to Tryon Palace here in New Bern. It was the official residence and administrative headquarters of the British governors of North Carolina from 1770-1775, and is named for William Tryon, who was made Governor by George III. From NC, he was then “promoted” to governor of NY.

The palace actually burned to the ground in 1798 (shortly after the capital moved to Raleigh), and then in the 1940s a group of wealthy women were determined to rebuild the palace and kitchen office. They raised an incredible amount of money, bought back the land (which now had more than 50 homes and businesses located on it), and rebuilt on the original foundation. They traveled to England to purchase appropriate furnishings, books, and china. It was quite an endeavor and really impressive that they were able to re-open Tryon Palace in 1959. Our tour guide was dressed in period clothing appropriate to what a servant in the home would have worn, and was very enthusiastic in his presentation. The interior of the house was beautiful with very large rooms and walls that were three feet thick.

Something very interesting that I learned during the tour – during the late 18^th century, playing cards did not have numbers on them, just the actual diamonds or clubs or other suit, and you had to count those – there wasn’t a 6 in the corner to glance at. And, the backsides of the cards were all just plain white – no pattern or decoration as we see today.

George Washington visited Tryon Palace in 1791 during his southern tour, but there is no record of whether or not he slept there!

Throughout the palace, the fireplaces were coal-burning…because Tryon thought coal signified wealth vs. wood (which is quite plentiful in NC). So he spent tons of money having coal shipped in from England, despite the availability of coal here in the US. Interesting…

There were gardens all around the palace but they’re not as interesting this time of year; I’m sure they’ll be beautiful in a couple months!

We finished up with a visit to the North Carolina History Center and checked out some interesting exhibits about the Central Coastal Region’s history.

When I was paying for the tickets at Tryon Palace, I had a moment of panic…the credit card I wanted to use was not in my wallet. While we waited for our tour, I searched my entire wallet and purse…nowhere to be found. I checked the Chase app and the last time I used it was at the restaurant where we had dinner in Myrtle Beach last Thursday. And there were no ‘unusual’ charges, which was good news. I immediately locked the account through their app, and called the restaurant to see if they had it…and they did – I must have left it in the little holder when I signed the receipt. I have NEVER lost a credit card in my life. I told the restaurant I’d already closed the account and asked them to destroy the card (driving back to Myrtle Beach to retrieve it was not a viable option). Late on Wednesday, I called Chase and asked if they could ship replacement cards to our next destination. No problem at all…and on Thursday morning, our next campground called me to say they had just received a UPS package for me and would hold it in their office. Wow…that was super-speedy and I’m happy to know that the new cards will be waiting for us when we arrive on Friday!

Wednesday was a fun-filled day – lots of variety on North Carolina’s “Crystal Coast” which is the Southern Outer Banks. We drove south to Morehead City, a deep water port town. We walked along the very quiet boardwalk (I guess Wednesday mornings in February aren’t a busy time!) and saw countless fishing charter boats – sport fishing seems to be a popular activity here (although probably more so in the summer!).

From Morehead City, we drove out to Fort Macon State Park. The Fort was built around 1830 to guard Beaufort Harbor. It was the site of a Civil War battle in April 1862 and the Union held Fort Macon for the rest of the war. After the Civil War, it served as a prison, and then was activated for the Spanish-American War. In 1924, North Carolina took ownership to create a state park, which opened in 1936…but it was short-lived…the US Army leased the property back in 1941 for WWII, and then returned it to NC in 1946…so it’s served a few purposes over the years!

We headed to Beaufort which is the fourth oldest town in North Carolina (established in 1713) and really enjoyed our time there. Sounds morbid, but we visited their Old Burying Ground. 1756 is the oldest legible date/marker, but it’s believed many graves are much older. They have a walking tour/brochure that includes lots of interesting stories about the people buried there. A few interesting facts:

• Many graves are vaulted and bricked over, to protect them from high water and wild animals.
• Some graves have both a headstone and a footstone; some of the footstones have the person’s initials on them.
• Graves generally face East – so they would be facing the sun when they arose on ‘judgement morn’.

There were lots of interesting stories, but this pair of headstones and the accompanying story was my favorite…

Next stop was the Beaufort waterfront with one goal in mind – to see if we could spot any wild horses on Carrot Island, just across Taylor Creek from Beaufort. You’ve probably heard about the wild horses that can be found in the Outer Banks; they’re descendants of Spanish mustangs and have been living wild for hundreds of years. And we spotted about seven of them in total on our drive! Unfortunately I hadn’t brought my telephoto lens, so my photos don’t show them nearly as well as I’d like, but I did some cropping and zooming so hopefully you can see them. I was thrilled we spotted some – didn’t have high hopes! And now I can’t get the Rolling Stones’ song, “Wild Horses” out of my head. Oh, and the homes along the waterfront…simply amazing. I found one on Zillow and drooled over the photos. Value is estimated at $2.5M.

We made one last stop, in Emerald Isle, for a yummy afternoon ice cream treat, and headed back to New Bern.

Thursday has been a quiet day, just hanging around enjoying the 70-degree temperatures, and packing up as much as possible…we head out in the morning, and it’s supposed to rain, so we’re trying to minimize what will need to be done in the rain. New Bern has been a wonderful place to stay for the past ten days – easy access to so many neat places, and the town of New Bern itself was fun to visit and explore! On to Fayetteville…