Archive for the 'TravelBLOG' Category
December 18th, 2009 by Mike Redding
It’s a tradition that started during the Great Depression. Children would run along side the train tracks as Southern Railways workers tossed out candy canes and oranges. That tradition has evolved into the “Santa Train” at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer. It’s the quickest way to get into the spirit of the holidays and find some lasting relief from a cynical world.
Children, families and railroad fans wait as Santa arrives at the station (often on a fire truck)! Once Santa says hello to all the boys and girls, the train leaves the station. Not only will children experience a one of a kind train ride… but Santa will walk the cars, giving children the traditional oranges and candy canes. The 25 minute train ride comes to an end. Children can head to the round house for ornament making.
The train runs several times this Saturday and Sunday. Check out the NC Transportation museum’s web site for more information
I think I can, I think I can… MR
December 17th, 2009 by Mike Redding
Need a special Christmas or Hanukkah Gift? I’m here for you. I’ve traveled up and down the Carolina back-roads and discovered mementos with powerful stories attached. Give a gift, take a trip, that will never be forgotten.
1. Fit for a Queen (or King)
If you are not an engraving connoisseur, you are not alone! But when Anna’s first Mothers day rolled around, I knew I needed something special and I knew exactly where to turn. It was a story I told for The Carolina Traveler about a craftsman whose work is so special, he’s designed for the Queen of England and the late Princess Diana. And, best of all, he lives in the Carolinas now. His name is John Flitton. He’s a one-of-a-king highly accomplished hand engraver. And if you think there isn’t a difference between what John can do and what a machine does… you couldn’t be more wrong. When he inscribes a monogram or a date on anything… it’s transformed into a work of art. You’ll find John Flitton at Morrison Smith Jewelers in Charlotte. You can stop by their shop on Providence Road in Myers Park or order something engraved on-line (from jewelry to frames to cuff links, etc). Or if you already own something and want John to engrave it, e-mail him directly. Anna has a locket with her initials and Crowley’s birthday. It’s her favorite piece of jewelry and fit for a Queen!
2. All Aboard!
Trains are making a comeback. Lionel just released it’s Polar Express train which is sure to capture any child’s imagination. BUT, want to send that imagination into overdrive? Head to the Albemarle Music Store in Albemarle, NC. What do music and trains possibly have to do with each other? Nothing. Unless you visit this place. Walk upstairs in this Main Street store and you’ll find yourself in another world. The owners of this store are the ultimate train enthusiasts! And over the years, little by little, they’ve transformed every square inch of that second floor into a magical place that’s made up of tiny tracks, toy trains, villages, villagers, trees, bells, whistles and more than i can describe. It’s a feast for the eyes and hearts of all of us and especially children. The perfect place to visit and purchase your favorite model train! Even if you don’t buy anything, a visit to the Albemarle Music Store is well worth the trip! Call first to make sure the trains are running that day or night.
235 West Main Street
Albemarle, NC 28001
(704) 982 – 3815
3. Out of Your Gourd!
I first met the Gourd Lady in the late 1700s. We’re that old. After our story on Margaret Sparky Sparkman a.k.a the National Gourd Lady aired, The Tonight Show came calling and her next TV appearance was in the seat next to Jay Leno! A fixture at the Southern Christmas Show, it’s hard to beat Sparky’s Santa Gourd. Not a Santa collector? Don’t worry! The Gourd Lady has countless themes (penguins and snowmen) from which to choose! Click here to check out her website and make a connection.
4. The Gift of Addiction
Perhaps a bizarre title for this little holiday entry. But when you try The Mustard Lady’s Must Have Mustard… you’ll know what I am talking about! Leslie The Mustard Lady moved to Fort Mill, South Carolina, from Boston. She packed her thick Boston accent, giant personality and rare knack for creating absolutely addicting mustard. Her obsession started as a hobby and quickly grew into a business. No one knows her secret recipe, not even her assistant! A pack of Leslie’s Must Have Mustard is perfect for a hostess gift or foodie!
5. THEEEE Toy Store!
Forget that big fancy toy store in New York City. Hop in your car and head to tiny Brevard, NC. Right in the middle of town you’ll find the greatest toy store on earth, “O.P. Taylor’s.” Been there, love it. Everyone I know who’s been agrees with me. But don’t go there looking for the latest video game or electronic wizardry… this plays sells only toys that require something long stolen from today’s kids: imagination. Radio flyer wagons, hand-made wooden toys from Europe they have it all in this two-story maze of a store. Plan to spend several hours there. You won’t get board. It’s a true Santa’s toy shop!
Okay, people, get on it! Happy shopping… MR
September 17th, 2009 by Mike Redding
I just re-read the TravelBlog from yesterday, September 16 and it kicked up some powerful memories.
On my first trip to the North Carolina Outer Banks I covered a hurricane where I watched a reporter knocked unconscious by a piece of wind-whipped debris during his LIVE-SHOT. The anchors back in the studio nearly panicked as he dropped straight backward.
Bodie {pronounced "body") Island Lighthouse and keepers quarters just south of Nags Head, NC.
On my second trip, I covered another hurricane that sat a hundred miles off the coast for a week. It gnawed away at the sand dunes and my nerves. By the time our hotel’s swimming pool collapsed into the surging ocean on day three, I too was crumbling from the relentless onslaught and sleep deprivation.
The third trip I covered the Hatteras Lighthouse move (it was moved a mile inland to protect it from falling into the Atlantic) and my first ferry to Ocracoke Island. Trip four was to cover the Hatteras Lighthouse re-lighting. We rented a house at the last minute somewhere in Buxton that had a half-dozen disco balls hanging from the vaulted ceiling two stories up! I’ve never been able to find the house again. But I have two photographers as witnesses. It exists. I’m almost certain!
Trips 5–11 were either for vacations or Carolina Traveler excursions.
I know the Outer Banks better than most. I also know most of you have never been. Every summer the OBX is full of vacationers from Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York. What do they know that we don’t? The lucky few of you who have discovered paradise in your own back yard are the rare locals who get what I’m saying… and why I decided to say it one more time… GO! Stop planning next summer’s vacation for where ever and start planning a trip to the OBX.
If you want a more “populated” experience, with restaurants a plenty rent a home anywhere from Nags Head north to Duck. If you want a more sparse experience with wide open beaches, rent south of Nags Head along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. If you’ve seen the movie or even the trailer for “Nights in Rodanthe” (which was filmed up and down the Cape Hatteras National Seashore) that’s the “sparse” stretch of the OBX. Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras all have a magical appeal to me. There are spots along HWY 12 (the only road on and off the CHNS) where the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pamlico Sound to your west almost touch. And during hurricanes the two bodies of water become one in a few places, washing over the dunes and the highway. I’ve seen it. Watched a television news SUV disappear in minutes as the photographer bashed out the windows trying to save his gear. Mother Nature rules out here.
Along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore even the short walk from your rental to the beach is other worldly!
North of Nags Head are Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, Southern Shores, Duck and Corolla. You can fish off the Nags Head or Kitty Hawk piers and if you forget to bait your hook, enjoy a long quiet nap. My favorite breakfast place is the restaurant on the Nags Head Pier. Sunrise there is inspiring… pelicans sweeping low across the ocean, schools of dolphins on a breakfast run, the golden sun slowly rising from the water, the smell of hot coffee, eggs and bacon fill your head… HEAVEN!
One summer while looking for a herd of wild horses we stumbled on an ancient wooden ship’s hull sticking up from the sand about halfway between Duck and Corolla. It looked like the rib cage of a dinosaur! The coast all the way from Corolla in the north to Cape Lookout in the south is called “The Graveyard of the Atlantic” because of the hundreds and hundreds of shipwrecks through the centuries. The sandy shores change so much from year to year, a shipwreck visible one year is buried the next and not seen for another decade.
Many a friend have taken their first OBX trips because of my stories. No one is ever disappointed. It’s a special place. The real magical kingdom, carved by God, wind and wave, not man.
Peace… MR
September 16th, 2009 by Mike Redding
On the North Carolina Outer Banks the sand, driven by hurricanes and nor'easters will take its toll.
It stupefies me how many Carolinians have never been to the North Carolina Outer Banks. Why locals drive all the way to Florida do sit on an overcrowded beach is a mystery. If you’re 18, I get it. If you have a family or just want to leave the rat race behind, OBX is a MUST!
The beaches south of Nags Head are sparsely populated and gorgeous...
The OBX (Outer Banks) is that long, skinny strip of sand sitting in the ocean stretching from the Virginia border all that way down to Cape Lookout. The Atlantic Ocean sits to its east and the Pamlico and Roanoke Sounds to its west. You can throw in the island just west of Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, as well. Shackleford is where one of the two herds of wild coastal horses lives. The other is at the top on the OBX near the Virginia border… they’re called the Corolla herd.
I realize from some locations in the western parts of South and North Carolina it’s a haul. From Charlotte it’s about a six-hour drive. Yet people pile in the family truckster and head for Florida beaches, which are just as far or farther.
I’ve heard a number of people say they drive to Florida because of Disney World. I like Disney World. It’s magical. Every family should go there
The dunes at Avon, NC OBX
once or twice. It’s easy to keep the kids busy and distracted until everyone collapses from exhaustion back at the hotel. I get the value in that. But I would bet you (and probably win) that when you come back from that kind of vacation, mom and dad are not relaxed and rejuvenated. It’s been fun… but there wasn’t time to unravel the stress in your life. There wasn’t time to unwind.
And so I ask you to do this one thing before you die… peel that layer of dookie from your brain by spending a week on the North Carolina Outer Banks.
It’s a different kind of vacation. The distractions are as few as you like. It may take a day or two to get used to the silence… only the sound of waves crashing. Sit out on your deck at night and see more stars than you ever new existed. See how many constellations your kids can spot. You’ll be forced to talk with your children and they’ll be forced to connect with you. Teach your son how to cast a line into the ocean and try to catch some dinner. Take a tandem sea kayak out and spend a couple hours with your daughter looking for dolphins. Learn to surf. Try hang gliding on the soft sands of Jockey’s Ridge.
Currituck Light is the only OBX lighthouse left unpainted.
Hike to the top of the most famous and beautiful lighthouses in the world… Cape Hatteras or
The base of the world famous Hatteras Lighthouse is worth the visit all by itself... and then there's the majestic brick tower rising above...
Currituck Light, and look out over the rarest of landscapes you’ll find. Read pirate stories at night and go hunting for beached shipwrecks by day. There are plenty. Take the family on a horseback ride on the beach! Or just sprawl out on the warm sand and snooze… read… or build sandcastles… then watch the tide come wash it away.
It’s a long day to get to Ocracoke and back but well worth the trip. You can drive your car onto a ferry at Hatteras… Bring a cooler because in the center of town on the lagoon is Ocracoke Seafood Company where the local fishermen bring their daily catch.
The OBX is a different kind of vacation. Hotels are few and far between. Most people rent houses for a week at a time. Sometimes people bring their neighbors or their brother or sister and their families along to reconnect with dear friends.
Remember, there is no roller coaster on the OBX. What there is plenty of… is opportunity. Opportunity to reconnect with your own family… and maybe your own you.
Links and more info…
Where I eat:
On Ocracoke Island it feels like you've walked back in time...
Windmill Point Restaurant
On the Roanoke Sound side at milepost 16.5
HWY 158 Bypass, Nags Head, NC
(252) 441-0535 or 1535
http://www.windmillpointrestaurant.com/
Pier House Restaurant
(Casual breakfast & lunch hanging over the ocean, enjoy the sunrise!)
Nags Head Pier, Nags Head, NC 27959
252-441-5141
http://www.nagsheadpier.com/food.htm
The Breakwater at Oden’s Dock in Hatteras Village
(excellent food in nice setting overlooking Pamlico Sound)
The dock at Ocracoke Seafood Company...
252-986-2733
http://www.odensdock.com
Bouy’s Restaurant in Buxton
(stick with the fresh local seafood part of the menu)
252-995-6575
47355 HWY 12 Buxton, NC
Where I stay:
I like to stay south of Nags Head closer to Buxton… Avon is my favorite area.
Hatteras Realty
(these are the folks I work with)
800-428-8372
http://www.hatterasrealty.com
Whalehead Club near Currituck Light...
Rentals on the Ocean
(another good company with a great reputation, pets welcome)
252-441-5005
http://www.rentalsontheocean.com
What I do:
Horseback Ride on the beach with Equine Adventures
Call Sylvia Mattingly
252-305-1617 or 252-995-4897
http://www.equineadventures.com
Visit Currituck Lighthouse
The Red Brick Lighthouse at the junction of Highway 158 and Route 12
Take Route 12 heading north towards Duck and Corolla.
Horseback riding on the empty beaches of the OBX...
The lighthouse entrance is 20 miles from the junction, on the left, just beyond the Whalehead Club sign.
http://www.outerbanks.com/historiccorolla/
Visit Hatteras Lighthouse
Which is NOT in Hatteras the town. It’s in Buxton. You can’t miss it no matter what direction you’re going!
http://www.nps.gov/archive/caha/capelight.htm http://www.hatteras-nc.com/light/
Take Ferry to Ocracoke Island http://www.ncdot.org/transit/ferry/routes/schedule/route003.html http://www.ocracokeisland.com/
Hang Gliding Lessons at Jockey’s Ridge State Park
http://www.kittyhawk.com/hanggliding/introduction.cfm
Plenty of camping:
The Ferry to and from Ocracoke Island...
www.capehatteraskoa.com
www.capewoods.com
www.hatterassands.com
www.outer-banks.nc.us/tgod/camping/obcamp.htm
-
-
On the North Carolina Outer Banks the sand, driven by hurricanes and nor’easters will take its toll.
-
-
The dunes at Avon, NC OBX
-
-
Currituck Light is the only OBX lighthouse left unpainted.
-
-
The base of the world famous Hatteras Lighthouse is worth the visit all by itself… and then there’s the majestic brick tower rising above…
-
-
On Ocracoke Island it feels like you’ve walked back in time…
-
-
The dock at Ocracoke Seafood Company…
-
-
Whalehead Club near Currituck Light…
-
-
Horseback riding on the empty beaches of the OBX…
-
-
The beaches south of Nags Head are sparsely populated and gorgeous…
-
-
The Ferry to and from Ocracoke Island…
-
-
Bodie Island Lighthouse, halfway between Currituck and Hatteras…
-
-
Hatteras at sunset…
September 2nd, 2009 by Mike Redding
If you asked me, “Where can I go to get away from it all?” I would tell you to find Myrtle Beach and then drive as far from it as possible.
Meher Center's Beach... empty.
Myrtle Beach is for Spring Breaks and easy family vacations when you don’t have time to plan ahead. It’s the vacation that requires no thought… even while you’re there. Plenty of restaurants, a million golf courses, a billion hotel rooms, a scary roller coaster, enough miniature golf to choke a donkey and miles of flat beaches with lifeguards.
No one goes to Myrtle Beach to enjoy the quiet. No one goes to Myrtle Beach to listen to that still small inner voice, right? Right? RIIIIIIGHT?
Wrong.
Right smack dab in the middle of all the high-rise hotels is a stretch of beach that looks, well, untouched. It’s as if you were strolling along and
suddenly walked from 2009 into 1944. One minute the beach is filled with tourists and the next it’s empty. One second the beach is lined with giant hotels and the next it looks like a National Park.
This is the perfectly odd and divine location of the Meher Spiritual Center. A spiritual retreat surrounded by 100,000 sun worshippers slopping on tanning lotion.
The Meher Center seeks no publicity. I found it by accident on my way to some other story a few years ago. I stopped in again just recently and asked if I could take pictures of the beautiful lake and some of the cabins… they politely said “no.” I told them I was famous and could send them business… they said, “What was your name again?” I told them people need to see pictures to grasp what this is because, you know, it’s in the middle of Myrtle Beach… they encouraged me to come back when I could stay longer.
So I took a photo of the entrance and walked down to the beach next door to the Meher Center and snapped a few shots there. They were okay with that.
The Meher Center was founded on 500 acres of beach-front property in 1944. It has a large, serene lake and dozens of cabins for rent. All they ask is you come seeking spiritual enlightenment. They would prefer if you were actually interested in their founder Meher Baba, who was sort of Hindu with a splash of Buddhism. Those are my words, not his. He is in actuality neither Hindu or Buddhist. I can find nothing in his writings that contradicts Christianity, in fact. Of course I haven’t spent much time reading his beliefs but he was clearly a man on a journey of inner peace and love for God.
The folks who run the Meher Center know not all of their guests are genuine Meher Baba followers, but so long as you come for the purpose of renewing your spirit, you and your family are welcome.
The cabins are simple but clean and inexpensive: $22.40 per night per adult and $7.84 per child. The atmosphere is impossible to believe given it’s geographic location and the beach is basically all yours.
There are an assortment of rules regarding comings and goings and what you can and can’t do there so take a long hard look at their website before you make a reservation.
But if you are looking for some quiet time… some time where you can reset your clock, get some perspective in life, and maybe seek some divine guidance, than the Meher Center will not disappoint.
Smelling some peace of mind in Myrtle Beach, of all places… MR
August 22nd, 2009 by Mike Redding
Where to go… What to do… Who to smell…
Tall Ship "Alliance"
DESTINATION: Cape Lookout Lighthouse, NC
My first trip to Cape Lookout was one big tease.
I was there to cover the “Tall Ships” sailing into Beaufort, NC. That was a great story unto itself but not the type of thing you can tell others to go do. The Tall Ships sailing into a Carolina port may happen only once in a lifetime. Glad I was there to see it… and to sail on the Meka II with a pirate… but it was the lighthouse off in the distance I was itching to see close up. It’s the only one on the North Carolina Coast I hadn’t been in, or to the top of, or done a story about… Cape Lookout Lighthouse.
Some have said I have a lighthouse fetish. I don’t think so. I think anyone who isn’t drawn to these coastal giants is a colossal weirdo. Especially if you’re not drawn to the group of North Carolina Outer Banks Lighthouses. They are a living history of our maritime past. They are the guardians of the sea. Every man woman and child in this country should plan a trip to visit these beacons of the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
-
-
Cape Lookout Light from Back Sound
-
-
Lightkeeper’s Quarters at Cape Lookout
-
-
Cape Lookout from the dunes between the light and the Atlantic Ocean
-
-
View of Back Sound from front of house
-
-
View out the back of the lightkeeper’s house
-
-
All of the NC Outer Banks Lighthouses were constructed with red brick
-
-
Tall Ship “Alliance”
In my SASTP Travel-Blogs I will eventually take you to each of these North Carolina lights: the tallest and most famous is Hatteras, built 1870; Bodie Island is the middle brother built 1872; Currituck is the youngest, built in 1875 and the only one left as unpainted red brick; Okracoke is the oldest, built in 1823, and the shortest at 65 feet and also the only one coated with a layer of cement and painted head-to-toe all white; and then there’s Cape Lookout, built in 1859, the first of the tall brick Outer banks lights sailors would see heading north from Florida and the Caribbean.
I’ll start with Cape Lookout because there is an unusual twist regarding the oldest of the four tall brick lighthouses on the Outer Banks.
Here’s the twist: for six weeks you can be the lightkeeper at Cape Lookout! All you have to do is apply (call 252-728-2250 ext.3008) and wait your turn. When they call, you have to live in the lightkeeper’s house at the foot of Cape Lookout Light and run the information booth. It’s a house and all but life is not suburban by any means. You have to boat on and off the island. So planning out grocery/provisions shopping is key. And in the off season it can be a lonely place. But the payoff is a truly rare experience. I talked to one couple who were just wrapping up their six-week stay… they were from New York and were heartbroken to leave Cape Lookout. “It gets in your blood,” they said. “The silence will heal you,” they told me.
Here’s the setting: from the lightkeeper’s front porch you look out onto a couple hundred feet of perfect white-sand beach and the calm cool waters of Back Sound. 1400 feet from the back door is the unpredictably wild Atlantic Ocean. From the second floor of the house you can see both beaches. It’s absurd. Absolutely stunning.
Cape Lookout to me is the most serene of the Outer Banks lights with what is clearly the most majestic setting (now that Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has been moved inland from its original perch at the edge of the ever encroaching Atlantic). My guide was Cape Lookout National Seashore Ranger Wouter Ketel (pronounced WOW-ter KAY-tull). He took me up to the top and even in to the light tower to see the enormous light bulb changed by the Coast Guard.
If you’re going for a visit, you’ll need a ferry to get to Cape Lookout. And there are oodles of Inn and Bed & Breakfast’s in Beaufort. There are also a myriad of hotels in Morehead City and beach houses at Atlantic Beach. And there are cabins on the island and even primitive camping on the beach in the shadow of the lighthouse. But if you can somehow swing a six-week stint at the Lighthouse that would be an experience you would never forget!
Don’t forget to stop and smell the people… MR
July 29th, 2009 by Mike Redding
Where to go… What to do… Who to smell…
DESTINATION: Bald Head Island, NC.
[For Margaret Schneck (one of the two #40,00 winners) who wrote in and asked about what I do on Bald Head Island. She'll be honeymooning there in September!]
Still standing... "Old Baldy" bares the scars of a hundred powerful storms blowing in from the Atlantic from 1817 until now.
If you’ve never been, Bald Head Island is down in the far right bottom corner of North Carolina. It’s the exact the point where the Cape Fear River barrels into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s sub-tropical climate makes it a haven for wildlife of all types. You can get onto the island only by boat or ferry. No cars are allowed. You park them at the ferry landing. Once on the island it’s bikes and golf carts only! Bald Head is a privately owned Island with very controlled development.
Home to the oldest standing lighthouse in North Carolina the beauty of Bald Head Island is the silence. Wind, waves, birds… and more waves. This is one of those “leave the rat race behind” type places. It has a couple hundred dwellings, a small boat harbor, an ancient lighthouse and beautiful, long, empty beaches.
The lighthouse, “Old Baldy,” was built in 1817 and it bares the wounds of a hundred hurricanes and nor’easters. The light is no longer in service but remains a big attraction for island visitors. I’ve talked with people who have jimmied the door open and rode out hurricanes inside the old light. This is actually not allowed… but has happened. The folks who did it figured, “If it’s gone threw every hurricane since 1817, it’ll handle one more.” But let me be clear, this is not allowed. Mostly.
One of the highlights for me is Loggerhead Turtle hatching season from early August to early October. If you log-on to the Bald Head Island Conservancy website they have a running turtle nest count (currently 31). This is a rare island because they have a full time staff dedicated to the preservation of the island’s wild inhabitants and the education of its human visitors. BHI beach is one of the densest Loggerhead nesting sites in the country.
Bald Head's beaches are serene and unaffected.
It’s well worth giving the conservancy a call, 910-457-0089, to find out about the turtle nests and where you might see one hatch (which almost always happens under cover of darkness). Each turtle nest on the island is marked, protected and monitored… and as a nest gets closer to hatching there is sometimes 24-7 monitoring. This is one of the five beaches in the country where they are tagging every adult female nesting on BHI.
The “Who to Smell” on Bald Head is not a person. It’s these tiny Loggerhead hatchlings. Only a small number of the tens of thousands of baby loggerheads hatched along the east coast will live to maturity and lay more eggs. And those few survivors will spend their lives circumnavigating the globe… until pregnancy. Then each pregnant turtle will find its way back to the exact beach where it was hatched decades earlier and lay it’s own eggs there. It is one of the most beautiful stories of earth-creature connections you will ever hear.
For the human creatures there is golf on BHI. But what I love to do in our coastal marshes is Kayak. It’s great fun and very popular on Bald Head Island. It feels like you’re on the other side of the planet. It’s nothing to be afraid of but worth noting, there are alligators living on the island. One great place to spy a gator is at the Wildlife Overlook off Stede Bonnet Wynde road.
If you must got out to dinner for the evening I recommend leaving the island and eating at “The Cape Fear Restaurant” at 101 W. Bay Street in Southport, NC, Ph: 910-457-9222. Fresh seafood at a family owned eatery on the water. Can’t beat it! Southport is the historic fishing village directly across from Bald Head Island. Its claim to fame is one of bloody gore… but the Hollywood kind. Much of the 1997 teen slasher movie “I Know What You Did Last Summer” was filmed here. If you stand on the corner of Yacht Basin Drive and West Bay Street and look toward Bald Head Island, the fish house on that outer-most point is where the creepy man in the yellow fishing suit with the giant hook did his dirty deed. You can walk right in. I have. Met a man there named Ivy Gaskill… a fisherman who kept a live alligator on his boat. But that’s another story…
Well, honeymooners, enjoy the smells of Bald Head Island… MR
July 27th, 2009 by Mike Redding
Where to go… What to do… Who to smell…
DESTINATION: Wilkes County, NC.
[This is for John Michalak who wrote in and asked about wineries in the Wilkes County area... part of the North Carolina Wine Country.]
If you’ve never been to Wilkes County you’re missing some of the most scenic countryside in the Carolinas. All you need to know is this is where Europeans are settling to grow their old-world wine in America. Beautiful rolling hills with the mountains off in the distance. Trust me… worth the drive.
I’ll get to the winery in just a minute. But first I want to tell you a love story that began in the Great Depression and continues eight decades later in Wilkes County… and you can be a part of it! For the sake of full disclosure, I’m half Italian. I have been to Italy where I have many, many relatives. My wife and I eloped in Tuscany. If I could eat Italian food and drink Italian wine every day of my life I would. I felt I had to say that before I start. I feel better.
L O V I N G M I S S D A I S Y
Daisy Wiles was a young North Carolina girl… as pretty as the day is long. Living on a farm outside North Wilkesboro in the 1920s, there wasn’t much chance Daisy would meet, let alone marry, anyone other than a boy from the next farm over. But her mom ran a boarding house in town and one sunny day an Italian man from Long Island, NY, showed up.
If you know nothing about Carolina girls know this, they’re impossible to get out of your system. Big city boy John Roselli was no match for a country girl named Daisy. He rented a room… he met Daisy… he fell in love… he proposed marriage and he never rented another room again.
John & Daisy Roselli in 1935
The family that cooks together stays together. And so it was for John and Daisy Roselli. Married in 1931 they tried their hand running a string of eateries, and in 1967 built a restaurant from scratch on a hillside on the farm where Daisy grew up. They called it, “Sunny Italy.” The location was beautiful but so far off every beaten path there wasn’t any chance it would survive. And that’s what makes my first meal there in 2007 so satisfying. 40 years after it opened, I sat with a 98-year-old Daisy Roselli and had a fantastic chicken parmigiana with a side of mouthwatering pizza. (If you do the math you know that Daisy is now 100 years old. Her children and grand children help her run the place.)
John Roselli is the only man Daisy Wiles ever loved. After his passing in 1979 Daisy poured that love back into their restaurant and “Sunny Italy” has become a landmark in Wilkes County. When you’re there, take a good look around at this simple restaurant. It exists because of love. The love John and Daisy had for each other. The love Daisy had for what they created together. And the love Daisy’s family has for her.
When you’re in the area, stop and smell “Sunny Italy,” the Roselli family… and a country girl named Daisy.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Sunny Italy
477 Old Quarry Road
North Wilkesboro, NC 28659
Directions:
From North Wilkesboro take HWY 268 northeast
A few miles out of town take a right on Rock Quarry Road
About a mile down Rock Quarry you take a left on Old Quarry Road and you won’t miss “Sunny Italy” on the left (because there is literally nothing else out there!).
IMPORTANT: “Sunny Italy” is open only on Friday and Saturday for dinner, 5-9 PM.
Call ahead to make sure Daisy will be there: 336-696-2034
N O R T H C A R O L I N A W I N E C O U N T R Y
If you haven’t had enough of Italians after a Friday night with the Roselli’s at “Sunny Italy” spend Saturday with the Raffaldini family at their vineyard in the gorgeous Swan Creek region of the Yadkin Valley.
There are many interesting and wonderful wines produced in North Carolina. I could easily suggest any number of vineyards for you to visit, but I chose Raffaldini for one very important reason: The President of The United States gave this wine as a gift to Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano, before the recent G-8 Summit. If the State Department is handing out a local wine to the heads of state in Italy, we all might want to take the short drive to Ronda, NC, and see what the fuss is about.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Raffaldini Vineyards
450 Groce Road, Ronda, NC, 28670
Phone 336-835-9463
(7 miles northwest of the I-77, HWY 421 interchange)
http://www.raffaldini.com/
July 22nd, 2009 by Mike Redding
Where to go… What to do… Who to smell…
DESTINATION: Isle of Palms, Mt. Pleasant, SC.
[For SASTP readers Sue Tanner, Aunt Mel and Nancylynn who wrote in and asked what I do when travelling to Isle of Palms area.]
I have a gem for you today and any time you visit the Isle of Palms & Mt. Pleasant, SC, area.
If you’ve never been, entire books have been written about what to do in and around Charleston, SC. I could write one myself. Oh, wait. I am writing one. Ha ha ha, silly me. Whew! I kill myself. (Okay I’m done fake laughing.) What follows will be one of the “hidden gems” from that book about “Where to go… What to do… Who to smell” in the Carolinas.
I could give you 20 great things to do on this side of the Cooper River. But for our purposes here today I narrowed it down to just one, “You have to do this!”
Here’s how I picked that one thing. Very scientific… I posed myself a simple question, “If you gave me just one night in the Isle of Palms-Sullivan Island area with my family what is the one thing I would be the most excited to show them?”
The answer jumped out at me: “The Wreck!”
How I found “The Wreck” is a story unto itself.
I had heard about it from a fellow traveler and a few locals. But no one could tell me the address. The best I got was, “It’s on the far side of Shem Creek near Magwood Shrimpers.” Great. Thanks.
I spent the next trip to Charleston trying to find “The Wreck.” At one point I was standing in its parking lot staring right at it. “Couldn’t be,” I thought. “Who would operate a seafood restaurant that has no sign of any kind and looks like an abandoned warehouse?”
If you're not sure you've found it, you found it! "The Wreck!"
I knocked on the door and no one answered so I left figuring I must have the wrong place. I later chased down a mailman and explained my dilemma. He led me right back to the gravel parking lot and that same ramshackle building next to the Magwood Shrimpers …at 106 Haddrell Street.
“The Wreck” is only open for dinner starting at 5:30 PM. Which explains why no one was there during the day. Why there is no sign is anyone’s guess. I asked the owner, Fred Scott, and he just shrugged. Fred is the man you want to smell in this story. “The Wreck”–though technically owned by his wife, Patricia–is run from stem to stern by Fred. You’ll likely find him at the host/hostess stand seating people.
In a minute I’ll answer the question on the tip of your tongue, “Why would anyone name their restaurant ‘The Wreck’”? But first let me explain the dining experience: plastic chairs, paper plates, a garden hose running to a sprinkler on the tin roof is the restaurant’s air conditioning, and none of this matters. In fact it only adds to the charm because Fred serves the freshest most delicious Low Country seafood you’ll ever eat. The dock a few feet away is lined with shrimp trawlers. Do the math.
Just a few hundred yards upstream from “The Wreck” closer to Coleman Blvd. are a handful of trendy chain restaurants on Shem Creek with real air conditioning, music and partying until the wee hours. These restaurants have neon signs and paved parking lots and are open for lunch even. But there’s only one “Wreck!” And once you’ve found it, you’ve found the buried treasure of Mt. Pleasant, SC.
So why? Why call it “The Wreck?” Well “The Wreck” isn’t its full name. Fred Scott’s restaurant is actually called, “The Wreck of the Richard & Charlene.” (Maybe there’s no sign because you can’t get the whole name on a sign.) Here’s the back-story… during hurricane Hugo in 1989 a trawler called the “Richard & Charlene” smashed onto the dock at 106 Haddrell Street in Mt. Pleasant. Fred Scott saw this as a sign from God. Don’t ask.
Shem Creek in Mt. Pleasant, SC, is home to "The Wreck" and "Magwood & Son" shrimpers.
I have a bonus for you! During the day you can buy fresh shrimp right off the boats next to “The Wreck” at “C. A. Magwood & Sons.” The Magwood boys haul in a fresh catch every day. Bring a cooler and some ice and take home as much fresh seafood as you can carry!
Here’s the info you need:
The Wreck of the Richard & Charlene
106 Haddrell Street
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
Phone 843-884-0052
http://www.wreckrc.com/home.html
Open seven days a week for dinners during the summer. Closed on Sundays & Mondays in the off-season.
IMPORTANT: “The Wreck” accepts cash and approved checks only. NO CREDIT CARDS!
C. A. Magwood & Sons Fresh Seafood
110 Haddrell Street
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
Phone 843-884-3352
