Danny normally works on the actual holiday, so we celebrate most holidays a week or two early.  Thanksgiving 2015  was celebrated on Sunday, November 22nd.

The highlights:

• Saturday morning, a really good country ham, with red eye gravy, biscuits, and home fries at Helen’s Kitchen.  Two eggs over medium and coffee.
• The house at 204 Johnson Blvd. in Jacksonville, NC is no more.  I was preparing to ride past it, and about the time I was finishing saying to myself, “Well, at least I don’t have to pay the taxes on it any more…”
  

  

  I look to see no house, and a yellow CAT backhoe standing in what “used to be” the front yard.  I got out and took pictures.  A muddy pit exists where the house stood.

• Mary Ann’s vehicle wasn’t at home so I rode down to Morehead City via the beach road, and stopped at Fort Macon to use the bathroom.  I took a picture of the North Carolina flag flying just outside of the new FM Visitor’s Center because I realized it was one-sided and that the lettering, etc. appears backwards from one side of the flag.  *This is just like the picture of the Steamer CITY OF WILMINGTON that had a picture taken with the name WILMINGTON reversed… which makes some think the image should be reversed… unless they actually look at the name of the vessel on the bow of the boat and above the pilot house, where both are in the correct order.   A quick look in the gift shop and then back in the car to ride over to the Beaufort waterfront.
• New bridge between Morehead City and Beaufort (B-side) is coming along.
• Came back along Hwy. 24 through Swansboro.
• I had breakfast on Sunday morning at the Hubert Grill.  The building is where Al & Cleo Kennedy had a restaurant many years ago, when Sis was still alive and well.  *Sis died in early 1979 and mom in late 1980.  They have a good breakfast.
• The children were REALLY LOUD all during Thanksgiving dinner.
• I meandered up to New Bern again on Monday morning on the way back to Fayetteville and stopped at the North Carolina History Center at Tryon Palace.  I did a detour through River Bend, and also stopped at a large antiques store.  NOTE [ 11/20/23 ]:  The large antiques store in New Bern burned down several years ago and is just an empty lot, with a gravel parking area remaining.
• The North Carolina History Center is a large new, modern facility with gift shop, cafe, Pepsi 3D historical village, local history museum, short orientation video and free (changing) exhibit.
  • I paid the $12 for one of the levels of daily tickets… which ended up being almost useless.  Don’t pay that if you are single and think the 3D village is going to be worth the price.  IT’s NOT!  The 3D village needs kids, a bunch of kids to be fun!  Maybe eight to ten kids in a group, or larger, to “man” the various video screened stations.
  • The local history museum section wasn’t of much interest for me.
  • I may have been told this before, but the original Tryon Palace burned years ago and there was little but part of the old horse stable HQ left.  But, in 1959 some influential women got together and the Palace was rebuilt on its original location from old plans, etc.  ***1959?  Well, that means that what I’ve gone through, when a child, growing up in Swansboro… and then with Debbie S. when in my late teens & early twenties… and then maybe 15 years ago, when there was a State IT Conference in New Bern, and Leo Taylor and myself took a brief tour of the facilities, the rebuilt facilities were 4 years younger than myself!  It’s almost all FAKE;-)
• I took Hwy. 70 East, heading West from New Bern to Kinston.  I had decided to continue on Hwy. 70 from Kinston and turn off to get back to Seven Springs and Hwy. 50 to come into Newton Grove.  I stopped at the Kinstonian Family Restaurant for a late lunch.  Lunch was good country cooking.  There were even “fall off the bone” pigs feet which I had a second helping of.  The vegetable soup was good, although I added just a little sweetner.  I had unsweet tea, which I added several packets of artificial sweetner to.  Good pickled beets.  Fried chicken was good, but not outstanding.

ADDENDUM:  I just noticed from one of the pictures that the Gardenia bushes that were at the NWern end of the house are gone.  A shame!  They came from the neighbor, next door from where the old two-story Morton home was, on the corner of Hwy. 24 and Bear Creek Road.  And I noticed my previous visit down, that that old house was also gone.

NOTE [ 11/20/23 ]:  I thought the Gardenia bushes were gone, but just last year I was riding by the old house location and looked over and saw that the Gardenia bush had flowers on it.  I turned into the yard and went back to the Gardenia bush and picked about 3 wonderful smelling, white Gardenias and took them home with me.  *I know they are no longer “my” Gardenias, but I hope Ray will never deny me the pleasure… and if he does, that will be okay too.

Another plant that apparently “you just can’t kill” is Wisteria.  This is an invasive, winding vine plant that has wonderful smelling purplish flowers in season.  204 Johnson Boulevard had a Wisteria plant growing beside the light/phone pole in the front yard for many years.  The plant eventually grew up a good ways on the light pole, and eventually grew over to a nearby tree and began to kill the tree off.  The light company (or phone company) maintenance guy(s) came by and cut the Wisteria plant to the ground.  It grew back.  Another year they sprayed plant killer on the Wisteria and the Wisteria disappeared, finally killed, and not showing up for several years… and then Boom, there she was again.  It did stay underground for maybe at least 5 years before coming back above the surface.

Well, that was easy enough. I did a Google Image Search on the white & red flower above and found that it was a Spectacular Flowering “White Red Eye Hibiscus.” Mom had planted it along the dividing line between our property and the Presbyterian Church’s property. There was also a tall Silver Maple tree on the line also, although after a while, if something that grows well is planted on the line, it spills over the line.