I had quite a trip on Christmas Day, 2025. I had some food gifts I wanted to take with me to Mary Ann’s for Christmas dinner. I also wanted to drive the recently opened Havelock By Pass, but also ride the Minnesott Beach to Cherry Branch Ferry (a 20 minutes free ride).

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Some of the items I managed to check off included:

• Drove to the Minnesott Beach Ferry a different way.
  • Since I wasn’t going to Jacksonville first to eat at Helen’s Kitchen (not open on Christmas Day morning, I thought about looking for a quicker, more direct route to the Ferry.
    • I ended driving up I95 to Smithfield. This route was going to take about 2.5 hours.
      • As I neared the I95 to Hwy 70 Exit, I realized it would be a good idea to take a bathroom break and I thought there was an I95 Rest Stop just a few miles above Selma. I remembered it correctly and afterward, took a more country route back to Hwy. 70 and came back on at Princeton.
    • A large portion of Hwy. 70 has now become I42, and even more is planned.
      • Near Goldsboro I was directed onto I42. I actually rode over (not on) a country road I had been on after stopping at Nahunta Pork Center the first time I visited there.
      • Later after Kinston, the newly renamed Hwy. 70 now I42 took me on to New Bern.
    • I decided to drive through downtown New Bern, but then forgot to actually drive down town and just by-passed it over the old draw bridge and then over the new bridge toward Bridgeton and on to Arapahoe and the Ferry landing. I got to the landing about 10:55 am, but as I waited realized that they only had one ferry running and it would leave the Minnesott Beach side at 11:30 am.
      • That gave me the opportunity to go to the bathroom and then I had a pleasant talk with a Mr. Smith.
        • I started by asking him if he had driven the new Havelock By-Pass, and he said “No.”
        • He mentioned several places including Southern Pines, which he mentioned still had a “Blue Law.” (Businesses not opened on Sunday.) I’ve even gone shopping several years ago in downtown Southern Pines, not on a Sunday. And I’ve visited the Library near downtown several times. Good bathroom. Comfortable to read their magazines.
        • Didn’t like to go to New Bern, but he was familiar with the Montgomery Wards there from years past.
        • Out conversation was cut short because of the arrival of the Ferry.
      • Pleasant ferry ride.
      • On the Cherry Branch side, I headed on back into Havelock and then traveled several miles on old Hwy. 70 to get up to the By Pass intersection and then turned around to get the full effect of the new By Pass. It’s quick, and uncluttered and you go from one end of Havelock to the other. Don’t know if you might save 15, 20 or more minutes by not having to go through Havelock and all the stop lights. But that should take away a bunch of business.
        • May be almost to Newport before the businesses on Hwy. 70 are unaffected.
      • I came back to Hwy. 24 and headed back to Swansboro.
        • Very few businesses open on Christmas Day. That wasn’t the case just a few years ago.
  • Drove in to Mary Ann’s and no one outside, although I wouldn’t expect anyone out on a cool Christmas day.
    • I took my red ice chest with several cheeses in and also my Aldi’s shopping bag with various edible goodies.
      • Okra and vegetable chips, clam pack of walnuts, Claxton Fruit Cake, Castelvetano & C & Nicoise olives, garlic, pickled peppers
      • GOAT Brie, Caprichio de Cabra and Sake 2 Me Cheeses.

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