Yesterday, Sunday October 17, 2010 was one of those days where little frustration after little frustration seemed to pile on. But, it was only after the day was over that I looked back on it to see how many frustrating incidents there were:

I had stayed the night at Mary Ann and Jim’s in Hubert, NC. I found that I had forgotten to bring my toothbrush with the rest of my toiletries. I left a little after 8:30 am and went through Jacksonville, stopping at a Hardees to get a country ham & egg biscuit and a $1 drink. They must really make the biscuits from scratch, because the biscuit I had wasn’t nearly as well made as the ones I consistently get that are good from the Hardees on Ramsey Street in Fayetteville. It also had a hint of cinnamon, which made me think that they probably baked these biscuits on the same tray as they had a cinnamon biscuit (I didn’t even think to check if there was that on the menu.), or in too close a proximity.

When I got into New Bern, I noted that the old St. Luke’s Hospital building had been renovated. The sign had been removed or covered up with new brick. I then stopped in New Bern, along the waterfront to take some pictures. I think I noted that there had been a Mum Festival recently because there were bunches of mums in various pots and containers in different locations about the area.

I then headed up Highway 17 North toward “little” Washington. In Bridgeton, just across the river from New Bern I got behind a motorcyclist, who looked from the back like someone that might have been in Easy Rider. No, he didn’t have an American Flag helmet, but he had a green duffle bag, with what appeared to be clothes hanging out from the openings, and later, I noted a plastic water bottle strapped to the bag. He had white shoes. At first I thought they were tennis shoes, but later thought they just might be bone colored leather. I never thought that they were boots. I mention the cyclist because I stayed behind him until I got to the turn off at Chocowinity, a few miles from Washington. As I turned, there were several vehicles that went on by, including about 5 or 6 other motorcycles (not with him) an continued on the “new” section of Hwy. 17.

I came through Chocowinity (I guess an Indian name.) and then along an old portion of Hwy. 17 heading into Washington. I had been on this section many times throughout the years when I had been travelling between Jacksonville, NC and Portsmouth, VA. My mother had moved up there to live with her sister, Zeta “Aunt Pete” when I was in 8^th grade. I stayed in Hubert with my “Aunt Sis” (Carrie Kellum) and continued to attend Swansboro High School, through my graduation. On holidays and during the summer, I would go to visit or stay with my mother. I would ride the Trailways bus which stopped at most of the little towns on Hwy. 17. *The Hwy. 17 bridge at New Bern was torn down after they had built the new “high rise” bridge there. It was a low straight bridge.

It was a little after 11 am when I crossed the old Washington bridge. I went up a few blocks and turned into Marabella’s Restaurant parking lot, which was empty. I drove up close to the door. Although the sign said that they would open a 1pm, I wasn’t sure if they were actually open on Sunday.

I then headed up Hwy 264 West, a short distance to see if I could find a good price on gas. I think I paid $2.75 per gallon. Later in the day, I would pay $2.69 per gallon at a BP Station. If I had realized that it was a BP station before I turned in, I wouldn’t have turned in.

I then turned around, still on Hwy 264 and headed toward Pantego. At Pantego, you turn off on Hwy 99 and then after a few more turns and down a long dirt road, you are supposed to get to Phelps Lake. This was my second attempt to go to Phelps Lake. I had aborted my first attempt just a few miles from my destination because I didn’t realize how close I was, and as desolate as my surroundings had become, I had become convinced that my GPS was in error.

Well, once again, I had followed my GPS that had me travelling down the long, straight, dirt road called “Canal D.” As I turned the corner, and just a few

yards from where I had turned around previously, I came upon a chain that had been stretched across the path between two posts. The sign said that this part of the park was closed from November until … I don’t recall if it was January or some other month, when things started to warm up. Well, it was October 17^th, which was close to November, but not November.

So, I turned around once again and headed back down Canal D road, which then becomes Pat’s Lane (or Road ?). I did make a short detour and took a couple of pictures of a pontoon houseboat that was parked on it’s trailer in what appeared to be a farm yard. I don’t think it was a residence.

I didn’t have a map with me, but I recalled having noted that I would have to make a circuitous route around and get on Hwy 64 before heading south to Pettigrew State Park. But, circuitous doesn’t do justice to the seemingly endless long straight roads that must be endured. Large commercial farms seem almost endless that cover the area.

Once I got on Hwy 64, I headed east toward Columbia, NC. I had never been there, and probably because of the many large billboards that advertised seafood restaurants, I thought I might eat a seafood dinner there. That was to be another disappointment. Columbia, NC reminds me of Darien, GA.

After travelling many miles on Hwy 64, I finally saw the sign for Pettigrew State Park. I turned (Clement?) off of Hwy 64. It was still quite a distance before I came to the Park Office, which was closed. But, there were Park pamphlets that were available by the Park map outside the office, and the bathrooms were open and clean.

I could see a little bit of the lake from the office, and drove down to the boat ramp turnaround and parked. I then walked to the docks, looked around and took some pictures.

Now, here is where the map does not prepare you for the long journey around ¾ of the lake. In the upper left hand corner of the Phelps Lake map, there isn’t room to show you how you actually get from the Park Office to the next “canoe/kayak put-in.” You don’t actually ride around next to the lake, but take a great detour away from the lake and then back to it. And, some of the road is very bumpy. It doesn’t appear to be bumpy. It’s paved and appears to be flat, but it’s not.

The next “put-in” and overlook was arrived at by parking and walking a short distance through the woods to the lake. But, to my surprise, on October 17^th (a rather warm day for mid-month) there were large mosquitoes still swarming. They became noticeable just after I had walked through an invisible spider web that must have hung across the walk. I started brushing the web from my face, and then noted the mosquitoes. I slapped at them and brushed them from my shirt and walked faster to get near the water, hoping that somehow the sunlight would fend them off. Although they are little blood suckers, they are NOT vampires, and they do not burst into flame when sunlight hits them.

Surprisingly, most of the mosquitoes stayed in the shade of the nearby trees and I took a few more pictures. I did swat one large mosquito, but surprisingly I don’t recall any actual bite, and that is even after I made it back to my truck and headed down the road.

The road is winding around the southwestern end of the lake, and then came a surprise. A couple of small brick houses. I first thought they might be for the Ranger families, or maybe even a nice Park rental. But as I continued around the south end of the lake, there were more and more homes, and campers, and docks jutting out into the lake. There was even a small store with the title “Conman’s.”

The road changes from paved to tightly packed gravel and eventually comes to an end at the Pocosin Natural Area. Evan’s road is an unpaved straight road heading south from near the Pocosin Natural Area. Near Conman’s there is Allen Road, which is where I think I would have come to the Shore Road, if I had not had to turn around at the chained posts.

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After I found that there were not the plethora of seafood restaurants at Columbia, NC, I thought that I might find a place to eat in Plymouth or maybe even Williamston. I am not sure if I had ever been through Plymouth, NC before yesterday. There were the standard fast food restaurants, but I decided to continue on to Williamston before stopping for dinner. The “fat man” hadn’t had anything since the country ham & egg biscuit at about 9am, but I wasn’t that hungry yet.

I came into Williamston, NC perpendicular to the path I had always traveled on Hwy 17. Hwy 17 being situated mostly north and south, and Hwy 64 being mostly east and west. I recalled that on the bus, we had passed a country restaurant which seemed to advertise seafood. I didn’t see that place, but soon after a few blocks saw the Shamrock Family Restaurant. There were quite a number of vehicles parked around it so I turned around and came back to stop for dinner.

I may write more later, but the highlight of my visit to the Shamrock was that I had the worst BBQ Chicken I have ever had. Actually, they advertised a BBQ Chicken special for $7.95?, but what I got was chicken cooked in a watery sweet tomato sauce. The sauce reminded me of the cheap tomato sauce you get in pork-n-beans. Nothing had been done to it to make it resemble any BBQ sauce I’ve ever had. One of my prerequisites (and I had never thought to come up with a list of prerequisites until yesterday) for BBQ Chicken would be that the sauce would have to be allowed to bake on the chicken. I don’t care if you bake the chicken in an oven, or on a grill, but the sauce has to thicken and stick to the chicken.

Another prerequisite would be that the sauce has to be more than a watery tomato soup. That’s it. I had chicken in tomato soup, not BBQ Chicken.

Shortly before I got up to pay for my meal, I saw the cashier go up to one of the waitresses and whisper something about the BBQ Chicken not being available. The cashier then went to the board and wiped “BBQ Chicken” from the list… leaving Roast Beef and Turkey & Dressing as the remaining choices. This emboldened me to profess my extreme dislike for what they had called BBQ Chicken, when the cashier asked me if I had enjoyed my meal.

I told her to tell the cook that “I hated it” and that “I wished you had erased the BBQ Chicken option from the board before I had ordered it.”  The cashier laughed curtly, but never made an offer to discount my meal.

The sweet tea was good. The fried okra were crisp. The coleslaw was good. The salad, from the salad bar was passable. Nothing bad, but nothing special either. The hush puppies were in that same category. Not bad, but nothing special.

Now, it didn’t help that many miles down the road from Williamston, NC, shortly before Interstate 40 (heading nw/se) crosses over Interstate 95 (north/south) I started to belch that sweet tomato sauce. Oh, by the way, I had tried the chicken about 3 times. The second time, I tried to convince myself that this is “just a different way of fixing the dish.” But, the third time, is when I said to myself, “I don’t care what they call it, this isn’t BBQ Chicken!” So, I left about 4/5’s of that generous portion of BBQ Chicken on my plate.

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Fifteen years later and I just checked.  The Shamrock Family Restaurant is still in business in Williamston, North Carolina.  But it still hasn’t been long enough for me to return for some more BBQ Chicken.

On Saturday September 4, 2010, Labor Day Weekend, I had already decided to travel down to “Little Washington” to eat at a restaurant that I had seen on North Carolina Weekend just the night before. Actually, since the TV show ran on Thursday and Friday nights, I watched it both times.

One segment of the show was Bob Garner eating at Marabella Italian Restaurant in Washington, NC. The owners, two brothers, were the latest of several generations of the family (which I do not recall) who had been in the business both as artisan baker and restraunteurs.

The food looked great from the start. You could tell that everything had the attention of the chefs. Garner tried the spinach ravioli, ossobuco (veal shanks), several other dishes and Mama’s Pizza which I believe he said had both smoked and regular provolone.

I knew quickly that I wanted to visit the restaurant sometime, so I googled and found the Marabella Restaurant web site, and another rating site with reviews. Worrisome was the fact that the building was small, the food was good, taking a long time to prepare, and long lines were the usual. There were a few negative reviews of one waitress named Summer.

By Friday, I had decided that I would try and visit the restaurant on Saturday. If I left by 8am, I should be there by 11 am when the business opened, hopefully beating any crowds that might form on a holiday weekend.

Another segment on the North Carolina Weekend show had been about Pettigrew State Park. The second largest natural freshwater lake in the State, Phelps Lake, is the focal point of the Park. Although I haven’t checked yet, I would imagine that Lake Waccamaw is the largest freshwater lake.

I used Google Maps to find Phelps Lake and get an idea of where it was located. My generalization was that it was North East of Washington, NC and North West of Lake Mattamuskeet . What wasn’t obvious by zooming in on the map and touring around the shoreline was the “rustic” nature of the region. Sure, I recall a gentleman who visited the park regularly and made a comment regarding birdwatching being very good. There were the old forest by the shore and the comment regarding some of the vegetation being like those in the Tropics, and a scene of a small Black Bear slowly walking down a dirt road in anticipation of going for a swim.

Having described the park, as above, and viewing it from Google Maps, and now recalling that I saw no residences around the lake, it still did not sink in that this lake is “far from the beaten path.”

I awoke sometime before 7 am on Saturday. By checking Google Maps I knew that the trip between Fayetteville and Washington, NC should take about two and a half hours. The street level view of Marabella Restaurant was great. What did not sink in, was that the building was located on Old Hwy. 17, now Carolina Ave., which ran through town.

Just a block away from the restaurant was the old Trailways Bus Station building. It is now a law office. Many times, growing up, I came through “Little Washington” on the Trailways bus, stopping briefly at the bus station and then travelling up to Williamston, Windsor, Ahoskie, Elizabeth City (not sure of the exact order without looking at a map) on the way to visit my mother in Portsmouth, VA. I still remember the Southern drawl of the bus driver as he called out the stops over the address system.

After I showered, I headed out the door and down to Hardees to get a Country Ham biscuit and drink. The ham is very good and I’ve found that this simple breakfast is perfect if I plan to have a good meal at lunch time. Currently, you can get a large drink (iced, sweet tea) for $1.00.

By about 8 am, I was leaving Hardees and heading out to, and up, I95. Near Wilson, NC you take NC264 east to Greenville and then continue on it to Washington, NC. If you were planning to visit Phelps Lake, you could even take NC264 to Pantego, a small community, and then turn onto NC99, before making some other twists and turns to the lake.

The morning was sunny and clear. Was it just two days prior that Hurricane Earl had brushed the NC Coast?

I do not recall what started me thinking about golf ball dimples and how that might be applied to the surface of vehicles to reduce wind resistance. It vaguely comes to me that it might have been a truck passing me with a Tonneau type cover over the truck bed. That often triggers a memory of an episode on Mythbusters in which the boys show that putting up the tailgate of a pickup truck will actually increase gas mileage because an “air dam” is created above the bed of the truck and air forms less resistance than the bed of the truck. *That physics probably does not apply in “in town” driving, but on the open highway, I would guess it does.

I arrived in Washington, passing under the Hwy. 17 bypass overpass and on into town before 11 am. Since I had a little time, I drove down to the waterfront where there was already much activity with a Farmer’s Market and those walking along the shore.

Eventually, I killed enough time and drove into Marabella’s parking lot right at 11 am. There was one customer, a man, already inside, to the left of the entrance. He had ordered a pizza which he ate partially and then took the rest away in a box. [Flickr Slideshow]

I ordered the Spinach Ravioli with sausage and asked that they also fix a small Meat Lover’s Pizza to go. The sweet tea was okay. It could have been a little more flavorful, but it was sweet. The bread that came with the meal had sauce and spices on top. It was good. The ravioli was good. The sausage wasn’t memorable. The overall experience was good, as was the food, and although several customers came in before 11:30 am, there was no crowd.

I walked out with a boxed pizza and tried one slice once I got in the truck, just to know how it tasted hot. It was pretty good.

I tried to find free WIFI in Washington, looking near several library locations and driving through old downtown. I couldn’t find a connection for the iPad, which would have given me a good map to look at. So, I pulled out the HTC Hero and started the Sprint Navigation app. I entered Phelps Lake (I think.) and after a few moments the GPS was talking to me. I continued on NC264 heading in a NE direction and eventually came to Pantego. It is a small community where NC264 and NC99 branch off. I pulled off near the intersection and tried to check the GPS, but the connection had been lost. I had never been through Pantego and as I continued on NC264 toward Belhaven, I thought that I might never come through this community again.

About this time, I realized that my stomach was upset and that I definitely needed to find a clean bathroom… or in this case, maybe even a bush. I saw a Hardees billboard and knew that this would be where I would try to use the bathroom. As I arrived at the crossroads of NC264 and NC99 (a bridge crosses the river coming from Bath, NC), I noticed what appeared to be an old brown Hardees sign, without the actual signage, but there was no building and my thought was that the business might have burned down. I headed on into Belhaven, stopping to turn on my iPad to look for WIFI. I headed along the riverfront street, and past the Hospital… no WIFI.

I finally opened the GPS on my cellphone again and found where the Hardees was located (the new/current one). It was a short distance up NC264 and on the right. I pulled into the busy parking lot and on into the restaurant. First stop was the Men’s bathroom and “Thank God,” the empty stall to the commode. I tried to get a GPS signal, but it was spotty, as it continued to be the rest of my time in the area.

After my bathroom break, I attempted to get in line to order a drink… “tit for tat.” However, there was only one young man and after a while it was obvious that service would be excruciatingly slow, so I left.

I got enough of a GPS signal to find that I should have gotten on NC99 back at Pantego, so I backtracked my route. Hmmm… twice in one day. I never thought I would come through Pantego, NC again. I turned right onto NC99 and continued on country roads, passing open fields and forests. The GPS continued to talk to me, telling me to turn at certain points, or continue at certain points. But, the service was spotty and I could never get a good map showing where I was and the route to Phelps Lake.

Turning on to Pat’s Road I continued. The GPS said to continue on Canal D Road which was a dirt road. At this point, I began to believe that the GPS was taking me through a direct route. Canal D Road was long, straight, and although it showed some signs of having been travelled, was only travelled by me for quite a while. The GPS was counting down to the next turn, and I hoped that at some point it would become paved once again. It wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve found myself leaving paved civilization for a gravel or dirt road, only after a while to return to paving before reaching the other end.

Canal D Road was a long straight dirt road. Sometimes there was grass mixed with the dirt. But, as I arrived at the next turn, onto Repress Road, my dismay bubbled over. Repress Road was another long, straight, dirt road, but with a little more grass. I started a short distance down it and then stopped. I tried to check my GPS, but lost service. I looked down the road and far down it could imagine a small black bear walking down it… perhaps one like that shown on NC Weekend. Eventually, I couldn’t see the real or imagined bear, and I had made my decision. I backed up to turn around and head back down Canal D Road. But, as I backed, I began to cuss. I was cussing the damned (and that would have been tame) GPS for not having enough sense to not be sending me down dirt roads “to nowhere.”

Or, perhaps, I had typed in Phelps Lake when that might have been the wrong name. Bumping down the road, I was asking myself where I had come up with the name Phelps. Perhaps it had been Phillips. Damn, where would the GPS have sent me? Was Phelps Lake actually a small lake at the end of an ever decreasing spiral of dirt roads? The GPS talking to me again about turning left onto Lake Road. No damn way I was going to turn onto another dirt road, taking me to some dead end. Plenty of gas still. Glancing to the right, signs of humanity… a large farm tractor (no one around) and further on a silvery barn.

No expletives deleted. Damned GPS, with not enough sense to get me to the right lake. A long dirt road, Canal D, but this time I knew there was Pat’s Road, paved at the end. A house on the right and then a mobile home with truck… and up ahead and then passing me, a young woman in an automobile going to one of these residences.

As I came to the crossroads where I had originally turned onto Pat’s Road, I pulled off to the right to check the GPS. I saw that Pungo Lake was only about 7 miles away, but that it would take over 20 minutes to get there… a sign that it might be more dirt roads.

Now, I was on Hwy. 45 (I think.). Off to the left in the far distance was a very large farm complex. It almost seemed to be like Cape Canaveral and I imagined it had to be gigantic, up close, for it to be so visible in the distance. I continued on Hwy. 45 as it began to wind and I began to wind around the distant complex and even get nearer at some point. A sign warning of “low flying planes.”

Now I saw that Hwy. 45 would intersect with Hwy. 264. I could then make a right and head back to Belhaven, Washington, Greenville and onto I95 at Wilson, NC. There was a church on the left, when I came to the intersection, so I turned into the parking area, and paused to get the pizza out. Now I was on Hwy. 264 and heading to Belhaven. I checked my gas and calculated that it would be “pushing it” to try and wait until Washington to fill up.

I turned off onto Business 264 into Belhaven. I knew I had passed a HESS (?) station my first time through. *Now that I think about it, if I had kept on 264, I would have come past Hardees and to the intersection much quicker. I got about 5 gallons of gas at $2.59. I knew I had seen gas for $2.4x just before coming into Washington on Hwy. 264, at a couple of stations so one of those would be my goal.

The trip back to Fayetteville was relatively quick.

At home, I got on the Internet and found that Phelps Lake was at Pettigrew State Park. I went to Google Maps and quickly found that where I had turned around was just a few miles from the lake, and that I had passed very near Pungo Lake as I travelled down Canal D Road. It was only now that I realized how “rustic” Pettigrew State Park actually was. The roads around Phelps Lake aren’t paved, or at least, that is how it looks to me now, having experienced Canal D Road.

The GPS was working as best it could, getting me ever nearer my destination, using the best routes it knew. I had put in the correct name for my destination, and just a short distance from that destination, I had given up, frustrated because I wasn’t seeing what I had been expecting and not knowing that I was travelling to the “heart of darkness”.-)

I hope to visit Phelps Lake at some point and will cherish the visit… I hope.

Location of Marabella Restaurant in Washington, NC