Skip to main content

Labor Day Weekend Trip - Northeastern NC (and just a bit into Virginia)

Joe Babyak, of NC Road Videos Fame, came up for a video and photo road trip Saturday. Since Joe hadn't spent time in the Northeastern part of the state - and I wanted to visit the two free small river ferries that I had not crossed. It was a good opportunity to roadtrip and visit some of the backroads of North Carolina.

Route: I-540 - US 64 - US 264 - NC 39 - US 64 - US 64A/Business - US 64 - US 64A/Business - US 13/17- Woodard Road - NC 308 - NC 45 - US 158 - Woodard Road - US 258 - US 258 Business (Franklin, VA) - US 258 - US 158 - US 301 - NC 46 - NC 48 - NC 581 - NC 58 - US 64 - I 540.

For the flickr set of the trip - Go here.

The first stop was at the old US 64 bridge over the Tar River. I have this bridge featured on Carolina Lost, but I figured to show Joe, and also revisit for the first time in nearly five years.



The former alignment of US 64 here - now called Quiet Waters Road - appears to still have some remnants of the white center lines used years ago.

Our next stop was the small town of Nashville. We ended up taking photos there for about 30-45 minutes and also spent time talking to some of the folks in town - who were very eager to tell some history about various buildings and goings on.



We skipped Rocky Mount on US 64 Business in order to see a few other areas. Just east of Rocky Mount on US 64A. Were two great candidates for Carolina Lost.


We then decided to take some photos of Robersonville.

There is really not much to town - although the former Bank of Robersonville building is unique. In the top photo it is the tall yellow brick building on the left. The building is three stories and taller than the rest in town and also is very narrow - almost looking out of place and ready to tumble down compared to the rest of town.

We also learned that there is a short 'Truck' NC 903 that bypasses the downtown.

After lunch, it was on to the first of the two river ferries. First, a great shot I like of the tiny crossroads of Woodard, NC.

The Sans Souci Ferry crosses the Cashie River. Like the Elwell Ferry over the Cape Fear, Sans Souci is a two car motorized cable ferry.



The next small town we stopped at was Colerain - which is on NC 45. It is also the Eastern Terminus of NC 42.




Parker's Ferry - which is the last of three river ferries in North Carolina - is located north of US 158 and Winton. Of the three ferry routes - this is one of the more remote routes as most of the road to and from the ferry is gravel. Parker's Ferry crosses the Meherrin River.


We briefly entered Virginia and hung around the city of Franklin. On Business US 258 there is a cutout for US 58 and of course we grabbed a shot of it.

Franklin was the largest of all the town's we stopped in along the way. Amazingly, it was the most quiet of all of them.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Abandoned Fowler Avenue in Clovis, California

Originally Fowler Avenue in the city of Clovis had a brief discontinuation approaching Herndon Avenue.  Fowler Avenue traffic heading northbound was required to detour briefly onto westbound Herndon Avenue.  During 2001 this discontinuation was removed when Fowler Avenue was reconfigured to access the Sierra Freeway (California State Route 168) via an interchange.  This led to a segment of the original alignment of Fowler Avenue just south of Herndon Avenue to be abandoned.  Despite a shopping center opening over part of the original Fowler Avenue alignment in 2016 much of the abandoned roadway remains.   The history of the abandoned original alignment of Fowler Avenue in Clovis The original alignment of California State Route 168 departed downtown Clovis eastbound along Tollhouse Road.  This original alignment did not interact with Fowler Avenue at the Herndon Avenue intersection.  Fowler Avenue north of Tollhouse Road ran north to Herndon Avenue...

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...