My friends all tell me...it's all happening at the zoo...

...I do believe it. I do believe it's true. (Simon & Garfunkel)

That's right! We took a trip out to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro on Saturday. A fun trip and a small side adventure down the Pottery Highway (NC 705) - more on that later.

As always the entire flickr set is here. Over 140 photos!

But up first, photos from the NC Zoo!

The North Carolina Zoo is split into two sections - North America and Africa. It takes about five hours to see everything, obviously with younger kids - you'll want to add more time. For adults, admission is only $10 and it's $1 less with AAA.

Say hello to Mr. Gator.

I certainly wouldn't want to wake up this guy from his nap.

The sea lions were a popular attraction on Saturday.

My favorite areas of the NC Zoo is the Prairie (home to Elk and Bison) and the African Grasslands (more on that later). The prairie didn't disappoint as we found this elk with an amazing rack!

Just prior to the entrance of the Aviary are the pink flamingos.

The Aviary has great tropical plants and birds. You can spend a good hour or so inside taking photos and practicing on these types of subjects.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, the other area I really enjoy at the zoo is the African Grasslands. This is home to rhinos, elephants, gazelles, ostriches, antelopes, and more.

That concludes the zoo tour. If you made it this far down, here's some of the roadtrip home. We took NC 159, US 220 Alternate, NC 705, NC 24/27, US 15/501, US 1, I-440 home.

We spent sometime in Seagrove which is home to a lot of pottery shops and a lot of signs.

Does a three pair of 220's win me anything?

If you are traveling through US 220A on a weekend, stop at the Jugtown Cafe just north of Seagrove. Pretty good food at relatively inexpensive pricing.

NC 705, known as the Pottery Highway, is a very pleasant drive, and I think the photo below shows why.

Finally, we stopped at the small Moore County town of Robbins. It's a small town typical of Central North Carolina.

Comments

Route 75 Tunnel - Ironton, Ohio

In the Ohio River community of Ironton, Ohio, there is a former road tunnel that has a haunted legend to it. This tunnel was formerly numbered OH 75 (hence the name Route 75 Tunnel), which was renumbered as OH 93 due to I-75 being built in the state. Built in 1866, it is 165 feet long and once served as the northern entrance into Ironton, originally for horses and buggies and later for cars. As the tunnel predated the motor vehicle era, it was too narrow for cars to be traveling in both directions. But once US 52 was built in the area, OH 93 was realigned to go around the tunnel instead of through the tunnel, so the tunnel was closed to traffic in 1960. The legend of the haunted tunnel states that since there were so many accidents that took place inside the tunnel's narrow walls, the tunnel was cursed. The haunted legend states that there was an accident between a tanker truck and a school bus coming home after a high school football game on a cold, foggy Halloween night in 1

Porter-Parsonsfield Covered Bridge - Maine

Spanning over the Ossipee River on the border between Porter in Oxford County, Maine and Parsonsfield in York County, Maine is the 152 foot long Porter-Parsonsfield Covered Bridge. The Porter-Parsonsfield Bridge is built in a Paddleford truss design, which is commonly found among covered bridges in the New England states. The covered bridge is the third bridge located at this site, with the first two bridges built in 1800 and 1808. However, there seems to be some dispute for when the covered bridge was built. There is a plaque on the bridge that states that the bridge may have been built in 1876, but in my research, I have found that this bridge may have been built in 1859 instead. That may check out since a number of covered bridges in northern New England were built or replaced around 1859 after a really icy winter. The year that the Porter-Parsonsfield Covered Bridge was built was not the only controversy surrounding its construction. There was a dispute over building and maintain

US Route 299 and modern California State Route 299

US Route 299 connected US Route 101 near Arcata of Humboldt County east across the northern mountain ranges of California to US Route 395 in Alturas of Modoc County. US Route 299 was the longest child route of US Route 99 and is the only major east/west highway across the northern counties of California. US Route 299 was conceptualized as the earliest iteration of what is known as the Winnemucca-to-the-Sea Highway. The legacy of US Route 299 lives on today in the form of the 307 mile long California State Route 299. Featured as the cover of this blog is the interchange of US Route 101 and US Route 299 north of Arcata which was completed as a segment of the Burns Freeway during 1956. Part 1; the history of US Route 299 and California State Route 299 The development of the State Highways which comprised US Route 299 ("US 299") and later California State Route 299 ("CA 299") began with 1903 Legislative Chapter 366 which defined the general corridor of the Trinit

Gribblenation

Search This Blog