Down east

On Monday, Alan and I took a day trip to down east NC.  We typically head to the mountains for day trips but decided to change it up a bit and head the opposite direction.  We opted to just drive around on country roads and not really have any specific destination. 

The majority of the tobacco crops had already been harvested, however, we did see quite a few farmers out in their fields harvesting cotton.  I had no idea that cotton was grown in NC.  It is the second biggest crop behind tobacco. 

Surprisingly, I had never seen a cotton plant until Monday...

It is really pretty and reminded both Alan and I of snow...minus the cold weather and mess.  Although, there were bits of cotton all along the sides of the roads.

At lunch we decided to go from bbq and since we were near Kinston we opted for Kings.

If you are ever in Kinston and are hungry you should stop there...mmm!

After lunch we set back out on the country roads.  There were a bunch of abandoned farm buildings.  Some were pretty amazing but not close enough to take pictures and neither of us wanted to get caught trespassing.

Along one of the roads Alan spotted an old gas station sign.  I missed it so we doubled-back so I could get a picture of it.  When we pulled up we realized that the store was actually open.  Since I didn't want to just take pictures in front of an open store Alan popped inside to buy a soda.  While he was inside I took a couple of pictures.  As soon as he walked out he told me I needed to go in and take a look.  I was a little hesitant...not sure why...but decided to go in. 

Oh my goodness! 

This store was a true country store.  It was dark and dusty and musty but fully stocked with just about anything you could ever possibly want...soda, candy, toilet paper, oil...and even some things you likely do not want...homemade jars of pickles and peppers with about an inch of dust on the lids.  I think that Alan described it best by saying that walking through the door was like stepping back in time.  There were clearly some things in the store that had been there for a number of years but also things that were recently stocked. 

The absolute best was the guy sitting behind the counter.  He was old and was a little scruffy looking and had very few teeth.  He said hello when I walked in the door (Alan mentioned he was very nice to him too) but immediately got back to watching his television show.  I didn't see exactly what he was watching but both of us think it was probably a Western.  His cash register was quite possibly from the 1920s or 1930s...the old fashioned kind that you wasn't plugged in.  So cool! 

A friend of mine is doing a project on Flickr called the "stranger project".  Basically you find 100 people you don't know and talk to them and get a photo of them.  It is pretty interesting and this guy would have been a perfect person.  Neither of us really talked to him but I'm sure he had some great things to say.

Here is why we stopped in the first place:

If you are ever north of Kinston in the country and need to get a soda you should definitely stop at this place.  There is no sign but if you want to know ask Alan for the GPS coordinates...yep, he saved it!