West on Sixty-Four
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Day 6: December 20, 2018 West on Sixty-Four Comment via blog |
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I'm pretty sure this is where US-64 starts because 1) it's where it meets
US-158 and 2) the arrow only has one pointy bit.
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In Manteo I stopped at Front Porch Cafe for some excellent coffee and a
muffin that was almost carrot cake with granola on top.
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There were a couple of real downpours while I was at the
Fort Raleigh National
Historic Site so I spent most of my time there inside. The museum is
small but does a great job of telling the story of the English expeditions
here and the unexplained disappearance of the entire colony. Visitors are
asked to write down what they think might have happened and a wide range
of theories have been recorded. The one that first caught my eye and
remained my favorite as I leafed through the notebooks was "A giant
anvil fell and squashed them all". Others
deserving attention include "They were captured by Martians, made
immortal, and sent to live in Cuba with Elvis."
As I was leaving, the rain really lightened up and I made quick, only slightly wet, visits to the 1896 dedication marker an the reconstructed 1585 British earthwork. |
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With the continued rain, I realized that inside was a good place to be and
backtracked just a little to take in the
North
Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island. After paying my admission, I
decided to use the outside restroom before entering the main building but
I found it already occupied. I took that as a hint at how seriously the
aquarium takes turtle rescue and during my visit learned about the STAR
(Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation) Center and its star resident,
Fin. That's him in the third picture. Badly injured
when he was rescued (see carapace damage
here), Fin has been declared non-releasable but
he's safe inside the aquarium.
The big circular tank is something of a petting zoo where touching rays, sharks, and other residents is permitted. What look like giant lava lamps are home to jelly fish like this and this. Not all the sharks are pet-able. And you'd be wise not to. |
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Clouds were plentiful but there was nothing falling out of them when I
left Roanoke Island.
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Prime
Smokehouse is the top ranked restaurant and therefore the top ranked
BBQ in Rocky Mount. Good eating. Half of the stuff on that plate left in a
box but it wasn't its fault.
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The reason I was in Rocky Mount was that a reader told me about some new
breweries there that had "brought some much needed revitalization to
the city" I can't explain exactly how it works but it's pretty cool.
Read about it here. Apparently there is a associate degree in
brewing available then there are these fully equipped "brewery
incubators". Three were in operation Thursday night and another was
on the way. There is also a separate brewery that has been there awhile
and a bottle shop that also runs some taps. Customers are free to walk
around with beer filled plastic cups in hand. I'm sure I'd have enjoyed it
more (at least the walking around part) if it hadn't been raining but I
still enjoyed it quite a bit. Thanks for the tip Monica.
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