Saturday May 7 (Fort Macon & Atlantic Beach)

I woke at around 5.30 am today, so things are improving, lol! The weather came ot the party today, the sun was shining!!

 I nearly forgot my IPad and, as it turned out it was a good thing I remembered before we actually left home! We took a country route to begin with and eventually stopped at an Amish store called Yoder's along the way. 

It stocked almost everything that is General Merchandise or Farm Equipment. There is also a restaurant and bakery inside and it was very busy. 

We bought  Cinnamon buns, so naughty but they were scrumptious, I had a Strawberry one! They were lovely and fresh!

We followed the road to Vanceboro, and then we had to stop, it was the parade for the Strawberry Festival, lol, we seem to attract stoppages! 

We turned round and the IPad earned its passage as I used Maps to find a way south to pick up the road we needed. We picked up 70 and this bypassed New Bern which claims to be the birthplace  of Pepsi Cola.

We continued on our merry way and eventually arrived at Atlantic Beach after crossing a bridge over the estuary. I inadvertently took a selfie in the wing mirror, lol!! 

We turned to the north and headed to Fort Macon. We parked the car and found our way inside. There is a small museum and a shop to wander through before heading out to the fort itself. The fort is pretty much intact and the layout is easy to follow.

 We wandered round the outside and took in a view of the bay across to Shackleford Banks an island where wild horses live. We then continued down the steps and into the fort. 


Along one side the rooms are very much as they were, along the other each room portrays something about the life of the fort, the soldiers and events that occurred there. 
It was possible to play audio in most rooms and there was much interesting information to be heard.

Bread was baked fresh daily in the fort's oven while supplies came from Washington and Baltimore. 

The soldiers were given a daily ration while officers were given extra money and they could select from the basic provisions as well as extra supplies for officers. 

The officer who managed the provisions had to keep a careful daily accounting of all matters in this area. The soldiers ate in the kitchen on tables down one side and all of them had to do a ten day spell cooking the meals as there were no army cooks at this time.

The living quarters for the soldiers were fairly cramped and they slept four to a bunk, two on the bottom and two on the top. They were issued straw to make their beds with and every Saturday they had to take the bunks apart and scrub them with disinfectant to get rd of bed bugs and other insects!

The fort was held by confederate soldiers but was lost in a battle with union soldiers who had laid siege to the fort, one reason was a shortage of supplies. The fort was also part of a huge chain of forts along the east coast charged with defending the USA against foreign invaders as in the Spanish American war for example.

The fort was left to fall into a state of disrepair in 1902 as it was no longer required. It was purchased by north Carolina but nothing was done until 1934 when a group was moved in to restore it and turn it onto a state park. However, it was needed again during WW2, to defend the coast. About one hundred allied and american ships were sunk off the Carolina coast.

We then headed south past Atlantic Beach and others to finish up a The Crab Shack in Salter for lunch. We had a good lunch and on leaving Terri found a lovely cat that enjoyed some petting. As we wandered round the restaurant to look at the boats, we passed two other cats but they were obviously feral.

Then we headed home, stopping for the necessary coffee from Starbucks, lol!! We had a good run home and arrived back about 5 pm. I had a shower and put my washing through then downloaded all my photos for the day. I wrote mt blog but was getting tred so adding photos would have to wait!! Tonight's cat is BJ.