North Carolina day trip #1

I have a couple of extra days at the end of my work thing, so last night I bought the handy book Day Trips From Raleigh-Durham. The weather forecast for the coast today was still a bit cloudy and windy thanks to Hurricane Noel, so I went west instead.

The trip I did was called “Crossroads of Furniture and Barbecue”. That sounds odd, but it was certainly accurate.

First, I took interstate 40 across to Jamestown. I got out at City Lake Park there and had a really pleasant stroll: early on a Saturday morning it was very peaceful, just the trees and the ducks and me. I really wanted to see Mendenhall Plantation – a Quaker museum that served in the Underground Railway – but it was closed until later in the day.

Next, I drove the few miles to the city of High Point. It’s famous for its furniture; it’s a weird town, with hundreds of massive furniture stores. I stopped first at the free High Point Museum, which was really well done. It showed the entire history and development of the area in a way that wasn’t too cheesy. Things I learned: jazz great John Coltrane grew up there, and Krispy Kreme donuts started there. After the museum I drove downtown and saw the World’s (Second) Largest Chest of Drawers (complete with giant socks) and had a loaded hot dog with sweet tea at The Dog House (an old-time lunch-counter diner).

From there, I drove on to Thomasville. After a very short stroll (there’s not much more to see other than the “not anymore it’s not” World’s Largest Chair), I sat in a pleasant new café on Main Street and had an iced coffee and read the paper.

From there I found I had some extra time, so I headed off-itinerary and drove south to the Uwharrie National Forest, which had some nice lakes, trees with autumn colours, and people hiking and horseriding. One unsurprising thing I saw everywhere I went was lots of churches, although I was amused by one with a sign that said, “Feeling stressed? Remember: even Moses was a basket case once.”

Next I got back on-course, and drove north to Lexington. This was another nice walking town, with plenty of historic buildings and an impressive cemetery. But mainly I was here because I’d heard that Lexington has arguably America’s best barbecue. I stopped in the Bar-B-Q Center and had the barbecue plate of coarse-chopped pork shoulder with barbecue sauce, barbecue slaw (made with tomato-vinegar, not mayo), fries and hushpuppies. Wow. It really was incredibly tasty. I’m not the only one who thinks so, either: these guys rated it #2 in their large sampling in the region, and they look like they know good barbecue.

More than satisfied with my day, I hit the road and beelined back to Durham and my hotel.

I’m going to fit another trip in before my flight tomorrow evening. I hope it’s as good as this one was.