Sometimes you run into someone who DOES know what's cool about where they live. I had the honor this weekend to stay at a friend & co-worker's place in between sets. She gave me a real guided tour of the area.

We went to Lake Waccamaw,
first to the little museum

there, and then to lunch by the shore.


The lake is one of the Carolina Bays. I had never heard of them, being from further north and west. Carolina Bays are egg-shaped, shallow depressions found primarily on the Coastal Plain of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

However, some bays may exist in northern Florida and as far north as New Jersey. They are oriented on a northwest-southeast axis, with, in many cases, a distinct sand rim on the southeast end.

For the most part these land surface form features are not readily visible from ground level, but aerial views show them to be spectacular features on the otherwise monotonous coastal plain (Fig. 1).

The origin of the bays has been a subject of controversy for more than half a century, and numerous theories have been proposed over the years but none has been universally accepted by scholars.

In the museum, there was a dugout canoe,

which had been found in the mud of the bay, so it was dug out in both senses.


They had the head of a monosaurus,

a large critter that used (i hope) to
live in the lake.













We went to Moores Creek Battleground, the site of a Revolutionary War battle. First, we watched the movie - which made me think of Rendezvous - the next one's next month :)






Then we walked the less than a mile trail through the battlefield. Nowadays, a wooden walkway leads through the swamp, but you can see this would be a yucky place to be a Rev War soldier slogging through the swamp to battle.





Had it been open on Saturday, we'd have had lunch at Mama Rita's, which stands in the parking lots behind the buildings on Whiteville's main street - I would never have found it on my own.

Another place that I'll have to revisit at a later date, when they are open, is the Reuben Brown house in Whiteville.


For now, time to unplug the shore line and drive off to the next jobsite.