Skip to main content

A Southeastern North Carolina Run

Ok, So I have been lazy the past few weeks...but hey. Two weekends ago, I took a roadtrip with Joe Babyak around Southeastern NC. I picked up a few new miles on highways and also crossed the Cape Fear via the Fort Fisher/Southport Ferry for the first time.

The Trip route: River Road in Wilmington, US 421, NC 211, I-95, NC 20, NC 87, NC 11, NC 53,US 117, NC 210, I-40.

The entire Flickr set with over 154 photos is here.

Now some have commented that I don't take sign photos anymore. So lets get this out of the way first.

It's the national southern end of US 421 at Fort Fisher State Park. That sure is a long way from Michigan City, Indiana isn't it.

The Fort Fisher/Southport ferry is a nice trip over the Cape Fear. The southern most route of the NC Ferry System, the cost to cross is $5 for most vehicles. The ride is certainly not uneventful as on many days you will pass numerous sailboats, pleasure craft, and freighters along the Cape Fear.


Near the Southport landing is an abandoned lighthouse.

This is the former Price's Creek Front Range Light. It was in operation from 1849 to the Civil War; however, it's been dark ever since.

Next up, was a stop at Southport. Southport is a great coastal town and boasts to being the home of the North Carolina July 4th Festival.




Also from Southport a few unique signs:

It's kinda hard to see this NC 211 shield from the road...and

how's that for a street name.

The next stop was the abandoned Super 6 Gas Station and Food Mart in Bolton. You may have seen a feature about this store in Carolina Lost.



NC 211 is a Scenic Byway and early November the fields are lined with cotton.



At NC 410's East End at NC 87 in Dublin, it appears that folks from Michigan installed the sign.

Finally, we stopped at a small Pender County town of Atkinson. Just off of NC 11/53 is the former Atkinson High School, and with a late afternoon setting sun, it made for some great photos.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

Massena Center Suspension Bridge

The Massena Center Bridge, also known as the Holton D. Robinson Bridge, has had quite the tumultuous history. Situated on the Grasse River just east of Massena, New York in the hamlet of Massena Center, the Massena Center Bridge is a reminder of the efforts the community has made in order to connect over the river. The first and only other known bridge to be built at Massena Center was built in 1832, but that bridge was never long for this world. During the spring of 1833, the Grasse River dammed itself due to an ice dam, flooded and lifted the bridge off its foundation, destroying the bridge in the process.  The floods were frequent in the river during the spring, often backing up the river from Hogansburg and past Massena Center, but not to nearby Massena. After the first bridge disappeared, local residents had to resort to traveling seven miles west to Massena to cross the next closest bridge, and that was no easy task for a horse and buggy. However, it was many decades befo...

The Dead Man's Curve of Interstate 90 and Innerbelt Freeway in Cleveland

"Dead Man's Curve" refers to the transition ramp Interstate 90 takes between Cleveland Memorial Shoreway onto the Innerbelt Freeway in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.  Said curve includes a sharp transition between the two freeways which is known for a high rate of accidents.  Currently the curve (not officially named) has a 35 MPH advisory speed and numerous safety features intended to mitigate crashes.  When the Interstate System was first conceived during 1956, Interstate 90 was intended to use the entirety Cleveland Memorial Shoreway and connect to the Northwest Freeway through Lakewood.  The Innerbelt Freeway was initially planned as the northernmost segment of Interstate 71.  The extension of Cleveland Memorial Shoreway west of Edgewater Park was never constructed which led to Interstate 90 being routed through the Innerbelt Freeway.   Part 1; the history of Cleveland's Innerbelt Freeway and Deadman's Curve The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signe...