Out to sea!

 I've traveled East and West and North and South and even Up but today I went to sea!  The day began very early because my travels led me to the far eastern end of the state near the Pamlico Sound.  On the way, I stopped in Wilson, NC at Historic Barton College.  Barton College was named Atlantic Christian up until 1990.  It was begun by the Disciples of Christ denomination in 1902 and was renamed to honor Barton Stone, a founder of the denomination.  Stone was one of the leaders of the Second Great Awakening and was especially active in the Cane Ridge Revival.  Barton Stone eventually began a new denomination based solely on Scripture rather than a creed.  



Lunch was at Smithfield's Chicken and Barbecue in Havelock.  Initially, I ordered Barbecue Chicken but I met the manager, Mr. Sills, and he suggested I get a combination plate that would include both pork and chicken.  I'm glad I did.  The "barbecued chicken" was fried chicken dipped in spicy barbecue sauce--sort of like Buffalo wings.  The pork was "Eastern Style" with a surprisingly "hot" vinegar sauce.

My next stop was just outside of Grantsboro at Pamlico Community College.  Jane Whitley is the Director and has a great idea about allowing the community near PCC to use the campus library much like the county library (which is 11 miles away.)  Her motivation for doing so is clearly a desire to see more people read!  I mentioned that my next stop was in Morehead City and she quickly informed me that a ferry would take me across the Neuse River and save me a fifty mile trip.  
It was a only a few miles to the Ferry and I waited a few minutes for the "Floyd J. Lupton" to arrive.  The North Carolina Ferry System runs 22 boats on seven regular routes across five bodies of water: Currituck and Pamlico Sounds, and the Cape Fear, Neuse, and Pamlico Rivers. The ferries transport about 850,000 vehicles and two million passengers a year, making it the second largest state-run ferry system in the United States.  The system began in the mid-1920s, when Captain J.B. "Toby" Tillett began a tug and barge service across Oregon Inlet.  In 1934, the Highway department began
subsidizing Captain Tillett's business to keep the rates affordable.  The 25 minute trip across the Neuse was certainly affordable--it was free!
Carteret Community College is located on the banks of the Bogue Sound.  I'm not sure, if this was the view out of my classroom window, I could keep my focus on my studies.  Perhaps the students at CCC are more disciplined than I.  I hope they haven't simply gotten used to this kind of beauty.
The trip home was over 300 miles.  I thought about how such a distance in a single day would have been unfathomable to Captain Tillett.  Whether distance or beauty, we tend to get used to the things (and people) we are around regularly.  It takes an intentional effort to keep the important things fresh and new in our eyes.