79 Cotton

Always a bow, grandma says.

     It took a little doing however we managed to increase our drive time going back to New Bern by four hours.  Not wanting to travel back on the same road we turned west on the first black top road.  It took some time before the GPS generated a path that didn't go back thru Jacksonville.  We wandered and took a lunch break at a fifty's style cafe in Wallace NC.   I noticed a young lady in the booth behind us with a cool lunch basket, it was a 66 ford pickup complete with customizing decals.  Her name was Windsor and she has her own blog. ( how did I get such a late start.)    We had a great chicken cheese steak sandwich and fries.  As she left Windsor presented us with the Ford basket we had been admiring, what a sweetheart!  Before we left we purchased some more for our grandchildren (I'm thinking Christmas presents). We had a great waitress named Tiffany, she had the characteristics of a southern Belle and of course the accent, I'm loving this area.  I wish someone would have tried the 50 ounce burger challenge , it has to be eaten at the counter with a side order of fries in 30 minutes.
      As we exited an elderly gentleman parked beside the trike. "Its to hot to ride that thing isn't it?  He asked, what a smart    ------   Ruthie showed him the cords from our heated jackets and he understood.  "Where y'all from anyway?   "Minnesota!  "Oh my god! As he spun to walk away.  We noticed his car had some front end damage,  I suggest not buying a grey car or following this guy.  His 2010 car had five deer hits! 
     As we left we seen that  a man was waiting to talk to us.  ( avoid eye contact) Love the ride he said, I used to have an Interstate! (an older model of our gold wing) "A branch the size of that banner (about  5 feet long) fell on my head the day before thanksgiving!  The back of my head was swollen the size of a baseball, soaked it in the bathtub and went to work on thanksgiving.  Ride safe."  All this information in seconds.  Avoid eye contact

Strange guy picking cotton!

     Just across the road from the parking lot was a mansion enclosed in overgrowth, it would have been great to see it in its grand days.
     We continued on our way, today we were just wandering on the way to our current landing spot.  Our farm backgrounds led our interest to the cotton fields, stopping at a field that had been picked.  Ruthie wanted to see the cotton up close.  I dismounted, crossed the blacktop and the drainage ditch on the other side.  I picked up some of the pods and dropped cotton.     Interesting, it feels just like a cotton ball, there seems to be lots of waste from the combine.  The stop created a problem.  Ruthie was of the opinion that the field had not been harvested until all the stalks were flat to the ground, mine was that the majority were still standing when harvested.  Sometimes it is just better to keep your opinion to yourself.  The voices started in my head,  What are you smoking?  How do you think the combine can pass thru the field and leave the stalks up?  Where did you go to school?  (its getting personal now.) And on and on, where's the mute button.  How are we going to settle this?      We were enjoying the scenery on these rural roads.  Taking some pictures as we traveled along.   Every time we seen a cotton field the voices would repeat in my head.  At one time we thought we seen a field being harvested but it turned out to be a bean field.  And then good fortune shone on "me" that's right me, you will see why.  At an intersection not to far from Trenton North Carolina I noticed a lot of activity in the cotton fields on the South East corner.  I turned around in a church parking lot and parked between the chain gate and road surface.  We were going to settle this argument once and for all.  Little did we know that the local authority on cotton was exiting the church.  He pulled up beside us and went back to lock the chain gate.  The mysteries of cotton were about to be revealed to us.

     Virgil had been raised in the area on a farm.  As a young lad they used mules to farm and had actually picked cotton, a very hard job as the pods don't give up there fruit easily.  Now on to the important question, who will win this controversy.  As you can see in the picture when the combine passes thru the field it does pick the majority of the cotton however it leaves most of the stocks standing.  Vern 1, Ruthie 0.  (today) At some point before fall a mower comes thru and finishes the job, Virgil said the stock is like a small tree and if we drove our trike out there now it would probably puncture the tires.  When the hopper is full a transfer wagon comes and dumps it in a machine that compresses it into a very large (huge)  bail   The next step for this cotton is to a cotton gin where the seeds are removed.  Evidently they are intertwined in the ball and very difficult to remove.  Poor Ely Whitney's little invention is even blamed for the increase of slavery and a contributor to the civil war. 
     Virgil would have made a wonderful tour guide.  We walked to a field a few yards away and showed us a collard patch.  I still don't think I will be eating many of them.  Found out he likes grits also.  And then he took us to tour his church.   The pride in the history of the building and acquisition of the necessary building materials is obvious.  There is a lot of love for this church.  The original church building was built in the 1940's as a dance hall, its checkered past continued from country store, pool room, a questionable social gathering site and finally a warehouse before it became The Calvary Memorial Church.   Certainly proof of the old saying even a cracked vessel can carry water.  The original church now an annex to the beautiful Chapel we were touring.  Many of the details of the acquisition and building is a testament to faith.  The rafters themselves were supplied by a company that had just build the same size for another church, had the jig already set and gave them a discount.  Because it is light, strong insect resistant and beautiful Cypress lumber was the desired material for the ceiling however due to the budget they had to settle for pine.  While scouring the area for pine they stopped by the Cove City Lumber Co.  Back on a rack an order of the cypress they needed lay covered on the shelf.  Twelve years prior a deposit had been paid, lumber cut and stocked, then forgotten.  When contacted the original buyer didn't need it anymore.  At a discounted price the lumber yard ripped, planed, and tonged and grooved it.   A beautiful place to worship.  Bless all who gather here!
   Soon it would be dusk and we would rather not be on the road in the dark.  One more question before we leave.  We had noticed what we thought were old tobacco curing sheds on our ride.  Virgil confirmed that they were and mentioned the ones we seen were smaller than the ones we had seen in Kentucky, these were heated with oil.  He had purchased one, placed it close to his home and finished the upstairs as a prophets room.  Not familiar with the term he explained it is a room set aside for traveling ministers or missionary's.
     We wished Virgil well, set the GPS on fastest route and headed to New Bern.  We entered a freeway and the first warning sign was to watch out for bears on the road, first time we had seen this one.  As we rode we scanned for the tell tale glow of eyes in the ditch, didn't want this ride to end badly.  Safe and sound back at the timeshare I think we will rest tomorrow.  It had been a busy couple of days.