Week 51: The Second World's Largest Strawberry

December 17, 2010

This is my next to last adventure for the year. Wow, the year has flown by. In honor of my first adventure to The World's Largest Frying Pan, I thought I should go see another World's Largest. I think there is a theme in America ~ Bigger is Better. Why do we think like this? We want bigger cars, bigger houses, bigger paychecks...the list goes on and on. So why not have the World's Largest Strawberry? Or maybe the second largest, since I now know that the largest is in Iowa. *Side note: The watering can I discovered on my way back from PA last time IS the World's Largest Watering Can.*

I headed to Rockingham, NC to The Berry Patch in search of The World's Largest Strawberry. I took a detour on the way to see the Oldest Log Cabin in the county. It was nice; all decked out for Christmas with evergreen wreathes sprinkled with pine cones and berries. This is the joy of adventuring - not following a plan.

The joy of road tripping in North Carolina is displayed in the picture to your left: Car on jacks in the front yard. "Yes indeedy! Ya'll know dat dare needs to be a broken down car in that there yard on jacks." To counter that I saw the a beautiful sign on a windmill. Isn't that lovely. I drove down through Carthage and Jackson Springs. Everyone I passed waved at me; friendly little towns.

I continues on to The Berry Patch. To my delight is was open. The second World's Largest Strawberry has an ice cream shop inside of it. Of course I had to get some ice cream. And of course it had to be strawberry. I snapped some pictures and head back north.

On the way I saw a swarm of vultures circling. There were AT LEAST 75 vultures circling around and around. I jumped off of the exit to see what could possibly be attracting them. I went through the town of Ellerbe, a creepy little town. I drove past a cemetery. Vultures at the cemetery? Creepy, but no. I stopped for gas and continued out of town. There were many vultures on the water tower. Then I passed a farm, a giant farm. The vultures were gone by this point, but I'm guessing it is a slaughtering type of farm. The town was creepy.

I took a different way home, of course and passed through the towns with "pine" in them - Whispering Pines, Pinehurst, Southern Pines, etc. And they are named for good reason. I did not see a tree that wasn't a pine tree. This was a cute little side trip as Pinehurst is a lovely little town. I now know where the rich people retire in North Carolina, Pinehurst. The village center had shopping and restaurants. Most things were closing, but I made a note to stop back there sometime.

Gotta love a road trip!