oyster shells – Towing Silver: Kim Davison's Travels

HistoriCorps in New Bern, NC April 2019

My next stop was New Bern, North Carolina, down toward the coast.

New Bern was settled in 1710. It’s the second oldest European settled town in North Carolina, after Bath. The previous inhabitants of the area were the Tuscarora, an Iroquoian-speaking people, who settled in the area and occupied the region for several hundred years before the first Europeans arrived. They had a village called Chattoka at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent Rivers, where the Palatines and Swiss established New Bern.

My purpose for visiting New Bern was to work on a project for HistoriCorps. I was part of the first week of a month-long project. Our mission was to work on repointing the bricks on New Bern Academy.

New Bern Academy was established in 1766. It was the first school established by law in North Carolina. Fire destroyed the original building in 1795 and this Federal-style structure was erected in 1810.

At first, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel subsidized the teachers, who had to be members of the Anglican Church. Before it became a graded public school, the Academy followed the Lancasterian system, developed by Joseph Lancaster of England. Students were grouped by level of achievement rather than by age, and a pupil who had been promoted to a higher level lead each class.

The Academy’s roll as a school ended in 1972.

That is a lot of years of students! It was time for a little maintenance.

This structure served other functions as well as educational.

In 1861, Confederate authorities converted the New Bern Academy from a school to a hospital. In 1862, after defeating Confederate forces in the Battle of New Bern on March 14, the U.S. Army commandeered the structure to care for the wounded.

After all those years of use and misuse are evident.

And that’s just why we were there. HistoriCorps to the rescue! Our job was to touch up the mortar between the bricks.

The first step is to get the loose and crumbling mortar out of the joints.

As I remember, the tools we used for that were pointing tools. We also used them for putting the mortar back in the joints.

Hammers and chisels were used as well.

Sometimes there was quite a bit of crumbly mortar that needed to be removed. I dug down as far as I could go.

I was surprised when I dug these nuts out of the cracks.

After digging out the mortar that needed to removed, the next step was to replace it with fresh mortar.

The shipment of mortar arrived. They offloaded it from the delivery truck to the pickup.

That’s a lot of mortar, but then, this was the first week of a four week job. There are a lot of bricks that need to be repointed. I believe that the windows were also on the schedule.

The name of this group is HistoriCorps, and they try to restore places in a manner that is historically accurate. To give the “store bought” mortar a 19th century vibe, oyster shells were mixed in.

We didn’t harvest the shells ourselves. though.

They were ordered online and were delivered right to the job site.

The shells weren’t whole when they arrived, but they did require some processing.

I suppose, “back in the day” they would have ground them up with rocks.

However, we opted for a thrift shop blender.

On a side note, when I saw myself wearing a mask in this photo, I didn’t even give it a second thought. I’ve been wearing masks for months now!

We got the shells ground up as finely as possible.

Mike mixed them into the mortar with another anachronistic tool and then it was time to get to busy fixing things up.

We used these small trays to hold the mortar while we worked.

Here’s a tray that’s loaded up and ready to go.

Then, we took the pointing tools and wedged the mortar into the spaces.

Here’s a section of the wall that has been repointed.

We all got busy.

Slip that mortar in.

Smooth it out.

Make it look good.

Speaking of looking good, clean and presentable visitors love to stop by Historicorps work sites, especially when we’re working in a town.

Yep, we’re doing it right.

It wasn’t all work-work-work.

We were camped out of town a few miles. Most folks slept in tents.

I had my sweet little T@b. strategically located next to the bath house.

Our meals were cooked over a camp stove in a tent. Breakfast and dinner were cooked for us, and we each packed out our lunches to take to the job site.

They fed us well. One night, we had shish kebabs.

We had s’mores for dessert.

The two women in the center of the photo were from Australia. I found that rather amazing. You never know who you’ll meet on a project!

They had never had s’mores, so we had them for dessert.

You know me…I always have to see what I can see. I took an afternoon to explore New Bern.

New Bern was settled by the Palatines and Swiss from the Bern region. The bear is the heraldic animal of Bern, Switzerland. (I had assumed that “bern” was German for bear, but apparently I was mistaken.)

Bears are featured prominently in the town, from the banners on the lamp posts…

to flags on houses…

to creatively interpreted bear statues.

There was a dentist bear…

a tennis pro bear…

and this rather interesting version of a bear reimagined as a taxi.

Can you read the words on the awning?

Yes, it’s the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola!

Now, I’m a Coca Cola person, but I had to take in all the memorabilia.

And, of course, I had to have one.

It was a picturesque town. There were loads of plaques that described the significance of the sites. Unfortunately, as the shadows deepened, the plaques got kind of hard to read. Maybe I’ll go back one day.

Tryon Palace is there, too. It was the official residence and administrative headquarters of the British governors of North Carolina from 1770 to 1775. In 1775, it was seized by patriot troops.

The Tryon Place of today is not the one that was built in the 1700s. Shortly after the state capital was moved to Raleigh, it burned to the ground. This building is a recreation that was constructed in the 1950s. Since it was a recreation, I wasn’t particularly interested in spending my limited time in touring it.

However, I took this sign as a challenge. In I went.

Closer…

And this is as close as I got.

They also had some authentically old houses, like the John Wright Stanly House, which was the birthplace of two men who fought on opposing sides during the Civil War – Edward Stanly, the Unionist military governor of North Carolina, and Confederate General Lewis Addison Armistead, who was mortally wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg.

This house was built by John Wright Stanly between 1779 and 1783. It was moved two times after it was built. You know what they say…

Location,
Location,
Location.

If I remember correctly, they found a valuable resource on one of the prior locations.

Parking.

This house was built around 1770, just a little before the Stanly house. This is the Major John Daves House. I wonder who he was?

There was no biographical information and Wikipedia didn’t have anything, although it did suggest starting a page.

One day, I was trying to avoid waiting for a train, so I took a different route to the job site. I came across a National Cemetery.

The U.S. Army Quartermaster General’s Office purchased seven acres to develop New Bern National Cemetery.

By 1874, there were 3,249 internments, including 140 civilians and 1.068 unknown soldiers.

I always find it so humbling to think of people being marked with a number rather than a name.

This monument was erected by the State of New Jersey in 1905. It honors the Ninth New Jersey Infantry. There are other monuments honoring Union soldiers that were all erected in the first decade of the 20th century.

Speaking of trains, I was surprised to see a train rolling down the street right by the Academy. If you listen carefully, you can hear the tapping of removing the mortar.

Just in case you couldn’t quite hear the tapping over the train, here’s a video of what it sounds like.

Before I knew it, it was time to wrap things up and head out.

At the end of our session, we had to cover the areas that needed extra time to cure and spray them down with water.

I thought the much-used tarp was quite interesting.

Another session of HistoriCorps is history!

A Little Excitement on the Way

So, the weather forecast was a bit worrying for the day I needed to move from Gamble Rogers State Park to Ochlockonee State Park. The weather forecasters were predicting lines of severe thunderstorms. I figured that the earlier I left the better it would be. I was looking at a five hour drive.

I got hitched up and ready to go by 9:00. It hadn’t started to rain yet. However, by the time I got to St. Augustine, about 20 miles away, it was raining so hard that I couldn’t see. It was almost as bad as a whiteout. I turned on my flashers and slowed down – way, way down. I think I was going about 30 miles an hour for a miles or so. That was exciting.

It rained off and on for an hour or so. Then it stopped raining and finally they clouds cleared and the sky was a bright blue.

Around 1:00, I stopped to use the bathroom at a rest stop. Then I went back to the trailer to make a sandwich. I sat down to eat it and wondered why the road noise was so loud. Then I noticed that one of the windows was missing!

I wish I could blame it on someone else, but the fact of the matter is that it is all my fault. It had been so cold and inclement that I couldn’t remember the last time I had opened the windows. I did give a cursory glance and when I saw that the window on the right was latched, I assumed that they were all latched.

You know what happens when you assume. This time I made an ass out of me. Would that be assime?

Well, I spent some time googling Airstream repair shops. It looked like my best bet was about an hour and a half back down the road. I called and left messages on a couple of numbers. I headed back but I didn’t talk to anyone until I was about half an hour away. At that point, I said that I’d prefer to come and have them look at what I needed and then make a plan. After all, I can always change and cancel campground reservations, if it take a while to get parts.

I pulled in to JD Sanders RV Center and they helped me immediately. A wonderful man measured the window and identified the part that was needed. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the part, but he found some RV Centers that would be able to help me. I called, and they had the window. They put my name on the “glass and sash” and they will put it on next week.

Then, the wonderful man at JD Sanders had some workers cover the window with plastic.

I asked them what I owed them for the job, and they just waved it off. The gave me a calendar from the company and wished me safe travels.

There are such good people in the world! Anytime I’ve had a problem, there have always been there to help me.

The next thing I had to do was get gas.

Boy, did I need gas! The gas tank light was on, but the gauge was still a hair above empty. I thought I had a 30 gallon tank. I must have been running on fumes!

By that time, it was too late to make it to Ochlockonee River State Park, so I called to let them know I wouldn’t be arriving until the next day. I told them that if anyone needed a spot for the night, let them have it.

But where to sleep tonight?

Yep! Cracker Barrel. A good place to sleep and a hot breakfast in the morning.

And then on to Ochlockonee River State Park.

Now, how would you pronounce Ochlockonee? I struggled with it, and I asked several people before I finally mastered it. It sounds like “oh CLOCK uh nee” to my ear.

The campsite was beautiful. This is the view from my trailer toward the river. The first night there, I saw a lovely sunset over the river.

The next day, I went on a little walk-about.

The first interesting thing I saw was this collection of shells off to the side of a path. I wondered what this might be. I figured an animal – or group of animals – must have left them there. I couldn’t imagine any reason for humans to have left them there. I couldn’t imagine where they could have come from, either.

I got down to the edge of the river and I saw some shells in the water. Riddle solved.

I pulled one of the shells out and took a photo. If you don’t have a photo, then it didn’t happen, right?

Once again, the brown water. This must be a Florida thing. Also, if you look carefully, you can see the tide line in the sand. It rained fiercely overnight. The rough looking sand is stippled by the rain. Tide must have been high when it was raining, so that the water protected the sand near the river from getting marked.

I decided to enjoy the day and take a stroll about the park. They map they gave me when I checked in showed several paths and roads.

I thought this was a novel way to have a shower to get the cleaned up after boating or maybe falling in the river. There isn’t any swimming right now, but at these temperatures, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to go swimming.

This road topped with pine straw was just calling my name, so I decided to see where it went.

I walked through trees and plants that shifted subtly. More saw palmetto.

Less saw palmetto.

It was so quiet. I stopped several times to listen. I heard birds. It took me a while to see them; they were so small and fast. I think they might have been some sort of nuthatch. They would light on the trunks of the trees and zip around quickly from tree to tree. I imagine they were looking under the bark for insects. As I stood there, flakes of bark floated down from where they were.

Here is a close up of a pine that I took back at my camp site. You can see how the bark is layered and able to flake off.

The next marvel I came across was a field of grass with the most amazing seed heads.

They looked different depending on how the light was hitting them.

And what is behind them.

And how close you got to them.

The seeds were amazing!

Doesn’t take much to entertain me, does it?

A little further down the road, I came across a body of water labeled as Reflection Pond. I thought it was an apt name. There was a lovely little bench on a dock and I sat and enjoyed the quite and calm.

The road continued and I kept my eyes peeled for deer. When I checked in at the campground, they told me that they had rare piebald deer in the park. The picture they gave me on the xerox copy brochure made me think they would look like this.

I did find a deer, but I think it was the ordinary brown kind.

Nevertheless, it was fun to find one and to actually be able to take a shot, even if it is a little grainy.

Fire is a part of the life of a forest. You can see charred snags sticking up here and there around the forest.

As one species dies, others take their places. The oak is small and will burn off the next time a fire passes through.

This tree was interesting. Right next to it was a display about the turpentine industry and how turpentine was harvested. Even though it was taking place years ago, I assume that this is one of the trees that was used. They would cut vee shaped grooves in the tree and gather the sap.

Here is a photo from 1937. The marks made on the trunk were called “cats faces.” They would collect the resin and distill it to create pitch. The pitch was used to caulk holes in wooden boats and to coat rigging to help it last longer. From what I have read, turpentine is a by-product of producing pitch.

I finally got back to my campsite two hours after I left. That was quite a stroll!

There were all sorts of rigs and campers in the park. Tents, A-line pop ups, vans, fifth-wheels with slides, but this was the first time I saw a hammock camper.

Florida’s parks have sites that are equipped with poles for hanging hammocks. This park has only one site – and it was right across from my site.

That night, I decided to head over to the Gulf of Mexico to catch the sunset. I found a place to pull off the road just in time!

The next day, it was time to move on. Panama City, here I come!