North Carolina’s Bermuda Triangle, confusing Worleys since 1971.

It was the long Easter weekend, the weather was pretty, and I was looking for something different to do. I love exploring roads I’ve never traveled so I proposed a day trip to my daughters. Fortunately for me, they were both up for an adventure. I thought of Raven Rock State Park because it’s close enough to home to be a reasonable drive and has the added benefit of being a nice spot to walk on a spring day. Even better, the park is not too far from Wilber’s, Goldsboro’s legendary barbecue restaurant. It seemed a shame that neither my Tar Heel-born daughters nor their Tar Heel-bred mom had ever eaten at Wilber’s and this excursion was just the excuse we needed.

Although this was my first trip to Raven Rock, it wasn’t my first time in Harnett County. Back before I-40 was completed between Greensboro and Wilmington, the way to the beach from Chapel Hill went through Harnett County and included an infamous area near Buie’s Creek, Coats, and Angier that my husband Ron and I came to call North Carolina’s Bermuda Triangle, Neither of us is stupid and both of us can read maps but somehow, some way, we managed to get lost in that same spot every time we drove to the beach. It was so bad that we contemplated putting up a plaque at one particular crossroads there, honoring our relationship and the fact that it somehow survived countless trips through the bewildering fog of Harnett County’s own Bermuda Triangle.

All these years later, my daughters and I had the benefit of 2012 technology but mysterious forces were still at work in Harnett County, turning us around and confusing us so that we ended up on a dirt road somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  Eventually we did find our way to Raven Rock State Park where we enjoyed a good walk down to the Cape Fear River – although down to the river did mean a steep ways back up to where we started.  As we were leaving, we came upon a longtime Chapel Hill friend, Marianne Jones, walking the same trail – a nice surprise ending to our Raven Rock excursion.

From Raven Rock, we headed to Wayne County and Wilber’s Barbecue.  I appreciated the way Wilber’s fit right into an unattractive commercial strip leading into Goldsboro.  A barbecue restaurant doesn’t need to put on airs and Wilber’s wasn’t trying to. Working class people in North Carolina take a business-like approach to good food, not wasting time on banter or socializing, but instead getting right down to the serious task of eating. The silent concentration of the crowd at Wilber’s was a giveaway to just how good the barbecue was and sure enough it lived up to its legendary status.

On our return trip to Chapel Hill, I thought back to a favorite activity of my daughters when they were kids and we would spontaneously pick a road we’d never been on before and drive down it.  It may not sound all that thrilling but there’s something exciting and even magical about realizing there are roads you’ve never traveled and things you’ve never seen, even though you’ve been driving right past them for years. The recollection of those fun times was my inspiration to extend the concept statewide.  That’s when I set a personal goal to explore each of the 100 counties in the Tar Heel state.  After all, it’s pretty unlikely I’ll ever make it to another continent or even to every state in the US but there is plenty of adventure available right here in my own home state.  And so, the 100 county quest was born.

April 7, 2012.  Check Harnett and Wayne counties off the list – now I’ve got 98 more to go.