Wilmington NC Sights

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

It's another rainy day in Surf City, NC.  We decided to drive about 25 miles to Wilmington, NC to do some sight seeing.  Our first stop was a Petco to get some dog food for Kallie.  There just happened to be a Cracker Barrel near by and it just happened to be lunch time.  That's either great planning or shear luck. Ha!

After lunch, we made our way down to the Wilmington Port area to see the USS North Carolina Battleship from WWII.  We were here many years ago and the weather was spitting rain on and off, so we didn't take a tour, we just took pictures instead.

 

 

This shot shows some of the harbor area in the background.

 

You can tell we are getting farther south by the moss on the trees.

 

We drove another 20 miles south to the end of the Island and stopped at Carolina Beach.  Even though it was a gloomy day, the beach was very inviting.

 

 

Near by is Fort Fisher Historic Site.  Fort Fisher was built during the civil war to protect Wilmington Harbor and the entrance to Cape Fear River.  In 1862, the Confederates started to add more fire power to this critical location.  Many critical supplies for General Lee's army came through Fort Fisher and were shipped by rail to Virginia.  The Confederates knew all too well the importance of protecting this port.  On December 24, 1864 the Union army attacked the fort.  After two days of fighting, the Union had made little head way and decided to withdraw.  They returned for a second time on January 12, 1865 with over 50 war ships and 3300 Union infantry.  The war ships pounded the fort with over 10,000 rounds while the Confederates fired just over 600 rounds from their fort.  In a few hours the fight was over and the Union took control of the fort, thus, cutting off the main supply line to General Lee.  Now it was just a matter of a few months and America's deadliest war would be over.

 

 

 

There is not much left of the fort now.  These mounds were built by soldiers and slaves as bunkers to protect the canons and ammunition from being destroyed by canon fire from Union ships.

 

 

 

 

We had a few more things on our list of things to see, but, it's getting late so we headed back to Surf city.  Maybe we will make a trip back here before we depart on Friday.  Friday will be a little tricky getting 6 miles down the road with four bad tires on the fifth wheel.  We just hope none of the bubbles on the tires blows while we make the short trip to the tire store.

 

 

Ok, are you ready for another mystery picture?  What the heck is this thing?  Let us know what you think it is by sending us an email.