My Summer Vacation To North Carolina-Part 4 the Moore's Creek National Battlefield

Our trip was almost complete. As we traveled back to where we started, we had a few more stops to make. We had time because we were going as far as Rockingham, NC. We wanted to be closer to the airport so there was no rushing on Sunday morning.

We headed back to Wilmington, NC. There was a nice nature trail in town which was started by a man named Stanley Rehder. Mr. Rehder was known as "the flytrap man" and was an advocate for carnivorous plants. He transplanted and cultivated Pitcher plants, Venus fly-traps and Sundews all over North Carolina. I read on one of the signs that the Venus Flytrap only appears naturally from 75-100 miles around Wilmington, North Carolina. Outside this area the plants have been cultivated. The yellow and purple Pitcher plants were blooming and very pretty. I didn't see any Sundew plants and the only Venus flytrap plants we saw were in a planter. They are very small and hard to see. I was under the impression they would be much larger.

Our next stop was very appropriate considering on July 4, 2026 it is the 250th Anniversary for the United States. This was a national site for the Moore's Creek National Battlefield. 

 

 

This Revolutionary War battlefield is managed by the National Parks Service. It commemorates the 1776 victory of the patriots over the loyalists at Moore's Creek bridge. This ended the hopes for the loyalists to regain North Carolina for the British. It weakened British control making North Carolina the first to vote in favor of independence.

 

This battlefield is home to the only women's monument of the Revolutionary War. 

 

 

 

 

The bridge where the famous battle occurred is long gone, but the rebuilt version is where the old one was. We talked to a man who was walking his dog on the trail. He said the old bridge was left at the bottom of the river.

 

Another interesting thing about this trail is the swamp. I can't imagine troops marching through these forests and swampy lowlands, especially in February. Being cold and tired in these conditions must have been miserable in this Cypress swamp. We also learned that those root projections poking out of the soil are called "knees".  

 

 At the end of this trail we did see another Venus Flytrap. This was really tiny but they are there if you look hard enough. Locals probably take these for granted but we were fascinated. 

 

 Before we left the area, we picked up another geocache. That made five for the trip. 

 

Now it was time to head to our last hotel in Rockingham, NC and in the morning catch a flight from Charlotte to Appleton, WI. By 3:00pm I was back home. What a wonderful whirlwind.

 

We went 765 miles in 6 days. Two days of air travel and 4 days on the road. My daughter can drive in any type of conditions. There are a lot of loud and fast Dodge cars that thought they ruled the road, but she handled it well. Confession: I was lost most of the time but thank goodness for her and a GPS that worked most of the time. 

 

My Summer Vacation To North Carolina-Part 3 the Sea Turtle Hospital

It is now Friday, the fourth day of our journey. We are finally at the beach. The beaches in this area are very very busy but we managed to find a less congested spot. It was Topsail Beach on the southern end of Topsail Island. Topsail Island is a barrier island along the coast and is 26 miles long. We forgot our bikini's (darn) so we settled on rolling up our pants legs and walking along the sand. It was wonderful. It was not too hot and the breeze was wonderful. Of course it was obvious we were northern tourists. We pronounced the name of the island wrong and we had a lot more clothes on than the average person. Topsail is pronounced Tops'l. 

We stayed at the beach for a couple hours and then headed to Surf City. We had an appointment for a tour 
 at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital. Next to the Dambo Trolls, this was my favorite part. The Karen Beasley hospital was set up for the rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing of Sea Turtles. Karen died at age 29, but she wanted her mother Jean to take her insurance money to help the turtles. Jean did just that and established the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in a small 900 square foot building. Since then a 13,000 square foot was donated and it has grown to a hospital that has saved thousands of sea turtles over the years. Jean Beasley died last December but with 9 paid employees and hundreds of volunteers, the hospital will be able to continue its work. They provide medical care for sick or injured turtles and educate the public of the importance of saving this creature.  

The tour lasted about an hour and it was so much fun and very informative. I became interested in Sea Turtles in 2015. I wrote about it at the end of the following blog. Seeing sea turtles hatch is something I won't forget.  https://www.thecabincountess.com/2015/07/our-3150-mile-vacation-in-10-days.html

Soon it was time to leave and make room for the next group. When it was over we had ourselves a little Dunkin Donut and some coffee. This was vacation after all, and I hadn't had a Dunkin Donut in years. Now it was time to head to Carolina Beach. 

 

Carolina Beach is an experience in itself. It had wall to wall people and music and food. That part was not my cup of tea but I'm glad I saw it. We had a beautiful room with an ocean front view. I was able to sit on the balcony and enjoy it without being in the middle of the chaos. We did take a walk and had dinner at a very nice restaurant. Our meals would have fed a family of five, but we didn't go away hungry. 

 

The next morning it was time to head back to Charlotte. We planned on going about half way on Saturday. There was still a few more things to see. 

My Summer Vacation To North Carolina-Part 2 the Whirligigs

I have to back track just a little for this part 2 of my trip to North Carolina. My daughter doesn't like to stop at fast food places or chains. She likes to find out of the way local places to eat. We didn't take the interstate but took a two lane road from High Point to Raleigh to see how the locals lived. A lot of tobacco is grown in this part of North Carolina. It reminded me of growing up in Stoughton, WI where they used to grow a lot of tobacco.

For brunch, before we reached the final trolls in Raleigh, we stopped at the Saxapahaw General Store in Graham, North Carolina. The internet said it was one of the best hidden dining gems and they were correct. This little general store had a great menu. We had breakfast that included biscuits, homemade jam,  potatoes or grits, breakfast meat and eggs. I didn't think I liked grits but even those were delicious. And the biscuits, holy cow. So good.  It wasn't much to look at but so delicious. Maybe it was the "duck fat", but I didn't want to think about that or ask questions.

We walked down to a pretty little river called the Haw River and scoped out the area before setting off to Raleigh. After seeing all the trolls on Wednesday, we spent the night and left in the morning. We were heading to the coast. On the way we came upon a town called Wilson, North Carolina. In the middle of this town was a Whirligig Park. There was a man named Vollis Simpson. He was a WWII veteran and a local farm machinery repair man. At his farm he would create these giant kinetic sculptures out of used machinery parts. The word got out and tourists would try to locate his farm. When it became so popular and Mr. Simpson's health declined, the city of Wilson took over and created a free Whirligig Art Gallery. 

This was a fun little break from the drive. We visited the museum and gift shop before heading down the road. Our next break was the Cliffs of the Neuse State Park. We walked a nice trail to see the cliffs. It felt good to stretch our legs a bit. We even found a geocache on the trail. We looked for them along the way and found a few to add to the fun of our adventure.

By now we were getting ready to stop for the day. It was hot and humid but not as bad as I thought it would be. We stayed in Kinston, NC. We had a busy day on Friday. Stay tuned for Part 3.

My Summer Vacation To North Carolina-Part 1 the Dambo Trolls

Last fall I wrote about an adventure I had with my oldest daughter. We went to IKEA and on the way home we stopped in Wauwatosa, WI to see one of the Thomas Dambo trolls. We saw Mama Rosa and really enjoyed her. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2025/08/a-visit-to-ikea-and-mama-rosa.html 

I mentioned in that blog that I would really like to see more. Before I knew it, I got a package in the mail. It was a large hardcover book about Thomas Dambo and a history of his first 100 projects. It was exciting to read about but not as exciting as to see what came next. 

 

My youngest daughter doesn't let any moss grow under her feet. She was planning a trip for the two of us. In researching the trolls she found a whole family of them in North Carolina. What made it even better was that one of the trolls was named DUX. That is my maiden name. It was done, we were going to North Carolina.

We decided to go as soon as my daughter could get time off in the summer. That happened last week. Fortunately there is a direct flight from Appleton, WI to Charlotte, NC. The flight is only 2 hours long. The flight was around noon so we arrived about 3:00 Eastern time. We rented a car. The first troll was only a few miles from the airport so we went there before we did anything else. His name is Big Pete.

 

It is hard to see how large he really is. His big feet alone are about 7 feet long. All the trolls in North Carolina have a necklace or a symbol nearby that you have to keep track of. After you see all of them, you put the symbols in a website and that leads you to a final treasure. It is called The Grandmother's Tree. The trolls alone are a treasure but this adds a little fun game to the process.

After we saw Big Pete we found our hotel and ate. We had a big adventure ahead of us.

The next day we headed for High Point, North Carolina. High Point had a girl named Little Sally. She was located next to a deserted brick factory and was surrounded by woods. It was a wonderful setting right in the middle of town.

High Point NC was a very interesting place. It looked industrial, yet modern. There were a lot of buildings with names which we didn't recognize. Then we happened on this large chest of drawers. Apparently High Point is known for being the furniture capital of the world. It is the headquarters for many furniture companies. It also has a very fancy prestigious university. 

As we continued on our way we stopped at a couple attractions, but I will show you them in part 2 of this blog. Right now we have to get to Dix Park in Raleigh, NC. The park was named after Dorothea Dix. It's buildings and land were part of North Carolina's first state psychiatric hospital. Dix Park has a history of its own separate from having the Dambo trolls living there. Dorthea Dix was an educator and social reformer. She was an important woman who changed how mentally ill people were treated. There is a lot of information about her online. 

This park is where the rest of the family is located. The family consists of Daddy Bird Eye,  He is sitting alone in park. He is watching over the forest and protecting his family. He has really big ears so he can hear if danger is coming. The trolls don't fully trust humans so they are hidden throughout the park.

The trolls were in three separate locations in the park. It was very hot and humid in North Carolina so we drove from site to site. It could easily be walked and my daughter would have done that if I hadn't been along. Next was Mother Strong Tail. She had a very long tail that was 645 feet long. She was resting but at the end of her tail was her baby named Dix.

Daddy and Mother have two more children in the park. They are Dax and Dux. They are twins. They are playing hide and seek. Dux has his eyes covered and he's counting. He was the reason we came.

 

 

 

   

They were all unique and amazing but now we had to decipher the codes. After putting in each symbol we were given a vague idea of where The Grandmother Tree was. It wasn't as straight forward as we thought it would be. I am a bit of a quitter, but not my daughter. She is like a dog with a bone and will not give up for anything. We discovered the final "Tree" was over 10 miles away.  It was in a Nature Preserve. We drove there and started walking and walking and walking. Finally we knew we were in the right area but couldn't find the tree. We thought a Grandmother Tree would be a huge stately and solid tree. It was not. There are rules to not publish the exact spot and pictures, but I will say it was not as it seemed. Thank goodness my daughter is persistent. 

We arrived in North Carolina on a Tuesday afternoon. By Wednesday afternoon we had accomplished our mission. In part 2 of this blog, I will show you where else we went and what we saw.