The name of this town may sound familiar to my long time readers, as we’ve stayed here at Flanners Beach, NC before.  It was 2 years ago, almost to the day, that we began our month long stay here camped beside the Neuse River with Jo & Craig.  We will only be here about 9 or 10 days, and with Jo & Ben this time!

Before I jump too far ahead, I want to tell you about our trip getting here from Greenville, SC.  Our drive from the Elks Lodge to our overnight stop-over at the Walmart Supercenter was uneventful.  We got parked next to the far edge of the lot and after getting Callie settled, went inside to stretch our legs.

We slept well during the night; it was quiet and no one bothered us.  I’ll admit I was a bit nervous considering the last time we stayed in a public place was when we were woke at 2am by some guy wanting money.  (see full story here: Knock on the Door at 2am)

We filled up on fuel and were on our way fairly early.  I originally thought we would want to hang out a little bit to wait for rush hour to finish, but then it hit me that it was Saturday – no rush hour!  YAY!  ETA in New Bern was about 11:45am!

So, we are driving along – no issues and were coming up on a traffic light when all of a sudden Bill gets cut off really bad by someone wanting to make a right at the light – Bill uploaded the footage to YouTube – you can watch it here:  5er cut off by car

I gotta tell you – I am so glad we have this dash cam now!  I mean – let’s say this guy had slowed down, just a little bit more, and Bill had hit him – usually when you hit someone in the back it’s your fault right?  The authorities would say you were following too close and that’s why you hit the guy when he slowed down to turn – BUT – our dash cam clearly shows this (insert colorful descriptor) person cut him off badly!  Therefore, not Bills fault if he hit him!  

You can clearly see the front of the truck take a nose dive when Bill all but slams the brake!  You can also hear the king pin slam the hitch!  I am in the CVR in front of him and see it happen in my rear view mirror (you can hear me say “WOW!” over the walkie talkie – a few seconds later I ask if he’s ok) and I could hear him lay on the horn!  A few friends have suggested we upgrade to an air horn – may be a good idea!  

The lesson in this is that, especially when towing, be very aware of your surroundings – because regardless of being able to prove it wasn’t Bill’s fault – had he hit the car – someone could have been hurt and/or it would have been a HUGE inconvenience to take care of any repairs.  

Now on to New Bern!  We arrived around noon and set up in the exact spot we parked in last time, which is a double site.  As before, we pulled into it, vs backing in, since we have my car we don’t need the truck.  

We took a walk around the CG and remembered fondly our previous visit.  If you’d like to read about it, here’s the link:  New Bern 1 and New Bern 2

I am now typing at the very end of our stay in New Bern.  We are leaving today!  I’m sad b/c our time with Jo & Ben is ending but happy b/c my son is waiting to see us in PA! Weather here will be amazing – in the 60’s and sunny and we are headed to 40’s/50’s and only some sun!  Oh well – just gotta roll with it!

We’ve had a great time here in New Bern!  Weather has been fairly mild – haven’t needed the furnace, as the electric heaters have been keeping up just fine!  We have had some rain – even a short thunderstorm – but also a bunch of sun!  We’ve done some exploring and also a bunch of hanging around.  Life is all about balance, right?  Ha!

It had been 7 months since we spent time with Jo & Ben (and their Malamute, Peyton) in Homer AK.  They are traveling nurses and are still searching for a balance between their work schedules and time off. They had been working back to back contracts, with only a week or so in between for moving, but now are taking more time, like a month or so, which is how we were able to see them now.  

What have we been doing?  We’ve driven to the ocean, had lunch in the cute little town of Beaufort, toured nearby Fort Macon, taken walks, watched movies, drank lots of wine and cooked/eaten lots of yummy foods!  

After Jo & Ben arrived – we got familiar with our new temporary home!

The town of Beaufort (pronounced Boo-fort in NC vs Bew-fort in SC) is so cute!

Since we had a big lunch in Beaufort on St Patty’s Day – I made the corned beef the following day – delish!  

Another drive took us to Atlantic Beach and Fort Macon

We were originally undecided if we wanted to leave Monday or Tuesday, but when Monday’s weather looked like it was one of the best days so far – we had to stay!  It’s easy to see why!