95. Onslow County -- Jacksonville -- 6/14/08

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onslow_County%2C_NC

94. Brunswick County -- Bolivia (Southport) -- 5/31/08

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_County%2C_North_Carolina

To get to our next county, we had to wind through the wilds of Wilmington (New Hanover County) and cross over the rivers to get to Leland in order to cruise on down to the bustling metropolis of Bolivia. No, not the South American country, but apparently, it's named after it (even though I can't find real proof of it besides Wikipedia!).

And no, Bolivia isn't too much of a metropolis, as its population of 176 could attest. While Brunswick County's population doubled (50,000 to 100,000) from 1990 to 2007, the county seat's population is just chillin' at 176. Brunswick County is fortunate to be the host county for NC's southern-most beaches, and even Calabash-style seafood! But I don't like seafood. But I've eaten at a a Calabash restaurant before (I just got chicken...which was good!). The population boom came mainly from these beaches, and not really its interior. But, Bolivia is in the interior, so that's where we went to hang out!

I have a friend from college named Erinn who lives near Carolina Beach. I saw her at a UNC football game in the fall, and she wanted to throw down some Courthouse Chasing. I called her up the night before, and she was like, heck yeah! So she met Willy T, Steve and Martin (I like to put "Steve" and "Martin" in that order because it looks like "Steve Martin" the actor) at the courthouse in Bolivia.

You may be wondering why I have (Southport) listed in the title of this post. That's because Southport was the county seat until 1978 when it was moved to Bolivia. Therefore, Bolivia is pretty much a road through some fields and forest, with a relatively modern Governmental Complex along the way. If you have to go to court in Bolivia, there aren't a lot of restaurants or shops in walking distance.

We parked in the parking spot of the District Judge around the back by the razor wire of the jail, and we wandered around until Erinn arrived. There wasn't too much going on at the courthouse complex on a Saturday...the prisoners weren't even out. After some CRAZY dancing in the parking lot, Erinn got there, and we took that amazing picture of us with me being held. It was kinda fun!

So, we got in our cars and headed toward Southport because our Courthouse Chasing wasn't done yet for Brunswick County, oh no!

Southport is a beautiful town on the Cape Fear River. The main road in Southport, NC 211, comes in and dead ends at the water front. I remember coming here for a church youth event when I was younger, and was blown away (figuratively). We used the Southport Community Building. Then, 2 years ago, my friend Stu got married in Carolina Beach, and they had their reception in the same place! It has a nice view of the water. My favorite part is being able to see both the Oak Island and Bald Head lighthouses at the same time.

When Stu got married, I hung out in Myrtle Beach the night before with some friends. We passed Bolivia a few times, and I begged them to please stop so we could grab the courthouse...especially in their tuxes and my suit. I thought that would be a phat picture. But alas, they woudn't stop, and so I had to make the trek down here again! But Brunswick County is a fun place to visit. On this trip, I really wanted to go to Bald Head Island, since I've never been there before. I heard it's pretty cool. Cars aren't allowed, so you have to walk or use golf carts. It costs $15 round trip on the ferry, so on our short time frame, we decided it wasn't worth it. Also, we wanted to go to Brunswick Town, which is a "colonial ghost town" burnt down during the Revolutionary War, but we didn't make it. I'll have to go back AGAIN!

Another interesting fact is that while most of the islands in NC are moving toward the coast (albeit slowly), Sunset Beach is the only one moving away. Isn't that cool?

So what DID we do in Southport if we didn't do a bunch of other stuff?

Well, the first thing was to go to the parking area where NC 211 dead ends. There's a pretty turquoise sign that says "2 hour parking", and we happened to go over and touch it. It fell over. So, we started taking pictures of ourselves holding the "2 hour parking" sign with the nice view in the background. That was cool. Willy T even sang with the sign (he sings everywhere, so it's not unthinkable). Then we went wandering around, read some neat-o historical markers, including one that talked about the original town layout that asked us to "believe in Joshua's dream." I do. Your mission is to find this marker and take a picture of YOURSELF in front of it, doing your best to believe in Joshua's dream. Can you find it? First person who does wins a prize from me (maybe some gum or something).

Erinn asked a local where the old courthouse was (of course I wouldn't ask because I'm a stubborn male), and we were off. It was a block away, and is now the City Hall. The picture doesn't really do it justice...the tree is in the way. It has a neat cupola, and it rather boat-ish, kinda like Bertie County's courthouse. We decided to go with a crazy picture for this one, too. Martin is trying to do some sort of Greek sculpture pose, and I'm laying on the ground. I had decided that I didn't have a picture of me on the ground, so I needed one. Erinn's on the phone, Willy T's chillin on the steps and Steve is happy to be Steve and non-married (see the Pender County post for why).

We definitely had to ride a ferry while we were on the coast, so we headed down to the ferry docks and took the $5/car DOOK ferry (boo Dook) to Ft. Fisher from Southport. So far, courthouse chasing has given me 2 ferry rides (The other one was Minnesott Beach/Cherry Branch during the Pitt/Beaufort/Pamlico/Carteret/Craven trip). I love ferries, and have ridden the Ocracoke/Hatteras and Ocracoke/Cedar Island and Southport/Ft. Fisher in the past.

On the ferry, my roommate called to let me know I had forgotten to switch the electricity to my name since he was moving out, and that there was no longer power at our place. Whoops. And my new roommate was moving in the next day. Luckily, the Duke Energy guy came at 12:45 in the morning after my trip to turn it on. What a nice guy! I thanked him profusely. See, the sacrifices of courthouse chasing.

We got to Ft. Fisher, which is in New Hanover County again. I had never been there, and we still didn't get to see the fort. But we went wading (I jumped in completely...I mean dang, I wore my bathing suit in all of today's pics!). Then we said good bye to Erinn, ate dinner, and were on our tired way back to the Triangle. We all spoke non-stop on this trip, except for about 5 minutes on the way back as Willy T began drifting off to sleep.

93. Pender County -- Burgaw -- 5/31/08

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pender_County%2C_NC

As May was coming to a close, it was obvious that it was time to do what people do when May is coming to a close--go COURTHOUSE CHASING! Hooray! Somehow, I was able to hoodwink 3 others into participating...first, Willy T, then Steve, then Martin. The picture of the Pender and Brunswick County Courthouses are the last pictures of Steve in an unmarried state. That's right: North Carolina is not married! Haha, I made a funny. Get it? Unmarried STATE?! Who do you think NC would be married to if it could? I'm going to not go with South Carolina, because I think NC is smart enough to let the tree fork a bit. Having the same last name can sometimes be a giveaway that there may be something wrong with the picture (unless you're a Smith, Williams, Johnson or some other common name in your locality where it just happens to be coincidence). Ok, well anyway, there may be some more pictures after this one out there showing a single Steve, since his wedding is June 21. But still, he's still single here, so go get him, ladies! He's the one in the pink shirt. I don't know how he got to be lifted up in the picture, maybe because he's short. Somehow, I ended up blocking out Steve and Martin in the top picture.

For this trip, I went back to my amazing, autographed copy (thanks to meeting the author randomly while Courthouse Chasing in Dare County), A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Eastern North Carolina to find some fun things to do for this wild road trip. Since the 4 of us are all UNC grads, when we got to Pender County, we had to do what all UNC grads would do--visit the most famous UNC grad...Michael Jordan! Ok, not quite. Hinton James! We stopped north of Burgaw in the vicinity of Watha, at Hopewell Presbyterian Church. It's set a good bit away from the road, and you have to drive through some good ol' Eastern NC fields a ways. It was a hot day, but it was flat and beautiful. It's a small white church with a quaint cemetery. Hinton James not only has a headstone, but he gets a stone that practically says the same thing on the ground over where he's buried, I guess to let you know that he's da man. He even gets an NC historical marker at the road, letting you know he's buried there. I was surprised that there weren't a million people here coming to check him out. I learned in my book that he became an engineer, mayor of Wilmington and a state legislator. They don't tell you that at UNC. They just tell you he walked from Wilmington to Chapel Hill and was the first student. I bet beating Dook in Basketball in 1795 when there are only like 5 students wasn't as cool as it is now.

We got back in the car, and headed down to "Bur-GAW!" You have to read that like you're a chicken. Now you give it a shot. Good! That's pretty much what we did a lot, though people in Pender County don't always say it like a chicken, though it's fun. Speaking of pronouncing things correctly, most people that go to Pender County are heading for "Topsail" Beach. When you go there, you have to make sure you say it like a local so people don't make fun of you. It's pronounced "Topsull". Good job again! The last time I went there was in 11th grade when my environmental studies teacher got a permit so we could walk on the dunes and study the flora and fauna of a barrier island ecosystem. I have to give props to Mrs. Jenkins and to my high school...that was a pretty cool trip. We even got to go in the ocean. Rest assured, typical field trips of mine weren't to that extreme, so don't get too jealous! Topsail Beach is famous for its buildings that are still around from the time when the beach was used for Operation Bumblebee, a "top-secret, experimental project to develop and test ramjet missiles, which heralded the nation's jet aircraft and missile programs" (thanks again, book!).

We didn't go to the beach in Pender County this time...but you should. But this was the first time I have actually hung in Burgaw. The town sits on a little grid, and the streets seemed pretty wide. I needed some gas and some new brake lights, so our first stop was Advance Auto Parts. Then, we went into town.

Our first stop in town was at the old train depot. The depot has train tracks which no longer go anywhere, but there's a caboose. You can see where the NCDOT put up signs that tell you not to walk on the former railroad track right-of-way. I hope it gets turned into a rails-to-trails venture! There was an art show (kinda) going on in the depot, and I was told they're trying to bring back the grandeur of the station. I love that kind of stuff. Steve and Willy T staged a picture similar to Snidely Whiplash from Dudley Do-Right on the railroad tracks. Kids, don't play on railroad tracks. These were only ok because, like I mentioned before, they didn't go anywhere. So it's ok to take a picture. A woman stopped by to ask Willy if he had fallen and needed help getting up, since he was lying on the tracks. It was funny, and I think that means 100% of people in Burgaw are nice.

Then, we walked around the courthouse and saw the non-working water fountain that somehow ends up at all old courthouses, a Confederate Monument with our friendly Mr. Pender on it, as well as a nice veterans memorial. The courthouse green was fairly large and relatively open. Of course, it has sandy soil, since the ocean used to be here millions of years ago. We took a picture of the longer and shorter sides. I met a nice couple from NY who took the first picture of us. They wished me luck. I didn't think I'd find tourists from NY in Burgaw, but there ya go!

We walked to the other side, and took the second picture, which came out a bit better. Along the long side of the courthouse, it has many windows, and I bet that's the main courtroom, which I'd love to check out the view. But, that's probably one of the last things on your mind if you have to be in there, though I'm sure it's nice.

We looked for a place to eat, and there wasn't too much on a Saturday. We ate at Harvey's Deli and Tavern, which, according to their menu, has the bar featured in the movie "The Summer of Ben Tyler" that was filmed in Burgaw and the ceiling from "28 Days". I was pretty excited about that. There was only one person working the bar AND the tables, and he did a great job while serving 15 people at a time.

After we ate, we grabbed the only geocache in Burgaw (which was near Advance Auto Parts) and headed off to Bolivia!