The Distracted Wanderer

While wandering across North Carolina from the Blue Ridge Parkway to Raleigh via Interstate 40 in the not-so-distant past, a sign caught my eye - “Bunker Hill Covered Bridge - This Exit.” Wait. What?  A covered bridge? ... In  the middle of North Carolina? ... On my route of travel?  Well, anyone who knows this Distracted Wanderer at all knows that covered bridges are quite high on my “List of Must-Sees” so it came as no surprise to my distracted sidekick (aka cousin Amy) that we were going to be taking a brief detour as I slowed and took Exit 138 off of the highway then followed the signs pointing us tin the direction of the bridge located two miles east of Claremont off Highway 70 inside Connor Recreational Park. One of Catawba County’s most historic structures as well as one of only two remaining covered bridges in North Carolina, the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge is the only remaining wooden example of the “Improved Lattice Truss” design that was patented by ...

I recently had the opportunity to visit a city I'd never been to before when my cousin Amy asked me if I'd like to go to Raleigh, North Carolina with her for the International Bluegrass Music Association 's Annual Conference which had previously been held in Nashville but was making the switch to Raleigh for at least the next three years. Heck, as I'm always up for a trip someplace new I said 'sure' and so it was that we made the drive down along with Amy's sister-in-law Robin in search of bluegrass music and some of the local flavor. While Amy was attending to some conference business, Robin and I had the pleasure of spending some time talking to Ryan Smith of visitRaleigh who was kind enough to suggest a few local places that we might want to visit; she highly recommended that if we were looking for an "authentic Southern breakfast" that we be sure to visit Big Ed's City Market Restaurant as they were the best in town and not to be ...