Southeast of Raleigh, NC, in the middle of tobacco country sits the little town of Selma. For the first time, our RV Park escort led us to our space while riding a bicycle! Our space sat only one row away from I-95. The big trucks roared through constantly day and night. The train whistle blew its mournful call at several nearby crossing. However, the noise never bothers us once we are set up. 
This campground gave us a view of a lake with very friendly ducks and geese.
The Assembly of God Regional Center owned the lake and surrounding property. For all we know, they may have owned the campground. 
I took this great sunset photo. Enjoy!
When your home has a metal roof, it is not uncommon to hear rain pitter patter on the top, a bird walking across the top with clicking talons, or part of the tree brushing the top. In some places squirrels drop nuts down. Here we heard the sound of nuts, lots of nuts....like someone decided to dump small pails of nuts when the wind blew. The small nuts, a little less than one inch long, have an oval shape. The lower part is dark brown to black. The top usually showed a lighter brown. The shell is hard like a hazelnut, but shaped long and skinny. I had to ask! The large beautiful tree right next to us and raining nuts, is a Live Oak tree.
In another nearby tree I spotted the parasite plants of mistletoe hanging from several parts of the tree. A man at Duke University pointed the mistletoe out to me there. Merry Christmas!
The Tobacco Farm Life Museum in Kently, NC was just a few miles from our RV Park. The introductory film explained how tobacco is farmed today. Derrille and I were amazed at the amount of chemicals used in the growing process. Tobacco seeds are so small that a coating is needed to increase their size 50 times bigger. One seed is planted in each dimpled planting tray. Then the trays are floated in water troughs stored in the plastic Quonset hut shaped nursery greenhouses. The seedlings are mowed three times to increase stalk size before they are ready for transplanting. A lot of work goes into preparing the fields. Workers pull each plant from the tray and drop them in the planter machine as it moves across the field. When harvesting time arrives, the plants are cut three times: lower leaves are cut first, then the middle and finally the top. Flowers that form are handpicked off to stimulate growth too. 
The leaves are cured with heat and then graded. This metal huts are modern drying ovens. Piles of leaves then go to the auction house for selling, or they may go directly to the cigarette manufacturers. Tobacco was called "Carolina Gold".
The museum showed us tobacco farm life in the early 1900's without the help of modern machinery. Derrille and I watched the video in the tobacco warehouse exhibit several times trying to understand the auction and marveling at how the people involved knew exactly what was happening. Tobacco stacks are lined up in rows. Each stack has a tag placed on top of the stack indicating grower and grade. The warehouse owner, the auctioneer, a ticket handler and a recorder move down one side of the tobacco row. A group of buyers, 5 or 6, move down the other side. Tobacco is sold in numbers ending with 0, 2, or 8. Buyers use a fist or two fingers pointing up or down to bid. The process moves so quickly we couldn't follow the action, or hear "sold". The ticket handler hands the ticket to the recorder who quickly marks the sold price, and buyer on the tag and drops it back on the stack. He also records the buy on a clipboard. AND he works at the same pace as the auctioneer. WOW! Today some tobacco sells at auction, but most goes directly to the cigarette manufacturers.When the state went for the cash crops of cotton and tobacco, they discovered prices dropped. So they begin to diversity the crops. North Carolina leads the south in production of corn. It is fourth in the country in production of peanuts. It grows more sweet potatoes than any other state. Soybeans rotate with cotton and wheat to help the fields. Although wheat is usually a winter cover crop for the tobacco field to help prevent erosion.
Farm life from the late 1800 up to the mid 1900's makes up the remaining displays. One section shows how kitchen stoves developed.
One section shows a variety of ways water was brought into the house before plumbing.A section on religion was interesting. Apparently Quakers and Church of England faithful first came to the area. They were followed by Catholics and Jewish groups. Episcopalian and Methodist churches were next. Baptists came last. I found this interesting because Baptist, Methodist, and some Episcopalian churches are most visible today. In fact a variety of Baptist churches exist here. Some congregations include: City name Baptist, Free Will Baptist, First Baptist, Zion Baptist, Missionary Baptist, and Memorial Baptist to name some. Most are very large structures that show a large membership. Other kinds of Christian, Congregational, Pentecostal churches and one church called Pentecostal Holiness occupy visible sites also. However other denominations common in other places are difficult to find in this area.
A school section told of the development of the public school system, including the area's reluctance to integrate the schools until forced by the federal government. Apparently the Civil War debts made schools suffer from lack of funds. At the turn of the century, education became a major political concern.Other sections described the medical community growth; the styles of clothing, and a child's play area. I found it interesting that in the wedding section weddings happened at home. The bride wore a new but usable dress. According to the blurb, the white dress and formal weddings became popular following Queen Victoria's wedding in 1840. We also discovered that Washington Duke invented the cigarette rolling machine and made his fortune. He then founded Duke University.
This blanket/throw was made of string used to tie the tobacco bales.We exited through the Gift Shop...no surprise there. Derrille wanted to know if I'd buy a T-shirt with the museum logo or the one that says "I'm a tobacco grower daughter". He thought it would be a hoot for someone so stricken by smoke to where a tobacco shirt. I passed. Although the museum was smoke free it had a plug-in air freshener that set off my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity shortly after leaving the museum.
The barn held tools needed to grow tobacco.
A grading bench and drying racks were there. The bed was for a worker to keep the fire/heat at a constant temperature.
Tobacco plants grew outside the barn.
The kitchen building probably served as living quarters of the farm owners until the main house was built. 
The main house appeared to house mostly bedrooms while cooking and eating took place in the kitchen house. I found it interesting to see the quilting frame hung from the ceiling. We had read about the frames being lowered to work on the quilt, and raised to get it out of the way.
The curing barn showed how heat was put into the barn to cure the three levels of tobacco leaves. A couple of other buildings were on the property too.We drove through a few local towns and headed home.
With the one way streets in Raleigh we made several trips around the capitol building. That gave us a good view of the bronze statues honoring Women of the Confederacy. One statue of Governor Aycock and another of Zebulon B.Vancewere on the grounds. Another statue shows Andrew Jackson, Stonewall Jackson and Polk all together. A tall granite monument honors the Confederate dead.
The original capitol building was built in 1796 and burned down in 1831 and the current granite block style building took its place. All government buildings in the area are designed in the same granite block style. Raleigh appeared to be a very clean and business oriented.
Churches occupied several of the corners around the capitol. The large structures looked impressive.
We continued driving around and found ourselves at North Carolina State University. 
The university was on the left side of the street and retail shops lined the right side. The retail stores offered coffee shops, Hoagie shops, nice restaurants, clothes stores, book stores, pizza places, etc. Students can obtain most anything they may need or want from theses shops. 
Historic Oak View County Park belongs to the Wade County Park system. Another farm setting, we started in the Farm History Center. A full wall mural showed the progress of the farming over the years. Tenant farmers and sharecroppers were defined. The Tenant farmer owns his animals and equipment, but the land belongs to the owner. The Tenant farmer gives only a small percentage of this harvest to the owner. Sharecroppers use the owner's equipment and animals, but give back 50 % of his harvest.An interesting fact we learned is that the tractor did not become a standard farm machine until after 1950. Up to that time tractors were not reliable and they were too expensive for most farmers. They also represented the industrial north and for southern farmers, that was a good reason not to buy one, even if you could afford it.
We followed the path from the History Center that led by the fenced garden and the family cemetery. Small graveyards are a common site on rural property. A small sample cotton field grows outside the Cotton Museum building. 
The first floor of the building describes the process of growing cotton. 
The second floor has the cotton gin machine. This invention put spikes on a cylinder that combs through the cotton balls. The comb holds back all debris. Air currents created by the process blows the light, wispy cotton out of the machine, where it is collected for baling. The cotton is gathered into bales which are secured and dropped through an opening in the floor to a wagon below.
The path took us to the Plank Kitchen located just behind the main house.
Over the years the main house has had a variety of owners. Each remodeled the house a bit. A kitchen was added inside the house at some time too. Each room had a touch of Christmas past in it.
The Carriage House and barn completed the farm buildings. A pecan orchard on the property also had a reader board.
Some people like to visit the old houses and estates. Some like historical or art museums. Derrille likes sports and decided since we saw the NCSU campus it would be great to see Duke and the University of North Carolina. So off we went to Durham, NC the home of Duke University. The Blue Devils had a big game with Michigan, so parking was restricted all around the campus. Just like at NC State the campus and a retail area designed for students were separated just by the main street. We ventured further into the campus looking for Cameron Indoor Arena. 
What we found was the Duke University Chapel.
The chapel ranks as a GEM in the AAA tour book. The interdenominational church houses a 50 bell carillon with bells ranging from 10 to 11,200 pounds. The Flentrop organ has five keyboards and rises 40 feet above the main floor. This campus formerly was home to Trinity College. Duke purchased it and made this Duke's East Campus. Many building here use the Georgian style of architecture. The West Campus has a Gothic design according to the tour book. We didn't go there.
Realizing we would never get close to the arena for a photo op, we quickly parked (illegally) in a booster parking spot and ran to the brick entry post for the photo. As we hurried back to the car, this nice young man with the Duke name on his hoody passed us. We stopped him and had him pose with Derrille. Bless that student! He was so gracious with this crazy old couple in the parking lot. (grins)
Darkness was beginning to descend as we traveled the ten miles of road that directly connects Duke with the University of North Carolina. We found the area with the retail stores, but the Dean Smith Center was located on the opposite side of campus. It was dark by the time we found the center and pulled into the loading zone. We dashed up the steps for the photo, but unfortunately my camera was on the wrong setting to get the Center behind Derrille. I did get the directory sign and Derrille. Then we rushed to vacate the loading zone, as the girls swim team members were getting dropped off for practice.
We did notices lovely homes around each university. Rush hour traffic, which doesn't rush, clogged the freeways as we traveled home, but we didn't mind. We felt a certain amount of exhilaration from our dash around the campuses.
Next: Rodanthe, NC
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