Winter is hard for us solar-powered folks. When the sun is up, I’m up. When the sun is down, so am I. Now that each day has started to add a few seconds of daylight since the winter solstice on Dec 24, I’ve been straying a bit more from the house. Add to that the fact that I have purchased quality heated gear and a heavy-duty wind breaking/rain outer layer, I’ve been getting out on the bike a lot more. I’ve done my best to take advantage of the wildly swinging weather with random outings.
First up was a ride to theVollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum in Wilson, NC. WWII Army Air Corps veteran, Vollis Simpson, worked as a rigger and farm machine repairman post-military service. According to the museum named after him, once he retired in 1985, he spent his time creating giant, wind-driven sculptures and installing them around the pond on his farm. Over time, his whimsical creations became known as “whirligigs” and developed quite a following.
By the time Mr. Simpson passed away in 2013 at the age of 94, his whirligigs had been featured at the Olympic Games in Atlanta and locals had started developing a park in which to highlight his artwork.
This display in the Whirligig Museum really gives perspective to how huge these things are!It was also a great experiment to see how different the sculptures look when the reflectors capture light.I need to go back at nighttime when lights are projected onto the whirligigs to illuminate the reflectors.Move the slider left and right to see the difference between flash and no flash photography!
Identified as a curiosity worthy of a road trip by both Roadside AmericaandAtlas Obscura (my go-to resources for road trip novelties), I made a return trip with riding partners Dave and Bob on a super windy day, which really added life to the structures.
Always on the hunt for beauty and the unusual, my two-wheel wanderings led me to the towns of Pikeville and Carthage.
A yard of towering steel dinosaur skeletons grace the entrance of Benton and Sons Fabrication in Pikeville, NC. Specializing in large component steel fabricating services, the 30 ft stainless steel T-Rex certainly shows off their laser cutting and welding skills! Yet another place I need to go back at night since each dinosaur is rigged with lights!
Moore County, NC is home to many talented artists, whose work can be seen on the county’s mural trail. This one is in downtown Carthage and depicts the town’s iconic horse and buggy logo on an old 1920s stove top water tank.
One of my favorite holidays growing up was Mardi Gras! The two weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday were filled with purple, green and gold carnival parades, while the 40 days afterwards were marked by Friday meat-free meals and family get-togethers of weekend seafood boils and fried fish and shrimp. Proving again what a small world we live in, I stumbled upon a Houma native chef who now runs the Circle City Supper Club in Pittsboro, NC. Clare’s epic, multi-course meals are hosted at Celebrity Dairy Farm and are always a fun, eclectic event.
Clare has been a member of Cleopatra, one of the numerous Mardi Gras krewes in our hometown of Houma, for many years.
The 5-course Mardi Gras themed meal consisted of boudin charcuterie, fried shrimp with iceberg wedge, red beans and rice with cornbread, gumbo with potato salad, and homemade King Cake. I left there stuffed, but it was worth every delicious bite!
Clare’s version of Louisiana’s iconic King Cake, a cross between a coffee cake and cinnamon roll, was as beautiful as it was tasty. From the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, on January 6 until Fat Tuesday, this Mardi Gras cake symbolizes the biblical story of the gifts being brought to the baby Jesus by three kings. True to tradition, there was a tiny plastic baby baked into this cake, representing the bestowment of luck and prosperity to the fortunate person who finds it in their slice.
A bonus of attending a supper club at a working farm was getting to interact with the 80 baby goats born within the last week. Oh, so cute!
A non-profit is chosen as a beneficiary for each Circle City Supper Club, and this time it was Feed Well Fridges. This organization addresses food insecurity in communities with limited access to fresh food options by placing refrigerators in public spaces where unsold food and pre-packaged meals, donated by restaurants, grocery stores, and other commercial food businesses, can be accessed for free by residents. One of the local, small businesses that support this charity, Circle City Books and Music, gifted a book about Louisiana, or written by an author with ties to the state, from their used book selection to each dinner guest to support the meal’s Cajun theme. I can’t wait to dig into the title I received, “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
To repay the generosity of Circle City Books and Music for their supper club book gifting, I decided to ride my bike up to Pittsboro a few days later to patronize the establishment. The building that houses the used book store boasts an impressive mural depicting numerous books either written in North Carolina, or by a North Carolinian. Looks like my reading list just grew!
Until the next adventure to report, I hope you go out and play tourist in your own areas to appreciate the hidden gyms that are surely awaiting your discovery.
FitHippie Adventures 
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