Saturday, 26 December 2020.
As we sat in the family room the morning of the day after
Christmas, drinking our Boxing Day coffee, we looked at each other and said, “Do
you want to take a drive somewhere?” “Yes, do
you?” “Yes, where?” It was already 9:30 am, so we did not want to
pick a very distant journey; thus when the destination decision fell to me, I
said, at random, “How about Roxboro and Person County?”
Decision made, we packed up Tamsin, the most patient of pugs,
I donned my Christmas jacket – the long -coveted Barbour – for its first
wearing, we stopped for coffee at No Ra, and the three of us were off!
Driving leisurely through Wake
and Durham counties, we came upon the Lodge Park on Lake Michie, the biblically
named towns of Mt. Tirzah, Berea, Moriah, and Ai with its old cemetery. Crossing the line into Person County, we saw
the remains of the Roxboro Drag Strip on Hwy 158 E and passed by many disused
and falling-down tobacco drying sheds, abandoned houses, and cotton mills: pervasive signs of the old South.
Old Cemetery in Ai,
North Carolina
We never found the
dragway
No local BBQ places were open for lunch that day, so we
ended up at the Timberland Restaurant.
Good food, local, friendly, but with a “15 minutes” wait that became an
hour-long wait for take - out and little to no Covid compliance. We drove through downtown Roxboro, named
after a town in Scotland, and pulled into the parking lot of the Person Museum
of History to eat our lunch. The museum
was closed due to the pandemic, but we enjoyed looking into the windows of the
museum, a former grand residence, and the relocated mercantile, cabin, school,
and church which graced the museum grounds.
While there, we noticed two cats on the porch of the mercantile,
obviously feral and wary. Shortly after
we spotted the cats, a museum volunteer arrived to give the mother and daughter
cats their daily dinner.
Learning that we were tourists, she recommnded that we go
to the newly opened Tunnel Creek Winery just north of town. The winery is a beautiful place: the vineyard planted 7 years ago by
commercial real estate agents retiring from coastal NC. Dave agreed to be the DD, so I did a tasting
of 3 whites, 4 reds, and 1 rose, all very good., and significantly better than
our usual tipple. We brought back a
bottle of white and a bottle of reserve red for February Festivities (Dave’s
birthday and Valentine’s Day).
The building was beautiful, with a lovely view of the
adjacent valley, which includes an event barn and a old railway tunnel, after
which the winery is named. We asked to
hike down to the tunnel, but were told that it was inadvisable due to the
recent rains and flooding. The tunnel is beyond the pond and down a hill. The event barn is located at the right of the
pond.
Heading back to Raleigh, we drove through bustling downtown
Durham, which was a stark contrast to the empty towns of Person County and the
Durham we found when we moved here in 1995.
What a hip town it has become. We
are glad Durham is thriving, but sorry about the little towns further north.
