May 18-20 New Bern NC

Only 5 miles to go today so we pull the anchor at 10 am and cruise into Northwest Creek Marina about 3 miles shy of New Bern (by water). A call to the dockmaster at the marina lands us a slip there. Not expecting to see any loopers here, since we are off of the beaten path, but as we pull into our slip we are greeted by Sue from Tom Kat. Shortly after docking, and getting situated the dockmaster introduced himself as a fellow Hoosier. One conversation led to another and I soon found out he was a fellow Rose Hulman graduate, class of 1971. Had retired some time ago, moved here and has been the dockmaster in his second life. This is really a great Marina and we have been given first class treatment. It wasn't long until our friends Mark & Sue Young found us and we spent the rest of the afternoon with them touring the area where they live and spending time at their home which is only steps from the marina. The next day they sent us to New Bern with their car so we could tour the town. Very neat downtown area. Also the Tryon Palace is here. It is a restored replica Palace that was originally built by the King of England in the late 1700's for the Governor of North Carolina. A picture of one of the Gardens is shown above. Later we had lunch and did more touring of the historical downtown area. That evening we met cousin Abbey and her husband to be Nick for dinner at the Chelsea Restaurant. Nick is in the Marines and is stationed at nearby Camp LeJune. He has served one tour of duty in Iraq and is hoping he will not have to return. He is a diesel mechanic so he was quite interested in the innards tour of the boat I gave him later. Abbey is working as an RN here in the local hospital. Great couple and I am sure they will have great success in their lives ahead. Storms are predicted for Tuesday so we are staying put. Tuesday was provisioning day and since we had Young's car we stocked up on the heavy stuff. As predicted the storms came, but luckily the wind was not as severe as predicted. All in all this has been a great stop