Return to Atlanta

Sunday, Feb 24, 2008

We headed south toward after photographing the Virginia Capitol on Saturday night. But we had one more capitol to pick up, North Carolina's in Raleigh. We stopped for the night in South Hill, Virginia just north of the border with North Carolina.

Sunday was to be a driving day since we needed to reach Atlanta by day's end. We got an early start (by our standards) and headed out to Raleigh. You can see the beginnings of spring in North Carolina. The early Dogwood trees and Magnolias are beginning to show blooms.


We spent a half hour or so walking the grounds around the North Carolina capitol building.


Like several other southern capitols, the North Carolina capitol building shares a large square with a monument to local Confederate war dead. Here are some pictures of this one:


The phrase First at Bethel, Last at Appomattox refers to North Carolina's claim to the first casualty of the Civil War at Big Bethel, Virginia, Henry Wyatt, and their claim to have fired the last volley at Appomattox.

After finishing up in Raleigh, we decided to look for lunch. This would be our last chance for a Southern lunch so we pulled into Graham, North Carolina after noting a couple of suggestions on the billboards. We headed for Biscuitville first. Unfortunately, it was 5 minutes before 2:00 and Biscuitville closes at 2:00p.m. Eastern Biscuit Time. Did we make it just in time? No, they had sold all their biscuits.


On down the road then, to B-B-Q & Ribs Co. Home of Eastern NC style barbecue, their billboard notes that they have been named to the Best of the Best list. Linda had the barbecue and pronounced it "very good." I had the Chicken and Dumplin with a side of collard greens. Yummy dumplins! We finished up with a shared banana cream pudding for desert. Locals agree that this is good Barbecue.


After that it was a drive straight through to Atlanta where we stayed near the airport at a Drury, one of our favorite hotels.