Mary Lesh

We got an early start on vacations this year! We no sooner came back from our last trip of 2025 and we are off again. This is the year for taking it slow and enjoying the ride. So often we jump in the truck and “gotta get there!” No rush this time. Our first stop was in Prattville, AL–just a little over 100 miles. My goodness it is barely out of town. Our goal was to take our time, enjoy every stop. Well this one may be close to home but it was also not far from Selma, AL where the Civil Rights March began in 1965. Our goal was to drive the route that these brave leaders took. (We did cheat a little by taking I-65 a couple exits).
Going to give you all a little history lesson here and most is quoted from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “On March 7th, 1065, 600 marchers led by future CongressmandJohn Lewis and Hosea Williams met at Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, AL. The marchers departed for a planned 54 mile journey to Montgoery on foot to advocate for the equal voting rights for Black Americans. They made it to the Edmund Pettus Bridge (which is only half a mile from the church) where they were stopped and brutally attacked by local law enforcement. The violence, filmed by news broadcasters, shocked the nation, and the event became known as “Bloody Sunday.” The march restarted a few weeks later, where after four days of travel, the crowd swelled to over 20,000 in Montgomery. The events swayed public opinion and motivated the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.”

Black men were given the right to vote in1870 but, many southern states disenfranchised them through poll taxes, literacy tests and threats of harm.

An Interpretive Center was built around the halfway mark and we were lucky enough to get there before the close. Here are some pictures from our drive. John had to take a picture of the meter. We had to pay 5 cents to park for our picture of the Capitol.

We did not get pictures of Campsite 2 as it was on the opposite side of a divided 4 lane hwy. Campsite 3 was just a sign. I got a picture of the sign but, that part wasn’t special.

The Lowndes Interpretive Center was very interesting. It is so sad to read some of the plaques telling how Black Americans were mistreated, abused, oppressed. I cannot imagine having so much hatred for someone based on the color of their skin. So much hatred that you could harm someone just because. They weren’t doing anything wrong.

After our journey we went into Prattville to see the town. Just like a Hallmark movie still decorated in holiday lights, trees, wreaths. It was beautiful. Our host at the boondocker sight suggested we visit the town and stop at Uncle Micks Cajun–so we did. We brought it home since we had the dog in the car and it was already getting dark.

Today we wanted to see 2 lighthouses, some beaches and of course a sunset. We did manage to see the Oak Island Lighthouse. The other lighthouse we managed to see from across the water but we could not take the truck on the ferry and did not want to have to carry all our “stuff” and walk everywhere. So we settled for a walk on the beach, a shot across the way and later we drove to Southport and walked their river walk. While there I was able to get a decent shot of a seagull in flight. There were lots of birds because a local lady was feeding them. The riverwalk has a nice little park with benches and swings and a small covered area with a table. We really liked Southport.

After Southport we were headed to a Bird Island Reservation. Ha ha, I was going to get a great shot of some local birds–or so I thought. We put it in the map and it took us to a vacant lot across the waterway from Bird Island. I don’t know why it is on a list of things to do because there is no ferry to get there and it isn’t on that vacant lot. We were able to get to the island a round about way (there is a bridge) but the road ends before you get to the Bird Reservation. No place to park, no walking trails, no signs so we went to a small park, Water Front Park and it was in Southport. There I saw a great Heron and ran (well, I really walked to the truck to get my big lens) and took a few shots. It was another lovely area in our now favorite town in this area of NC.

It started to rain so we headed back to camp to take a break and plan for our next adventure. John found a great place to take some sunset pictures so we headed there. We went to Oak Island and it really was a beautiful spot. I am going to overload the sunset pictures. All sunset pictures are unedited. Wow, what a sight. After that we planned to go to a local pizza joint only to discover they are closed on Monday. Needless to say we ended up with a Little Caesars. Back at the campsite we started prepping to leave in the morning. And that is the long and short of this vacay.

The year has come to its end and we are on our last camping trip of the year. Each year for the past 5 or so years we have taken our last trip of the year immediately after Christmas. It is a time when our kids are spending time with their in-laws and we get time to ourselves. Makes perfect sense to us to take a short trip. In the past we have done, Panama City, Biloxi, Outer Banks (a couple times), Fort Pickens in the Panhandle and this year it is Wilmington, NC.

We are staying with a Boondocker for 3 nights in Bolivia, NC. We arrived about 5:00 and set things up. It was already getting dark so we stayed in, had some leftover pizza and played some scrabble. John actually used all 7 tiles in the 2 games we played. In all the years we have played scrabble, neither of us has ever used all the tiles in one turn. I think he cheated.

We had a good nights sleep and headed to Wilmington to explore. We wanted to go to Airlie Gardens but dogs were not allowed so we headed to the Riverwalk.

From there we headed to the other side of the river to see the USS North Carolina. Which served during WWII.

After walking around the USS North Carolina we were getting pretty hungry and we really wanted to see the beach. Needless to say NC allowed everyone to build on the beach side so you can’t see the beach as you drive along the road closest to it. I hate that. I love riding along the water. After studying the map we headed toward Jack Mackerals Bar and Grill toward the end of the island. We had lunch, which was delicious and decided to head to the tip of the island and catch a ferry back to the mainland.

And then we took a ride on the ferry. Just a cheap thrill for both of us. Oh, and while we were at the restaurant we started looking up lighthouses because we were on coastal land so there had to be lighthouses somewhere near us. Sure enough there is one that can be see from the ferry. Score!