Oriental Journey

Yesterday we decided to take an Oriental journey – that is, to Oriental, a small Town in Pamlico County on the banks of the Neuse River that we have visited in past years while staying in Atlantic Beach.  It is an old Town, once haunted by Blackbeard the Pirate, and now definitely a fishing-centric place, with the Oriental Harbor Marina filled with pleasure and commercial boats.  It’s an hour and twenty minutes away by driving to New Bern and then east and south.  But in the same time, you can drive pleasant two-lane roads through flat countryside and take the 15-minute ferry across the Neuse River (at a much narrower point) from Cherry Branch to Minnesott Beach, and then on to Oriental. 

The N.C. Ferry system is an especially fine, underrated operation by the State of North Carolina.  It costs absolutely nothing, and the ferry terminals and the ferry itself (which leaves every 30 minutes) were spotless.  It was a smooth crossing on this balmy day.

It’s a short drive to Oriental from the ferry terminal.  The Town was named, I learned, from the sailing steamer Oriental, built in Philadelphia in 1861 and used as a Federal transport ship in the Civil War.  She was wrecked only a year later off Bodie Island, 33 miles north of Cape Hatteras, but a porthole from the ship is on display in the Oriental History Museum, closed every time we have visited, alas. 

Our first stop was The Silos, a great little dive of a restaurant that is literally located in a silo and is known for its good pizza.

The Silos was open for indoor dining at 50% capacity, but we chose to order a pizza to go and found a quiet place around the back called the Red Rooster, which during the summer is the go-to place in Oriental to listen to live music.  We were the only ones there today and there was no live music, but we enjoyed eating our Greek Pizza on a table next to a decrepit but authentic-looking covered seating area.

After lunch, Martha shopped a little in a place she likes on Broad Street called Nautical Wheelers, while I sat outside on the porch, finding the directions to Lou Mac Park on my phone.  We visited the Park after that and found the famous "Dancing Chairs," a set of white Adirondack chairs that are usually placed at the water's edge.  Local legend has it that the chairs dance all night when there's a full moon, and settle down before the sun comes up, but always in a different location within the park's grounds.  We shall have to return here someday when there is a full moon and test the veracity of this legend!

The journey back across the Neuse River was as smooth a crossing as the journey this morning.  Taking a ferry always reminds me of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, which ends with Siddhartha apprenticing with the ferryman Vasudeva:

Often, they sat in the evening together by the bank on the log, said nothing and both listened to the water, which was no water to them, but the voice of life, the voice of what exists, of what is eternally taking shape.

Being a ferryman is an honorable profession, I realized, as our ferryman gently nudged our ferry into the dock at Cherry Branch.  “Thank you,” I said, as we rolled up onto solid ground.