Mini road trip: South (and maybe north) of the border

[jtbell]

I'm on another weekend trip to Raleigh NC for a coin/stamp/postcard show. On the way here, I stopped at the Buc-ee's gas station on I-95 near Florence SC. Its opening last year was such a big deal that South Carolina's governor came for the ribbon-cutting.

120 gas pumps!

The store is Texas-sized, with lots of food on offer: various kinds of barbecue sandwiches, beef jerky, etc.

And a roving mascot.

 

[mcastillo356]

I love oaks, everytime I have the choice, here in Bilbao, I stop for a while and get fascinated by this kind of tree.
Best wishes!

 

[jtbell]

Those of you who have driven highway I-95 between the Northeast and South are surely acquainted with South of the Border, at the NC/SC state line, if only because of its campy billboards ("YOU NEVER SAUSAGE A PLACE!"). I got there about a half hour after leaving Buc-ee's.

Note the initials on the water tower at far right: "S O B".

Its most visible feature from I-95 is the Sombrero Tower.

On my previous visit more than a year ago, the tower wasn't open, only the arcade at its base. This time I was luckier, and was able to enjoy the view, such as it is.

In the first of the two pics above, see where the pavement of I-95 changes from light to dark asphalt? That's the state line.

A fun factoid: former Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke grew up in nearby Dillon SC, and worked at South of the Border during the summers while he was in high school. I was reminded of this when I passed one of the I-95 exits for Dillon and saw a sign proclaiming it as the "Ben Bernanke Interchange".

 

[jtbell]

Today, after visiting the coin/stamp/postcard show at the state fairgrounds, I drove to downtown Raleigh and spent a few hours at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.

Whale skeletons, with a blue whale in front:

A collection of NC granites etc, ready to be made into bowling balls?

Of course, there are dinosaurs, such as this reconstructed sauropod:

The wound is probably from the acrocanthosaurus that's chasing him:

Zebrafish that have been genetically modified to fluoresce pink and green (the bluish ones are normal):

A research project on cat behavior:

 

[berkeman]

120 gas pumps!

The store is Texas-sized

Holy smokes! If it weren't you posting those pics, I'd think they were Photoshopped!

 

[BillTre]

Zebrafish that have been genetically modified to fluoresce pink and green (the bluish ones are normal):

No. They are all transgenic.
There are many different colors like this available commercially. Most are variants of GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) which has been engineered to produce different colors. Not all are successful in stores. Some color proteins may come from other sources.

Given the right materials and equipment, it is easy to make transgenic fish like these. There is now a whole industry doing this to other species.

Here is a normal ZF:

 

[jtbell]

On the way home today I made two stops, one north and the other south of the border.

First was the village of Gold Hill NC. Gold was found here in 1824, and mined until 1915. One of the mine developers was the son-in-law of John Reed of the Reed Gold Mine that I posted about last spring. Nowadays the village's main business is antique and gift shops, and a locally managed historic park.

You can see the entrances to a couple of mine shafts, but not actually enter them.

Some ore-processing equipment:

There's also a trail along the roadbed of the railroad that served the mines and village.

 

[jtbell]

My final stop on this trip was in Chester SC, to see this rock:

AARON BURR ROCK
ERECTED BY
MARY ADAIR CHAPTER D.A.R.
1938​

IN 1806
AARON BURR WHILE PASSING
THROUGH CHESTER, A PRISONER,
DISMOUNTED ON THIS ROCK AND
APPEALED, IN VAIN, TO THE
CITIZENS FOR HELP​

This actually happened in 1807. Burr, formerly U.S. Vice President under Thomas Jefferson, had been arrested in what is now Alabama on charges of treason, and was being conveyed to Richmond VA to be tried.

I've driven past this spot dozens of times in the past 30+ years, on my way to and from Charlotte, but didn't know about the rock and its story until yesterday. I saw a couple of postcards depicting it, while browsing through a dealer's boxes at the show in Raleigh.

There's more to this story. Burr and his custodians spent the night several miles to the northeast on the way to Charlotte, at the Lewis Inn, which was built in the 1750s and still exists, on what is now called "Aaron Burr Road." I've also driven past the turnoff many times, but never noticed the name. Today I did turn down this road. Unfortunately the inn is now a private residence, not open to the public, and is set back far enough from the road that a picture wouldn't show much. I would have tried anyway, if it had been on the driver's side of the car so I could stop quickly and aim my phone out the window.

 

[jtbell]

Update: today I drove to Charlotte again. On the way up, I re-visited the Lewis Inn, mentioned in the preceding post. It turned out, after taking a quick picture out the car window, and comparing it with photos online (e.g here) while eating lunch, that I had identified the wrong house as the inn. On the way home, I found the correct house, which is much closer to the road.

It's apparently been re-painted fairly recently, because most of the photos online show it as green.

 

[DennisN]

if only because of its campy billboards ("YOU NEVER SAUSAGE A PLACE!")

 

[jtbell]

(from https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/south-of-the-border)

 

[mcastillo356]

Some ore-processing equipment:

View attachment 335880

How does it work that ore-processing equipment? There seems to lack of something to start working... Force!

 

[jtbell]

It's called a "Chilean mill". This page has a closeup view inside the mill-house:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure...-Gold-Hill-Mines-Historic-Park_fig6_351764503

An engine (steam, gasoline, or in some places even horses or mules via a long horizontal beam) turned the vertical axle at the center, causing the vertical stone wheels to roll in a circular path on the stone base, crushing the ore that was placed there.