Life on Paws and Wheels

Simba and I visited Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in Wilson, North Carolina , one of the most unusual and colorful outdoor art attractions we've encountered during our travels! Located in the heart of historic downtown Wilson, this extraordinary two-acre park features 30 enormous kinetic sculptures constructed from discarded machinery, scrap metal, old highway signs, bicycle wheels, and countless other salvaged materials. Some of these incredible creations reach approximately 50 feet into the air , with intricate mechanical components that spin, twist, and move whenever the wind blows. What makes this place even more remarkable is the story of the man who created it. Vollis Simpson (1919–2013) wasn't a formally trained artist, sculptor, or engineer. He was a World War II veteran and North Carolina farm machinery repairman who spent much of his life fixing equipment and moving houses. After retiring, he began transforming discarded mechanical parts into towering, wind-powered ...

Simba and I visited the Goldsboro Nuclear Mishap historical marker in Eureka, North Carolina , a small roadside sign commemorating one of the most frightening nuclear weapons accidents in American history. On January 24, 1961 , a United States Air Force B-52 bomber broke apart over rural Wayne County, accidentally releasing two powerful hydrogen bombs into the countryside below. Neither weapon produced a nuclear explosion, but three American airmen lost their lives, and the incident exposed the extraordinary dangers of America's Cold War nuclear arsenal. What makes this story particularly alarming is the destructive potential of the weapons involved. Each bomb had a maximum explosive yield of approximately 3.8 megatons , equivalent to 3.8 million tons of TNT. That made each weapon hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. One of the bombs descended beneath a parachute and underwent portions of its normal arming sequence, while the other sla...

Simba and I visited and hiked the Flanners Beach and Beady Trail Loop near Neuse Forest, North Carolina , exploring a peaceful network of wooded trails winding through the beautiful Croatan National Forest near the Neuse River. Located just south of New Bern in Craven County, this lesser-known hiking destination offers an entirely different experience from the mountain trails, waterfalls, and sandy ocean beaches that North Carolina is famous for. Instead of dramatic overlooks or rugged mountain terrain, we found quiet forest pathways surrounded by towering pine trees, mixed hardwoods, sandy soil, and thick coastal vegetation. The trails wind through a relatively flat landscape where the scenery changes subtly as the forest transitions between drier wooded areas and lower, wetter sections characteristic of eastern North Carolina's coastal plain. What makes this area particularly interesting is its location within Croatan National Forest, a protected landscape covering approximately...