Roundel Weekly: My Turn

After a week of weather forecasts that seemed to offer the promise of a very wet weekend, we were happily surprised when we awoke on Saturday, June 4, and found that it had dawned a bright and sunny day. It was humid though, but this is North Carolina and you simply have to expect that.

We were good to go for our big adventure to New Bern, which is a somewhat magical place offering a rich history dating back to Colonial times. It survived through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, as a home for pirates, and even when it was ravaged by a Great Fire in 1922. No doubt about it, we needed to hit the road.

Before we could get on our way, we needed to fuel up on caffeine and processed sugar. Dan Connor and our good friends at the Bimmer Performance Center helped out significantly by opening the shop so we could organize ourselves and prep for the trip. Sipping coffee while checking out the dyno and swapping stories is a great way to start a weekend. By the time we had a full roster tabulated we had 15 cars, 29 people, and 2 canines assembled as our friends Pete and Sandy brought their pups to make sure we got a howling good sendoff from Raleigh for our trip back in time.  After a brief driver’s meeting, we were off.

Our route had us head east toward Wilson on limited access highways, then grab NC-58 heading south towards Snow Hill. The roads were beautiful, wide open, and freshly paved, allowing us to make good time. Small towns came and went, with only a slight delay to allow a construction crew to “do their thing” of slowing the pace. A final high speed blast down US-70 brought us into the home of Pepsi Cola and Tryon Palace in downtown New Bern! A slight detour to accommodate an unexpectedly closed road had us finally land at the new Visitor’s Center adjacent to Tryon Palace.

This is a great venue with a trove of local artifacts and historical stories to check out. It also has a great parking lot which is an easy walk from the waterfront. Once we commandeered the eastern edge of the lot, we did a double-time walk over to a terrific restaurant sitting at the marina. Our reservation had grown from 6… to 20… to close to 30… but the staff at Persimmons handled us with style.

Everything was fantastic! My personal favorite is the Crab Roll (think “Lobster Roll”) with sweet potato fries and a Pepsi. Oh my, that is fine eating.

With our energy restored, we were off to scope out the joint. Some went to Tryon Palace to explore the government buildings constructed by one of the last English Governors. He was so “hated”, that he was run out of town. His next gig? Governor of New York. Go figure. Others went shopping in the galleries and boutiques that are the mainstay of the downtown area.

Another group went to see the Firehouse Museum which is, of course, the stuff of dreams for many of our inner children. No lack of fun and cool things to see as the Firehouse Museum has a great collection of horse drawn pumpers and wagons that date to the late 19^th century. They also have a pair of “modern” fire engines dating to 1914 and 1927, respectively.

The most endearing mental image of this tour would have to be four BMW Club members and the tour guide clambering around under the hood and dash of the 1927 rig. The main source of our attention? Why did the engine have 18 (yes, eighteen) spark plugs?

The story we were told was that it was a V-12 engine, which also seemed problematic. We correctly confirmed for the staff that it was, in fact, an Inline-6 engine with dual ignition systems! Each cylinder had dual plugs for the points / distributor system … and another set of plugs for a magneto.

With flashlights and Google searches we solved the mystery of the fire engine power plant. Our reward? A tour of another building that regular civilians don’t get to see! It was a great experience and we’re hopeful that on our next venture they will let us test out the fire poles. Last one down buys cold beverages.

All too soon it was time to head back to The Triangle area. A nice ride back up past Kinston and Goldsboro still failed to find any rain (good for us!) and we arrived home safe, sound, thirsty, and hungry.

The day ended as it began, with food and beverages. The pizza and beer never tasted so good. The only real question on everyone’s mind was “where to next?”. 

Find out more about the Tarheel Chapter here >> www.bmwcca.org/chapter/tarheel-chapter

If you have some interesting content you'd like to submit for consideration, such as a story, pictures, or video, please e-mail Nate Risch, Roundel Weekly editor, at nrisch@bmwcca.org.