It was that kind of week - the type that leaves me feeling jumpy and nervous; wondering what's going on in this crazy world. Every time I turned on the TV there was "Breaking News", which is never breaking "good news". That wording, highlighted in bold red print, grabs my attention and (whether intended or not) raises my anxiety level. On the radio, pundits were constantly arguing (as they usually are these days). Politicians are tweeting about each other, the "fake" news media and "Hollywood" types. It's a vicious circle that I wanted to escape, if only for a day.

A business appointment scheduled for Friday in Hyde County, located deep in Eastern North Carolina, between Beaufort County and the huge and shallow Pamlico sound, provided the perfect modus operandi for my sojourn. You might think Hyde County ends where the sound begins, but its borders continue to the island of Ocracoke. It's vast, it's mostly undeveloped, it's somewhat undiscovered but the land, woods, marsh and water are spectacularly beautiful. The drive there, the meeting and afterwards continuing on to Atlantic Beach, was going to give me 8 hours of much - needed quiet time away from the problems of the world.

The crisp and clear fall day was framed by a crisp and clear blue sky, all punctuated by gossamer cloud formations - a clear indication that I had chosen exactly the right day for my respite. The 'spectacularness' of this day and all the bad national and international news of the prior week were the permission I needed to leave the news channels off and my favorite music playing - loudly - on the other channels. The Supremes, Tavares, Gloria Gaynor, Earth, Wind and Fiyah, James Taylor, Aretha, Marvin Gay and Tammy Tyrell made the trip easy so I could focus on the beautiful and rarely seen part of our state passing right outside of my car.

I'm not sure why but haikus came to mind as I was driving east, listening to upbeat Motown songs. I didn't even know what one was until a friend won a haiku contest, and I looked it up. It turns out that a haiku is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five moras, (generally translated as syllables but actually more to do with syllable weight and timing in other languages). Traditionally hiakus evoke images of the natural world. I'm craving solitude and simplicity and the most beautiful landscape is at hand so it all seemed appropriate.

I wanted to limit my descriptions using the rules of Hiaku but I didn't work on that objective long before I realized that I'm loquacious. So - new rule - an Eastern NC Haiku (an oxymoron if ever there was one) allows 10/17/10 words if the 5/7/5 count doesn't work for me (and it doesn't) with apologies to the Japanese (but it's my web site and my rules). With a little self-restraint (ahem), I'll try to economize on words and add a plethora of pictures, which aren't very haiku-ish, but will help tell the story of my day. So here goes, in haiku:

The slightly dilapidated - still beautiful house beckoned,

Was it empty? Pulled into the drive for a closer look.

Surprise! Vehicles in the back of the house. It's occupied.

Weeds growing all over a house,

Still so beautiful.

Collapsing, still strong, declining, hopeful. Better times ahead?

An interesting sign

To see at this one juncture

A great day ahead!

Writing a haiku is difficult and time consuming so forgive me for going back to my native, long-winded southern verbage with apologies to the Japanese and their keen ability to find beauty in simplicity. When it comes to writing, brevity is not my long suit. So shoot me.

The next stop is my appointment with a seafood processor. No sooner had I stepped out of my car than I saw these hard-working folks cleaning 2,700 pounds of huge shrimp. They completed the task in less than two hours. I could have cleaned 4 pounds in the same amount of time. Maybe. On a good day. Probably not.

I asked if there were any shrimp left in this area of the sound since these were caught (yep - plenty). I wondered how old the shrimp were because they were all so large (probably born in May). And I wondered how much longer until lunch (an hour and a half). There was still business to attend to but not before I passed this basket of blue crabs and took a quick snapshot.

Needless to say, all that seafood was making me hungry, and 45 minutes after I'd left the appointment, I was passing through Belhaven at 1:45 - exactly the right time to stop at Spoon River for lunch. This unique restaurant, with a breezey, laid-back atmosphere, serves the freshest farm (or sea) to table food one can imagine. www.spoonrivernc.com

The interiors are unique and the first thing that caught my eye was this partial boat mounted on the wall (and of course I'm wondering what happened to the other half). But as I looked at it more closely, I stopped seeing a boat and started seeing an alter - and in front of it a throne. Then I figured it out - it's an alter to delicious food in a great restaurant. All seems right in the world.

The simple light fixtures seemed nautical in a way...perhaps mimicking a cluster of barnacles? I ordered my meal - shrimp (for the obvious reasons) - on a healthy salad and continued to look at the clever and unexpected use of materials in this space.

It wasn't long before my lunch appeared - a generous salad topped with huge, local shrimp; fried (not grilled) because, darn it, that's what I wanted. Of course I know fried shrimp are full of calories (delicious calories, I might add) but the salad, cucumber and tomato part of the meal have negative calories so perhaps it all nets out to zero calories? On days like today, life in TomLand works this way. My blood pressure was going down as my waistline was inching up - a very fair tradeoff.

I want these posts to be as interesting as possible, so just for you, I unselfishly ordered a dessert for your viewing pleasure (and who wants to read about just a salad?!). I asked the server to bring their most popular dessert and when this homemade caramel bar arrived I was amazed because it's huge. The creamy, homemade salted caramel bar is smothered by two huge scoops of vanilla ice cream, topped with fat-rich, whipped cream and drizzled with melted chocolate and caramel, all topped with two lady finger cookies and a sprig of basil. I had promised myself I wouldn't eat more than one or two bites, but ended up enjoying 5 or 6 (OK, 9 or 10). As proof of some restraint, I've included before, during and after photographs (and yes, I rearranged the cookies to hide a spot where I may have overindulged).

Even though I'd parked in front of it, in my eagerness to get into Spoon River, I missed the charming hardware store next door to the restaurant. Excuse me Home Depot and Lowe's, but shouldn't all hardware stores look like this one?

And isn't it appropriate that the car parked next to mine has this license plate? I'm not in the city any more and the message couldn't be louder or clearer....I am in God's country and there is more in store. With a full belly, I settled in the car for the long drive to Atlantic Beach but before I'd made it 1 block, another incredible photo was begging to be taken.

These seagulls reminded me of our family road trips during the 1960's when we'd be looking for a hotel and pass one after another that was full and outside a bright neon "No Vacancy" sign. There's not one of those here but it's the same end result.

And as I turned to go back to my car, another religious image - the beautiful Gothic Arches of the greatest cathedrals, abbeys and churches in Europe - were right in front of me on this tiny but handsome bridge. Madonna's "Like A Prayer" was playing in my brain as I walked back to my car and little did I know there were more visual delights ahead....all in the simplest of things.

.....like this marsh.....there's nothing to say but.....wow....WOW.....

...even the workhorse shrimp boats were picture perfect on this wondrous day.

And next an old country church comes into sight with it's huge windows closed with old-fashioned, wooden shutters - preventing me from peering in - but the pattern of shutters, S-turns and wood siding grabs and holds my attention.

Soon I've passed through Little Washington and I'm on highway 17 heading to New Bern on my way to the beach. This stretch of highway is more familiar territory and then I passed this old gas station.....

....which was a brand new ESSO station just outside of Vanceboro back when I was 12 and my grandfather would stop and let me have a Stewart Hot Sandwich while he filled up with gas (31 cents per gallon). If you're wondering what this kind of sandwich is (and if gas really cost just 31 cents per gallon - it did): it's a pre-packaged sandwich purchased from a cooler, which is unwrapped and popped into an open toaster oven by the customer and in a few minutes a hot ham and cheese (always my favorite) was ready to be devoured. Kinda nasty/kinda wonderful - and the polar opposite of the lunch I've just had at Spoon River - but at the time I thought of it as a delicacy. My frugal grandfather thought of it as a luxury at $1.25 each and it took a lot of pre-teen persuasion to get him to fork over the cash for one of these bad boys. Sometimes he refused....but when he didn't....boy oh boy was it good. And I still remember it all in great detail 48 years later when I pass this (now) dilapidated building.

Then over the New Bern bridge and I'm get onto very familiar frequently traveled highway to the beach....

.....and 40 minutes later, the curve leading up to last bridge of the day (I'd already driven over more than I could count) but after this one, the trip to Atlantic Beach is complete. Normally I start feeling relaxed after I cross this bridge but today I'm feeling relaxed and rejuvenated as I approach it.

So was it an Eastern North Carolina haiku kind of day or just a beautiful down east kinda day? I encourage you to explore all the wonderful places in this part of the state that aren't familiar and find the answer for yourself. You'll be pleasantly surprised about what you might discover about North Carolina....and yourself.