Thanks to fellow Travel Betty and friend, Marya L. for taking pity on me after my failed trip to the Nahunta Pork Center back in June. She recently snagged me this awesome muffiny Nahunta trucker cap and a vaccuum-sealed package of cured ham. I also got a pen, a Nahunta business card and some pork literature, which I promptly drooled over (admittedly, it tasted more like paper than anything porcine).

Word of advice: if you’re looking to get into my good graces, you can never go wrong with the gift of pork.

Hello, my name is Travel Betty and I am addicted to pork

Two weekends ago, I made Travel Boyfriend veer 10 miles off course from the Mapquest directions on our drive from Beaufort, NC to Raleigh in order to visit the Nahunta Pork Center. They “Offer The Country’s Largest Pork Retail Display, Stocking The Freshest Line Of Pork Products Anywhere.”

After following the big bright signs down many a deserted country sideroad, it ended up that the damn store was closed! I had TB document the occasion regardless. And as luck would have it, as soon as he put his camera to eye, the owner pulled up in his truck looking perplexed.

“She’s, um, a fan of pork,” was all Travel Boyfriend could think to say. Even that didn’t get us an invitation into the store. But if you’re ever driving near Pikeville, NC (just off of 70), and it’s not a Sunday, take the opportunity to stop in.

Hello, my name is Travel Betty and I’m addicted to pork-related travel products

Yesterday I was shopping at Cheap Thrills on Haight St. and I came across these savory little luggage tags (sadly unscented). Their uselessness notwithstanding, I had to purchase them to show my bacony ardor. Who knows, maybe these sizzling hot strips are just the thing your luggage needs to get you bumped up to first class. Stranger things have happened.

Travel Betty Basics

Nahunta Pork Center
200 Bertie Pierce Road
Pikeville, NC 27863
(919) 242-4735 (Main Office)

Nahunta Pork Center Outlet
At the North Carolina State
Farmers Market
Raleigh, NC 27603

2. Take a narrated Mystery Boat Tour of the Crystal Coast in order to see the Outer Banks Islands, wild ponies, salt marshes, Fort Macon, and various and assorted historic homes.

3. Visit Mario’s Pizzeria to celebrate your nephew’s graduation* from East Carteret High School (Go Mariners!)

4. Buy books at the Rocking Chair Bookstore, owned and operated by two ex-staff members of the San Francisco Chronicle. Husband, Rick Carroll, has written two books, which are proudly for sale at the counter. One, called IZ: Voice of the People, about Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwoole. The other called Beaufort-By-The-Sea: Journey Back in Time, The Illustrated Heritage Guide to Beaufort, N. C.

5. Drink 100% Fair Trade Certified Organic coffee from biodegradable cornstarch cups while accessing a free wireless internet connection at Taylor’s Big Mug.

6. Meet up at dusk for a ghost walk that features Blackbeard’s Haunted House and a mysterious 300 year-old cemetery. Why is it so mysterious? Only the ghosts know the answer!

7. Spend a couple of evenings at the Pecan Tree Inn. They’ll serve you a continental breakfast, let you ride cute red bikes with baskets, listen to their frogs chirp in a small pond in the middle of the yard, and rock on their porches while watching a wedding ceremony take place across the street. They’ll even give you a tour of their pretty little garden.

8. Enjoy some live music at the Dock House Restaurant and Bar while listening as a bitter divorced man talks about “all of these gold digging whores in town just to try and snag one of the competitors in the 49th annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.”

9. Eat some amazing homemade breads and one of the most authentic tasting gyros this side of Mykonos at the Beaufort Grocery Co. Charles and Wendy Park opened this gem in 1991. One of the secrets to the restaurant’s success? Charles is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.

10. Partake in a host of outdoor pursuits at the Rachel Carson Estuarine Research Reserve. As you may remember, Rachel Carson wrote the disturbing, but necessary book Silent Spring, which brought the problems associated with pesticides like DDT to the general public’s attention. She spent a brief time here conducting research in the 1940s. Now you can spend a brief time checking out tidal mud and sand flats as well as eelgrass beds. Or just go for a canoe ride.

*Nephew’s graduation from East Carteret High School dependent on your own nephew’s actual enrollment in said school, in addition to his completion of required curriculum.