2019: Albemarle Loop - Hertford NC

4/16/2019
Depart: Plymouth Town Docks 9:30
Arrive: Hertford Town Docks 2:30
Distance: 42 nm

Having waited a day for the wind to settle down, we had no problem getting off the dock this morning. We had one last look at Plymouth and headed toward Hertford to see what that town had to offer.

alternate Plymouth Town Dock -
where we should have tied up for easier docking

Ironclad Replica CSS Albemarle

As we traveled towards Hertford, Clark said, "Is that a bridge with just a middle and no ends?" As we got closer we could see the ends of the bridge appear.

Approaching Hertford (pronounced like "hurt furd") ...

Swing bridge

Looking down the road at the cars

 

Looking back

Town of Hertford, NC

We decided to use our bicycles to look around the area.

Hertford Public Access to Water

 

Perquimans County Courthouse c. 1825

Pharmacy and Soda Fountain

We stopped into Woodard's Pharmacy because we saw people eating ice cream outside. The price was amazing - 2 scoops for $1.00 and 4 scoops for $2.00. Unfortunately, we missed the $0.85 price as the cost recently escalated!  We enjoyed the good quality ice cream treats.

Plaque on Sidewalk -- outside of pharmacy

Hertford's Claims to Fame include
- turtles on a log and the swing bridge

One of Hertford's points of interest is the Jimmy "Catfish" Hunter Baseball Museum.

The person who greeted us at the museum went to high school with Jimmy “Catfish” Hunter. “Catfish” was an amazing athlete who played baseball for both the A’s and the Yankees. He never played in the minor leagues. He was given the name “Catfish” by the scout who said he needed a catchy name to play in the big leagues. Jimmy liked to fish thus the “Catfish” moniker. Jimmy died at a rather young age from ALS.

Yankee Pay stub 

As we left the “Catfish” museum, the docent told Clark not to miss seeing the turtles on the log, so of course we had to go look for turtles. I did not mind crossing the bridge to get there, but the curvy road sans sidewalk seemed a bit too scary for me to search for turtles I did not truly expect to see so late in the day. Clark came back from exploring with pictures but with no turtle sightings.

Decided to walk the bike over the swing part of the bridge.

Searching for the log and turtles

Clark found the log, but no turtles, around a bend in the road

Scenery by bridge

Heading back towards town now

Clark said that we should next go see the park. The park was nothing special, but the name was original and somewhat noteworthy.

I suggested to Clark that it would be nice to eat out if we could find a place. We had to go up to the highway to find something, so we headed that way on our bikes. On the way, we passed a monument dedicated to Black Union Soldiers.

 Further along the road, we found a private home with an interesting garden display. It is surprising to me that items don't "walk" away.

Along the highway, as predicted, we found “Captain Bob’s BBQ and Seafood”. Our assessment … we should have eaten on the boat. My crab cake was tasteless, and Clark’s chicken pot pie resembled some kind of mush and tasted like noodles. Dinner was inexpensive though.

Since we were on our bikes, we wanted to be back to the boat before dark. We got back to the boat just before 6:30 and stayed on board for the rest of the night.