Greenville, North Carolina

 I can sum up Eastern North Carolina in one word:  Beautiful.  This place is wonderfully GREEN.  Mixed forests cover the landscape.  There are several kinds of oaks, maples, elms, sycamores, and all types of pines and cedars.  This is also the land of the giant magnolia trees.  This one is outside of the Greenville Museum of Art.

This tree was easily 30 feet tall, and it's not even the biggest one we've seen.  After getting my Greenville Library card, we took a tour of the art museum with a young woman who has all the degrees to become a curator.  Currently, she's doing educational outreach in the community - thus the tour.  

The collection of the museum tends to be an interesting blend of modern and primitive/folk art.  

I really liked the whimsical outdoor sculptures constructed of 'found materials'.

 What excited me the most about the Greenville Art Museum is I learned about a Seagrove, NC.   This is a town of 200 potters.  We are headed there for a quick overnight on the 16th of June.  The granddaddy of potters in this town is called Jugtown Pottery.  It's a family owned business which goes back to the turn of the century.  Mostly, they've produced utilitarian pottery (stuff you actually use), but like the Japanese, they also have produced 'art pieces'.  The pottery is instantly recognizable since it's this hideous orange color.  Gradually over the past thirty years, other potters have just gravitated to this town.  I can hardly wait to see what they have to offer.   Here's some Jugtown pottery in the art museum

Greenville isn't filled with 'attractions' like several of the other towns we've visited in the area.  There are two major inhabitants of this town:  East Carolina University (the Pirates), and Greenville is the medical center of Eastern North Carolina.  One-third of the town is hospitals and other medical facilities.  

Since the university is on summer break, the town feels a bit sleepy.  It's filled with restaurants, some locally owned, and others are the chains we all know.  Lots of fast food, catering to the student population.  There are no freeways in Greenville.  It feels like the Tulsa, Oklahoma of the 1950's (my hometown).  It's all about traffic lights.  Since, the town is only 88,000 people, it's still easy to move from one side of town to the other.  The people are quite friendly, in that Southern way, and the natives have the most charming accent.  

We have enjoyed our time here even with my accident recovery time.  However, this town lacks direct connection to NYC which is a must for a move to the Northeast.  I wish I could transplant it to the north of Richmond.

If you'd like to see more pictures, click the following link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tZkP6q8k2xvd6WzVA