Tough Choices. Winston or Salem? Dash or Hyphen? Baseball or History?

These two picked a pretty good day to get hitched, huh?

On our most recent mini-trip away from Moores Creek National Battlefield we ventured further west, deeper into the Piedmont and farther from home than any trip so far as our time as volunteers at MCNB draws to a close.

So before I recap (mostly in photos) our recent trip to Winston-Salem/Greensboro, I'll give readers a brief rundown on our future plans (probably because they have been top of mind for us in recent days as we have made a flurry of reservations in preparation for a new phase of our summer travels).

After wrapping up at MCNB on Saturday the NPS is graciously allowing us to leave our trailer there for another week while we spend a night in the first NC state capital of New Bern and then two nights in a cabin on a remote section of Cape Lookout National Seashore on the Outer Banks.

After that we will leave MCNB for good and head into South Carolina for several days to visit Revolutionary War battlefield sites (and National Park units) there.

We will then return to North Carolina and stay about a week in the Charlotte area before heading west to Asheville (via Hickory) for another week or so before leaving the state for good (or, at least, for the summer). 

After a brief stop in Knoxville (TN) we will arrive in Lexington (KY) to get ourselves prepared for the BIG EVENT of the summer.

After the wedding we will return, briefly, to Knoxville to put the trailer in storage before driving to Dulles airport in Virginia to park the truck and catch the Metro into Washington DC where we will stay for a week in a hotel adjacent to the Washington Nationals ballpark where (coincidentally) the Nats have a six-game home stand that perfectly overlaps our stay. 

From there we will take Amtrak to Philadelphia for a five-day immersion in the momentous events that occurred there in the late 18th century, staying in a rental unit about a block from Independence Hall.

From there we will retrace our steps to Dulles and then back to Knoxville to retrieve the trailer and check in on the newlyweds before heading west for home via Nashville (for the TN state fair), Memphis (for the Civil Rights Museum, Elvis, ribs, ducks and jazz), Hot Springs (for the water and the park) and Houston (for the Astros).

Whew! Exhausting!! But enough about what's ahead, here is a photo recap of our trip to Winston-Salem/Greensboro which featured two minor league baseball parks (#6 and #7 in North Carolina this summer) and one new national park unit (#191 for Betsy and #260 for me).

No better way to get a trip started in the southeastern U.S.

Well, at least she wasn't shoving the kids out of the way to get to the mascot.

Each ballpark seems to be better than the last and Winston-Salem has a beauty.

The Winston-Salem team is (very creatively I think) called the Dash (for the hyphen in Winston-Salem). But with a name like that, what is the mascot and what do you call it? The answer to the second question is clear, Bolt. The answer to the first question is a little fuzzier.

With the exception of George Washington himself, there may be no greater hero and no man more responsible for the defeat of the British in the Revolutionary War than the Quaker blacksmith from Rhode Island, Nathaniel Greene. Greene rose from the rank of militia private to become Washington's most trusted and respected general. Ultimately, he was given command of the Continental Army in the southern states and "won" a series of battles with Cornwallis in the Carolinas and Virginia that led directly to the Patriot victory at Yorktown in 1781. One of those battles, arguably the most important, was fought here at Guilford Court House on the edge of present-day Greensboro. This a statue of Greene in Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.

It still comes as a shock to see the national reach of our favorite small-town brewery.

The Greensboro Grasshopper may be "low Class A" but they've got a first-class stadium and the game against the Lakewood (NJ) BlueClaws was the most entertaining so far, including a half-dozen or so close plays at the plate neatly packaged in a crisply-played 2 1/2 hours.

We'll get to the real thing momentarily but this photo in front of the stadium is a good place to talk about the grasshopper and the dogs. When we were at Guilford Courthouse NMP earlier in the day Betsy noticed that one of the cannon used in the battle was a "three-pounder" (meaning that it shot a three-pound cannon ball) nicknamed the "grasshopper". Might that be the inspiration for the team's mascot, whose nickname is Guilford? We asked numerous team employees and nobody knew. But it turns out, that is the origin of the mascot for the team that plays in the city named for Nathaniel Greene. And, after several discussions with team officials, we even got to see the replica of the original grasshopper that they keep hidden in a corner. As for the dogs; a team owner came up with the bright idea of training them to pick up bats. One of the dogs is on the DDL (Doggie Disabled List) but you can see the other dog in action in this video and this video.

The "real" mascot.

Betsy had to shove these kids out of the way to get to the mascot for her photo.

The "real" grasshopper.

George Washington really did sleep here, at this tavern in what is now known as "Old Salem", on his 1791 tour of the southern states.

The famous lunch counter at the Woolworth's here in Greensboro is now a fantastic museum and we had a great tour. Unfortunately for readers, no photos allowed inside.