That title may seem a bit strange but I think you’ll understand why I chose it soon enough.
With Nicholas and Katie working, it’s not easy having a day where all three of the kids are available for a belated Father’s Day celebration but fortunately today’s one of those days.
Their original idea was to find some restaurant in the evening but owing Nicholas a trip to one of our destinations and wanting to visit the other one ever since I moved back home in *1992*, we changed things up a bit and hit the road in the morning for what I’d describe as the Nuclear BBQ tour.
This flight plan would involve two famous Eastern North Carolina BBQ shacks and a place about halfway between them that could have had a very bad day in 1961:
- Pete Jones’ legendary Skylight Inn in Ayden, NC
- The final resting site of one of two Mark 39 Mod 2 3.9 megaton thermonuclear bombs that dropped from a Boeing B-52 bomber that broke up in flight due to structural failure near Faro, NC
- Wilber’s BBQ near the end of the runways at Seymour Johnson AFB near Goldsboro, NC
A few months ago, I had the chance of introducing Katie and Nicholas to Eastern North Carolina style BBQ at Sam’s BBQ in downtown Raleigh which is operated by one of the grandsons of the legendary master of the pit in Ayden…Mr Pete Jones.
At the time, I’d never imagined that I’d have a chance to sample the BBQ from the original restaurant in Ayden…the Skylight Inn.
This place is nationally famous for it’s BBQ and rightfully so. If you were to ask even a casual fan of BBQ for their choice as the definitive example of the Eastern style vinegar-based sauce and whole hog done over wood, this place is going to be the one you’re going to hear about at least nine times out of ten.
This is bucket list BBQ and after making the quick 90 minute run from the house to Ayden, that reputation is very well deserved! You can’t miss the building with the Capitol Dome as the capital of Eastern Carolina BBQ and the massive chopping block where the pig is chopped into the distinctive blend of pig and cracklins that’s almost a bowl that makes one think of a canoe after all of the use it’s seen.
Fortunately, we were there in the morning before the rush really kicked in round noon. Back in the day, it was not uncommon for quite a queue to form on Lee Street where you’d go the window hoping they’d not run out of the BBQ for the day, get your order after paying cash, and then find somewhere to eat it.
Now there’s some tables inside and a picnic area nearby but the true star of the show is the BBQ and the divinely inspired swine win that gives it that unique flavour that you have to go to Ayden to truly experience it as it should be.
After doing a bit of pigging out on the pig, we headed off to hit up the second BBQ shack of the day about a hour’s drive away in Goldsboro.
Before reaching Goldsboro, we did take a bit more of a scenic route to try to find the field where some of the bits of a thermonuclear bomb still remain buried under a stand of trees.
I’ll admit that I’ve always had a morbid fascination with these weapons of the worst nightmares to ever be unleashed by the hand of man. In my life, I’ve never lived more than 50 miles from a primary target (and where I was born was supposedly higher on the Soviet priority list than even New York City or Washington DC!). Whether it was seeing a test launch of a nuclear-capable missile whilst Dad was stationed at Ft Leavenworth or “The Day After” which was aired (and is mostly set between Sedalia MO and Kansas City and Lawrence KS…all of which were very fresh memories!), there’s just something fascinating about these weapons one hopes we never have to use in war ever again.
The United States Air Force has unintentionally dropped a few nuclear bombs upon the United States and a few of those sites are near enough to North Carolina to be a wee bit concerning. 1958 was a particularly scary year when a B-47 dropped a bomb off Tybee Island near Savannah GA after colliding with a F-86 Sabre fighter and then a month later another bomb was dropped on Mars Bluff near Florence SC and the resulting non-nuclear explosion from the shaped charges that are meant to compress the primary of the bomb was enough to flatten a farmer’s house and cause damage for five hours from the concussive shock.
But those scares pale compared to the infamous incident in 1961 where a B-52 that had taken off from Seymour Johnson AFB to do a run to the polar regions on a standard ladder patrol developed a fuel leak that got much worse to the point where the structural integrity of the wing failed and the aircraft broke up in flight as they were attempting to return to base and three members of the crew would not survive the incident.
Two bombs dropped from the stricken fuselage near Faro, NC. The parachute on one weapon deployed properly and the arming switch was in the SAFE (well, relatively speaking!) configuration and thus was relatively intact when it was discovered.
The other weapon also had the arming switch set to SAFE prior to the bomb falling out of the bomb bay but it’s parachute didn’t deploy and it had a very hard impact in a farmer’s field creating a huge crater. When they discovered the arming switch, the EOD team was horrified to see that it was displaying ARM. The subsequent investigation would conclude that five of the six interlocks had failed in the impact and the wiring of the sixth and final interlock in the arming switch had separated enough due to the impact forces that the bomb could not be armed for detonation and that those same forces had moved the indicator to ARM.
Goldsboro came that close to being wiped off the face of the earth in 1961. 3.9 megatons would have vaporised everything within a five mile radius and the fireball would have caused damage and death well beyond that.
The secondary of the bomb is still buried in that location at roughly 55m and the USAF ended up buying that parcel of the farmer’s field where the pieces of the bomb that could not be extracted still remain to this day underneath a circular stand of trees right in the middle of the field that’s visible from Big Daddy’s Road near Faro.
The only way you’ll get closer to the bomb is to enlist in the Air Force Global Strike Command!
From the field of nuclear bomb parts, it’s a pretty quick and easy run the rest of the way to the eastern part of Goldsboro where you’ll find Wilber’s BBQ near the end of the runways of Seymour Johnson AFB.
There are plenty of stories of pilots strapping on a F-15 and flying halfway across the country to Seymour Johnson AFB and parking on the taxiways near the end of the runway so they could walk over to Wilber’s and have a couple of pulled pork BBQ sandwiches with slaw and then jump back into their Eagles and fly back home.
That was my plan (minus having a F-15 to fly!). I’d been to Wilber’s a couple of times when I’d headed down east to Cape Lookout and Ocracoke Island so I knew what was in store for us but Wilber’s sauce is very different from the sauces you’d find in Ayden or at Sam’s in Raleigh.
It has a definite kick of spiciness (not as much as Lexington BBQ’s Western style sauce which is probably the spiciest of the sauces I’ve had) which perfectly complements the pig that has been roasted for hours over the wood coals.
I had owed Nicholas a trip to Wilber’s for completely replacing the brakes and rotors on the Traverse but figured that when that debt was going to be repaid, I was going to do the grand tour to Ayden so that he could compare the three Eastern sauces and decide which one he liked the best.
Ah…that BBQ sandwich truly hit the spot and yes, the slaw on the sandwich is *NOT* optional. Don’t take my word for it…Sam Jones himself is on record that the sandwich without the slaw on the bun is just plain sacrilegious!
Of course, a few bottles of sauce from each BBQ shack had to come with us and I’m sure that some will find their way along with a book on BBQ by Sam Jones will find its way to a fellow fan of North Carolina BBQ in the Midwest soon enough! 🙂
It was so lovely having Katie and Alex along for the ride and it was a treat that they were patient with me taking the side tour through the country to find the site of one of North Carolina’s greatest examples of luck and favour from upon high.
A quick run home and it’s time to let the puppies out and let them harass us mercilessly until we all fall asleep for a quick nap and dreams of our next adventure! 🙂
