Most Underrated Destination along America’s Great Loop

After our eventful evening yesterday on America’s Great Loop rescuing two kayaker’s in distress (read about it here), we took full advantage of Saturday and our full day in Oriental, North Carolina. 

We didn’t know much about this small town in North Carolina, but we feel the best way to get familiar with an area is to simply walk around. 

We headed over to the other side of the harbor and went to the small local farmer’s market. There were only 3 stalls and only one had vegetables but we scored some micro-greens and a small salad. The city was already beginning to make its mark on us; everyone was so friendly. 

Oriental is known as a huge sailing destination because it borders the Neuse River, a large river great for sailing, and people joke that their population is made of the 10,000 sailboats in the marinas and moored. After the farmer’s market we headed over to their marina and met some very kind people. Some were YouTubers and others just said hi. 

Afterwards we headed back to the town’s free dock, where Pivot is docked, and we started doing some chores. We needed to get groceries and luckily the local Piggly Wiggly (while not being close) offered a pick up and drop off service for the town docks. 

Oriental is an interesting place and the “dragons” comes from their beginning. Legend has it that the town was applying for a post office and the application needed a name for the town. Well the lady applying looked into the bay, saw a sunken ship with the name S.S. Oriental on the beam and said that’s a fine name for a town. Subsequently, since the town was named Oriental, the town folk decided to have a Dragon Parade at New Years and thus the tradition was born and Oriental was tied to Dragons.  

We wrapped up our time in Oriental going to the local brewery and vibing to some quality live music.