Let me reminiscence back to Paul's Place. I felt a need to see if it was still there. It had been almost two decades since I'd tasted one of those dogs that melt in your mouth and I had my heart set on having another. But I was also prepared for disappointment. After all, there was no need for anyone to go through Rocky Point anymore since the completion of Interstate 40 from Wilmington to Raleigh.
Cars are now able to zoom by without knowing that's a place to eat just west of the freeway.
In many ways, I was prepared for what I might find. As I crossed the Northeast Cape Fear River, I noticed that the railroad trestle that had paralleled the highway bridge was gone. At one time known as the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, it boasted, when completed in the early 1850's, the longest set of tracks in the world. During the Civil War it was the lifeline of the Confederacy as it shipped supplies from the port of Wilmington to the Army of Northern Virginia. The tracks ran just east of Paul's Place and had also served as the lifeline of the farmers in the region.