Wilson is a city in the heart of eastern North Carolina, around 40 miles east of the capital city of Raleigh. Wilson is ranked 18th in size among North Carolina’s 500-plus municipalities.

Wilson is a diverse community with African-Americans making up 48% of the population and whites 43%; the remaining 9% includes many nationalities, including Latinos, Vietnamese, Chinese and other groups. Nearly 7.5 percent were foreign-born.

Once widely known as "The World’s Greatest Tobacco Market", Wilson enjoys a diverse economy today, with a healthy mix of agriculture, manufacturing, commercial, and service businesses. Wilson is the birthplace of Branch Banking and Trust Corporation (BB&T), which is among the nation's top financial-holding companies with $182 billion in assets, as of spring 2014. Although headquartered now in Winston-Salem, N.C., BB&T remains among Wilson County's top employers with around 2,000 people working in various financial services.

Bridgestone Americas operates a plant in Wilson that employs more than 1,800 people who make radial tires for cars and light trucks. Bridgestone completed a 6-year, $250 million renovation of the plant, which was retooled to make run-flat passenger car tires that are sold in both the USA and Japan.

Other large employers include: Wilson County Schools; Wilson Medical Center; Smithfield Packing Co., pork products; Kidde Aerospace and Defense, aircraft fire protection systems; Sandoz, generic prescription drugs; Merck Manufacturing Division, pharmaceutical drugs; and Ardagh Group, glass containers.

Below: A whirligig is an object that spins or whirls, or has at least one member that spins or whirls. Whirligigs are also known as pinwheels, buzzers, comic weather vanes, gee-haws, spinners, whirlygigs, whirligigs, whirlijig, whirlybird, or plain whirly. Whirligigs are most commonly powered by the wind but can be hand, friction, or motor powered. They can be used as a kinetic garden ornament. They can be designed to transmit sound and vibration into the ground to repel burrowing rodents in yards, gardens, and backyards. Types of whirligigs: button, friction and string whirligigs, wind-driven whirligigs.

Below: Unfortunately, the two RV Gypsies were in Wilson too early for the Whirligig Festival and could not stay here long enough to attend Wilson's Whirligig Festival on November 1 and November 2, 2014. They were not aware of this event before they got here, or they could have changed their travel plans. Shown below is an area where whirlygigs are being prepared for the festival. Unfortunately, . Bummer! For nearly a decade the city has held the Wilson Whirligig Festival in honor of Mr. Simpson. It replaced the Golden Leaf Festival, which celebrated the history of tobacco in Wilson.

Below: A working lighthouse in a parking lot pays tribute to the nearby Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It is the World's Tallest Replica of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

This lighthouse looks as out-of-place as the whale on top of the building next to it. The lighthouse sits in the middle of town in a parking lot. Right next to the parking lot is a fish restaurant with a huge whale on top of the building, and a shark cage next to it. There is also a life-size fisherman and a huge pink flamingo in front of the restaurant.

This one area is a treasure grove for the offbeat attraction seeker.

Lee Duquette decided that he wanted to work in the fields picking cotton. Too bad he did not get paid for his efforts.