Sounds like a fun trip!

We used to have a steam engine that ran out of, um stanley I think. They would do an hour excursion or so. When my parents place wasn't surrounded by all the new Subdivisions, just woods, you would hear the steam whistle blow, echoing through the woods, it was quite ghostly. At first I thought I was having some strange past life flashback, but no, it was quite cool really. They stopped running it many years ago, a shame!

It makes one think of a time when all you might here was the whistle of a train, or a river boat, maybe the clip clop of horses drawing carriages. They should do a mountains to the coast, whistle stop tour, an overnighter. All the different foods and scenery. That is one thing North Carolina is good for, vastly different terrain