Even during basketball and pollen season, North Carolina offers so much to explore

If you’re a newcomer, welcome to North Carolina. Once you unpack everything, leave.

Leave for the weekend.

Leave for the mountains.

Leave for the beaches.

That’s the beauty of our state and living in the Triangle. When everything new on Netflix starts to feel old, indulge yourself with a day or weekend trip. There is so much to explore and experience. And a quick check of The News & Observer archive shows we continually appeal to a statewide audience.

Granted, it’s that time of year when the triumphs and travails of the ACC Tournament in nostalgia-pollinated Greensboro dominate our viewing screens. But given the seismic rumblings currently affecting the center of the college basketball universe, aka HERE, maybe a road trip is a good idea.

Back roads and back stories

My wife loves an adventure, and the benefit of working at The News & Observer is working with Carolina-bred journalists who know the back roads and back stories.

We’ve notched our share of weekend trips in a year-plus of being first-generation Carolinians, enough to converse with locals on the must-dos:

▪ MUST bring cash for a bag of Britts Donuts on Carolina Beach. If Britts is closed for the season, or you prefer something else that’s calorically guilty for breakfast, DO arise early and head to Kate’s Pancake House. The restaurant staff is a joy.

▪ MUST try the cathead biscuits at Asheville’s Biscuit Head. And on the way to/from all things touristy in Asheville, DO stop in downtown Hickory for lunch and retailing.

▪ MUST take Amtrak’s Piedmont line to a Panthers game in Charlotte. DO pay attention to Lexington’s annual Barbecue Festival (Oct. 23 this year), which is when the Piedmont line stops in Lexington. (Pro tip: Search “Riding the Piedmont” on newsobserver.com for Richard Stradling’s stellar guide to this special Amtrak route between Raleigh and Charlotte.)

Despite all of our selfie-soaked NC adventures, for reasons less logical, we avoided the Outer Banks. Until last weekend.

Maybe it felt too far. Maybe we couldn’t find the ferry schedule from Chapel Hill. (Yes, we get the joke. For fans of Netflix’s “Outer Banks” series, read Korie Dean’s N&O story on “real-life” North Carolina references in Netflix’s fictitious “Outer Banks” series.)

Visuals Editor Scott Sharpe suggested in a recent planning meeting that I do my version of a how-to travel series.

But I’m no Scott Sharpe, who takes epic back-road trips to photograph forgotten buildings in natural-light splendor,

I’m not Brooke Cain, who can weigh concisely into the Ohio vs. North Carolina “first in flight” debate (Brooke: We win).

On to the OBX

And I’m not Travis Long or Martha Quillin, who teamed up for The N&O’s popular “Cruising Across Carolina” series, which started with the Outer Banks.

Besides, is the Triangle market ready for my OBX must-do travel guide?

▪ MUST eat breakfast before departing the Triangle. DO stop in Columbia, because that’s your best pit stop (and I’m not talking barbecue).

▪ MUST act like a kid and make airplane noises at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. It’s an instant memory maker if you think viscerally how Wilbur, Orville and colleagues had to overcome the winds and sand dunes (and, yes, gravity). DO read the late David McCullough’s book on the Wright Brothers and search for an N&O article on McCullough’s 2015 visit to Raleigh.

▪ MUST walk the beach even when your feet go numb, drive Highway 12 despite all the wacky speed limit changes, and DO trust your instincts when locals wink and tell you how to get into the Corolla lighthouse (despite it being closed for the season.)

The trip to/from OBX was reflective of this state’s beauty and fragility, its wealth and poverty, its hope and heritage.

All this inspired introspection … and we forgot to stop at a coastal Duck Donuts.

So, if you see me at the one at 8323 Creedmoor Road in Raleigh early on a weekend morning, don’t judge. I’m exploring the state, one doughnut at a time.

Bill Church is executive editor of The News & Observer. Please email bchurch@newsobserver with your favorite must-do travel advice.