While making our way to the Outer Banks in NC, we noticed what looked like litter on the sides of the roads everywhere. Turns out it was just cotton. Everywhere.
We rolled in late on Monday night to discover that our targeted campground was closed for the season. The owner let us boondock on an empty patch of grass for the night (we found an open and much nicer campground down the road the next day).
The Outer Banks has some of the best mobile internet of the trip. Wicked fast (for me, anyway):
Amy and the girls were eager to see an ocean for the first time since being in San Diego:
A big side trip for us was seeing the Wright Brother’s museum at Kitty Hawk. This was an important stop because of Emily’s interest in airplanes, but also because the girls have been studying and reading historical fiction about the Wright Brothers.
A park ranger gave us an informative presentation in front of a Wright Flyer replica. Emily correctly answered all of his questions.
The site of the Wright’s successful flight (and Emily’s unsuccessful flight):
On Thursday, Amy and the girls took a field trip to Corolla to see the wild horses. Their tour guide April drove them down the sandy roads to find the horses. The Scion would have never made it over the dunes and down the beach!
There are over 100 Spanish mustangs that live in this area, roaming freely in the marshes and on the dunes.
The horses prefer to travel along the cleared roadways created by the 4-wheel drive vehicles.
This is the Bodie Island lighthouse on the Outer Banks. Just south of here, the road continues to be passable only to 4-wheel-drives after it was washed out by Hurricane Sandy. We are back to wanting a jeep.
It’s a Christmas wonderland in the RV. Carrie strung up lights, and Amy, Em and Nat made paper snowflakes and garland:
Amy had to have some fresh-out-of-water-still-flopping-around sea food, so we had a rare and enjoyable dinner out on Friday night:
Amy and I discovered that the little hill in the middle of our campground is actually a creepy-cool old cemetery, so that’s a first.
Our last couple of days in the Outer Banks were pretty foggy. Everything is very damp, all of the time:
On Saturday, we hit the road and headed south. Along the way we stopped at the site of the “lost colony” of Roanoke Island. It’s clearly the off season…the park ranger visibly reacted with delight to us walking into the otherwise empty visitor center.
I always thought the Thanksgiving pilgrims were the first English folks to try to make a go of the “new world.” Not so. The Virginia Colony was an English settlement on Roanoke Island in 1584. They ran into hard times, sent their leader back to England for provisions. By the time he got back 3 YEARS LATER, everyone was gone. No one knows what fate befell them, hence the name “lost colony.” These mounds are one of the few things that indicate anyone was ever here. Sad story.
I’m loving these gas prices. $3.15/gallon with my spiffy Flying J card. Yesterday we saw a couple places with $3.03 gas. When one gets only 8 miles per gallon and one’s tank is 65 gallons, this is a significant cost savings.
We slummed out in the Lumberton, NC Walmart parking lot on Saturday night:
We spent most of Sunday morning traveling before arriving at James Island County Campground in Charleston, SC. It’s so warm here. It smells like summer.
It was nice to see my kids back to playing outside in the dirt.
There is a major Christmas light display going on at the park we’re staying at, so we spent some time last night walking around checking it all out.
The lights were really cool, but it was a strange sensation strolling through a “winter wonderland” of christmas lights while wearing shorts.
This campground is a little nicer than what we’re used to, and at $40/night it’s a little pricier than what we’re used to. But we’ll enjoy our time here before continuing southward this weekend.