Heading south, from James’ son’s home, we left the Interstate and drove along the shoreline, a path with which we are familiar. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are a unique and interesting place to visit. We stopped at the Aycock Brown Welcome Center at Kitty Hawk and spoke to the two women who were on duty directing travelers and answering questions.
Joan asked them what they liked about living in the Outer Banks. One reply was, "It is a dream place to live." James said under his breath, "Yeah, except for the hurricanes!"
In her spare time, the other woman said, she likes the fishing.
The Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a beautiful, wild place. The Outer Banks are all sand dunes and, instead of lawn mowers, people have little tractors with scoop loaders on the front to move the sand around. It blows across the roads and into driveways. Many of the homes are built on stilts, and the ones built farther from the shoreline have "crows nests" so they can see over the rooftops to view the ocean.
For those of us in Connecticut with only access to Long Island Sound, we do not have a feel of the awesomeness of the Atlantic Ocean. The Outer Banks residents experience not only the magnificent view of the Atlantic, but also the brunt of the wrath of hurricanes as Cape Hatteras juts out into the Atlantic.
With Torrington being a thousand of feet above sea level on rock and ledge, it is hard to imagine living on sand, a few feet above the sea — with water flowing on both sides of the community. We are all children of the Earth indeed!
We stopped in Kitty Hawk at the Wright Brothers’ National Memorial. There is a museum, a replica of the first plane the Wright Brothers flew and a history of flight. It seems to be quite windy there, and on the only hill there is where the Wrights made a good choice to launch their first (glider) airplane. (We again used our National Park Pass, and paid no entrance fee.)
The Outer Banks are a series of islands connected by bridges and ferries. We arrived at the ferry dock at night in time for the 7:30 Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry. This trip takes 40 minutes and is free — subsidized by the state of North Carolina. It was dark when we docked at Ocracoke Island. We drove through deserted marshland for 13 miles, with little traffic going in either direction. Ocracoke Island has a small village with few residents. The community is practically and solely dependent on tourism.
We didn’t stop at Roanoke Island where 116 men, women, and children disappeared in 1587 from the settlement of Jamestown. That will be for another trip!
We were too late for the last ferry to Cedar Island, so we stopped in a park parking lot for the night. The park was closed, and we were the only ones there. In the morning, we got to the dock in time for the first ferry to Cedar Island. This time the cost was $15 for a ride of 2 hours and 15 minutes. During the summer months, reservations are needed for the ferry, but there were only 7 cars on the ferry this time, as it was off-season.
As the ferry progressed along the watery "road," flocks of sea gulls began to follow us, diving into the water to catch their meals. At times, they flew very close behind the ferry, keeping up with us, gliding gracefully above the surface. One has to appreciate Mother Nature with scenes like this.
On Cedar Island, the road traveled along with canals on either side, with little shoulder or guard rails. We saw a kingfisher standing in the marshland, looking for his breakfast. As we moved through more "stable" land with occasional homes, we saw small family cemeteries along the road with only 4 or 5 stone markers.
We stopped for the night at Wal-Mart in Wilmington. Most Wal-Mart stores allow RVs to spend the night in their parking lot. This is known as "boondocking" to the RV crowd. If the Wal Mart is open 24 hours (as the superstores are) it makes it convenient for travelers. Sometimes we see others stopped for the night and this night was no exception.
A young man from northern Vermont parked next to us. He was driving an old school bus, with chipping brown paint. There was a large chimney on top of the bus, and he told us he had a wood stove for heat! Since he had recently needed to make repairs to his bus, he told us that he was out of money and would be looking for work in the area before he could continue on his journey. He, too, is traveling the country but on a far shorter shoestring than we are.
When we left the next morning, we went to the gym, and headed out to Charleston, South Carolina. When we arrived, we called the local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and discovered they were having a dance. We drove to the post, changed clothes, and enjoyed the company of the local veterans. We spent the night parked in their parking lot and left the next morning to spend the day in Charleston, which is a city full of history and is the site where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.
Our outing for the day was to Fort Moultrie, which is on the shore facing Fort Sumter. Fort Moultrie has a long history of defending Charleston — first from the English in the Revolutionary War, and later the War of 1812, the Civil War, and again in WW I and WW II. We toured the underground bunkers, and climbed to the look out. We could see Fort Sumter out in the bay, which is only accessible by boat. (Again, we were able to use our National Park Pass for admission.)
Heading south again, we entered Florida at 7:15 that evening, and stopped at the welcome center for the night. Florida rest areas frequently offer security for overnight parkers, however, rest areas in Georgia have signs saying overnight parking is "prohibited." There are probably travelers and truckers who do stop there, but we never have. As the State of Georgia is only a two hour trip on I-95, this presents no problem for us. However, James advises all readers to make safety a priority, and if rest is required, Georgia will be as welcome as any other state.
As we traveled the highways, Joan remembered traveling with her family as a youngster. One of the favorite pastimes of those road trips was watching for the Burma Shave advertising signs. For those not old enough to remember the signs, they were red with white lettering, spaced at about a quarter mile intervals. They had single lines, with a punch line at the end. The signs were first used around 1927 and continued until 1963 — until highway travel became too fast to read the signs. There were a plethora of verses on the Burma Shave web site, but here is a favorite:
Ben
Met Anna
Made a hit
Neglected beard
Ben-Anna split
Burma Shave
After traveling ONLY 1,677 miles, we arrived at Joan’s cousin’s home in DeLand, Florida, around 12:15. p.m. It is a balmy 80 degrees and sunny. Florida weather!
From De Land, Florida, the capital of American sky diving.
James and Joan, American Vagabonds
Joan asked them what they liked about living in the Outer Banks. One reply was, "It is a dream place to live." James said under his breath, "Yeah, except for the hurricanes!"
In her spare time, the other woman said, she likes the fishing.
The Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a beautiful, wild place. The Outer Banks are all sand dunes and, instead of lawn mowers, people have little tractors with scoop loaders on the front to move the sand around. It blows across the roads and into driveways. Many of the homes are built on stilts, and the ones built farther from the shoreline have "crows nests" so they can see over the rooftops to view the ocean.
For those of us in Connecticut with only access to Long Island Sound, we do not have a feel of the awesomeness of the Atlantic Ocean. The Outer Banks residents experience not only the magnificent view of the Atlantic, but also the brunt of the wrath of hurricanes as Cape Hatteras juts out into the Atlantic.
With Torrington being a thousand of feet above sea level on rock and ledge, it is hard to imagine living on sand, a few feet above the sea — with water flowing on both sides of the community. We are all children of the Earth indeed!
We stopped in Kitty Hawk at the Wright Brothers’ National Memorial. There is a museum, a replica of the first plane the Wright Brothers flew and a history of flight. It seems to be quite windy there, and on the only hill there is where the Wrights made a good choice to launch their first (glider) airplane. (We again used our National Park Pass, and paid no entrance fee.)
The Outer Banks are a series of islands connected by bridges and ferries. We arrived at the ferry dock at night in time for the 7:30 Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry. This trip takes 40 minutes and is free — subsidized by the state of North Carolina. It was dark when we docked at Ocracoke Island. We drove through deserted marshland for 13 miles, with little traffic going in either direction. Ocracoke Island has a small village with few residents. The community is practically and solely dependent on tourism.
We didn’t stop at Roanoke Island where 116 men, women, and children disappeared in 1587 from the settlement of Jamestown. That will be for another trip!
We were too late for the last ferry to Cedar Island, so we stopped in a park parking lot for the night. The park was closed, and we were the only ones there. In the morning, we got to the dock in time for the first ferry to Cedar Island. This time the cost was $15 for a ride of 2 hours and 15 minutes. During the summer months, reservations are needed for the ferry, but there were only 7 cars on the ferry this time, as it was off-season.
As the ferry progressed along the watery "road," flocks of sea gulls began to follow us, diving into the water to catch their meals. At times, they flew very close behind the ferry, keeping up with us, gliding gracefully above the surface. One has to appreciate Mother Nature with scenes like this.
On Cedar Island, the road traveled along with canals on either side, with little shoulder or guard rails. We saw a kingfisher standing in the marshland, looking for his breakfast. As we moved through more "stable" land with occasional homes, we saw small family cemeteries along the road with only 4 or 5 stone markers.
We stopped for the night at Wal-Mart in Wilmington. Most Wal-Mart stores allow RVs to spend the night in their parking lot. This is known as "boondocking" to the RV crowd. If the Wal Mart is open 24 hours (as the superstores are) it makes it convenient for travelers. Sometimes we see others stopped for the night and this night was no exception.
A young man from northern Vermont parked next to us. He was driving an old school bus, with chipping brown paint. There was a large chimney on top of the bus, and he told us he had a wood stove for heat! Since he had recently needed to make repairs to his bus, he told us that he was out of money and would be looking for work in the area before he could continue on his journey. He, too, is traveling the country but on a far shorter shoestring than we are.
When we left the next morning, we went to the gym, and headed out to Charleston, South Carolina. When we arrived, we called the local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and discovered they were having a dance. We drove to the post, changed clothes, and enjoyed the company of the local veterans. We spent the night parked in their parking lot and left the next morning to spend the day in Charleston, which is a city full of history and is the site where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.
Our outing for the day was to Fort Moultrie, which is on the shore facing Fort Sumter. Fort Moultrie has a long history of defending Charleston — first from the English in the Revolutionary War, and later the War of 1812, the Civil War, and again in WW I and WW II. We toured the underground bunkers, and climbed to the look out. We could see Fort Sumter out in the bay, which is only accessible by boat. (Again, we were able to use our National Park Pass for admission.)
Heading south again, we entered Florida at 7:15 that evening, and stopped at the welcome center for the night. Florida rest areas frequently offer security for overnight parkers, however, rest areas in Georgia have signs saying overnight parking is "prohibited." There are probably travelers and truckers who do stop there, but we never have. As the State of Georgia is only a two hour trip on I-95, this presents no problem for us. However, James advises all readers to make safety a priority, and if rest is required, Georgia will be as welcome as any other state.
As we traveled the highways, Joan remembered traveling with her family as a youngster. One of the favorite pastimes of those road trips was watching for the Burma Shave advertising signs. For those not old enough to remember the signs, they were red with white lettering, spaced at about a quarter mile intervals. They had single lines, with a punch line at the end. The signs were first used around 1927 and continued until 1963 — until highway travel became too fast to read the signs. There were a plethora of verses on the Burma Shave web site, but here is a favorite:
Ben
Met Anna
Made a hit
Neglected beard
Ben-Anna split
Burma Shave
After traveling ONLY 1,677 miles, we arrived at Joan’s cousin’s home in DeLand, Florida, around 12:15. p.m. It is a balmy 80 degrees and sunny. Florida weather!
From De Land, Florida, the capital of American sky diving.
James and Joan, American Vagabonds
No comments:
Post a Comment