Our House Not On Wheels: Outer Banks

Monday

Sadly we had to get up and say our goodbyes to wonderful friends Don and Linda. Our time was much to short and we had such a great time. We wish we could have stayed in the area much longer and visited many more of our friends.

We pulled out around 9:30 and headed for Oracoke Island in North Carolina. We thought we were on a roll. We made a quick stop for fuel and drink at Flying J and then back on the road. We took the bypass around Richmond and ran into a traffic backup from an accident.

Our view for 15 or 20 minutes

I use an APP called WAZE and it was showing that the back up was not too bad. We lost about 10 minutes and then we were back up to speed. The drive to Kitty Hawk was about 4 1/2 hours and we got there just before 2pm. One of our young friends from back home is living and working there and I had contacted her on Facebook and we were meeting for lunch.

We made it to Kitty Hawk

It was great to have lunch with Libby and catch up

Libby asked what we wanted and we decided to meet for BBQ. It was very good and we able to catch up on whats been going on in each of our lives. She is working in Banking and getting married in the new year.

It was a long drive down the outer banks to Hatteras to catch the ferry and it took us over 2 hours to get there. We were 10 minutes early for the 5pm ferry.

We hope to spend more time down here in the future

This is the bridge over the Oregon Inlet

Lots of ducks were headed south

We made it with a few minutes to spare

The sun was setting quickly as we waited to board

All Aboard

Finally underway

The sunset was beautiful

It was cool on the water but we were out on deck a lot

Here comes the inbound ferry

Lots of Pelicans were out feeding and diving for fish

Venus was clearly visible and the moon was out also, just did not come out well in the pictures. It was dark soon after we left the dock on the 40 minute trip. Once we were off the ferry we had about a 13 mile trip to The Captains Landing in Oracoke. We will be here 3 nights. Its a mini suite and right on the water. Can't wait till morning to see our view off the deck looking out at the harbor.

About the time we got in the room we got a picture from home.

Its Snowing back home.

Well its been a busy day and we cover a lot of territory.

Tuesday

Beautiful morning and 55 degrees already. We got to see the view out our living room window for the first time.

Left

Center

Right

Bonnie wanted to look for shells on the beach. Checked the tides and its time to go, low tide. So we drove up to the Pony Pastures, visited the ponies and then she headed down the beach. They have built large fenced in pastures for the ponies here. There got to be a lot of them and they were getting hit on the road by cars, they used to wander right through the village. Today the herd is 25-30.

Baker Pony

One Came close to the fence

Finally to the beach. When she is done she will call me. If she does not have coverage she will come out to the road at 2pm and I will drive along the road and pick her up. I am passing the time listening to the waves and visiting with people. We met a couple from Oklahoma that have their RV here and they are headed north while we head south. Then I talked to a couple fishing on the beach from Greensboro, NC and learned something about surf fishing. Here are some pictures of the day.

At the end of the walkway over the dunes

Off to find shells

Interesting driftwood

A mushroom growing in the sand

This Horseshoe crab did not make it

The couple from Greensboro

One of the many birds

Ducks headed south

Some of the grass that holds the dunes in place

Deposit of shells

Pelican

This bird found a piece of fish

Now I am in the car for a bit, Bonnie should be halfway through her shelling adventure. Some times I can see where she is using the Find Friends App on the iPhone. I have the hotspot on and pretty good internet. So I am checking on places to visit and eat. Also looking at campgrounds for a return visit. Bonnie called right at 2pm. She made it 2 miles down the beach and was ready for a ride.

We went back to the condo and Bonnie cleaned the sand off her feet and shoes then took a quick shower. It was almost 3 so we were ready to eat and combine lunch with supper. So we asked in the office for a good place to eat. A lot of the places are closed or only open part of the week. So we ended up across the road at Dajio's and it was very good. We were the only ones in there and had a nice conversation with the waitress.

Blue Nacho's with spicy shrimp

Very tasty

Back at the room we watched the 4pm ferry leave and then decided to watch a movie.

4pm ferry departing

Notice the camper on the ferry, they tell me ours will fit on any of the ferries also.

There she goes around the turn

No sunset tonight the clouds and the wind have moved in at least for the night. So we are calling it a night.

Wednesday

Windy cool and sunny today. The temp. stayed in the 40's today, cold for the residents here. With the sun out so bright it feels very nice to us. We had a leisurely morning and decided to go out and drive around the populated end of the island some.

Bonnie did sort her shells and spread them out to dry, we soaked them in bleach water overnight to clean them.

Spread out to dry

We slowly drove trough the housing areas and wondered what the prices would be of the houses we saw for sale. Most houses also have rental signs on them, I guess that is how they pay for them. One small vacant lot was $299,000, for a lot full of sand. The NPS owns all the shoreline so no houses there. The houses I looked up later were $299,000 to $2.1 million and they are not very big.

There are a few canals with houses on them

I like the spiral stairs up to the deck

Then we headed to the light house to check it out

Second oldest lighthouse in the country that is still lighted

The Coast Guard still maintains the light. The light keeps house with the red roof is now a private residence.

On the walkway

The walkway is a nice way to keep people out of the yard.

One of the island cats, most are feral

Then we headed for the NPS visitors center and the Ocracoke Preservation Museum.

The Center was closed until 1pm so we headed across the parking lot to the Preservation Society

They had a nice display of shells

This was a nice quilt

From there we checked out Teeter RV park, not many spaces that are not seasonal. Also right there is the British Cemetery.

The four seaman that were recovered from the sea are buried here

These seaman are all that were found from a British Armed Trawler that patrolled the coast to help protect us from the German U-Boats that were active off the coast. It was a torpedo from one of these that sunk them.

Back to the Visitors Center and I did get my National Parks Passport Stamped

Two stamps here

It was the middle of the afternoon so we headed over for some lunch, we decided to try Howard's Pub

Fried Dill Pickles, delicious

Fried Oyster Sandwich

The food was very good, so good that we ordered subs to take home for supper later this evening. All the meals we have had on Oracoke have been delicious.

Well the sun has set and I think we are in for the night, the island is quiet this time of year. Tonight is our last night here and we will pack and head to the ferry late morning tomorrow.