Dec 2007

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 69
Weather - Sunny & Cool
Camped at Huntington Beach State Park (Yes!!!)

Musings:

Narrative:

We were only about 10 miles from the South Carolina border this morning, so Mom suggested we go a little bit north and visit Ocean Isle. She had seen something about a seashore museum and wanted to visit one more beach before we left for SC. So we headed north and found Ocean Isle (after a few minor U-turns), but never did find any museums. What we did find was miles and miles of condo's, beachfront rentals or vacation properties, and lots and lots of signs telling you to keep out. As we were heading back up to the way off the island, we did find one public beach access - not very well marked except to tell you all the things you couldn't do at the beach. Now doesn't this look inviting!

However, we did stop there and visit the beach. The water and surf were fine of course. Mom collected some sand and relaxed for a minute, then we decided to keep driving in search of beaches with more friendly natives.

Right across the border in South Carolina is North Myrtle Beach, then Myrtle Beach. These are really built up seaside resorts, which we don't generally find of interest. As we were driving down the highway however, we passed several miniture golf courses. Mom had been saying it might be fun to stop at one someday so when we drove by one that had a sign saying it was one of the ten best in the world (or country, I've forgotten already), it seemed like this would be the place to stop. Can you believe there are miniture golf pro's! I'd always thought this was just a casual activity:

Anyway, this was a big, fancy miniture golf course based on Hawaii. They had a big volcano with water mist spraying out the top, lots of hills and palm trees and astroturf greens. Mom has a most interesting swing, she just grabs the club with one hand and swings it. I place both hands carefully on the club with a golf grip, address the ball carefully, take a minute or two to eye the shot, then swing. In the end however, our scores aren't all that different. Hm, just a curious observation - as they say 'different strokes for different folks' - or golf strokes in our case.

She enjoyed the game, but got a little tired being on her feet for so long so we figured one round was plenty.

We pushed on to get a little farther south actually trying to make some progress for a change. While trying to decide where to stop for the night, Mom said there was a state park on the beach with camping - which sounded pretty good. When we got there, we found it had it's own 'Castle'. The wealthy folks who owned the peninsula in the 1930's had built their winter home there in the form of a Moorish estate. The family wanted the property saved from development as a nature reserve, so eventually turned it over to the State. The house is run down (as a house anyway), but quite interesting.

The man who built it was Archer Huntington and his wife, Anna, a sculpter. They bought the property in 1930 to help Mrs. Huntington recover from TB (which she did). In 1931, Mr. Huntington hired a local contractor to build a house as he directed, but without plans. He hired local workers who had been hit hard by the depression. Mr. Huntington was a specialist in Spanish culture and language and designed the house (in his head) to resemble the Moorish architecture of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. It is a square, 200 feet on each side, one story masonry building. The rooms are around a central courtyard with a covered walkway and 'tower' in the center. Very unusual.

Although the house is now in a state of disrepair, Mom couldn't help thinking how much Dad would have loved living there - he'd probably have every one of the 50 rooms filled with his stuff (and then the courtyards also!)

We went ahead and set up the RV at our camp site, Mom was pretty tired after playing miniture golf and going through a 50 room 'castle' (as it's affectionately called by the park staff). The weather was nice and the park very lovely, but this must be the off season as there weren't very many people in the campground. You might have noticed that I'm not uploading pic's of the RV much anymore, but thought it might be interesting to show just how uncrowded things are now.

Earlier, as we'd driven across the causeway to get to the campground, we'd seen heron's in the marshes along the road. So after I got the RV parked and Mom settled in, I took the camera and tripod back to the causeway by foot to see if I could get any more bird shots. It turned out to be a pretty long walk (I needed that) and was getting dark, but I was able to grab a few shots. This Heron was pretty much parked in the pond by the road, traffic and people with camera's didn't seem to bother him much.

Farther down the causeway were some Wood Storks. These are found mostly in Florida, but have been moving up the coastline as development in Florida reduces their habitat.

I hadn't brought a flashlight with me, so started heading back before it got too dark - but had to stop for at least one more sunset shot.

Once I got back to the RV, I let Mom know I was OK, then took the short walk over to the beach (the west side is marsh, the east side is Atlantic Ocean). Since the sunset had been so nice over the pond, I was curious to see how it looked on the other side. There was a light fog starting to drift over some houses at the far end of the beach, which was pretty cool - so I tried to get a shot of that. Not much light, but I had fun.

So we pulled in to find a campground and maybe a beach. We never expected the waterfowl and 'castle' also - what a treat! With that stroke of luck, we settled in for the night - not exactly quiet as waves were breaking on the beach a hundred yards or so away, but pleasant.

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 166
Weather - Sunny & Cool, but not bad, not bad
Camped at Wishing Well Campground, Sunset Beach, North Carolina

Musings

You may wonder why I keep typing such long blog entries, even while falling behind? This is the 'trip of a lifetime' for me, or at least the most ambitious one I've taken so far. But I don't have the great memory some of my siblings do (some got logic, some got recall, I fell into the first batch). So when I get home, I want to be able to remember the things we do and saw and learned. In that context, as long as these blog entries are, they aren't nearly long enough. Another fantesy - I may even got back and edit these someday to add the additional details I don't have time to put in them as is.... (don't worry, this will probably be long after you're done reading them, it's probably a fantesy anyway).

Narrative:

It didn't take us very long to get from Morehead City to New Bern, they are only about 40 miles apart. New Bern is a fairly small town today of about 24,000 people, but in 1770 the British Governor, William Tryon made it the capital of the North Carolina colony. He felt he needed a seat of government and governor's house suitable to his station and asked his Council approve an allocation of 15,000 Pounds to build Tryon Palace, which they did. You can clearly see the Georgian style archeticture which was all the fashion around London those days.

The Palace comes complete with a fancy gate and guard posts, suitable for a Royal Governor I suppose. (Sorry about the wash out, I must have been playing with my camera's settings again.)

North Carolina was not as rich as other Colonies, so this expenditure was a burden. In addition, taxes were levied to pay for the new building but every merchant or property owner had to pay the same amount, regardless of ability to pay. The farmers in western NC were barely scraping by as it was, so the new tax just about wiped them out. They rebelled in what was called the 'Regulators movement', which Gov. Tryon supressed, executing seven. Later, North Carolina farmers really supported the Revolutionary War and enlisted in the Continental Army.

You are saved again - no photography is allowed inside any of the buildings at Tryon Palace, so this will probably be a fairly short blog entry. You can see a few pictures of the interior at the above link. Our guide for the main house was Dick, who was more reserved than some of the other characters we met. That's probably 'in character' for a member of the British Governor's staff I think.

BTW - this is not the original building. It burned down in 1799, already in a state of disrepair. Local women's groups lobbied hard and raised money to preserve NC history and finally convinced the state to rebuild the mansion on it's original foundation and using the original plans. Hwy 70 had been built directly over part of the mansion and had to be moved as well as a bridge! I figure anybody who can convince a state government to move a highway & bridge for something like this is a force to be reckoned with!

The first floor of the mansion was used for government business and parties. The second floor was the families quarters. Gov. Tryon had about 13 household staff, the highest rank being the Butler and Housekeeper. These were people he brought from England with him and took to New York in 1771 when he was appointed Gov. of New York.

On each side of the mansion is a covered walk. One side leads to the Carriage House & Stables. This is the only original building remaining from the compex. The other side, shown below, is the kitchen office. "Office" was the term used for any work space and is what the architect called the building. It housed teh Kitchen, a secretary's office, a scullery, and a wash house.

The upstairs had rooms where the cooks and servents lived (the head housekeeper and butler lived in the basement of the main house). At least two slaves also worked for Gov. Tryon. The cook was the highest paid servant and had a room to himself, as did the head housekeeper and butler. All the other servants shared rooms.

In addition to the mansion (or Palace), the complex contains several other buildings and historic homes.

The Robert Hay house was occupied by the Union Army during the Civil War and the re-enactor's were fully engaged in this role. The living room was set up with Army cots and had some hard tack out (Yes, I tried a small piece, basically like a bisquit that's been left out and dried). Captain Ware, with the 44th Massachusetts Infantry filled us in on the rules of the day. There were to be no rights of citizenship for "unreconstructed rebels". People in the South were required to sign an Oath of Allegience in order to regain their citizenship rights, including the right to own property (including homes & land). People who didn't sign this could have their property confiscated and sold at auction, so quite a few people did sign.

While we were talking with Capt. Ware, Mrs. Simmons came to call. She was very upset about Union soldiers calling on those poor, unfortunate women set up in a house of 'ill repute' next to her general store. She demanded Capt. Ware do something about it, but he didn't seem too inclined to help her.

Mom and I both enjoyed talking with these characters very much and learning more about the period and how it affected regular people in their day to day lives. Later we saw Capt. Ware and another Union soldier drilling a school group in military protocal and weapons. Too fun... I was tempted to sneak in just for fun, but there were other things to see.

We took a formal tour of the Stanley house. This was built in 1783 by John Wright Stanley and has been moved a few times to it's current location across from the Tryon Palace. It is wood, and the trim along the edges are wood, but made to look like brick. The gardens were pretty fancy as was the fashion among the wealthy of the time. I especially loved the garden gazabo's.

John Stanley was in the shipping business and used at least some of his ships as privateers against the British during the Revolutionary War. He also had a Molasses Distillery (Rum) and owned a Plantation with 60 slaves. He was one of the weathiest men in North Carolina and had 9 children, 6 of whom lived to adulthood. However both he and his wife died young from fever. The children were raised nearby by a sister and the house remained empty during this time.

When George Washington visited New Bern in 1791, he stayed in the Stanley house since the Tryon Palace was already in a state of disrepair. The Stanley house was unfurnished at the time of Washington's visit, so the local folks quickly furnished just the first floor so he would have a decent place to stay. There was a party given in his honor at Tryon Palace and George Washington is said to have danced there.

When John Stanley's oldest son turned 21, he inherited the house and moved back into it. He lived their with his wife and they raised their 14 children there (9 of whom lived to adulthood).

Both the Palace and the Stanley house were very nicely done with 'period appropriate' furnishings and decorated for the holidays. However, with no photography allowed inside, you'll just have to take my word for it (or ten more pages detailing the contents and stories I could elaborate on...)

The last house we visited was the Jones House. This was built in 1808, but it's claim to fame is that the Union imprisoned a Confederate Spy here during the occupation, one Emeline Pigott. The other important feature of this house is that it is being used now as a gift shop - we bought a few things but were fairly restrained, for us anyway...

Having thoroughly enjoyed the Tryon Palace area, we decided to try to make it as far south as possible. I drove pretty hard, finally pulling over to camp about 10 miles north of the South Carolina border at Sunset Beach. The showers were shut down for the season, but the rates were cheap as a result and we had power, water and a dump station - so all is well here in RV Manor (and you don't have to pay us any taxes for our luxurous estate).

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 59 (We just stop too often!)
Weather - Still Nice, Sunny & mid 60's
Camped at - Walmart in Morehead City (Next to a Staples, which I needed to send an overnight letter from...)

Confessions:

I don't know how to ride horses very well (but Mom does).

Narrative:

This morning I decided to take a walk around the campground, check out the beach, etc. The campground we stayed at was right next to the ferry terminal, I took a picture just to show how close it really was.

There was also a riding stables on the other edge of the campground. Since this was mid-December, I didn't expect them to be open, but there were still horses in the stalls (other stables we'd passed by had moved their horses inland for the winter), so I went over to check them out. The sign said if nobody was at the stables, to check with the trailer with the satelite dish. Given there were only about three or four sites take in the campground, it really wasn't hard to figure out which trailer that was. Since it was already about 9 AM, I went on over and knocked.

Sure enough, Sheryl answered and said she'd be glad to take us riding. Mom had indicated she wasn't interested, so I arranged with Sheryl to meet her at the barn in a few minutes and went back to let Mom know. Once I told her that - yes, the stables were open for rides and that I'd decided to go, she changed her mind and decided to go riding also. It was clear and sunny and warm - looked like a great day to ride a horse along the beach - for the moment anyway.

By the way, if you ever want to give this a try she has a web site: http://www.horsebackridingonthebeach.com/

Sheryl started saddling up the horses, she rode Banner, I got Honey and Mom got Ringo Star.

As we started to mount up, the fog rolled in. Very quickly, it was so thick we could only see a short distance. Sheryl loaned me a jacket from the stable (it was warm a few minutes earlier?) and off we went. My horse, Honey, knew exactly what she was supposed to do. I, of course, did not. So we had a little trouble as I'm sure I sent here lots of contradictory commands by pulling the reins incorrectly. However it was still very beautiful and a lot of fun.

After we'd been out for awhile, Sheryl suggested we could take the horses through the shallow water along the beach. This was inside a protected cove, so there weren't any waves, just sand and water. Mom said she thought she'd drown so elected to stay on dry sand, but Honey and I gave it a shot.

After she saw how much fun we were having (and how shallow it really was), Mom decided to give it a try also and just followed us out (or Ringo Star did, I'm not sure who made the actual decision). Now you're in for a treat (or trouble depending on your point of view). I have finally edited a video before uploading, not much mind you, but at least a little. Sheryl used the movie mode while she was also riding, so this is a little bouncy. There is also a lot of wind noise (we were on a beach afterall), so you may want to adjust your volume before it starts...

Also, many thanks to Sheryl for handling the camera for us!

So a little saddle sore (just kidding), we got back on the road and started heading back to civilization. We were roughly heading to New Bern, which the visitor's center had recommended, but were on the lookout for anything that looked interesting as is our usual fashion. When we got to a town called 'Beaufort', there was a sign for a historic downtown. Sometimes we skip these, but for some reason this time I decided to try to find it. In spite of the sign, this wasn't as easy as it looked - they working on the streets so I had to go around several blocks and guess a bit, but we finally stumbled onto their visitors center. This is a very old seaport and has a lot of restored, old homes. They also put plaques on buildings to let visitors know which ones are old - but theirs are nice, big plaques that you can actually read.

They had a walking tour of some of the older buildings, which sounded interesting but just didn't fit our schedule. They also had a maritime museum in town which was free! We hadn't been to a maritime museum yet on this trip, so decided to give this one a look.

This turned out to be quite a treat, it is a very well done maritime museum. They have quite a variety of exhibits, not just of boats and boating, but also many other things marine related, such as shells, snakes, the USLLS (U.S. Life Saving Service), etc. All of their exhibits have signs explaining the exhibits in detail. Here is just one example from the section on outboard motors and how they evolved, with one example for each decade from the 1920's forward.

This is a Captains Liquor Chest from the 1700's (18th Century). This signage even included a drawing about glass blowing, since all the glass was hand blown during that era!

There is a section on UBoat activity off the North Carolina coast during WWII. Until adequate anti-submarine defenses were in place, the UBoat captains called this area a 'Turkey Shoot'. This map shows allied ships sunk in the area, which showed me how much more serious this was than I had realized.

The 1890's life car could be used to rescue people from a shipwreck when conditions were too rough to get another vessel close enough to remove people directly. Usually it could carry 5 or 6 at a time, but on occasion as many as 11 people squeezed into this.

Now, that alone is probably enough to grab your interest - but are your ready for the surprise? It turns out Ocracoke isn't the only place with connections to Blackbeard. He also frequented Beaufort. A few years ago a shipwreck was found in the waters off Beaufort that is believed to his flagship - Queen Anne's Revenge. Can you guess were the artifacts from that shipwreck are? Right here in the Maritime Museum in Beaufort!

There is even a sign explaining how to fire one of these old cannons. In case you ever get pressed into service on a pirate vessel, you might need to know this.

I probably could have stayed at the Maritime Museum a couple more days, but Mom was getting a little antsy to move on, so off we went. New Bern, our original target for the day, wasn't that much farther but there was a red dot on the map saying something about Fort Macon. I figured we wouldn't get to New Bern early enough to visit it tonight anyway and it wasn't so late yet that we had to stop for the night, so we might as well check out Fort Macon. Mom doesn't like forts much and gets pretty tired by late afternoon, so she elected to stay in the RV, which is fine.

This was across a couple of bridges (into Morehead City, then Atlantic City). Fort Macon is another one of the coastal defense forts built after the War of 1812 exposed the weakness of US coastal defenses. We visited another one of these farther north, but it was never used in combat. Fort Macon was constructed between 1826-1834 using over 9 million bricks for a total cost of $463,790. It consists of an outer earthwork, a ditch, and the inner fort itself. Here is a copy of an aerial photo of the fort to help explain the layout.

If the fort was in danger of being stormed, the ditch could be flooded as an additional defense. Here is my shot of the outer wall today. A little bit of the ditch is visible on the right.

Fort Macon is now a State Park and has been extensively restored. Some consider it the best preserved fort in the country, which I'm not sure I'd disagree with. Several of the casemates have been restored and turned into different exhibits as in a museum. These are devoted to the construction of the fort, the civil war in general and Fort Macon's fall in particular, typical enlisted men and officers quarters during the civil war, World War II barracks, kitchen and storage - and of course a gift shop.

Here is the front gate for the inside portion of the fort. The exterior brick walls are four feet thick. The heavy wood doors (not too visible in this shot) are original.

Once you get inside the gate, there is a parade field and windows & doors on the casemates that are being used as a museum. If you look carefully over the top wall, you can see the ocean a bit. The fort is only a couple hundred yards from the beach, if that.

This is what the diarama of the Enlisted Men's Quarters looks like (part of it anyway). This room has a recording of a soldier's letter home describing barracks life during the civil war. Two men slept on a single bunk, or four to a double bunk (two on the bottom, two on the top). This way they could fit 20 - 40 men in a single barracks room. Their days were mostly filled with drill, chores, and boredom (until the fort was attacked of course).

The soldiers were served mess from a kitchen of course, but they might have to pull KP duty (Kitchen Police for you civilians)

One of their chores did not involve laundry however. Army regulations allowed forts to employ women to do laundry for the troops. This fort paid laundresses $1 per month per soldier to wash and care for their cloths, plus a little food allowance. These were usually wives of enlisted men or local women.

During the Civil War, these are the types of uniforms worn. The display includes uniform replica's from each era served by the fort - but I'm trying to keep this somewhat shorter than otherwise (believe it or not), so will just show these...

It was also interesting seeing a replica of a hot shot furnace - complete with signage explaining how the thing would have been used (not just that it was used to heat cannon balls). Here you can see the rails onto which balls were loaded where they would sit above a fire until red hot.

One of the casemate museum rooms also details how the fort was used in the Civil War. The confederacy occupied the fort to protect Beaufort Harbor. The Union, under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnsides, attacked it in April 1862. In spite of the extensive fortifications, the new union rifled cannon (parrott) was used against the fort causing extensive damage. The Confederates held out until the powder magazine was in danger of being breached, then had to surrender. The rifled cannon was beginning to make fixed, coastal fortifications obsolete. The photo on the right is of similar damage to another fort shortly before Fort Macon was attacked.

Although obsolete as a coastal defense in the traditional sense, Fort Macon was used again in World War II as a lookout post for U-Boats (and any other Axis threats from the sea). Another casemate room is set up to display a typical WWII barracks room.

I suppose you could learn all this stuff in books, and I certainly have been buying enough of them also, but these well laid out museums with great signage are so nice. They can boil thing down so you can get a pretty good picture in much less time - plus with diarama's, audio/video displays and replica's or artifacts - you almost can get a sense of what it was like to be there. I'm beginning to actually like museums like this a lot! Can you believe I actually take pictures of as many of the signs as I can (or course, I don't have time to read them all during the trip, nor would I remember much if I did - both solved by means of a quick, digital shot).

Anyway, I had some business to take care of on my dad's place (still struggling with that trustee garbage), so decided to just stay at WM and do it - besides it was right next to a Staples from which I could send my overnight mail.

New Bern will have to wait until tomorrow.

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 32 (plus about 25 on the two ferries)
Weather - Splendid
Camped at - Driftwood Campground at Cedar Island (immediately off ferry terminal)

Confessions:

I do love this sunny, pleasant weather!

Narrative:

I didn't think we could top yesterday, but today just might have done it. It would be hard to choose. Mom says her two favorite places on the trip so far have been Chincoteague and now the NC Outter Bank Islands.

Reluctantly, we left the campground at Cape Hatteras (we had to, they were closing for the season) and drove south. In the small town of Frisco was a small Native American museum that Mom wanted to visit. It was closed, but we were able to take the nature walk that was marked off in back. They had quite a few interpretive signs, here is just one example.

We did also see this shad boat, if you're into these sorts of things.

From Frisco, it wasn't a very long drive to the Hatteras Ferry. This is a free ferry run by the State of North Carolina. It goes between Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island. However, I believe the state is closing the road down around the first of the year to build a bridge, so our timing was quite lucky - yet again. While we were waiting, I visited a couple of gift shops then happened to look up to see flocks of brown pelicans. At least a couple of hundred must have flown overhead while we were there!

The Hatteras Ferry is quite small and on a sunny day like today, the ride is very pleasant. This ferry was much smaller than the ones I'm used to from Puget Sound. Washington has smaller ferries also, but the ones I use most often are huge by comparison.

During the trip we saw a number of small islands and sand bars between the islands. The ferry carefully stays between well marked signs in a deeper channel. Ferry's may not travel over sandbars very well, but the birds don's seem to mind them.

We also saw more brown pelicans in flight and resting on the water during this passage.

Before we left the dock, I asked some of the personnel if they'd been seeing anything during their runs. "Sure" they said, "Dolphins". Wow! They even offered to let me know if they spotted them during our run. While I was trying to focus on yet another brown pelican, one of the crew on the platform above us started calling out and pointing. Sure enough, a couple of hundred yards in front were dolphins. They were small and grey and very hard to take pictures of. By the time I'd get the camera pointed in one direction, they'd be back down, then come up somewhere else. Sometimes I'd just point the camera at a spot somewhere in front of where they dove last and snap the shutter - hoping for the best (I think I ended up deleting most of those shots). Here's the best of what I could get - not worthy of publishing, but maybe good enough to give you an idea?

Later as we approached Ocracoke Island, Mom saw orange turtles on one of the sandbars. Unfortunately she didn't think to take out her camera until they were out of range. We also saw hundreds (maybe thousands?) of cormorants on another sandbar - it was just thick with them.

Then, finally on the tip of Ocracoke Island itself - the stranges of all animals. I'm assuming he checked his tide charts before leaving home...

I was thrilled with seeing the dolphins but disappointed to find that Mom hadn't seen them (she mostly stayed in the RV during the trip to stay out of the wind). But it was too late then, or so I thought. We got back in the car and started driving down the island as the town was at the southern end, about eight miles away. One of the other cars from the ferry got trapped behind me, so a mile or so down the road I decided I'd pull off in a parking area and let it go by (not willing to pull off along the road and get trapped in the soft sand). All of a sudden it occured to me - we were on a beautiful sandy beach, on a warm sunny day, and it was about lunch time. Duh - how about lunch on the beach anyone? Also the next ferry didn't leave until about 4 PM, so we had plenty of time. Mom packed up a shopping bag and towel and over the small sand dune we went (to the Atlantic side, skinny islands again with two sides).

We ate lunch and were just sitting around enjoying the sunshine when lo and behold, several pairs of dolphins swam by as if on cue. These seemed larger and darker then the ones I'd seen off the ferry, but who knows, it could have been the light.

They continued to swim south, into the sun, but I wanted pictures so tried running down the beach to get ahead of them. Not sure it was worth the bother, but I figured I needed the exercise anyway. Mom got a kick out of that.

So again, reluctantly, we tore ourselves away from the beach and headed into Ocracoke, the town. Just as we started coming into the town, I pulled off again to let cars go by. The only place I could find to pull over was a large paved lot with a lot of road working equipment in it (paving, etc.) I pulled in between a couple of trucks just to get off the main road. Just beyond the parking lot were a fence and horses. However, there were also signs and a viewing platform. Odd, one doesn't normally see viewing platforms and signage along private ranches, so something else had to be going on.

We had stumbled onto the Bankers - wild ponies from Ocracoke! It turns out that many of the Outter Bank (get it Bankers? Took me a week for some reason) Islands have or had wild ponies. The most likely explanation is that they swam ashore from shipwrecks, since the Spanish sent ponies to the new world to work the mines and also horses for soldiers. The herd at Ocracoke has been as large as 300, but the island is too small to support that many. Once the highway was built in the late 1950's, the National Park Service fenced in the ponies to keep them from being hit by cars. They maintain the herd at 25 - 30 ponies and also supplement the forage with feed, so these are quite well fed. Visitors are encouraged to 'adopt' a pony also (e.g. - send in a monthly check to help pay for their feed).

I went to the visitors center (National Seashore?) to find out where the lighthouse was. Inside were displays about a fellow known as Blackbeard. Sure enough, the infamous pirate used Ocracoke as one of his bases. In fact, his quartermaster owned a house here. On Nov. 22, 1718, he was partying with fellow pirates when two sloops sent by the governor caught up with him. After a furous battle, he was killed by Lt. Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy (pre Rev. War of course). At the end, it took five musket balls and about 20 stab wounds to bring him down, perhaps at least some of the legends about him were true!

Eye maties, ye be in pirate lands!

Back in 2007, we thought we'd at least check out one more lighthouse (and maybe the last one for awhile). This is small by comparison, only 75 feet tall. Built in 1823, it is also the oldest or second oldest lighthouse in the US that is still in service (my information is a bit inconsistent).

Now it really was time to get the ferry. This one goes to Cedar Island, which is connected to the mainland by bridges, so is also the end of our Outter Banks adventure. I would have stayed longer, but suspected the weather would eventually turn back to normal (windy, cold Atlantic winter) and we do only have eight months for the trip! The ferry ride is about 2 hours and 10 minutes and covers 22 miles. Most of the time, we were completely out of sight of land, although there were a few small islands near the beginning of the trip - this one was again covered with birds. Later in the trip, we also enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

No dolphins this time, but I did have an internet signal during the trip, so got some work done at least. In addition, I used the internet to look for campgrounds once we got back to shore. I expected we'd have to drive for an hour or so to get back into civilization enough to find camping but found a year round campground right at the end of the ferry terminal on Cedar Island.

No kidding, no sooner had we left the ferry then there was a campground and it really was open this time. I registered for a spot, no hot showers but it was only $16 for the night and we didn't have to drive any further (it was already dark by the time we got to shore). So all's well, the pirates have bedded down for the night.

Logistics:

Miles driven - 63
Weather - fabulous
Camped at Cape Woods Campground in Buxton on Cape Hatteras

Confessions:

(1) The title is misleading - I normally don't put (Photo's Added) unless I first saved a stub entry called (Placeholder), where I wrote a very short blog entry, then go back later and add the photo's. From the statistics I get on this board, it looks like people are assuming that there are no Photo's unless those words are in the title. So I'm taking the opportunity to clarify - unless the title says (Placeholder), the photo's are already in the blog entry!

(2) Mom is much happier without the jackets & coats!

Narrative:

Wow! What a day: summer like weather, lighthouse, beaches and beautiful birds! Absolutely fabulous - and we didn't even have any bubbly (for abfab fans everywhere)!

We reluctantly left the campground on Roanoke Island and drove east, back to the NC outerbanks islands, then continued south. A short time later we came to the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

In 1837, a government survey to determine where to place lighthouses along the NC coast determined that more ships were lost off Body Island than any where else (the spelling has changed over time, the current spelling is Bodie, but if Body was used in an old report, I'll use that also just for fun). The current lighthouse is the last of three, the first was built on a poor foundation and didn't last. The second was blown up by the Confederate Army to keep it from helping the Union. This one was built in 1872 and is still in use, although it needs restoration.

It is 156 feet tall and still has it's first order Fresnel lens. Notice the intricate iron work at the top also.

According to signage in the museum located in the old lighthouse keeper's house, Congress assigned control of lighthouses to the Treasury Dept in 1789 - shortly after the country was formed. As coastal shipping increased in the 19th century (1800's), mariner's began to protest that the light from American lighthouses was poor, if visible at all. Alhough the Fresnel Lens had been invented in France in 1822, this expensive "foreign" device was shunned by Treasury's miserly administration for years (we never have liked to pay taxes). Loss of property and lives continued along the coast.

In response to this and other concerns, the U.S. Lighthouse Board was created in 1852. In addition to other improvements, the Board installed Fresnel Lens in as many lighthouses as possible. The U.S. Coast Guard absorbd the Lighthouse Board in 1939.

Today, improvements in coastal navigation (I assume they mean GPS) has rendered many lighthouses obsolete. Some have been torn down, but in many cases local communities and lighthouse enthusiasts have raised money to restore and/or maintain these historic and interesting structures.

Anyway, I just thought that was of interest...

Moving on, we continued south across a long, high bridge onto a place called Pea Island. Shortly after arriving on the island, we came to the Pea Island NWR (National Wildlife Refuge). When we first pulled over, there was a pond by the parking lot with turtles! These are some of the first turtles we've seen on this trip.

On the ponds between the highway and Pamlico Sound were thousands of birds - ducks, egrets, heron, swans and brown pelicans. They weren't always close enough to get a good picture - but hopefully you can get an idea how many there were! (This is maybe one of the times I wish I had a great DSLR and more then 12x zoom!) I hope you enjoy the pictures even a fraction as much as we enjoyed seeing the birds... Keep in mind this is December 9th!

Of course, you can't be this close to beaches on such a beautiful day (in December no less!) and not get out to have a little fun. We visited beaches on both sides, the Atlantic Ocean side and Pamlico Sound side. At times, these are only a couple hundred yards apart (in fact, an inlet was washed through the island during Hurricane Isabel in 1998. The government dredged up sand to rebuild the isthmus to fix the road.) Anyway, here's Mom at both beaches - see if you can guess which side is ocean vs sound.

Too beautiful, but no camping allowed along here so we continued on to Cape Hatteras. Of course, there is another lighthouse here - interestingly enough named 'Cape Hatteras Lighthouse' (where do they come up with these things, I don't know). Notice how different the paint patterns are? Lighthouses are each painted a unique pattern as well had given a unique light flashing pattern. This way, a ship doesn't mistake one lighthouse for another and think they're on a different place on the map then they are. Another safety feature, probably designed after a few too many shipwrecks.

Nearby we found a very nice campground and decided to stay for the night. I could have probably stayed much longer, but it turned out this was the last night the campground would be open until next year - and the weather couldn't be expected to remain like this much longer (the outer banks should be cold and windy this time of year), so it's just as well. It sure felt like a summer vacation for today however.